2. Declined Isaiah Joe's team option
Declined Isaiah Joe's 2024-25 team option, re-signed him to four-year, $48 million contract
Sometimes you work hard to trade for a talented player or grind through hours of draft prep work to identify a value. Sometimes, however, a good player simply falls into your lap.
The Philadelphia 76ers needed to cut a player ahead of the 2022-23 season, and they elected to keep the more highly-drafted Jaden Springer and cut a young marksman named Isaiah Joe.
The Thunder proceeded to claim Joe off of waivers, likely ahead of a number of other teams, and in so doing landed a rotation player.
In two years with the Thunder Joe has shot 41.2 percent from 3-point range on a whopping 747 attempts, a robust volume given that he has played just 18.8 minutes per game. He's lethal running off of screens or relocating off of rebounds, and the Thunder are creative in putting him in ideal places to succeed.
Joe has been on a steal of a contract the past few seasons, and the Thunder could have paid him around $2 million this season. Instead, they declined his team option to make him a restricted free agent. In doing so, they could keep his minimum cap hold on the books, use cap space to sign other players, and then return to Joe and sign him to whatever deal they wanted to.
In doing so, the Thunder agreed to pay Joe more for this season, using that raise this year to then get Joe on an incredibly team-friendly deal for the next few seasons. In total, Joe will make an extra $10 million this season as he begins a four-year, $48 million deal that pays him less than the Mid-Level Exception in each year.
The opportunity cost for the Thunder was microscopic, as it didn't cost them cap room this year and they could fill in his salary using the room between the cap and the luxury tax. It was the kind of savvy business a team like the Thunder is known for, and it will keep a valuable contributor around on a discount as the rest of the team increases in price.
Grade: A