Fil-am Sedrick Barefield to play for OKC Thunder Summer League team

By Kevin Sox

After being undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft where Zion Williamson was the top overall pick, Filipino-American Sedrick Barefield will be given an opportunity to make it to the next level as he will be part of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Summer League squad.

The report came from USA Today, citing a source from Sportando which suggested Barefield will be included in the Thunder roster for the Summer League.

Barefield is a 6-foot-2 guard who played for the Utah Utes, the same school that produced Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright.

The 22-year-old guard is an all-Pac 12 first team selection as he led his Utes in his senior year, averaging an impressive 16.8 PPG while shooting 38.7% from downtown.

Some of Barefield’s strengths are his spot-up shooting and ability to drive to the hoop and finish. However, at 6-foot-2, he might have a hard time cracking the big league at the shooting guard position.

Per a 2018 article by ABS-CBN Sports columnist Enzo Flojo:

“For Barefield to earn serious NBA Draft consideration and eventually get minutes for a real NBA team, however, he still needs to work on his playmaking and defense. For someone with his size and skill-set, scoring heavily in the NBA will be extremely difficult, and though Barefield is deadly from the perimeter, he’s no Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, or even Isaiah Thomas. What he can work on though, is dishing out to his open teammates and playing tenacious defense like, becoming like a Matthew Dellavedova or a Shake Larkin. Given his current state, Barefield — to be completely honest — would be really fortunate to be drafted at all. His ceiling right now — given his handles and if he specializes in his perimeter game, playmaking, and defense — would be someone like Patty Mills, and that might be pushing it, too.”

Barefield originally planned to join the 2018 NBA Draft but withdrew at the last moment to play out his senior year at Utah.