OKC Thunder: Thunder fully healthy as Jazz miss role players

The OKC Thunder are set to start the 2021-22 NBA season against the Utah Jazz the first of 82-games tips off tonight in Salt Lake City. The Oklahoma City Thunder enters game number one of the road fully healthy, all 17 players are physically ready to play tonight. Of course, Mark Daigneault can not deploy a 17-player rotation so someone still has to sit tonight though it will not be for anything injury-related.

With the NBA season starting back up, my day is consumed with refreshing the injury reports and talking to people to figure out who will be active and who will sit. Our first regular-season injury report is here!

OKC Thunder is fully healthy as the Utah Jazz enter with a few injuries

The Utah Jazz has tabbed Rudy Gay as out with what is described as right heel recovery, Trent Forrest is sidelined for tonight as he is in the NBA’s concussion protocol. Rudy Gay is expected to miss a chunk of time out of the gate. Eric Paschall spent the day listed as probable with a right finger injury dislocation, has since been upgraded to active, and is available to play tonight for the Jazz.

With the OKC Thunder having all 17-players available what will Mark Daigneault’s rotation look like tonight? You do not want to overreact in a one-game sample size. Even looking back to last season as a model, Kenrich Williams was part of the “breakfast club” to stay fresh after not getting much run early in the season.

The rotation will change, it is fluid throughout the year, but which 10-12 players can crack the lineup in game one? The biggest question marks are how much run does Mike Muscala, Gabriel Deck, and the two-way players in Aaron Wiggins and Paul Watson Jr get?

How does Mark Daigneault manage the rotation at center with Derrick Favors, Isaiah Roby, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl all spending time in the starting unit this preseason?