Thr Questions That Remain Unanswered After Media Day
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Oklahoma City training camp is nearly a week removed from kicking off, which means the Thunder have already flown by Media Day.
Through Media Day, plenty of questions were answered to the point of clarity, but there's still a few unknowns as training camp pushes forward.
Here are three questions that remain unanswered:
The Final Cut
Ty Jerome is not participating in training camp while the two sides look for a new team for him.Who’s going to be the final cut off of the roster?
If a trade can’t be found in all likelihood he’ll be cut from the roster. While that is one answered question, the Thunder still must cut one more player before the roster deadline.
The Thunder traded Vit Krejci but added Maurice Harkless, which netted zero help to the roster number. It's most likely Harkless will be the last player off the roster for OKC who will likely either work to a buyout or find a different trade partner.
It appears Theo Maledon is safe after a full off-season of fighting to earn a spot.
The Rotation Game
Tre Mann is bigger, Josh Giddey worked on his jumper and Jaylen Williams worked to learn the NBA game.
The Thunder are deep, and young, at the guard position which makes deciding a rotation that much more difficult. Starters are simple, when at full health.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giddey and Lu Dort will likely find themselves in the starting five but who comes after and how many minutes all of them get will be interesting.
Mann and Williams will likely be the main guards off of the bench with Mann likely starting if Gilgeous-Alexander can’t play to start the season.
Too many guards is a better problem to have than not enough guards, which is positive for OKC.
Big Man Conundrum
Chet Holmgren isn’t an option as the Thunder had hoped entering the season to fill the major big man issues in OKC.
The Thunder have a load of forwards to utilize, but all are undersized to play center in the NBA. However as the roster stands the Thunder will make due with what they have as they did last season.
Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Mike Muscala and Derrick Favors all have chances to play valuable minutes at the spot, but all come with their shortcomings.
OKC will find an answer eventually this season, but as training camp opens the answer remains unknown.
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