Offseason Report Card: Thunder get three As, three Bs and two Cs for summer moves

To whom much is given, much is required.

The phrase originally uttered by Jesus Christ wasn't discussing basketball teams, but it certainly rings true for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Sam Presti and the Thunder front office have amassed an incredible warchest of draft picks and simultaneously built a young team that won the most games in the Western Conference last season.

They entered this summer with a lot of ammo, therefore, with massive cap space on top of a deep roster and a bounty of draft picks. That increased the expectations on the Thunder; how would they continue to improve on a team that is already dominant, but only made it to the second round of the NBA playoffs?

How did the Thunder do this offseason?

The Thunder could have opted for a massive swing this summer, trading for a superstar like Kevin Durant or clearing the necessary cap space to make a run at Paul George in free agency. They didn't do that, but they also didn't merely rest on their laurels as they did last season.

The Thunder seem to recognize that they are a true title contender -- the time for taking on bad money in trades or selling players for picks is over -- but they also seem committed to their current core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren as the foundation for future success.

Their work this summer was improving the rotation around those stars, not chasing a veteran star.

How should the Thunder be graded for their offseason activity? Let's go through each significant move and give individual grades, then look at their offseason as a whole to give a final grade.

Here is the Thunder offseason report card, ranked from best to worst.

That means we start with an absolute coup of a trade.

1. Traded for Alex Caruso

Traded Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso

Josh Giddey is an extremely talented young player, and it's hard to give up on extremely talented young players. He is a genius-level passer and crafty finisher at the rim, and the Thunder selected him eighth overall just three years ago. Teams want to continue developing players they draft, especially when they show as much promise as Giddey.

The problem is that Giddey needs the ball in his hands to be effective, and the Thunder simply have better options to handle the rock. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a legitimate MVP candidate last season, and Jalen Williams has proven to be a capable second option.

The Thunder manufactured minutes for Giddey to run the offense, but in the playoffs, he was squeezed out first from the starting lineup, then the primary rotation, as the need for a floor-raising on-ball player decreased.

Oklahoma City trading Giddey this summer is not a surprise given their title aspirations for next year, nor is the type of player that they targeted in a trade. If Giddey is the type of player who struggles to scale into a smaller role with more talented teammates, Alex Caruso is 100 percent the opposite.

His defense, secondary playmaking, and improved long-range shooting make him the perfect player to plug into any lineup.

The surprise was that the Chicago Bulls did not demand any draft capital coming back with Josh Giddey in exchange for Caruso.

The seventh-year guard was a second-team All-Defense player last season while shooting 40.8 percent from distance on a healthy volume. He's the ultimate 3-and-D guard and was coveted by a plethora of contenders.

For the Thunder to trade a distressed prospect due for a pay raise for Caruso is highway robbery.

Giving out an "A+" is a rare occurrence, but it was tempting to award the Thunder with one here. The reason they don't is that OKC is amassing a deep stable of guards and is comparatively thin on the forward line. Caruso is an excellent fit, but the Thunder downsized from the 6-foot-8 Giddey to the 6-foot-5 Caruso.

Head coach Mark Daigneault now has to fit SGA, Caruso, Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, and Isaiah Joe into a rotation.

It's a minor quibble to be sure: this was a home run move for the Thunder and makes them incredibly dangerous heading into next season.

Grade: A

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

3. Signed Isaiah Hartenstein

Signed center Isaiah Hartenstein to a three-year, $87 million contract with a third-year team option.

The Oklahoma City Thunder identified a clear need after last season: size and rebounding. Chet Holmgren was one of the league's best rim protectors as a rookie, and his shooting from the center position opened up the Thunder's offense, but when Holmgren was off the court or against certain matchups the team didn't have a way to change up their approach.

Enter Isaiah Hartenstein, the best free agent center on the market, who signed a three-year, $87 million contract with the Thunder. Oklahoma City trumped the best offer the Knicks could offer by a significant amount, and in so doing they used their ample cap space this year to add an impact player at a position of need.

It's not clear whether Hartenstein will start (moving Holmgren to the four) or come off the bench, but he will likely play significant minutes both with and without Holmgren. He is not a floor-spacer like Jaylin Williams, Holmgren's primary backup last season, but he is an extremely skilled offensive player with his passing, screening, finishing, and rebounding.

What's more, his rim protection is top-tier as well, and the combination of Holmgren and Hartenstein will be extremely formidable next season. It also ensures that the Thunder will have such a player on the floor at all times, instead of cobbling together an opportunistic defense forcing turnovers and taking charges.

