After waiving Rob Edwards, the OKC Thunder signed and then waived Jaylen Hoard in recent days.
The Oklahoma City Thunder waived Rob Edwards and used his open roster spot to sign Jaylen Hoard to Monday, and then waived Hoard on Tuesday.
This opens the door for OKC to potentially add them to the Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate, according to The Oklahoman’s Joe Mussatto.
Edwards played on the Blue last season and spent this offseason on the Thunder, during which he played on the summer league team.
The 6-foot-5 24-year-old was considered a sharpshooter at Arizona State University and provided that deep threat for the Blue last season.
Hoard appeared in 19 games for the Thunder last season. Athletic and listed at 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, Hoard had the ability to play both forward positions and center when called upon.
He averaged 6.1 points and 3.4 rebounds in 16.8 minutes per game for OKC last year.
While versatile, Hoard lacked a strong enough skill set in any specific area to make the Thunder roster this season. He can develop with the Blue, if that’s what he and Oklahoma City so choose, and potentially play for the Thunder at some point this season.
The Thunder’s next preseason game, which will be against the Denver Nuggets, is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
After the French men’s basketball team beat the United States, Thunder players Theo Maledon and Jaylen Hoard celebrated their home country.
The French men’s basketball team took down the United States 83-76 after outscoring the American team 46-31 in the second half of the Olympic game on Sunday, ending the 25-game Olympic winning streak of the U.S.
No Oklahoma City Thunder players were on the Olympic roster, but they have multiple French players on their team. Those players were excited about the victory.
Point guard Theo Maledon and wing Jaylen Hoard celebrated the win on Instagram, sharing a photo from the French team’s account that read “Victoire” in large font.
France came back from a seven-point deficit with 3:30 in the game. They outscored the American team 16-2 from that moment on as the United States missed nine shots in a row.
Boston Celtics wing Evan Fournier scored 28 points on 11-for-22 points to lead France to victory. The team has several NBA players, including Rudy Gobert, Nic Batum and Vincent Poirier. Poirier was very briefly on the Thunder last offseason but was never played a game for OKC.
Milwaukee Bucks guard Jrue Holiday led Team USA with 18 points off the bench, but he shot just 5-for-13 from the field. Holiday, Khris Middleton and Devin Booker are all getting adjusted to the team after arriving to Tokyo very recently, as all three competed in the NBA Finals that ended less than a week ago.
The Americans are now 53-4 in the Olympics since NBA players were allowed to participate on the team.
Theo Maledon and Jaylen Hoard were teammates in France before reunited on the Thunder. Their former head coach talked about them as teenagers and prospects.
At some point during the 2015-16 season, INSEP head coach Jean-Aime Toupane had seen enough from his 14-year-old point guard. Theo Maledon was too good to be on the younger team.
Maledon was moved up to the older squad, where teenagers as old as 19 faced adults in the third division of the professional French league.
The National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), a government-funded basketball academy and education program, was one of Maledon’s first steps as a path to the NBA became feasible.
There, he played against athletes twice his age, got professional experience, and teamed up with members of the next generation of French talent including Jaylen Hoard.
Five years later, Maledon and Hoard are teammates once again, this time in the upper echelon of basketball with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“We’ve been kind of following each other’s basketball paths,” Hoard said. “In France one time I went to his house. We’ve been really close for a long time now, so just finally being able to play with him at this next level is amazing.”
Maledon was the No. 34 pick in the 2020 draft whose rights were traded to the Thunder. Hoard signed a two-way deal with the team in March after playing on the OKC Blue, the Thunder’s G League team.
Their path was paved by French stars who played on INSEP before them, notably Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and Ronny Turiaf.
Parker entered the NBA in 2001. When Diaw was drafted in 2003, Parker had just won his first NBA championship. Turiaf was drafted in 2005, just months after Parker won his second.
Maledon said there’s a generational difference in French basketball culture that stems from those players making it to the NBA.
