OKC Thunder news: Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Aaron Wiggins enter health and safety protocols

A day after the Oklahoma City Thunder had its first two cases of a player missing time due to entering health and safety protocols in Darius Bazley and Tre Mann, the team announced that three additional players have entered protocols in Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Aaron Wiggins.

With five players under protocols, the Thunder are allowed to sign four replacement players on hardship deals on temporary 10-day contracts. The Thunder’s G League affiliate — the Oklahoma City Blue — run the same offenses and use the same jargon as its superior along with playing in the same arena for home games. So a transition from the Blue to the Thunder would be rather seamless if the franchise opts to call up players from the Blue as their replacements.

The trio of Pokusevski, Robinson-Earl and Wiggins played in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans with Mann also being in the building.

Pokusevski, who turned 20 years old on Sunday, played eight minutes. Robinson-Earl played 26 minutes. Wiggins played 32 minutes. Mann participated in warmups before being ruled out during the game.

With five players heading into protocols, it is fair to say that the Thunder are having a COVID-19 outbreak and join the long list of NBA teams with similar struggles in recent weeks. It is now a wait-and-see game for the Thunder to see if they have any additional cases before Tuesday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.