Grant Jerrett will sign a deal and start the season with the Tulsa 66ers, the Oklahoma City Thunder's NBA D-League affiliate.

The move will allow the Thunder to keep the rights of their second round pick in this year's NBA draft.

Jerrett was not at the Thunder's media day or the team's early practices.

Kevin Durant's endorsement deal with Gatorade will expire next week and it will not be renewed.

Gatorade has decided not to comment on future discussions with the Oklahoma City Thunder star.

Durant recently made public comments about his belief that former Gatorade advertisment partner Dwyane Wade is no longer a top 10 player in the NBA. Wade and Durant both traded remarks with each other on social media.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have signed guards Diante Garrett and Rodney McGruder to contracts.

Garrett (6-4, 190 pounds), appeared in 19 games last season as a member of the Phoenix Suns where he averaged 2.1 points and 1.6 assists in 7.9 minutes per game. Additionally, Garrett played eight games last season for the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League where he posted averages of 17.3 points, 7.3 assists and 1.63 steals.

McGruder (6-4, 205 pounds), recently concluded his four year college career at Kansas State where he became one of two players in school history to rank among the top 10 in both career scoring and rebounding.

The Oklahoma City Thunder could wear sleeved jerseys this season, joining a number of teams that will do the same in select games.

"There's a chance," Sam Presti said.

Presti would not say which game(s) the Thunder would participate by wearing the unique uniforms.

Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade have exchanged words on social media following the release of the NBA's top players from Sports Illustrated.

Durant said in an interview that James Harden should be in the top-10 instead of Wade.

Wade posted a photo of a handwritten note on his Instagram account. It read: "9-24-13: Kevin Durant said James Harden should replace me in the top 10 .... Note to self: Make him respect your place in history .. -- again ..." It was accompanied by a statement from Wade that read: "Don't believe me just watch."

Durant replied to Wade's on Twitter.

"Show me don't tweet me," said Wade.

Russell Westbrook is not promising when he will return to the Oklahoma City Thunder lineup, but he is sure that he will come back as an improved player even after knee surgery.

“I'm going to come back and be better,” Westbrook said.

“I tried taking it one day at a time and not (worry about) the timetable. Just take it one day at a time and try to find a way to strengthen myself and make sure I'm ready to go when it's time.”

Westbrook has not yet been cleared to resume full basketball activities, and neither he nor team officials are providing a timetable for when that final obstacle will be overcome.

“We expect him to take part in parts of camp and work his way through different parts until he's ultimately cleared for unrestricted activity,” Sam Presti said. “But it's all going to be contingent upon how his body reacts to the additional load that he'll be carrying.”

Kevin Martin led the NBA last season with an effective field goal percentage of .793 on shots taken in the fourth quarter or overtime with a scoring margin of three or fewer points.

Much of that is attributed to the fact Martin received a high amount of wide open shots playing alongside Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

In the last five minutes of a game within five points, the Thunder's two stars combined to take 176 shots to Martin's 12.

Martin signed a free agent deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason.

Doc Rivers returned to the TD Garden on Wednesday and admitted the Boston Celtics' trade of Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green in 2011 was a mistake -- one that hurt Kevin Garnett.

“I think so,” reflected Rivers, “because we needed the toughness. The one thing we did by losing Perk was we removed Kevin’s protector. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that, after Perk left, that Kevin got into all those little flicks with the other teams. Perk deflected all that.”

Perkins reached the 2012 NBA Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Green performed well in last season's playoffs after a sporadic regular season.

Hakeem Olajuwon believes Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant are the two players that haven't trained with him that would most greatly benefit from improving their post games.

“(He’s) very skilled, but doesn’t take advantage of his height in the post,” Olajuwon said. “He’s much taller than most of the guys who guard him. He’s got all the outside game, but now he needs to take them in the post. In other words, there’s something for everybody.”

Durant scored 1.04 points per post-up last season, which ranked seventh in the NBA. But only 10.4 percent of his offensive moves were in the post.

Kevin Durant has admired Marco Belinelli's game after the two came out in the same NBA draft class, and the Oklahoma City Thunder star wanted the organization to sign Belinelli in free agency this offseason.

“No doubt," Durant said in an interview, when asked whether Belinelli could have helped the Thunder. "I tried to get him on our team, but unfortunately, San Antonio came in and got him from us. I wanted him on our team bad.

"He’s going to be a guy that we play against a lot and we have to find ways to stop him.”