Breaking Down the Enes Kanter Signing
By David Ramil
The Financial Impact
Re-signing Kanter has short-term impacts both on- and off-the court. Let’s look at the “off” side of the move first.
The Thunder currently have committed $ 97,897,877 with their current roster, which stands at 15. Other moves are expected to be made, presumably to lower this number somewhat; that includes trading any or all of D.J. Augustin, Perry Jones or Steve Novak. Until (or if) those moves are made, we’ll proceed with how the team is currently constructed.
As ESPN’s Royce Young writes, here are the financial impacts:
"– The Thunder are currently $27,897,877 over the salary cap."
"– The Thunder are currently $13,157,877 over the luxury tax threshold."
"– If nothing else changes, the Thunder would have a luxury tax payment of $24,144,691 at the end of next season. And remember, that’s in addition to paying out almost $98 million in salary. So, the Thunder owners would be on the hook for $122,042,568 total. That’s, like, alot."
"– If the Thunder tradeSteve Novak and Perry Jones (I expect them to), that will trim $5,788,207 in salary which would then reduce their cap number to $92,109,670. That means they would be $7,349,670 over the tax threshold so they would get out of the third tax tier altogether, and their tax payment would be $11,611,922. That’s $12,532,769 in tax savings. You don’t want Perry Jones and Steve Novak costing you a combined $18,320,976 next season."
It’s a cold assessment of things but absolutely correct. Jones and Novak aren’t playing much (if at all) and have little future in OKC. Augustin was solid as Russell Westbrook’s backup and his connection to Kevin Durant (as a fellow Texas Longhorn) can’t be overstated. Still, drafting Cameron Payne makes him somewhat expendable.
Trading these players in order to save money could potentially damage the team’s chemistry. Or it could show Durant and Co. that the team means business and doesn’t want to carry any potential dead weight on the roster.
But if signing a player capable of producing like Kanter can means forcing your hand to make some potentially unpopular roster moves, it’s still worth it.
Next: Can You Have Too Much Depth?