OKC Thunder guard Lu Dort inked a 5-year 87.5-million dollar extension

The Oklahoma City Thunder employ one of the best General Managers in the sport, Sam Presti remains not only great at his job, but secretive, creative, and calculated. So when Presti took the microphone last Saturday and told those of us in the media the OKC Thunder would be exercising Lu Dort’s team option, we all assumed Dort would play the season on a 1.9-million dollar expiring contract with the chance for an extension later.

Sam Presti once again zagged, this time against a quote he gave Saturday (though, he did have the out in saying something could change), and the Oklahoma City Thunder elected to decline Luguentz Dort’s team option ahead of free agency. This made Dort a restricted free agent as the 2022 NBA Free Agency period opened up on Thursday night.

The Oklahoma City Thunder and defensive guard Lu Dort ink a five-year contract extension

After a silent first wave of transactions, it was announced by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that the Oklahoma City Thunder and Lu Dort have reached a contract extension. The two sides inked a 5-year 87.5-million dollar pact for Dort to stick around in Oklahoma City.

Dort’s contract length now mirrors Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s deal in length, and Lu Dort earns a massive contract extension paying him out 17.5-million per year over the course of 5-years.

While the 87.5-million dollar number is flashy, everyone I talked to within the NBA pegged his range for 15-18 million, this falls in the proper range for an elite perimeter defender who is 23 years old and can organically improve offensively.

Let’s not forget what Dort is in his career, this is the same player who locked up prime James Harden in his prime in the postseason as a rookie. Being on a tanking team has not been conducive to Dort showing off his biggest skillset which is his halfcourt defense. Sure, he has shown flashes of frustrating NBA stars these last few years, but it is admittedly hard to lock in when the goal of the season is to lose.

With tanking taking a mental edge off his defense, it has also hurt his offensive numbers at times. Sure, his points per game leaped up to 17 this season, but he also had a career-high in turnovers and took a one percentage point dip from beyond the arc. So how does he get better organically?

When this roster is flushed out, not only will Dort be back to playing elite-level defense and funneling guys inside to Chet Holmgren who might be the defensive anchor of the future in Bricktown, but offensively he will be put in better spots to succeed.

Dort will no longer be asked to do a lot of playmaking and balling handling at the top of the key which should limit his threes to almost exclusive corner triples, which he shot 44 percent in the corner last year and 46 percent in the same spot the year prior. Plus, Dort has improved in the mid-range by ten percentage points nailing 42 percent of his mid-range jumpers last year. While the young guard still needs to improve at the rim, his offensive upside is there, especially coupled with his defensive ability.

While the Thunder hope to be competing for the majority of this contract, the deal never inflates so much that it becomes “untradable” this deal is perfect to make Lu Dort the centerpiece or sweetener in a trade if it eventually comes to that.

While this makes sense basketball-wise, and you can maybe add a couple million for the “best friend” tax to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and recoup some of the money lost by playing on a bargain bin contract after converting this two-way deal, let’s not lose sight of the personal side of this deal.

At one point in the draft cycle, Luguentz Dort was projected to be a first-round pick out of Arizona State. He ended up going undrafted and quickly became a priority undrafted free agent by Presti who signed him to a two-way deal.

Even as a rookie who could not practice with the NBA squad due to two-way deals at the time, Dort made his impact felt with such force that he became a mainstay in the rotation for then head coach Billy Donovan. Prior to the NBA Bubble as the Thunder prepared for the postseason, the team had to convert him into a standard NBA deal as he played on one of the most team-friendly deals in the league. Now? Lu Dort is paid handsomely and has long-term security. One of the hardest-working players in the league, and one of the kindest players I have had interactions with in the media.