Hartenstein brings the Thunder size and versatility in building lineups, and they can better match up with the larger teams contending in the West. The question now is whether the Thunder will lose some of the impact of their five-out offense by playing a more traditional big man.

Could they have better improved the team with their cap space than spending it on a center? Perhaps, but Hartenstein is a really good player and will help the Thunder in multiple ways.

Overall, it's a great move.

Grade: A-

4. Signed a new deal for Aaron Wiggins

Declined Aaron Wiggins' 2024-25 team option, re-signed him to a five-year, $45 million contract.

A move so nice, they did it twice.

In addition to declining Isaiah Joe's tiny team option and signing him to a new, front-loaded extension, the Thunder did the same exact move with Aaron Wiggins. The difference is that Wiggins was a draft pick of the Thunder, who took him 55th in 2021 and have developed him into a legitimate rotation player on a winning team.

The 6-foot-6 Wiggins -- no relation to Andrew -- is not particularly skilled in any one area but does just about everything well.

He is a career 39.2 percent three-point shooter, is a good defender, and his athleticism translates well as a cutter finishing at the rim and when he can get out in transition. He is not adding much value to a winning team as an on-ball creator, but he is not dead-to-rights if he needs to attack a closeout.

That's the kind of two-way wing a good team wants to have around, and the Thunder locked him in for the next five seasons. His deal begins at $10.5 million this season and decreases until he will make just $7.9 million in the final year of the contract, a paltry 3.88 percent of the projected 2028-29 salary cap.

Wiggins doesn't boast the upside to become a much better player, and it may be that he isn't worthy of a rotation spot in a couple of years as the rest of the Thunder roster improves. Yet this deal is small enough that it should be very tradeable, and at worst he can simply exist on the roster as a deep reserve.

Grade: B+

5. Drafted Nikola Topic

Drafted Serbian point guard Nikola Topic with the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft

How should contending teams use their first-round draft picks?

It's a question that teams have answered differently for years, and there is no obvious right or wrong answer. Trading picks for veteran help or consolidating for another star has helped a number of good teams reach the inner circle. Using the pick on older, more "NBA-ready" players is another strategy, one that occasionally works but more often leads to reaching for a less talented prospect.

The third path is to ignore the team timeline and simply draft the best player available. The thought process is that the best player is the most valuable asset, either to grow into a top-line contributor down the road or to include in a trade. The Thunder took that path to the extreme this year when they drafted Serbian point guard Nikola Topic with the No. 12 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Topic is not simply a young player who plays a position the Thunder are deep at, he underwent surgery for a partially torn ACL and will miss the entire 2024-25 season. Oklahoma City is a reasonable championship pick for this season and will be favored to win the West, and they will receive absolutely nothing from their lottery pick this year.

Why that is a move we are grading relatively highly is that Topic was in the mix for the No. 1 pick before this past injury-hampered season, and on tape -- especially his healthy tape -- he looks like that level of player, an on-ball shot creator and playmaker who could help a lot of teams.

How will that development play out on a contending team with an MVP candidate at the same position? It's not the cleanest of picks, but if Topic becomes an obvious future star he will be extremely valuable on the trade market.

Grade: B

6. Drafted Ajay Mitchell

Drafted UC Santa Barbara guard Ajay Mitchell with the No. 38 pick

The Indiana Pacers just agreed to a contract extension with Andrew Nembhard, a long, versatile guard who can defend multiple positions, run the offense, and excel on or off the ball depending on the lineup.

It's possible that the Thunder just found their version of Nembhard in UC Santa Barbara guard Ajay Mitchell.

Mitchell has excellent touch no matter where he is shooting from; he shot 39.3 percent from deep, has a smooth floater, and is a crafty finisher. He is not an elite ball-handler, so he is better cast alongside a primary option, but he has the size at 6-foot-3 to survive off-ball defensively and has a high motor on that end of the court.

The Thunder didn't get a future superstar in Mitchell, but it looks like they may have scored another rotation player. Mitchell was great right off the bat in Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 18 points and four assists in two games, hitting 50 percent on three-pointers and 100 percent of his free throws.

The value in drafting Mitchell seems solid, but the need is a major question mark. The Thunder are positively flush with guards, from Alex Caruso to Cason Wallace to Isaiah Joe, and that doesn't even count the two guards they drafted in the first round.

