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Thunder cut Telfair, keep Smith as exception expires

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Well, this sucks. Sebastian Telfair may be on his way out of the NBA once again.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are set to release the 29-year-old point guard, according to a report from Royce Young of ESPN. The Thunder have to trim their roster back to 15 players, as the Hardship Exception granted to them by the league is set to expire Thursday. The team has confirmed Telfair's release.

The Thunder signed point guard Ish Smith using the exception and have decided to keep him in place of Telfair now that one has to go. Young reports that the Thunder were high on Smith during the summer, but he was with the Houston Rockets from July 18 to Oct. 27. Smith has looked decent in five games, though his 32 minutes are too small a sample to accurately judge him from yet.

Smith won't be forced into too much duty with Russell Westbrook do back shortly, and should serve as the third point guard behind Westbrook and Reggie Jackson.

In 15 games this season, Telfair has averaged 8.6 points and 2.9 assists in 20.9 minutes, though he's shot just 36.4 percent. Cutting him is somewhat of a surprise, as the Thunder jumped quickly in free agency, securing him to a fully guaranteed, $915,243-contract on July 11, the first day signings could be made official.

This season marked a return to the league for the former Through the Fire documentary subject, as he spent 2013-14 playing in China following nine NBA seasons. In 563 career games with eight different teams, the No. 13 overall pick in the 2004 draft has averaged 7.4 points and 3.5 assists in 21.6 minutes but shot just 39 percent.

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