Thunder Remain Active During Offseason In Effort To Maximize Cap Space

“We’ll look at everything, but we’ve generally been pretty conservative in how we’ve approached that,” said Thunder GM Sam Presti at the end of last season when asked about free agency. “Space is an asset. How do you maximize that asset?”

Oklahoma City entered the summer with over $35 million in cap space, which was among the most of nearly every team in the NBA. While for most franchises this would provide an opportunity to sign a big name on the free agent market, the Thunder generally approaches cap space in a more creative way.

For starters, OKC hasn’t historically been a popular free agency destination given it’s a small market. Even then, Presti and the front office view cap space as an asset that needs to be maximized, with alternatives outside of straight up signing players often being more impactful.

Especially over the past few years as the Thunder has been rebuilding and maintaining a fairly cheap roster, the philosophy has been taking on unwanted contracts attached to an asset. From Al Horford, to Kemba Walker to Derrick Favors, Oklahoma City has brought in multiple large contracts and been compensated with draft capital for doing so.

Entering this offseason, it was unclear whether or not they’d do that again, as maintaining financial flexibility and potentially taking the next step towards longterm sustained success was top of mind. However, that’s been the exact plan for OKC to this point in the summer.

It started on the night of the 2023 NBA Draft, when the Thunder traded up two spots from No. 12 overall for taking on the contract of Davis Bertans. Whether he ends up being a reclamation project that’s flipped later or someone that’s ultimately bought out at some point, this essentially cut the Thunder’s cap space in half. This was worth it, given the team was able to move up to No. 10 overall and select Cason Wallace.

From there, Oklahoma City continued to be active during free agency, bringing on two more unwanted contracts in the first 48 hours of the signing window opening. As teams looked to open cap space and roster spots, the Thunder was able to take advantage.

It started with Victor Oladipo on Friday night. The former Thunder guard will be headed back to Oklahoma City along with two future second-round picks in a trade with the Miami Heat. The veteran guard is now 31 years old and due nearly $9.5 million next season on an expiring deal. He suffered a season-ending torn patellar tendon injury in April and it’s unclear if or when he’ll be able to take the floor at the NBA level again.

With just over $7 million remaining in cap space, the Thunder made one more move on Sunday afternoon, acquiring a 35-year-old sharpshooter in Patty Mills. It was originally reported that he was being shipped from the Brooklyn Nets to the Houston Rockets earlier in the week, but now Oklahoma City has joined in as part of a larger deal to take on his expiring $6.8 million along with draft compensation.

While the goal of the Thunder’s offseason and using its cap space has once again been to acquire more assets while taking on short-term money, there has also been more moves made along the way.

In terms of existing players, the team had to make decisions on whether or not they wanted to guarantee the money for both Lindy Waters III and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl in the upcoming season. On Friday night, Waters officially became a free agent as the Thunder opted to not guarantee his contract for the 2023-24 season. Then on Saturday night, the team let the deadline to remove the guarantee from Robinson-Earl’s deal pass, indicating his salary is on the books for OKC in the upcoming season, although he could be waived later. Outside of two-way players, the only other member of the Thunder from the end of last season that had the chance of no longer being on the team was unrestricted free agent Dario Saric, who seems likely to join the Golden State Warriors.

As it relates to the Thunder signing new incoming free agents, both Vasilije Micic and Jack White were signed to multi-year deals this week.

Micic is a 29-year-old proven point guard from Serbia who has been eying the jump to the NBA for years now. He signed a three-year, $23.5 million deal and is expected to be part of the rotation immediately in the upcoming season. Given the previously mentioned deals bringing on large contracts via trade, it’s assumed he was signed using the the Thunder’s room mid-level exception. An Australian forward, White earned a two-year deal of his own after spending last season on a two-way deal with the Denver Nuggets.

With several months remaining in the offseason, don’t be surprised if Presti isn’t done making moves. Furthermore, the Thunder’s roster is several players over the 15-man limit now, so cuts of some sort will have to happen before the end of training camp.