Z Thunder Faced with an extremely expensive roster next season, rival executives are watching closely to see who might become available ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. He claims Oklahoma City currently has a projected payroll of about $250 million with a luxury tax of about $200 million, but that doesn’t account for three potential first-round picks in the 2027 draft. OKC has picks from the Clippers, Nuggets (top five protected) and Spurs (lottery protected) which will add to the salary cap.
The Thunder hold a $7.8 million team option next summer Jaylin Williams and by November 2, decisions must be made on whether to guarantee the payment of salaries Nikola Tema ($7.5 million) and Thomas Sorber ($5.1 million). Windhorst points out that they don’t have the roster space to keep all three players and use all three draft picks, noting that keeping Topik and Sorber would add more than $60 million to the tax bill. He notes that the total projected payroll, including wages and tax penalties, could reach $500 million after the bill passes.
“They’re not going to pay that much, so it all depends on who and how they cut some of that.” – says the head of another team to Windhorst. “(CEO) Sam (Presty) I’m sure I’ll study it for a long time and develop two or three routes and look for the cleanest option over the next year.”
More on Thunder:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander His streak of 141 consecutive games with at least 20 points ended Thursday night, and he decided not to try to extend it, according to Justin Martinez of Oklahoman. Giljus-Alexander had 17 points when Denver called a timeout with 1:24 left, but when he saw the Nuggets remove their starters, he too returned to the bench. “I was going to go out there,” he said. “But then I saw that (Denver) went to the bench, so I thought, ‘I probably should go to the bench, too.’ I feel like you always have to treat the game with respect.”
- ESPN’s Tim McMahon looks at how Presti helped Gilgeous-Alexander become a two-time MVP. Presti emphasized patience for SGA as he dealt with plantar fasciitis after being acquired in a trade with the Clippers. “I just believed with all my heart and trusted as much as I did the man Sam.” – said Giljus-Alexander. “That’s another thing in this business you just can’t control is who runs your organization. I’m lucky to have a guy like Sam. It’s been amazing. It feels like a partnership. I don’t work for him. He doesn’t work for me. We’re in this together.”
- Nuggets a star Nikola Jokic shares his thoughts on Topic, his Serbian teammate, in an an interview on the Oklahoman website.