Transparency Into Future And Additional Insight From OKC Thunder End-Of-Season Interviews

Now that the 2021-22 NBA regular season has come to a close, the Oklahoma City Thunder have officially entered the offseason. As teams always do at the end of the season, members of the coaching staff and players conduct interviews with the media to wrap things up before heading out.

On Tuesday, the Thunder held media sessions that gave insight into the future of the franchise and what is to come over the next several months. With head coach Mark Daigneault along with nearly the entire roster answering questions about the previous season and the future, there were several common themes that surfaced. We also got the answers to a few lingering questions.

Transparency Into The Plan

After signing a max contract extension last summer, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander officially became the face of the franchise. However, the Thunder needed to make sure he stayed happy during the rebuilding years, as wins would be hard to come by.

The best way of doing this is to be fully transparent with the franchise cornerstone and ensure that he’s bought into the longterm vision. For a small market team like the Thunder, it’s all about building through the draft, which takes time.

On Tuesday during end-of-season interviews, Gilgeous-Alexander opened up about the transparency between himself, the front office and the coaching staff.

“We talk all the time,” said Gilgeous-Alexander. “Every time we talk I get more excited. It says a lot about being able to trust in this business. Sam [Presti], myself and Mark [Daigneault] have that trust in each other. I can’t go into details, but I’m excited for the future.”

Not only is the team being intentional with their superstar about keeping him in the loop on future plans, but those plans make him excited. Gilgeous-Alexander even said on Tuesday that knowing the plan for the future of the franchise makes it very easy to be patient with the rebuild.

“Every night you lose, it’s tough,” said the Kentucky product. “But you know it’s moving in the right direction, so it makes it easier. It goes back to my trust in Sam [Presti].”

While from an outsider’s perspective, it’s easy to assume that being a rising star on a losing team can be frustrating, Gilgeous-Alexander is fully bought in. To this point, he’s not unhappy with the direction of the franchise in Oklahoma City or the current circumstances.

“I’m a pretty easygoing guy. But I’m human,” he said. “If there’s something I don’t like, you’ll see it. That’s not this situation.”

Thunder forward Darius Bazley echoed this sentiment on Tuesday, saying the front office funnels down their longterm vision to the team.

“As a whole everyone understands our goals here,” said Bazley. “There’s been a lot of clarity. I think we’re building something really special here.”

As long as the players are bought into the plan, that’s all that matters for a rebuilding team. As the Thunder continue to acquire talent and develop their current prospects, the future continues to look bright.

Derrick Favors Will Exercise Player Option

The highest paid active player on the Oklahoma City roster this season was veteran Derrick Favors. After being acquired last offseason, he was set to make roughly $19.9 million over two seasons with the Thunder.

Entering the 2022-23 season, Favors has a player option worth around $10.2 million. While he likely wouldn’t make more than that declining the option and becoming an unrestricted free agent in the offseason, it still wasn’t clear what his plans were.

Would he want to exercise that option and come back to the Thunder next season, or hit free agency? On Tuesday, Favors provided clarity when asked about that option.

“I expect to be back here next year. I’ll probably pick it up,” said Favors.

There’s always the possibility that he exercises his option and is traded away or bought out this summer or next season, but for now it appears Favors will be on the Oklahoma City payroll for the 2022-23 season.

Darius Bazley’s Defensive Potential

Over the past two seasons, Bazley has asked for tougher defensive assignments. During that time, he’s improved tremendously as a defender, standing at 6-foot-9 with the ability to guard nearly any position.

In fact, he finished the season with more blocks (70) than fouls (68), which is an extremely rare accomplishment for any player in the NBA.

“I think progress was made. Just being able to get experience under my belt. I’m looking forward to getting more experience next year,” said Bazley during his end of season interview.

The 21-year-old forward has caught the attention of his teammates, who view him as one of the fastest rising defenders in the league.

“Defensively, I think he has the chance to be one of the best in the league. He can guard basically every position,” said Kenrich Williams on Tuesday.

Bazley’s teammate Lu Dort is already known as one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, but also had high praise for the former first-round pick.

“Toughness,” Dort used to describe Bazley’s defensive style. “Baze is capable of guarding a lot of positions. Just the fact that he can move so well with his height. He did a great job at that this year.”

If Bazley is going to have a role on this Thunder team into the future as they look to build a championship roster, he’ll be most useful as a defensive stopper that has the versatility to defend both guards and bigs.

Lu Dort Still 2-3 Months From Recovering

Dort had his career-best season cut short following a torn labrum that required surgery. He finished the season posting averages of 17.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 33.2% from beyond the arc.

What we found out on Tuesday was that he is still a few months away from being fully healthy.

“It’s healing, getting better,” said Dort. “I’m still on top of my rehab. I’ve still got about 2-3 months just to be back at 100%. I can start doing a bit of shooting. I want to take my time with that, to be ready for next season.”

What’s most impressive about the 22-year-old’s season is that he played through a ton of shoulder pain before realizing how severe his injury was.

“I didn’t know coming into the season,” said the undrafted guard. “I had it but I didn’t really feel it. I thought it was just shoulder pain, I didn’t think it was that serious.”

It got to a point where Dort had to make a decision on when he wanted to have surgery. After talking to the medical staff, a mutual decision was made that he would be better off getting the season-ending surgery done so that he could be ready to play by the start of next season.

“It’s something that happened over time. It’s been there for a little bit,” said Dort in his end-of-season interview. “We discovered it and it was a torn labrum. I felt like it was better for the me to do the surgery now and be ready for the offseason.”

Players Earning Additional Payday

Oklahoma City ended the season below the salary floor. With a young roster filled with players that are still on cheap deals, the payroll was low for this Thunder team.

As such, the plan is to pay out bonuses to the individual players on the team to reach that minimum threshold. While this doesn’t happen often, the guys on the team were excited for that opportunity.

“It’s just great that the organization is doing that for us,” said Dort on Tuesday. “We leave it all on the floor. We’ve worked hard all year and it’s something we’ve gotta thank our organization just for doing that for all of us players.”

Especially for a roster in which nobody made more than $10 million this season, this bonus is significant relative to their annual salaries.

“We’re excited and grateful for that,” said Williams. “I think that’s all I can say about that.”