OKC Thunder in the news to start the week dives into legendary rim rockers and examines the status of rosters and salaries around the association.
Top 50 dunks in OKC Thunder history:
In their decade of existence the OKC Thunder could easily be the template for new franchises to emulate. Rarely does a new sports franchise achieve as much success right out of the gate as the Thunder.
Notably the team has playoff appearances in eight of their ten seasons. OKC has appeared in Christmas games in nine of their ten seasons and are set to play again this holiday. Furthermore, for a small market OKC has garnered more than their fair share of Nationally televised games.
Credit General Manager Sam Presti for drafting MVP (quite literally) caliber players. Examining the prototypical OKC Thunder player the common denominators are long and athletic. Those characteristics lend themselves to players who excel defensively and are adept at dunking.
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Because of this, over the past decade the OKC Thunder have more than their fair share of jaw dropping dunks. Therefore, when Noah Schulte dove in to find the top 50 dunks in OKC Thunder history he ended up sifting through hours and hours and games in the film room.
The final result is a delightful mix of former and current OKC Thunder players rocking the rim with jaw dropping flushes. TI invites you to view the finished product and to let us know in the comments section if there are dunks you think should make the next list.
"But like most dunks, it’s largely due to sheer luck. You can’t predict when someone like Dion Waiters or even Andre Roberson is going to have an incredible dunk. It’s random. That’s what makes dunks–and this list–so fun. You can never tell when they’re going to happen or really who’s going to have a big one.Without further ado, here are the top 50 dunks in OKC Thunder history."
Update on rosters around NBA:
As is typical of this time of year of the OKC training camp signing of Donte Grantham teams’ roster aren’t near completion. Keith Smith posted a series of tweets which offered insight on where each team stands at this point of the offseason.
Each squad can bring up to 20 players to training camp. It seems the smart decision would be to use all those available spots to help push internal competition and to fill up G-League rosters.
Here’s the update as per the numbers master Keith Smith:
Teams with open 2-way contracts:
Current open Two-Way spots:
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 25, 2018
BKN - 2
TOR - 1
CHI - 1
CHA - 1
HOU - 2
NOP - 1
SAS - 2
POR - 2
GSW - 1
PHX - 1
SAC - 1
Open Offseason spots:
Note the ‘offseason’ portion of this reference because teams can have 18 players and two 2-way contract players on the offseason roster.
Current open offseason NBA roster spots:
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 25, 2018
BOS - 3
BKN - 2
NYK - 1
PHI - 2
TOR - 4
CHI - 2
CLE - 4
DET - 1
IND - 3
MIL - 0
ATL - 3
CHA - 1
MIA - 2
ORL - 2
WAS - 3
DAL - 0
HOU - 3
MEM - 1
NOP - 1
SAS - 6
DEN - 2
MIN - 5
OKC - 3
POR - 5
UTA - 1
GSW - 3
LAC - 2
LAL - 0
PHX - 2
SAC - 2
Fully guaranteed contracts by team:
Current fully guaranteed contracts per team (regular season max = 15):
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 25, 2018
BOS-15
BKN-15
NYK-14
PHI-14
TOR-13
CHI-14
CLE-12
DET-15
IND-14
MIL-14
ATL-14
CHA-14
MIA-12
ORL-14
WAS-14
DAL-15
HOU-11
MEM-15
NOP-12
SAS-14
DEN-15
MIN-12
OKC-15
POR-15
UTA-14
GSW-13
LAC-15
LAL-15
PHX-14
SAC-16
Teams with available cap space and teams over luxury tax line:
As per Smith’s note this year is a bit of a misnomer with all 30 teams are above the salary floor. Furthermore, eight teams are already over the luxury tax line (including the OKC Thunder). It’s a reasonable assumption a few of these eight will try to make moves in order to get under that line. They’ll have until the end of the season as teams final numbers aren’t counted until the very end of the season.
Teams that are currently over the luxury tax line:
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 25, 2018
BOS - $3.8M over
GSW - $21.6M over
HOU - $12.6M over
MIA - $3.2M over
OKC - $26.0M over
POR - $7.9M over
TOR - $18.3M over
WAS - $11.3M over
Five squads with no shot at 2019 cap space:
One category the OKC Thunder are not happy to be in is the five teams who have no shot at cap space in 2019. Coincidentally, the 2019 offseason is expected to be a free for all with so many top talents hitting the open market.
Without trading away some guaranteed money 5 NBA teams have no shot at cap space in 2019:
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 25, 2018
DET - $81,383 over
HOU - $33.3M over
OKC - $29.8M over
POR - $14.0M over
WAS - $8.4M over
Please give Keith Smith a follow on twitter as he is among the best follows particularly when it comes to salary, luxury tax and contract information. Whenever I have contract or salary questions he’s my go to person.
Kick start your week with dancing Russ:
https://twitter.com/The_Barftender/status/1033793125477543936
If you don’t follow Russell Westbrook on twitter or instagram you’re missing out on some entertaining social media posts. Much like the master of the hardwood delights Thunder Nation with his dunks, he does the same on social media. It is common to find russwest44 tweets or instagram posts of the Brodie singing. His recent instagram post is of him dancing and just like everything else he undertakes he’s as smooth on the dancer floor as he is on the hardwood.
That wraps up In the news to start the last week of August which reminds that training camp is only a few weeks away. Enjoy your day and make sure to visit Thunderous Intentions daily for all things OKC Thunder.