If this offseason taught us anything, it's that Sam Presti desperately wants to keep the majority of this title-winning OKC Thunder roster intact for the long-haul.
He made this abundantly clear by shelling out over $800 million in new standard contracts mere weeks after Oklahoma City took home its first Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Of course, with that being said, over the past few months, this front office has shown a willingness to trim the fat, so to speak, with a prime example being the trade that shipped one of their two first-round picks from last year, Dillon Jones, to the Washington Wizards back in late June.
Now, as we head into October and, in turn, inch closer to tip-off of the 2025-26 regular season, the case to make a similar move involving Ousmane Dieng is seemingly growing more enticing by the day.
OKC Thunder must admit defeat on forward Ousmane Dieng
Every year since he was selected 11 overall back in the 2022 NBA Draft, Dieng has steadily regressed in virtually every meaningful statistic and on-court metric.
2024-25 proved to be his worst season yet with the Thunder, as he posted career lows in points (3.8) and minutes (10.9) per game while shooting just 32.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Whether it's been due to injuries or simply because coach Mark Daigneault hasn't felt comfortable utilizing him within the lineup, throughout his three-year stint in the Sooner State Dieng has been held to just 109 out of a potential total of 246 games, seeing double-digit minutes played in just 58 of them.
What makes his stunted development in the association even more of a nussance for the Thunder is the fact that his virtually unuseable presence on the roster is holding the front office back from adding on a replacement option for Thomas Sorber following his recent ACL tear.
With the injury, OKC will presumably apply for the league's Disabled Player Exception, which, if accepted, will give the ball club a value of either half of the rookie's 2025-26 salary (roughly $2.3 million) or the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, which can then be used to sign another player.
The one issue with this, however, is that while the exception would create cap space, it wouldn't open up a roster spot, meaning that Presti and co. are going to have to find a way to move on from one of their current players simply just to utilize this luxury.
On the surace, Dieng should be the obvious choice when it comes to expendable players within coach Daigneault's arsenal.
That said, considering his lackluster play throughout his three seasons in the league, the 22-year-old's value is as close to rock bottom as it can get, meaning that, if he were to be traded, it would either have to be via a no-gain salary dump or with outbound draft capital attached.
What once looked like a high-upside swing on draft night has now clearly turned into an all-out failure. At some point between now and February's trade deadline, the Thunder must strongly consider looking for a way to officially wipe the slate clean of Ousmane Dieng, especially if the league approves them for the DPE.