In surprising news, Oklahoma City Thunder rookie Aaron Wiggins has exited health and safety protocols less than two hours after being initially listed in protocols along with Aleksej Pokusevski and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. Wiggins is now listed as “available” for Tuesday’s game against the Sacramento Kings. Wiggins appeared in Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans and scored a career-high 24 points in 32 minutes.
The Thunder now have just four players under the health and safety protocols: Darius Bazley, Tre Mann, Pokusevski and Robinson-Earl.
Bazley and Mann entered protocol on Sunday with the latter participating in pregame warmups before the Pelicans game.
The NBA also announced on Monday that they will be shortening their quarantine periods for vaccinated individuals to six days if testing shows they are no longer a risk to spread COVID-19. This means that the earliest Bazley, Mann, Pokusevski and Robinson-Earl can return is on Sunday, Jan. 2 against the Dallas Mavericks.
Vaccinated NBA players and coaches can now clear quarantine after six days if Covid-testing data shows they’re no longer at risk to be infectious, according to a memo distributed to teams Monday and obtained by ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 27, 2021
Thunder general manager Sam Presti said this past September that the entire roster was vaccinated. Though, it is unsure what that number looks like now if booster shots are included.
Sam Presti: "All our guys are vaccinated."
— Clemente Almanza (@CAlmanza1007) September 24, 2021
With four players out, the Thunder still have three hardship deal spots open that they can fill with 10-day deals. Expect to see most — if not all — of those spots taken up by guys on the Oklahoma City Blue.
