Oklahoma City Thunder Sign Ish Smith on Hardship Exception
The Oklahoma City Thunder has signed veteran point guard Ish Smith with a hardship exception, as granted by the league. The Thunders currently have eight players with injuries and are sidelined, thus the hardship exception. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Mitch McGary, and Anthony Morrow are included in the injury list, all of which are out for at least two weeks.
The hardship exception is a certain condition granted to teams if four of their players will be sidelined for at least two weeks to exceed the 15-player maximum roster. To qualify for the exception, all four players must miss at least three consecutive games while sitting out those two weeks.
In addition to the four mentioned above, Grant Jerrett, Andre Roberson, Jeremy Lamb, and Perry Jones are all injured as well, totalling eight injured players for the Thunders. Jones had injured himself on Tuesday night in the team's match against the Toronto Raptors. He has been diagnosed with a knee contusion.
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Roberson on the other hand had injured his foot in Monday with Brooklyn and was unable to play the next day. Afterwards, Jones went down with his injury and the Thunders was left with seven able players.
The signing of a Smith is certainly a help for the team as they have been playing with less than 10 players for the start of the season and are already down 1-4.
Smith has been able to play for seven different teams in the past four season, most recently with the Phoenix Suns for 70 games during the last season. Previously, he was with the Houston Rockets in the preseason before being waived for transfer to the Thunders.
