Shaun Livingston Signs With Thunder

A week ago, Shaun Livingston was toiling with the Tulsa 66ers in the D-League, still waiting for an NBA team to take notice and give him the chance to resume his once-promising career. Oklahoma City's front office noticed and like what they saw: instead of signing Livingston to a mere 10-day contract, they gave him to a multiyear deal.

Terms of the contract have not been disclosed, and there's a good chance "multiyear" is just a fancy way of saying "the last nine games of this season plus all of next year," but still, that's a nice bit of security for Livingston, who's NBA comeback stalled this year after playing in just four games for the Miami Heat before being traded to the Grizzlies, who cut him loose before he played a single game.

In 11 games with the 66ers, Livingston averaged 9.5 points and 6.0 assists in 29.4 minutes. Of course, Livingston was signed by the Thunder as much for his potential as anything else -- as he told the AP last week, he's close to 100% recovered from the gruesome knee injury that derailed his career two years ago, and recently has been able to dunk off either leg without any pain:.

"Usually when I was going through my rehab and I tried to do that, it was painful and the soreness would be lingering for a few days -- or at first, a few weeks," said Livingston, who is now 23. "That was frustrating. But now to be able to do that in a game situation and there's no pain, that's an accomplishment. It's progress."

With Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha and (at least until he's moved in the offseason) Earl Watson in front of him, there's zero pressure on Livingston to carry a heavy load. Instead, the Thunder have a chance to take a cheap flier on a former lottery pick who's still quite young. If he even comes close to resembling his previous form, he'll be a solid backup, allowing the team to deal from a position of strength in the future.