It's hard to see Mitchell as a need of any kind, and the logjam on the roster combined with their championship aspirations will be a major barrier to playing time.

Can he ball out in the G League for a season and then start working his way in next year? Sure, but most of the Thunder's guards don't appear to be going anywhere. This pick looks much better if they take someone else at 26, but paired with the Dillon Jones selection it becomes a weird decision to make. Can this team add a forward somewhere?

Grade: B-

7. Traded Lindy Waters III

Traded guard Lindy Waters III to the Golden State Warriors for the No. 52 pick

The Oklahoma City Thunder picked up Lindy Waters III three years ago, and at times he has moved back and forth frequently between the Thunder and their G League affiliate, the OKC Blue.

In 104 career NBA games, he has averaged just 12.3 minutes per game, but his per-minute numbers are strong. With the Blue last season he averaged 21.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and knocked down 43.5 percent of his 8.5 attempts per game.

He has proven himself an NBA-quality player.

The path to playing time on the Thunder, however, was extremely limited, and their cap situation didn't benefit much from his low salary. That's what prompted the Golden State Warriors to trade a late second-round pick for Waters, as his low salary helps their cap situation and he could potentially play some minutes this season.

The return, the 52nd pick, was flipped elsewhere by the Thunder, but it represented a very small return for a real NBA player. This deal was fine, but didn't represent any real value to the Thunder.

Grade: C+

8. Drafted Dillon Jones

Drafted Weber State guard Dillon Jones with the No. 26th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft

The Oklahoma City Thunder have a type: strong, highly-skilled guards with a plus wingspan. What is somewhat bizarre is that the Thunder doubled down so heavily on that type, drafting not one but two such players in this year's draft, 12 months after taking Cason Wallace in the lottery of the 2023 Draft.

Dillon Jones has a good handle and can get to the rim with powerful drives and finishes, and his strong free-throw shooting suggests that he can develop as a shooter. He certainly wasn't one in college, however, and on a team like the Thunder he has to shoot to get a whiff of playing time.

Is Jones a large creator at 6-foot-6, a Josh Giddey type, or is he more of a Kenrich Williams undersized forward whose rebounding and playmaking can help in a glue-guy type role?

Whichever it is, Jones was not worth the 26th pick, especially not with much better options on the board. There are things to like about Jones and some very real warts -- he can't defend anyone, for one -- and the Thunder should get a large amount of trust, but Jones looks like a miss and likely someone who would be available later in the draft.

Grade: C-

Full offseason report card and grade

The Oklahoma City Thunder took a lot of cap space and draft capital and turned it into Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, and three draft picks. Did they make the most of their assets?

Traded for Alex Caruso

Grade: A

Re-signed Isaiah Joe

Grade: A

Signed Isaiah Hartenstein

Grade: A-

Re-signed Aaron Wiggins

Grade: B+

Drafted Nikola Topic

Grade: B

Drafted Ajay Mitchell

Grade: B-

Traded Lindy Waters III

Grade: C+

Drafted Dillon Jones

Grade: C

Overall Grade

The Oklahoma City Thunder would be better equipped to win the 2025 NBA Championship if they had signed Paul George.

That's the reality the Thunder had to grapple with this summer, as no other free agent was on the level that George was.

He is a top-15 player in the league, has a skillset that scales extremely well alongside other stars and has a preexisting and positive relationship with the franchise. His impact on this next season would be significant.

He also would have been making well north of $50 million when new contracts come due for Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and then Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

At that point, the team would have rocketed above the second tax apron.

Whether or not the Thunder ever seriously considered clearing the space to sign George, the ability to maintain future flexibility clearly impacted their moves this summer.

If George was off the table, their moves this summer represent an extremely solid approach to maximizing their financial flexibility over the next two seasons and not handcuffing themselves past that point. Hartenstein gives them a type of player they simply didn't have last season, while Alex Caruso is an insanely valuable addition to their rotation. The two are clearly in the top 10 players to change teams this summer.

Their work in the draft is a bit more questionable, as they neither traded either of the first-round picks for veteran help nor used either pick on players likely to help now. The reasoning for taking Nikola Topic is more obvious than that of Dillon Jones, but both will take some time to return any level of investment on their selections.

The sharp plan to decline the team options for Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins was both expected and well executed, and overall they are set up to be deep and good for a very long time. This was a highly successful offseason, and the Thunder are the deserving favorites in the Western Conference after a summer in which they had the best offseason of any West contender.

Grade: A-