Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault explained why the team decided to move on from Olivier Sarr despite collecting a 24-point performance in a win against the Phoenix Suns. Sarr was released in order for the team to make room to add Melvin Frazier Jr. on a two-way spot on Wednesday.
Before Wednesday’s loss to the Utah Jazz, Daigneault explained that cycling through G League players was always the plan for one of the two-way spots but Jeremiah Robinson-Earl’s foot injury derailed that plan due to a lack of centers on the roster.
“We were planning on cycling the spot when we signed Sarr. … Frazier’s a guy we wanna reward with an opportunity,” said Daigneault. “We wanna take care of guys who take care of us.”
Of course, a more sinister explanation could be that the team decided to move on from Sarr because he’s playing too well and hurting their bid to tank games. Considering Sarr is an undrafted rookie, the chances he pans out to be a legit NBA player are slim to none. So the team moved on to preserve the tank.
The timing of this release certainly doesn’t help debunk this theory. Sarr just finished helping the team get wins over the Suns and Portland Trail Blazers. But according to Daigneault, that theory wasn’t the case. Then again, expecting Daigneault to publicly say that they waived Sarr to make the team worse is unrealistic.
What a fan believes is the actual reason Sarr was released depends on how much they think the team is committed to tanking. The real answer is probably somewhere in the middle where the team thought it was time to move on from Sarr and give other guys such as Frazier Jr. an opportunity as well as helping the tank by bringing in someone who will not effect the game as much as Sarr did.
Sarr finished his rookie season averaging seven points and 4.2 rebounds in 22 games.
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