The OKC Thunder are in the middle of a roster crunch. Even after waiving Rudy Gay, the Thunder still have all 21 roster spots occupied and are forced to cut five standard contracts before the 2023-24 NBA season starts. This has left multiple front offices circling if you believe that.
The Oklahoma City Thunder entered the summer with top-five in the league cap space and have elected to use that space by taking on bad contracts in exchange for draft assets. Taking on Davis Bertans for the right to move up two spots in the draft, being paid to take on Patty Mills, Rudy Gay, TyTy Washington, Usman Garuba, and Victor Oladipo. The OKC Thunder also inked Jack White to a minor standard contract.
NBA Front Offices are ready to “jump” at eventual OKC Thunder roster cuts, according to NBA Insider.
According to Spotrac’s and Front Office Show’s Keith Smith, multiple NBA front offices have told him that the league is ready to “jump” at the eventual roster cuts from the OKC Thunder. Though, that does not make much sense, or at least does not fit the narrative that the national media wants it to.
I talked to two different teams this morning and both independently mentioned that they are monitoring the Thunder and what happens with the roster.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 19, 2023
One exec told me "Some good players are going to get cut from OKC and we all need to be ready to jump when that happens."
The OKC Thunder have brought in Davis Bertans, Rudy Gay (waived), Victor Oladipo, TyTy Washington, Usman Garuba, Jack White, Vasilije Micic, Cason Wallace, and Keyontae Johnson (two-way contract). Of those nine additions, the Thunder were paid to take on five of them. A sixth, Jack White, is hardly owed any money and was a free agent for any team to already “jump at.” Vasilije Micic, Cason Wallace, and Keyontae Johnson have already firmly locked up a roster spot.
So as you look around this roster crunch, it is hard to find who these NBA front offices are itching to jump at once they are made available for the second or third time this offseason. You could throw on the two returners on the hot seat, Tre Mann and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, who have a case for breaking out as rotational pieces with a different team should OKC move on from them this season.
However, if the Thunder move on from a former second-round pick and, to this point, a disappointing middle-of-the-first-rounder, that is not some grand indictment on the rebuild. The whole point is to acquire good players and be forced into tough decisions. The embarrassment of draft assets means the potential of missing on Tre Mann, the 18th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, does not hamper the team’s future. It does not even cause a wave.