“It’s something that you see everywhere, where the new generation comes in and sees things differently,” he said. “I know that at first, (there were) only a few that were playing in the NBA, and I feel like thanks to them, for the younger generation it became a better goal and a dream.”
As the culture became more prominent, professional basketball has become a more viable route for young French athletes. Tryouts for INSEP are an intense process. During the first stage in September, 30 kids are selected. That number is dwindled down to about 20 in December during the second stage. In May, the final step of the tryout takes place, and 10 to 15 kids are chosen to live and play at the academy.
“I really had fun doing it. They had a couple tests, and a couple games and everything, but I really enjoyed the process and being able to play against those players,” Maledon said.
In total, the club consists of about 50 players — 25 boys and 25 girls, split into two teams per gender by age range.
In that first season, Maledon showed traces of NBA potential.
“(He was) maybe a little bit weaker — I’m talking about physically — but he was doing things,” Toupane said.
“That’s why we allowed him to have that approach, to see how he’s going to be. In the first, second year he was playing great, being one of the youngest guys with the team.”
Maledon needed to gain muscle to compete against adults. In that first season, he played in three games and averaged just 1.3 points per appearance. The next season, he boosted that to eight points per game.
As a 16-year-old, he left INSEP to join ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne in the top French division.
Villeurbanne’s Theo Maledon vies with Le Mans’ Michael Thompson during the men’s French Cup basketball final match between Villeurbanne (LDLC ASVEL) and Le Mans (MSB) at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, on May 11, 2019. (Photo: Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images)
There, he became a legitimate NBA prospect as he did things with the ball that have already translated to the league: His ability to get defenders on his hip and keep them on his back, his intelligence and passing, his midrange ability. It was a skill set he showed even at INSEP.
“He was doing that. I wasn’t surprised, he had some kind of maturity, even at that age. He understood quickly,” Toupane said. “He has the maturity of playing the point guard. I think Theo is a point guard who can score because he understands the game.”
Hoard took a different route.
When Hoard was named MVP of the Jordan Brand Classic International Game in 2015, he began to want to play high school basketball in the United States, according to USAT HSS.
Before he made the move, he played at INSEP in 2015-16, where he averaged eight points per game.
“When I got to INSEP it was a humbling experience because there were so many guys that were just as good as me or better. You just really have to lock in, grind and continue to progress, because everybody’s good,” Hoard said. “That’s kind of what it taught me. It made me work harder.”
If Hoard’s breakout wasn’t in the Jordan Brand game, it was during the 2016 FIBA U-17 World Championship. He tied a tournament record by scoring 41 points in a game and averaged 22.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.7 steals.
A month later, he was a junior at Wesleyan Christian Academy (High Point, N.C.) in the U.S. He spent two years in high school before playing at Wake Forest for a season and declaring for the NBA draft.
At INSEP, he primarily played small forward, but Toupane referenced versatility that has allowed the 22-year-old to play both forward positions and even some center for the Thunder. That’s the most promising part of his game so far at the G League and NBA level.
“He was really intense. He’s a scorer,” Toupane said. “He runs the floor well, finishes to the rim. To me, he has a lot of skills. He can play close to the basket, can shoot it, he was really a versatile player.”
His time on the court in Oklahoma City has been relatively minimal, but with the Thunder’s plan of instituting positionless basketball, Hoard has a chance to remain part of the team.
His games against the Kings have been a good example of what he can bring. After the May 4 game, head coach Mark Daigneault noted how his presence helped the Thunder switch on defense, and on Sunday he played small-ball center while posting a career-high 16 points.
“He had the potential to get to the NBA,” Toupane said. “I’m not surprised.”
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Jaylen Hoard (8) and Golden State Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson (95) battle for control of a rebound in the third quarter at the Chase Center. on May 8, 2021 (Photo: Cary Edmondson/USA TODAY Sports)
While Hoard is still trying to establish himself, Maledon has quickly asserted himself as a piece of the guard rotation. George Hill’s injury in January came with a silver lining — it allowed Maledon to enter the starting lineup ahead of schedule.
