Tag: Zavier Simpson

Former Michigan PG Zavier Simpson on Detroit Pistons summer league roster

Hope he shows out and earns a spot in Detroit! #GoBlue

He came into his own in Ann Arbor, but he’s still looking for the right next opportunity that he can call home for the long term.

It took a couple of years before Zavier Simpson settled into his role as a starting point guard of the Michigan Wolverines, but once he did, he was incredible. Known for his stifling defense and his unorthodox sky-hook, Simpson was one of the key faces in the tail-end of the John Beilein era and Juwan Howard’s first year leading the program.

After leaving, however, he’s been something of a journeyman. Undrafted, Simpson got his start with the Los Angeles Lakers before being waived early in the season. He got picked up by Oklahoma City, but spent most of his time with the Thunder’s G-League squad. He spent last season with the Orlando Magic’s G-League team last year as well as in the Puerto Rican league.

Now Simpson is back in the NBA minor leagues, announced by the local Detroit Pistons as being on the team’s summer league roster.

Simpson will reteam with fellow former Wolverine, Isaiah Livers, on the summer league team, but will also get a chance to play with a lot of the Pistons’ young talent, including Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey, Ausar Thompson, James Wiseman, and Marcus Sasser.

Of all the players on the Pistons’ summer league roster, Simpson is the oldest.

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2021-22 Thunder player grades: Zavier Simpson

Handing out a final grade for Oklahoma City Thunder guard Zavier Simpson’s 2021-22 regular season.

(Editor’s note: We are starting individual grades for all players from the 2021-22 Oklahoma City Thunder. To access other reviews as part of this ongoing series, click here.)

With the 2021-22 regular season now officially in the books, the Oklahoma City Thunder (24-58) finished their season with the fourth-best lottery odds. This means it is now time for individual player grades for all 26 players who suited up for the team this season during the 82 games. The grades will be determined by what the season expectations were for each player and how they lived up to them.

The twenty-third player in the installment is Zavier Simpson, who made his NBA debut in April and played in four games.

OKC Thunder player grades: Franchise secures fourth-best lottery odds with 50-point loss to Clippers

That’s it, it’s over.

The Oklahoma City Thunder wrapped up its 2021-22 season by securing the fourth-best lottery odds with a 138-88 blowout loss to the LA Clippers on Sunday.

The Thunder entered the game with its best-case scenario being attaining sole possession of the fourth-best odds due to a Detroit Pistons loss with the worst-case scenario being it ties for the fourth-best odds with the Indiana Pacers.

The Clippers — who were without Paul George, Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris Sr. and Norman Powell — thoroughly dominated this game. There was no funny business this time around as the Clippers led by double digits for almost the entirety of the game.

Meanwhile, the Thunder stuck by its extremely shorthanded rotation by only playing six players with five of them playing over 40 minutes. In all likelihood, most — if not all — of the players who touched the floor this game will not return for the Thunder next season. But give them credit for going out there and playing heavy doses of minutes recently as the team tried to lose as many games as possible to maximize its lottery odds. Let’s take one final look at player grades for the regular-season finale.

Thunder player grades: OKC secures crucial 120-101 loss to Lakers as Jaylen Hoard, Georgios Kalaitzakis show off

Jaylen Hoard and Georgios Kalaitzakis combined for 52 of the team’s 101 points.

Due to winning too many games for the first two-thirds of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have put itself in a corner in terms of lottery odds and essentially need to lose these final two games in Los Angeles in order to keep its fourth-best odds spot. The team was able to complete half of that goal with a 120-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers who were missing LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook.

It looked pretty uncertain if the Thunder were going to be able to lose this game as both teams fought back and forth for the first three quarters of the game. Ultimately, the backup Lakers were able to pull away in the fourth quarter and win by 19 points.

Much like the last few games, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault ran a short rotation of essentially just six players with just five of them playing over 15 minutes. Jaylen Hoard continues to impress and really squeezing every drop of juice out of his current 10-day deal that expires after the regular season ends. Hoard isn’t the only getting his money’s worth though as the Thunder played five of the six players who touched the floor this game at least 43 minutes with four of those five players being 10-day deal guys. Let’s take a look at player grades.

OKC Thunder player grades: Thunder’s two-game winning streak comes to an end in Utah with 137-101 loss

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s two-game winning streak comes to an end with a 137-101 blowout loss via the Utah Jazz.

