Welcome to Oklahoma City, Home of the Thunder.

[Laramie]

[Laramie]

[Laramie]

Please feel free to chime in with comments, post any new player acquisitions.

[Laramie]

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[HOT ROD]

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this would be a 'welcome Back to OKC". Chris began his career in OKC with the Hornets.

I hope he's able to groom the franchise this year in a positive way that quickly allows us to return to the elite level - while his presence also assures us continued consecutive playoff appearances and BIS during the regular season.

[Bill Robertson]

I see the four arrows in the ground every day. It tells me that someone missed the target four times.
The crashed bird, or alien ship I’ve never understood.
The face in the hand is perfect.
All three will probably be an apt description of the next couple of years of Thunder basketball.

[Laramie]

[CCOKC]

I am really looking forward to seeing this young man develop as a basketball player.

[Laramie]

Height: 6'11" (211 cm) Weight: 229 lbs (104 kg) Age: 22 Position: Center

[Laramie]

Thunder 2019-20 roster with the addition of Justin Patton: https://www.nba.com/thunder/roster/gridhttp://

Nerlens Noel is the key, he can play at the center of power forward position.

[Laramie]

Darius Bazley has heard the question.

It's almost always the first thing anyone wants to ask the rookie.

"You get some people here and there they'll just ask you about it, 'Yo, like how was it not going to college?'" Bazley told ESPN recently. "I know when I was going through the whole pre-draft process traveling from team to team before we'd go out and work out, [the other players would] all be talking about college. And someone would pop up and say, 'Well, how was it, just sitting out?'"

It was a little more than a year ago when Bazley decided to forgo a scholarship at Syracuse for a potential path to the NBA via the G League. He then opted to skip the G League as well to instead focus on preparing for the draft.

Bazley isn't the first player in the one-and-done era to bypass the traditional college route before entering the NBA. But the Oklahoma City Thunder forward did something almost entirely unprecedented. After his brief flirtation with joining the G League, Bazley signed an endorsement deal with New Balance that included a one-year internship with the Boston-based sneaker company.

During that year, when he wasn't working out at the company's facility in preparation for his eventual jump into the draft, he was immersing himself in the business side of basketball. He spent time working directly with multiple divisions at New Balance, ranging from marketing to apparel to product testing. He was involved in the design process as New Balance built its first basketball performance shoe since the late 2000s, and got an up-close look at the manufacturing process at New Balance's factory.

While some endorsers get a taste of that with their sneaker companies, Bazley got far more up-close experience, not just getting a tour on a quick visit, but having the opportunity to spend days sitting in meetings, doing product testing and contributing in meaningful ways beyond just picking a sneaker he liked.

In true 21st century NBA fashion, Bazley also got to learn about building a personal brand from New Balance's digital and social teams, even using his Instagram account to provide insight into what his internship was like.

Source: ESPN NBA - https://www.espn.com/nba/