He’s just 19, but this isn’t his first time playing at a level higher than norms dictate. Maledon has not looked out of his element in the NBA.
French basketball is a level below some international leagues like Liga ACB in Spain, but it is on the radar of NBA scouts.
“(Scouts) have a great understanding of not only professional players that you’re evaluating for the draft or for pro scouting, but also the track that those players are on in their clubs at a very young age,” Daigneault said.
That pipeline will continue to grow. After Parker, Turiaf and Diaw were among the French stars of the early- and mid-2000s, former INSEP players like Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert have taken the mantle.
The next generation of French athletes with INSEP roots including Maledon, Hoard and Detroit Pistons forward Sekou Doumbouya has arrived.
“Watching them play in the NBA, you know something? I’m not surprised,” Toupane said. “Sometimes we have the chance to have those guys.”
The OKC Thunder ran a starting lineup with four guys who can play center.
It may not last long, but as the second-to-last weekend of the NBA season comes to a close, the Oklahoma City Thunder have the third-best odds in the draft lottery.
The Thunder lost to the Sacramento Kings 126-98 on Sunday night. That, coupled with a win by the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier in the evening, puts Oklahoma City in sole possession of a spot that gives them the same chances of landing the No. 1 pick as either of the two spots ahead of them.
Thunder forward Darius Bazley, Kings forward Maurice Harkless and Kings center Terence Davis all had 18 points, a game-high.
The Oklahoma City Thunder mounted a big comeback against the Sacramento Kings, but they fell just short as Isaiah Roby’s 3-pointer rolled out.
As Isaiah Roby’s 3-point attempt spun in and out, one could imagine the confused groan coming out of Oklahoma City Thunder fans collectively.
The Thunder trailed by three points with about six seconds to play when the shot bounced off the rim and allowed the Sacramento Kings to ice the game. Oklahoma City lost 103-99.
It was the second game in a row the Thunder have put together an impressive fourth-quarter comeback, and the second game in a row they’ve fallen just short.
Mixed feelings may have come from fans: Wins reign above all … but Oklahoma City’s loss puts the team in sole possession of fourth-best NBA draft lottery odds and has them just 0.5 games behind the Timberwolves.
In the Thunder postgame press conference, there wasn’t any of that confusion. Players and head coach Mark Daigneault certainly want to win. But there was a sort of happiness and pride for the job the team did to go on a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter and take the game down to the wire.
“You get to learn so much from those games when it gets down to the stretch like that,” said Darius Bazley, who scored a game-high 24 points.
“Being in those situations, get that opportunity to just go through it, that’s really big for all of us. And like I said, it’s fun, just getting a chance to do that.”
Against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, the Thunder nearly came back from an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter as they played with more aggression and forced Phoenix into mistakes. They did the same thing against the Kings after trailing by 12 points entering the final frame.
With just under 40 seconds to play, the lead had been cut to one and the Kings had the ball. The Thunder were not going to foul.
Daigneault said he told the players to play for a stop, and if they got a rebound, to get up the court without calling a timeout.
“Make me interrupt you,” he told them. “Otherwise, play.”
Delon Wright hit a layup, but he fell to the ground, giving Oklahoma City a 5-on-4 opportunity. Daigneault elected to not interrupt them with a timeout.
Maledon got into the paint and kicked it out to Roby, who took a couple dribbles left and pulled up.
“He stepped in and took a confident shot that was halfway down,” Daigneault said. “Those are tough calls but at the end of the day, I liked how we were kind of flowing up the floor and the way that things looked. And I thought we got a decent look.
“It’s really hard when you call a timeout, especially in a 3-point game, to get a clean look.”
They got as clean a look as they could, particularly for a team who had struggled to hit from deep.