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s two-game winning streak has ended with a 137-101 loss to the Utah Jazz. The Thunder goes back to its losing ways as the franchise tries to keep its fourth-best lottery odds as the Indiana Pacers are just one game back in the reverse standings. With Tuesday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers, priorities have shifted from trying to sneak into the top three lottery odds to fighting off the Pacers and keeping its fourth-best lottery odds.

The Jazz — who were without Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Royce O’Neale — were led by Rudy Gobert’s 20 points and Bojan Bogdanovic’s 37 points in a comfortable win where the result really wasn’t in question for the most part.

Meanwhile, the Thunder — where half of the players who touched the floor were signed just recently on 10-day deals — were able to produce quality offense and score with ease despite having more G League than NBA talent suited up. Let’s take a look at player grades.

Former Michigan basketball player Zavier Simpson’s debut with the OKC Thunder

We are so happy for Simpson!

Captain Hook finally got his chance.

Former Michigan guard, Zavier Simpson, finally got his chance in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Simpson signed a 10-day contract with the Thunder on Tuesday — Simpson will remain with the Thunder for the rest of the season. The Thunder are facing some serious injury problems — they were down to just three health guards — and OKC was just 23-55 entering Tuesday night.

Simpson has been playing with the Thunders’ G-League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue. The former Michigan star played 47 games for the Blue while starting 32 of those — he averaged 12.7 points-per-game, 4.6 rebounds-per-game, and 6.2 assists-per-game.

On Tuesday, Simpson got the nod to be the starting point guard, and he played a whopping 44-minutes. Simpson was 5-for-12 from the field, 10 points, five assists, and three rebounds. The Thunder defeated the Portland Trailblazers, 98-94.

The Thunder’s official Twitter account tweeted out a highlight from Simpson on Tuesday night, it’s a staple from his arsenal that Michigan fans loved — the good ole’ hook shot.

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OKC Thunder player grades: Thunder shifts focus to keeping fourth-best lottery odds with 94-98 win over Trail Blazers

The Thunder essentially won a game playing six guys with three of them on 10-day deals.

The race for the third-best lottery odds is essentially over as the Oklahoma City Thunder mount a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers once again, 98-94.

Things were looking great entering the fourth quarter for the Thunder’s lottery odds. After 36 minutes, the Trail Blazers had an 82-67 lead and were well on their way to a win that would’ve really benefited the Thunder. If the lead held, then that means the Thunder would be just half a game back from the Detroit Pistons currently for the third-best lottery odds. Now, a 26-4 finish to the game that saw the Trail Blazers score just four points in the final 5:41 of the game has Thunder fans focused on keeping its fourth-best lottery odds as the Indiana Pacers are just half a game back.

This win has deflated the fanbase to say the least, with a real shot at getting top-three lottery odds just a couple of weeks ago, the Thunder going 4-3 in its last seven games as ruined any dreams of that happening. The Thunder threw everything at this game to maximize its odds to lose as it only played six guys essentially with three of them currently on 10-day deals. I mean, Lindy Waters III, a two-way player, was pulled after four minutes as he scored eight quick points for Pete’s sake. There was nothing else that the team could’ve done to lose this game and the Thunder have great synergy throughout the organization has really bit them in the butt hard these last couple of seasons in terms of draft lottery odds.

It’s a failure that the Thunder will not be able to get top-three lottery odds for the second straight season during this rebuild and creating a program that brings the best out of its players has proven to be a hinderance when it comes to losing games. Let’s take look at player grades.

OKC Thunder news: Zavier Simpson signed to 10-day hardship deal

The Oklahoma City Thunder announced the 10-day signings of Georgios Kalaitzakis and Zavier Simpson for the remainder of the season.

The Oklahoma City Thunder officially announced the signing of Georgios Kalaitzakis as well as Zavier Simpson to 10-day hardship exception deals on Tuesday. Both players will be on the roster for the remainder of the regular season as there is less than a week left.

Both players were on the G League’s Oklahoma City Blue squad. With the Thunder being shorthanded due to injuries, expect both to get playing time, starting Tuesday against the Portland Trail Blazers in the final home game of the season.

With the Blue, Kalaitzakis averaged 10.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 31 games while Simpson averaged 12.7 points and 6.2 assists in 47 games.

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