The Oklahoma City Thunder held their annual exit interviews as the entire Thunder media was assembled to talk with almost every player on the roster following the 2021-22 NBA Regular Season. Lu Dort gave the media one of the best quotes of the day, and OKC Thunder fans wasted no time running with it. While Sam Presti and Luguentz Dort both fielded questions about the upcoming offseason as Dort becomes contract extension eligible.
Lu Dort’s path to get here, at the end of the 2021-22 NBA season, is an unlikely one. After going undrafted in 2019, despite at one point in the draft process being considered a first-round pick, Dort grinded through the NBA G-League to become a defensive star for the scrappy 2019-20 OKC Thunder squad that was on pace for home-court advantage in the Western Conference. Dort immediately became an NBA icon, locking down elite stars, dropping 30 points in a game seven playoff game in the bubble, and prompting ESPN personality Zach Lowe to order a DORT Oklahoma license plate for his office.
Prior to the bubble, to make Dort eligible to play in the playoffs, the Oklahoma City Thunder had to convert their undrafted guard from a two-way deal to a standard NBA contract. That would go down as a bargain for Sam Presti as the Thunder still have Dort under team control for the 2022-23 NBA season for 1.9-million dollars.
Lu Dort is extension eligible this offseason, will Dort and the Oklahoma City Thunder come to a deal this offseason?
This offseason, Lu Dort becomes extension eligible and the Thunder can lock down their 23-year-old wing if they so choose. Dort’s answer, when asked about his contract, was simple and expected “I let my agent handle that” while Thunder General Manager Sam Presti said “We’ll definitely have a conversation on that, I do not know when those conversations will pick up. We will have some different options, I do not want to get into all of them.”
Those options range from a contract extension this offseason, to letting Dort enter a lame-duck year, risk him being an unrestricted free agent in 2023, and even *gulp* trading the Arizona State product.
While it is nearly impossible to get into the head of Thunder GM Sam Presti, it would not shock me to see the two sides not come to a deal by the time training camp rolls around. The organization seems to truly value its roster and cap flexibility in 2023 with no dead money on their cap sheet as of right now, and only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s max contract extension making a dent into the future with the rest of the roster on rookie deals by that time.