How the OKC Thunder can get better this offseason

Stand pat and wait for the conference to open up

Likelihood Index: 9/10

It makes me really sad to say this but it’s probably what’s going to happen.

Fun Index: -10/10

It’s the least fun thing that can happen for a few reasons.

I’ve spent the last few days going through progressively crazier ideas about how to improve the OKC Thunder next season and if I’m being honest with you, I don’t know how much I believe any of them will come to pass. And it’s not just because some of them are extraordinarily difficult (though, that is at least partially why). The reason I don’t think any of this is going to happen is more about the fact that their flexibility going into this offseason is low. Like, really, really low.

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By now, you probably know about the projected bill for next season’s team is likely going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million which is high for anyone, much less a team that hasn’t made it out of the first round in three years. A lot of the contracts that make up their exorbitantly high bill (Adams, Russ, and Schroder in particular) are ones that, for one reason or another, are not going to be easily moveable without giving up real assets to sweeten the deal.

Away from the payroll, things don’t get much more malleable; due to certain regulations, they can’t trade any first round draft picks until at least 2026 and their one player with a theoretically tradeable contract, Andre Roberson, hasn’t played in basically two years.

The likelihood they’ll be able to move on from any of this is slim-to-none and the chance that they’ll be able to recoup even 75 percent of the value they give up is lower.

Look, this sounds like a bad situation, but it could end up being the best. The NBA seems like it’ll be as open as it possibly can next season and, despite how last year ended for OKC, they have a real shot at taking advantage. PG was an MVP candidate before a shoulder injury threw him off his game and with a teammate who could actually take on some of the scoring load, Russ actually started to transform his game.

What’s more, the young guys in whom they invested so many resources and so much time over the years grew into high-level starters and still have room to grow.