Tony Bradley arrives in OKC; Austin Rivers still away from Thunder
One of the two players who the Oklahoma City Thunder received on Thursday at the trade deadline has reported to the team, head coach Mark Daigneault said on Saturday prior to the game against the Boston Celtics.
Center Tony Bradley, 23, is joining the Thunder. He is in Oklahoma City going through COVID-19 protocol. He will not play on Saturday, but Daigneault said he will begin participating with the team once he has finished those steps.
Rivers has not joined the team.
General manager Sam Presti is “still working through that and figuring out next steps with his representation,” Daigneault said.
The coach said on Friday that Oklahoma City was working on the next steps with both players, neither of which had joined the team at that point.
Bradley, who will be a restricted free agent this offseason, has a chance to play for a role on the Thunder now that Al Horford has been shut down. He had good energy in Philadelphia, filled in well over the last couple weeks when Joel Embiid was injured, and seems generally loved by his former teammates.
He joins a large group of young bigs vying for time including Isaiah Roby, Moses Brown and Aleksej Pokusevski.
Rivers, who has two non-guaranteed years on his contract after this season, is 28. He does not fit with the Thunder’s timeline, and his joining the team would take time away from guards including Theo Maledon and Ty Jerome. It would be reasonable to expect that he doesn’t join the Thunder, similar to Trevor Ariza, though that has not been confirmed by the team. Either way, he has not joined Oklahoma City as of Saturday.
The Thunder received these players, along with two second-round picks, in a trade that sent George Hill to the Philadelphia 76ers at the trade deadline.
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