The Detroit Pistons need big wings.
Eugene Omoruyi fits the bill.
The former Oklahoma City Thunder forward, who was waived earlier this week, has signed a 10-day deal with Detroit according to the team. It’s a solid shot by Troy Weaver at a position of need for the Pistons after the trade of Saddiq Bey.
Omoruyi is a big body at 6-foot-7, 244 pounds and looks the part on the court. He averaged 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds for the Thunder in 23 games this game, starting two of them while shooting 47% from the field. He hit just 26% of his 3-pointers.
Dating back to his college days at Rutgers and Oregon, he was productive but never a great shooter until his final year with the Ducks when he hit 38% from deep on 3.9 attempts per game. That shooting is the key, and so far it hasn’t translated.
I’m not really sure how much we’ll see Omoruyi once the Pistons get healthy. Though they were playing very small with four-guard lineups this week against the Bulls, they won’t need to do that once they’ve got Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren back in the fold.
But there isn’t much depth at power forward right now outside Bojan Bogdanovic and Hamidou Diallo. If the shot falls, maybe Omoruyi can give them a stretchy-four option off the bench in spurts?
The thing about 10-day guys is they’re either signed because you have an open roster spot and want to see them in practice (like the Pistons now with Nerlens Noel out of the picture) or they’re brought in because they need to play.
I think this is probably more of the former than the latter, but, as was said when RJ Hampton arrived recently — new guys can make this bad team a little more fun down the stretch.
Let us know your thoughts on the signing or just on Omoruyi in general in the comments.