Thunder Roster Crunch: Veteran Forward Rudy Gay Waived

After being acquired earlier this month via trade, the Oklahoma City Thunder has waived Rudy Gay.

Although he’s well beyond this prime, the almost 37-year-old forward Rudy Gay still has upside he can offer to an NBA team. With that in mind, it’s still unclear where he’ll be playing in the upcoming season.

Just over the past month alone, he’s been traded twice. He was originally moved from the Utah Jazz to the Atlanta Hawks in the John Collins trade, then flipped from the Hawks to the Oklahoma City Thunder in a later trade to shed his salary.

The 17-year veteran was likely never in consideration to stick on the Thunder roster, but the team was compensated with two young prospects and draft compensation for taking on his $6.48 million contact for the upcoming season. On Wednesday evening, Gay was officially waived by Oklahoma City, making him a free agent upon clearing waivers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The Thunder now has 20 players on full-time NBA contracts for the 2023-24 season, but will need to cut that number to 15 in the coming months. Even after waiving Gay, there’s still more decisions like this to be made. Whether it’s via trade or waiving more players, there’s quite a few players who will be on the move in some capacity.

At least five of the following 20 players won’t be on the roster by the end of training camp:

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
• Luguentz Dort
• Josh Giddey
• Jalen Williams
• Chet Holmgren
• Vasilije Micic
• Ousmane Dieng
• Isaiah Joe
• Kenrich Williams
• Jaylin Williams
• Cason Wallace
• Jack White
• Davis Bertans
• Aleksej Pokusevski
• Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
• Aaron Wiggins
• Usman Garuba
• TyTy Washington Jr.
• Tre Mann
• Victor Oladipo

It will be interesting to see who ultimately makes the cut.

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