The regular season starts in less than a week, and we hope you’ve gotten to know a bit more about all the new faces on the team. With only six days until tip-off, lets take a look at another new face, Semaj Christon. On August 20, 2016, Christon signed a three-year $2.5 million contract with the Thunder.
Christon was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 1, 1992. He attended Winton Woods High School and led his conference in scoring as a senior with 21 points per game. In 2012, he attended a prep school called Brewster Academy. At Brewster, he played with current Thunder teammate Mitch McGary. Together they went 32-1 and won the National Prep School Championship.
Later in 2012, Christon joined Xavier over many other colleges who were pursuing him. After a slow start with only two points in his first game, his offensive game exploded over the next several games. He would go on to average over 15 points and 4.6 assists, earning him All-Rookie Team awards. His 456 points put him second all time on the scoring list for freshman at Xavier.
During his sophomore year, Xavier moved conferences over to the Big East. The change of conference was no struggle for Christon, as his average points per game increased to 17. He become only the second sophomore in school history to record 1,000 points. At the end of the season, he declared for the NBA draft.
Christon was drafted by the Miami Heat with the 55th overall pick in the 2014 draft. His draft rights were traded to Charlotte, and then later traded to the Thunder. For his first experience with professional basketball he played with Oklahoma City in the 2014 Summer League.
In his NBA D-League debut with the Oklahoma City Blue, he scored 32 points against the Maine Red Claws. Christon would go on to have a pretty good season, finishing 9th overall in the league in scoring. His efforts were enough for him to make the All-Star game where he recorded 10 points.
After a long journey over three years, he finally signed his first NBA contract with the Thunder. Christon would have likely been third point guard on the depth chart this season. However, with the injury to Cameron Payne, we may see him receive some second string minutes. I don’t expect to see any large amounts of minutes for Christon this season, but be ready for him to come in and make an immediate impact on the game when he does.
Article written by Craig Hofeld. Follow @TheThunderGuys on Twitter.
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