Former Oregon Duck Eugene Omoruyi reportedly will have two-way deal converted to NBA contract
After spending the first several months of the 2022-23 season on a two-way deal, former Oregon star Eugene Omoruyi is reportedly set to finish out the rest of the year on an NBA contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday evening that Omoruyi will have his deal converted, solidifying his status with the franchise.
Wojnarowski reported that the deal will run through the 2023-24 season.
A 6-foot-7 forward who played one season for Dana Altman’s Ducks after beginning his career at Rutgers, Omoruyi was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection for Oregon during the 2020-21 campaign. He started all 28 games and helped lead Oregon to the Sweet 16.
Omoruyi led the Ducks and was sixth in the Pac-12 with 17.1 points per game that season and also ranked sixth in the conference with 1.5 points per game. Along with Chris Duarte and Will Richardson, he helped Oregon to a 21-7 record.
After going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft, he signed a two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks and suited up in four games for them last season.
This season, Omoruyi has played 21 games with the Thunder and made two starts. He is averaging 5.0 points and 2.3 rebounds per game while playing 12.2 minutes per night.
Frequently over the past several seasons, Altman has mentioned Omoruyi, as well as a handful of other players, when lamenting the lack of commitment and intensity that some of Oregon’s current players possess.
“The guys who have been players at Oregon, at Creighton, at Kansas State that I’ve been fortunate enough to work with over 42 years, the guys who are the good players and have really demonstrated that game in, game out are the guys that bring it every day and are consistent every day with their effort,” Altman said last March after Oregon’s season-ending loss to Texas A&M in the NIT. “We’re going to have to work. I wish I had a magic wand but I sure don’t.
“We’ve been fortunate to have workers; Chris Duarte, and Eugene Omoruyi. Chris last year, 90% of the time was the first one to practice, the last one to leave. Eugene was right behind him. Payton Pritchard before that. Dillon Brooks — I had to chase Dillon out a few days before a game. I said, ‘We got a game tomorrow, get out of here.’
“I didn’t chase anybody out of the gym this year. We’re going to have to get back to what helped us be successful.”
