Apr. 6—Over the past couple seasons, I started playing a little game while watching the NBA.

How many former Thunders are on the court?

When the Lakers and Clippers play, for example, you can have as many as seven Oklahoma City alums on the floor at the same time. Dennis Schroder, Markieff Morris and Alex Caruso in Laker purple and gold. Paul George, Serge Ibaka, Reggie Jackson and Patrick Patterson in Clipper red and blue.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a complete lineup of Thunder alums, but still, it’s pretty wild how many are now scattered around the league.

Here’s the thing, though — after these past few months, I may have to start using a cheat sheet. The Thunder has a rapidly growing number of players who have been members of the franchise but never appeared in a regular-season game, who were gone before they ever arrived.

I think of them as Grandpa Simpsons.

If you’ve spent any time on social media, you’ve likely the walk-in, walk-out meme from “The Simpsons.” Grandpa Simpson walks into a business — the interwebs says it’s a burlesque house — and turns to put his hat on the coat rack. But when he turns around and sees grandson Bart manning the door — again, the interwebs says he’s there to pay off some damage he did to the house — Grandpa Simpson turns right back around, grabs his hat and walks out the door.

Makes me laugh every time I see it.

But the Thunder have had a lot of players who’ve gone as quickly as they’ve come this season, players who have been on the team’s books but never been in the team’s uni form when the games counted. All told, a whopping 14 players have been acquired by the team but never actually played for it.

Yes, you read that number correctly. Fourteen.

That’s more players like that than the franchise had in its first 12 seasons combined.

By the way, we aren’t counting players who the Thunder drafted for another team, players who were on 10-day contracts or players who were training-camp extras.

The high number this season is the result of the Thunder rebuild, of course, the franchise working doggedly to acquire pieces for the future. There are lots of reasons why a player might be acquired but never used — namely, he had to be included in a trade to make the money work, but the Thunder never saw him as part of the long-term vision — but still, the number of such players this season in OKC is jarring.

If you’re having a hard time remembering all the guys who are part of the We Never Knew Thee Club this season, you’re not alone.

Here’s the list: Trevor Ariza, Zylan Cheatham, Josh Gray, Danny Green, Frank Jackson, James Johnson, T.J. Leaf, Jalen Lecque, Meyers Leonard, Kelly Oubre Jr., Vincent Poirier, Austin Rivers, Ricky Rubio, and Admiral Schofield.

That’s almost a full NBA roster. You might not win a ton of games with that bunch, but you could at least cobble together a starting lineup.

Rubio could play the point. The other remaining guard and forward spots could go to the best combination of Rivers, Green, Oubre, Ariza and Johnson, whoever works best. And at center, Poirier or Leonard could manage.

It’s so odd to have so many players like this after so many seasons of stability in OKC. Used to be, when the Thunder acquired a player, you knew they’d be in uniform soon. Now?

We’re not even sure any of these players even came to Oklahoma City as members of the Thunder.

At a minimum, they were given a virtual welcome by the Thunder. Whenever it acquires a player, the social media team does a mock-up of the new guy in a Thunder jersey.

“Welcome to the team, Trevor Ariza!”

He looks pretty good in Thunder blue.

At least virtually. Once upon a time, this sort of thing seemed novel for the Thunder. In 2009, Oklahoma City did a deal with Utah that brought Eric Maynor to town. He became a back-up point guard in the Thunder’s early years.

Also included in that deal was Matt Harpring. He was recovering from an injury, and while he remained on the Thunder’s books for two months, he never played a game and was eventually waived.

I thought that was so interesting at the time. The Matt Harpring Era. Ended before it ever began.

Now, such things have become common.

These are different days, of course. Joining the Thunder doesn’t mean you’ll be playing for the Thunder. Being an alum doesn’t mean you’ll be getting a welcome-back video next time you play at The Peake.

I admit, there are former Thunder players who I sometimes see playing for someone else and realize, “Oh, yeah, they played for OKC once upon a time.” Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott top that list.

But being a short-time Thunder alum looks way different now than it did before. Take off your hat and stay awhile? A bunch of them aren’t even coming through the front door anymore.