Friday night, the OKC Thunder made headlines with their decision to shelve a whopping 10 total players for their matchup against the Denver Nuggets. Key absentees included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and Ajay Mitchell.
Now, heading into Sunday's regular season finale against the Phoenix Suns, they once again are set to sideline 10 players, including four of their five regular starters.
Interestingly enough, however, in this particular instance, they are far from the only team opting to rest a significant portion of their core, as 17 of the 30 teams playing on the day have officially listed seven or more players as "out."
In fact, when taking into account the total number of players that will be riding the pine on the final day of the regular season, Tim Reyonlds of The Associated Press calculates that the combined salary on the year for those who have already been ruled out totals to north of $2.5 billion.
The Thunder, specifically, find themselves contributing $139,535,737 to this total on their own.
Thunder actually have an excuse when it comes to resting players
Despite what one's stance is on the league's highly controversial load management discussion, if there were a team that deserves a pass when it comes to resting up their core group of players during Sunday's season finale, it's the Thunder.
Here in 2025-26, Oklahoma City has ranked near the top of the league when it comes to games lost due to injury. Four members of their primary rotation are set to have missed 20 or more games this season, most notably their All-NBA forward Jalen Williams, who has played in just 33 as a result of offseason wrist surgery and a nagging hamstring strain.
Despite the widespread chomps from the injury bug, the Thunder have still managed to find a way to dominate the rest of the league, as they are en route toward finishing with the NBA's best record for the third consecutive season.
Nevertheless, with the playoffs set to kick off in less than a week, this bruised and battered ball club can only benefit from getting the most rest possible between now and the start of the quarterfinals.
Considering they're on a mission to become the first back-to-back NBA Champion since the Warriors back in 2018, the Thunder should be looking to do everything in their power to carry their momentum into the playoffs with a full-strength rotation finally on their side.