I admittedly don’t watch a ton of games anymore, but in these playoffs I have been massively impressed with him. I am really impressed with the quality of some of the “role players” in general.

I think even in his current state he would get a ton of playing time on the Lakers. Our guard rotation at one point was Cardio Gabe, too scared to shoot Bronny, and two-way Nick Smith Jr. The three players stats combined is like 6/2/2 33% from 3

Plus Ajay is an extremely solid defender. Im still in shock how good he is and how so many teams passed on his talent in the draft.

Based on?

I asked RC Bufford how many bench warmer he would beat, he said all of them.

I’m not convinced until someone rolls up their sleeve and shows me a tattoo of Sam Presti.

What part of the second apron seriously affects how OKC builds teams? Serious question. Everyone acts like OKC will dissolve if they spend two seconds in the apron but what’s so scary for them?

Can’t trade picks 7 years out? Ok? They have 14 other teams picks. Can’t aggregate contracts? They don’t really need to. Can’t sign free agents easily? It’s Oklahoma. Before Hartenstein the biggest free agent we convinced to join us from another team was Raymond Felton.

The actual worries are the repeater tax, but OKC hasn’t been a tax payer yet so they have three years before they even have to worry about that.

OKC will be in the 2nd apron. They’ll be just fine.

You don’t know what you’re talking about.

Right now the Thunder aren’t even above the first apron, and haven’t been the entire time Shai has been on the team. Even if they picked up every extension this summer they still won’t be “way” over the second apron, and even if they were it would be the first time they would be over it meaning that there is no penalty. The apron penalties are for repeatedly being over and the Thunder haven’t even been close in last 5 years.

The Thunder are, in fact, in a great position. They could bring everyone back, they could let some fringe role players go, they could sign and trade players. They have immense flexibility going into the summer and while they do have some decisions to make, they have more than enough room to make decisions without them being particularly difficult.

We’re not over the second apron.

It’s pretty easy for us to duck the second apron next season as well. Just need to move one of Dort or iHart (very likely its Dort at this point) and Kenrich Williams.

We’re running this team back

This is an overreaction. OKC will have to trade Lu Dort and Wiggins. Decline Kenrich Williams contract. They can either resign Kenrich Williams to a vet min or they can just draft all their picks. 

Lu Dort is on an easily tradable one year contract. OKC can decline his option and let him have a sign and trade to a team with or without space. Wiggins is literally like 12 mill a year. A team will gladly find a way to move a small salary get him. 

The key will be Hartenstein. OKC should propose to decline his option and resign him to a long-term deal that is cheaper every year, but of he declines that fine. They can either trade him or wait until the deadline to trade him. Again he is a plyaer that many teams would want and they will find ways to move money to get him. 

Memphis is in a full on rebuild and has plenty of capspace. Teams can easily pay a team like Memhpis to dump contracts to get guys they want. OKC can shed guys, get some assets and continue about their business. 

Yes they lose depth, but hopefully it is replaced by some younger talent. It’s the best possible situation to be in as a team who has to make tough decisions. 

They have some difficult decisions this offseason

Not really. This season isn’t too bad and it already looks like Dort and Kenrich have 1 foot out the door so that solves 25 of our 28 million dollar problem. The hardest part is either letting Cason walk or keeping Caruso. I’d wager that we keep Cason and let Caruso go.

The 27-28 season is when things get really tough, because all of our bench is going to want to get paid. Ajay Mitchell, McCain, Wiggins, J-Will, and Isaiah Joe.

They’re going to trade players that have to get paid for cheap rookies and or not worry if they’re in the second apron because they have so many of other peoples picks.

It’s too bad the Bulls GM was let go. He would have probably tried a player for player trade with no picks.

There’s always idiots like Morey giving away talents

It’s really not that comparable to Boston with the depth and upcoming picks OKC has, the guys they are looking to trade are way different from a porzingis or Jrue.

The Thunder aren’t even above the first apron. They could go above the second next season with no penalty.

the difference being that boston has paid the luxury tax the past 3 seasons before dipping under it this season.

okc has not yet paid the tax – next year will be their first paying luxury tax.

Wishful thinking I’m afraid. The man with the most money (draft picks) is never more desperate than those without.

I’ve seen nuggets fans contemplate trading Aaron Gordon to OKC to get their picks back. There’s always desperate teams that need a loan from the bank.

😂 he’s still got unlimited picks

Agreed but the assumptions that there are competent GMs across from Presti. Unfortunately, as we saw with Morey, they are not at Presti’s caliber.

Wiggins played a considerable role on a championship team in the playoffs. Joe is a knockdown shooter, there is zero chance you have to ‘attach stuff’ to get a team to trade for a career 40% shooter.

Attach stuff? they make nothing

Wiggins will definitely get them a pick

Absolutely insane trade. I just assumed it was because McCain’s rookie deal was up and he had to be paid but still has multiple years left that are cheap lol. 76ers basically gave away the only possible weakness the Thunder even had.

They cut Champagnie to clear a roster spot for a dude they never intended to play a minute so he could wear their jersey for a dunk contest. Shot 40% the rest of that year, so it’s not like it took him years to show something after being cut and they always have needed shooting around Embiid.

Did anyone do any explaining around this trade other than “sell high”? Usually there’s some “ohh they did it to avoid gazillion dollars in tax” but I don’t think I’ve seen it explained like that yet.

Espescially when you factor in our 2nd round picks and how much Presti has been nailing them lately

That Mavs pick swap in a couple years could be nasty

I thought he was a wing

Glad we can agree the current MVP and probably back to back MVP and guy who led the team to back to backs is not “nothing”.

This pre-offseason was getting really fucking stupid real quick

And the 12th pick this year and a pick swap next year. Either way the MVP and another player is already a ton.

They maneuvered Dillon Jones into being able to re-sign Jaylin Williams and draft Thomas Sorber (who was also a pick that came out of this trade), Tre Mann was the center piece of the Hayward trade which gave them the roster flexibility to sign Hartenstein, Gallinari being sent out in a sign and trade also gave them roster flexibility and the use of his trade exception netted a future second still to convey, Nique Cliffords pick gave them a 2027 protected first and more roster flexibilty. Most of the subsequent trades using these assets werent fleeces, but were better for OKC who were in a strong position to negotiate better deals for themselves.

So no those aren’t the only assets they got out of that trade, not to mention the roster flexibility its afforded them is the reason they were able to do things like decline Lu Dorts and Ajays TOs and sign them to a longer contract. That trade put OKC front office in the driver’s seat for most of the contract and trade negotiations they’ve done since.

Bro he was bad, gave me Danny Green vibes from 2020, like legit I would yell at the TV when DG got the ball and ask him to shoot and not do anything else

I saw one person wanting AR subbed out for Bronny when AR kept turning the ball over. During the regular season Bronny got picked like 3 times in a row trying to get across mid court against Cason.

Topic won’t be traded. No idea why people keep saying this. Presti gives everyone he drafts a chance and Topic hasn’t had a chance yet.

Yall should keep ihart and trade dort.  Dort is more replaceable with the players you already have on the roster.  I imagine the Thunder move Dort and one or two guys that are 9-13 in your rotation.  Go into the second apron next year with mostly the same team and then actual decisions will be made in 2027.

Both true.