OKC Thunder Waives TyTy Washington Jr.
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced it has waived guard TyTy Washington Jr.
The move comes at an interesting time. Washington being waived this far ahead of training camp allows him to find a new place to potentially fight for a roster spot.
If the front office was confident there might not be room for Washington, waiving him and allowing him to fight for that chance elsewhere was the right move.
The Thunder has to make four more roster cuts ahead of regular season play to hit the legal amount of rostered players. Davis Beratans, Usman Garuba, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Victor Oladipo and Jack White are likely the guys to be fighting for the final roster spot.
The 6-foot-3 guard is a high-potential former first-round pick. He's heading into his second season in the NBA. The Kentucky product appeared in 31 games and two starts for the Houston Rockets last season, averaging 4.7 points per game in 14 minutes per game.
For teams with not much depth or youth, Washington is a good, young guard to take a flyer on. Washington will turn 22-years-old during next season.
Washington's talents are still extremely raw and picking him up would provide some potential high upside that would need to be developed over the course of a season or two.
Again, Washington was a first-round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. He was initially made expendable by the Houston Rockets, who signed veteran players and appeared to be taking a win-now approach as they continue developing their young core.
If Washington clears waivers and becomes a free agent, the Thunder will owe him his contract for the 2023-24 season but would be off the books after the season ends.
The Thunder still need to remove four standard-salary players as they've got 20 rostered guys, including Keyontae Johnson on a two-way contract.
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