Oklahoma City’s numbers in this game are nothing to brag about, but narrowing the view to a closer scope reveals a couple promising things:
First off, that fourth quarter was simply good basketball. The Thunder went on an 11-0 run that was stopped on a poor turnover by Theo Maledon, but they answered with an and-one from Bazley. The power forward continues to play well, and he finished this game with 24 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and nine free throw attempts.
Gabriel Deck was electric, scoring 16 points in 16 minutes of play off the bench to go with three rebounds and assists apiece. He went 5-for-7 from the field.
“He’s gotten better every game,” Daigneault said. “We love his physicality around the basket. Plays much bigger than he is. Plays much tougher than his size. He’s a pretty nasty dude defensively. And then offensively he really knows how to play, and that’s a pretty good combination.”
Jaylen Hoard had his best game in almost a month, posting nine points, seven rebounds, two assists and a block in 18 minutes of play.
This was just his second appearance in the last five games.
“I know that being not in the rotation, you’ve still got to be locked in and ready at any time because your name could be called like today,” he said.
The Thunder did just enough to hold the Kings within reach and then pounce. We’ve looked at this game from a close view; now let’s take a wide scope: It felt similar to the first half of the season, when the Thunder were staying in games they seemingly had no business being in.
Oklahoma City has two more games against the Kings this season. Based on this performance, it wouldn’t be shocking if they pulled out in a win in one of them.
No matter how conflicted fans would feel about it.
Jaylen Hoard’s seminal basketball memory was watching Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony in the playoffs. Then he became teammates with Melo after joining the NBA.
Jaylen Hoard still remembers what got him into basketball: Game 1 of the 2009 Western Conference Finals. His dad turned on the game to watch Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony face off.
“Ever since then, I just wanted to play in the NBA,” Hoard said.
Hoard got his chance a decade later when the Portland Trail Blazers signed him shortly after he went undrafted in 2019. When he showed up to work on one November day, Anthony was in a Blazers uniform — his new teammate.
Hoard was playing alongside one of the main faces of his seminal basketball memory.
“It was crazy. Melo, he joined us later in the year, and it was just incredible to have him there,” Hoard said. “Having him as a teammate last year was crazy, just to watch him still be really good and elite after being out for a year or so.”
Hoard spent the majority of his time in the organization in the G League, where he averaged 16.2 points and 6.9 rebounds for the Texas Legends.
He appeared in 13 games with the Blazers and got a first-hand look at Anthony.
“It was just crazy, just to watch him work and perform,” Hoard said.
Because he spent so much of the season in the G League, there wasn’t a ton of interaction with the future Hall of Famer, but Hoard said the two spoke a bit in the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida.
“I was able to talk to him a little bit more in the bubble,” Hoard said. “Just kind of learned a few tips from him. It was good for me.”
Hoard joined the Oklahoma City Blue for G League play this season, and after averaging a touch below 10 points and five rebounds per game in the tournament, he signed a two-way contract with the Thunder.
He was thrown into action immediately, averaging 11.5 points in 23 minutes of play between the two games since the signing was made official on Monday.
“I still got things to work on, but I feel like for my first game, I did pretty well meshing with the guys,” he said on Tuesday. “After the bubble ended, I wasn’t sure where I would finish out the season. And so when I got the call, I was super excited.”
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced they had signed forward Jaylen Hoard to a two-way contract on Monday. Hoard, who turned 22 less than a week before he was signed, will have a chance to prove himself to the OKC front office as the season nears its …
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced they had signed forward Jaylen Hoard to a two-way contract on Monday. Hoard, who turned 22 less than a week before he was signed, will have a chance to prove himself to the OKC front office as the season nears its close.
Hoard, from France, is in his second season in the NBA. He was a member of the Portland Trail Blazers last season and played for the Oklahoma City Blue G League team in the bubble last month.
He made his Thunder debut on Monday, tallying 10 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes of play against the Detroit Pistons.
Here are some pieces of background about the new Thunder player.
