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How Does Vit Krejci Fit Into Oklahoma City's Future?

The Thunder announced the signing of 6-foot-8 international guard Vit Krejci on Friday morning.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have added another massive ball handler to their arsenal.

Vit Krejci, a 6-foot-8 point guard from the Czech Republic, has officially signed a deal with OKC after reports swirled that general manager Sam Presti and the Thunder had bought out his contract earlier this summer.

Andrew Schlecht of The Athletic reported that the contract was a four-year deal, with the first season being fully guaranteed and the final two years being team options.

Krejci was drafted in the second round by the Washington Wizards in the 2020 NBA Draft, where his draft rights were then traded Oklahoma City in November of 2020.

The jumbo guard missed last year as he was coming off of an injury, but he is finally prepared to make his trip across the pond and join the Thunder.

Don’t expect to see Krejci raking in tons of minutes for the Thunder right off the bat, however.

Considered to be a developmental project, Krejci is expected to feature mostly for the Oklahoma City Blue, OKC’s G-League affiliate, right off the bat.

But Krejci does have some familiarity with the franchise already. He was present in Summer League working out with the team though he didn’t feature for the Thunder in Las Vegas.

Before his injury, Krejci played a role for his Spanish club, Zaragoza, in a rotational role off the bench.

Averaging 9.1 minutes per game in the Spanish league, Krejci averaged 3.7 points, 0.7 assists and 1.2 rebounds per game, shooting 61.1 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from deep.

Overall, Krejci shot 55.4 percent from the field in all competitions over the 2019-2020 season, and drained 34.3 of his attempts from 3-point range.

Krejci will be under no pressure to step in and improve immediately, as he’s still young (21-years-old) and perfectly fits the Thunder timeline if he ever develops into a solid player.

He also embodies Presti’s latest shift to finding players that bring great size and playmaking to the table.

Josh Giddey, Aleksej Pokusevski and Krejci are all 6-8 or taller, and bring skills to the table typically embodied by point guards. If this is the direction that Presti opts to take the franchise, Oklahoma City will be a matchup nightmare for any team in the NBA. 


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