The era of dynasties is over…. Even the Spurs likely will have to make decisions soon but they have a longer window just cause their 3 best players are still on rookie deals next season

Parity era is in full swing 

I wouldn’t call it predatory, if it has no teeth it would just be ignored. Teams understand the rules as well..

And they got picks for doing it. Win-win.

My tax bill? I’m not paying that shit

absolute cinema.

let the 2nd Apron controlled demolition continue

We still gotta extend Wallace and retain Hartenstein. Presti is not done.

“Predatory”???

Oh, won’t someone think of the poor billionaire owners who are being preyed upon with this unfair system.

Actually, people do.

While I will be one of the main ones cheering the Thunder’s demise I really hate this cap system. Good teams shouldn’t be punished for building good rosters. The idea that it’s almost improbable to see a kind of Jordan bulls run or even something like the Heatles again kind of sucks.

Sam Presti doing what he does best.

It’s crazy you get punished for drafting well

Making it so something like the KD Warriors can never happen again is great.

We should be more protective of the word predatory. There are no predators nor victims here.

They knew they would trade those contact as soon as they signed them, feels like Wiggins declined a bit last season, but both are high end bench players/low end starters.

Still feels a bit sad to me that a great organization that found those players has to trade them, same for Dort, same for Kenrich Williams, like I don’t really give a damn if OKC wins another ring or something but I kinda like when those kind of guys become lifers.

Getting two seconds and 5 seasons out of the second best #55 pick in NBA history is pretty solid work.

Great system we have here

Y’all so dramatic. It’s injuries that are the reason parity is so strong, not finances. On a healthy Thunder playoff team these guys would barely have played.

And they don’t even need them. They needed to trade them to free up minutes for Topic, Sorber, Mara, McCain, etc. at the end of the bench even without the cap. Wiggins was already out of the rotation.

Sucks, but we are replacing all of these 11th+ men with lottery talent lol

not really. this is assuming that iHart, Dort, Kenrich team options are all picked up, which especially the latter two are basically guaranteed gonna be gone. You gotta do this tax bill saving assuming they’re not picked up, then calculate the cost of picking them up is the real math here.

And that’s why James Dolan wants nothing to do with the second apron.

And why I don’t blame him for it.

Good thing only billionaires can own teams now

The reality for thunder fans for the Aprons and that the era or dynasties is over but reality we’ve known that since the new CBA.

Ah Sports, where taxes work the way people think they work lol

I’d imagine the 12th and 17th picks are paid decently and should tack part of that back onto the tax.

A month ago all the Thunder fans called me wrong when I said they would have to cut salary. I was downvoted to hell for saying the owners weren’t gonna take a $300 million tax bill

the Thunder just got Mccain and another lottery pick guard

I think they’re fine lol

Two guys that didn’t get minutes in the playoffs. Good move. The Celtics were getting sucked off dry by the media for doing the same thing last year and they had to get rid of dudes that actually played. 

OR apparently you can just do what Baller and the Clippers did with Kawhi. Looks like there’s no penalty for that.

They never have a tax bill. Will they this year?

They were paying 20x tax?

“Predatory” lol this is a billion dollar team owned by billionaires

I wouldn’t say “predatory”. The billionaire owners are the ones who wanted this structure and bargained/voted it into law. 

I’m sure one of the motivators is “parity”. But two others are to stop other billionaires from using their billions to improve the team, and also to give themselves an out for not using their billions for improving the team. 

I think you need to clarify whether those numbers include the IHart, Dort and Kenrich TO’s (which I am presuming they do).

Because any calculations on the Thunder actually paying 250M in salary next year is disingenuous, because Presti set up those deals exactly so he wouldn’t have to do that.

Even with these 2 trades they are over the 2nd Apron, so unless they can get both Dort and Hart to resign at a significantly lower number, it would make financial sense for at least 2 of the 3 to be gone (with Hart staying).

OKC fans finally realizing what most teams have been battling for years. Yep welcome to the CBA.

the repeater tax snowball is no joke. \(189M in savings just from moving two ~\)10M guys… thats the kinda math that makes you understand why GMs make these moves even when fans hate it

People celebrating like its v-day when the thunder are getting assets back for players that couldn’t get playoff minutes.

Thunder paying for KDs decision 10 years later

I love the second apron

Just because you are aware of something, doesn’t mean other people aren’t. Luxury tax has been around forever people know what it is

So the apron rules are working?

predatory LOL

Pic just makes the right moves

Let’s pump the brakes on regarding these moves as the end of the OKC team. This was their 9th and 11th man on the roster who had fallen out of the rotation and barely played in the playoffs.

They’ve drafted guys who could reasonably replace them on rookie scale contracts. Presti has had years to plan for this inevitable roster crunch. He still hasn’t touched the championship core rotation. Until guys like Dort and Hartenstein get moved, then we can start discussing the overly punitive nature of the CBA.

Why are we trying to act like billionaires can’t pay those taxes? Are you guys super pumped that the rich owners are staying rich is that it?

Like mention the draft repercussions, I get that but why is the focus on saving billionaires money? Who cares.

The crazy part about this is OKC has never paid the luxury tax in recent years, if they had this would have been closer to a 350-400 M bill

This is why the NBA won’t have anybody threepeating. Just back2back is hard since the W’s peak. That’s a long time and the best opportunity was the Thunder with all the picks they acquired prior to the new CBA in combo with having an astute talent evaluation team.

Even they can’t do it. Spurs won’t make it unless they find a suitor for Fox that doesn’t require multiple #1’s as sweeteners.

Are owners just chillin waiting to see what happens with the aspiration investigation? I’d imagine the luxury tax becomes way easier to avoid if nothing comes of that. Lot of team friendly deals should start popping up with some nice endorsement contracts.

The real failure of the current cap system is we spend all our time talking about it, instead of actual team building and players

During literally year ONE of (almost) any team becoming good, people are already discussing ‘cap flexibility’ and gutting every player that isn’t a superstar to maintain ‘flexibility’.. Every contract is so short now you blink and it’s expiring next year

If you have a good team you should be able to make a run as long as those players are good… Period

Aww I liked little Isaiah Joe. Good shooter and seemed to have some breakout moments during the regular season

This shit sucks. Why do we like punishing teams for developing good players?

All good, hope to see both of them kill it on their new teams. Hope Bennett can grab some major minutes this season

Don’t give Dolan a blueprint plz