It has been more than two weeks since news first broke in Spanish and Argentinian news outlets on April 8 that Gabriel Deck had signed a deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Four days later, the Thunder officially announced the multi-year deal, which has been reported to be four years, the final three non-guaranteed.
Monday will be the two-week mark from that report, and the Argentinian forward is finally nearing his debut in the NBA.
Over the past week, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has explained that Deck’s process had been delayed by contractual issues with his former club, Real Madrid, and issues obtaining a work visa for the United States.
“There’s a lot of layers to get him from where he is now to the court,” Daigneault said on April 18.
“He was coming from a different team so there’s contractual stuff. There’s also visa issues. And COVID just adds a lot of complications to that, both the visa processs and also the process of getting a new player acquired and into the group, because of testing. … We’re at the mercy of other people’s timetables.”
He called it a “complex situation.”
Deck has arrived in Oklahoma City, Daigneault confirmed on Friday. At that time, the coach said that once Deck passes the physical and COVID-19 protocol, he will join the team.
Oklahoma City wants him to get on the court quickly.
Daigneault said the Thunder see Deck as a multi-positional, versatile player.
“As soon as he’s cleared to do that, he’s going to join us and we’re going to try to get him in the mix pretty quickly because we’re excited about seeing him play,” Daigneault said on Friday.
Oklahoma City has 12 games left on its schedule. The next is Monday at 6 p.m. against the Philadelphia 76ers.
This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!