Svi Mykhailiuk faced his former team, while Jaylen Hoard and Justin Robinson debuted for the OKC Thunder against the Detroit Pistons.
If one time is chance, two times is coincidence and three times is a pattern, the Oklahoma City Thunder have reached that final phase: With a 132-108 loss to the Detroit Pistons, they have suffered three bad losses in a row.
Without any active players from the preferred starting lineup, this is starting to become a trend.
The Thunder lost to the Phoenix Suns by 37 points on Friday. The next night, they fell by 48 to the Portland Trail Blazers, two shy of the organization’s worst deficit in team history. They couldn’t recover Monday despite playing against one of the worst teams in the league.
Svi Mykhailiuk faced the Pistons for the first time since they traded him to the Thunder. He had 17 points and a career-best four steals, showcasing some of the skill that Detroit had wanted to see more of from him before trading him, but he couldn’t get revenge.
The Thunder are now 10 games below .500 for the first time this season.
Oklahoma City cut it close in the middle two quarters, but they couldn’t sustain any runs. After falling behind by 24 in the second quarter, they cut the deficit to seven before slipping just prior to halftime. Detroit extended its lead back up to 15 early in the third, but OKC cut it down to nine.
None of it was sustainable. The Pistons shot 52.1% from the field and 46.4% from 3 while Oklahoma City made only 41.2% of its looks and shot a mere 18.5% from behind the arc.
“We didn’t play really good defense,” Mykhailiuk said. “We scored enough, we scored 100 points, I feel like that’s enough to win a game, but on defense we let them score 130.”
That’s the third game in a row the Thunder have given up more than 130 points, and the third game in a row they lost by a huge margin.
Svi Mykhailiuk led the OKC Thunder with 11 points in the first half in his first game vs. the Pistons since Detroit traded him.
The Oklahoma City Thunder only scored 19 points in the first quarter against the Detroit Pistons and trailed by as many as 23 in the second, but a run by the OKC bench unit helped the team get back in the game. At halftime, the Thunder trailed 58-47.
The Thunder bench scored 12 straight points in the second quarter, all from players new to the team. Six were from Justin Robinson and two were from Jaylen Hoard, and the other four came via Tony Bradley.
Those three players each had six points in the first half.
Svi Mykhailiuk helped the Thunder cut the deficit to single digits before the Pistons found their footing. Mykhailiuk, who was traded from Detroit to Thunder last month, led OKC with 11 points.
Hamidou Diallo, who the Pistons got in return, posted four points in the half.
Ty Jerome had some very nice passes to help the Thunder cut back into the deficit, and Darius Miller had three steals.
To get back into the game, the Thunder will have to improve their shooting — the team is shooting 37.5% from the field and 26.7% from deep — and get more transition chances on offense. The team only had six fast break points.
Tune in to Bally Sports Oklahoma to see the remainder of the game.
The OKC Thunder announced they signed Justin Robinson to a 10-day contract and Jaylen Hoard to a two-way contract.
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced they signed two players to contracts on Monday afternoon.
Justin Robinson, a 6-foot-1, 23-year-old guard, was signed to a 10-day contract. He impressed in the G League bubble, averaging 15.5 points, 5.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 40.5% from 3. He helped the Delaware Blue Coats get to the championship game, where they lost to the Lakeland Magic.
Robinson appeared in nine games for the Washington Wizards last season.
Hoard was signed to a two-way contract using the spot that was opened when the Thunder signed Moses Brown to a standard deal.
The 6-foot-8 forward played for the OKC Blue in the bubble this season, where he averaged 9.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 22 minutes per game. He shot 49.1% from the field.
Hoard, who turned 22 on March 30, appeared in 13 games with the Portland Trail Blazers last season, his rookie year.
Both are active against the Detroit Pistons on the Monday night game, head coach Mark Daigneault said prior to the contest.
Oklahoma City announced Monday morning that they had waived forward Justin Jackson, who played 33 games for the Thunder this season.
