For shits and giggles, I tried to think of major trades that would theoretically fit the Thunder’s roster and timeline, and which the other teams might realistically consider, especially if their seasons start poorly or a star gets injured. MIA and GSW are in cap hell, BRK is stuck in mediocrity, Embiid could demand a trade, etc. All of these trades work from a salary perspective.
If you map out the OKC cap situation down the road, it gets really tough to pay everyone once Giddey, Jdub, Chet, and Dieng reach their extensions (and then Shai super-maxes the year after), so the most obvious move would be to accelerate the timeline by trading one of these pre-extension younger players for a better, older player making more money in the present. I put Giddey in most of these trades rather than JDub or Chet because I think he has the poorest fit with the core.
Also, because OKC is going to be strained just paying the players it has already drafted (Sam drafted TOO well), trading a lot of the future picks for a player who can contribute well before the 2027 cap crunch seems inevitable.
On the upside…just imagine this team with someone like Bam or Bridges!
Thank you for bringing numbers into the discussion! And 27-28 is perfect because that is the crunch year when Shai will extend. I assume he will get the supermax, which means his salary will be ~35% of the cap. I also assume that Jdub will get the rookie max, so that will be ~25% of the cap, meaning those two will take up 60% of the cap.
Then how much do you give Chet, Giddey, and Dieng? That depends on how good you think they are, but last week Devin Vassell and Jaden McDaniels each signed five year deals for ~15% of the cap. I’m sure most people on this sub think Chet and Giddey are better than those two, but lets just say Chet and Giddey both sign for the same 15%. Now you’ve got 90% of the cap allocated to 4 players. And unfortunately for the Thunder those deals will be signed after the majority of the new TV deal money has been accounted for in the cap, so its less likely those deals will become cheap as they age in the way Shai’s contract has.
Then you still have to find extension money for Dieng (currently 3.5% of the cap), Cason (~4%), JWill (1.5%), Isaiah Joe (1.5%), Wiggins (1.5%), etc. Then you presumably fill the rest of the roster with minumums.
What do you see differently?