With the news that the NBA’s board of governors voted to move forward with expansion, I wanted to take a realistic peek at what a potential starting five could actually look like for the resurrected Seattle SuperSonics.
Unlike most other bloggers, I’m not going to draft players as if the expansion draft were today. That’s a fun exercise, but the new teams won’t be playing until the 2028-29 season, so that’s what we’re imagining here. Projecting players, salaries, draft prospects, and team constructions three offseasons early is an idiot’s errand, which is why I’m the right guy to do it!
For structure, there are already established expansion rules in the CBA. Although they could change if players or owners opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, we’ll proceed on the assumption that they’ll still be relevant. Several of these rules won’t apply to today’s exercise, but they’re good to know, regardless:
- Existing teams can protect up to eight players. Only one player may be chosen per team, and incumbent teams are free to make deals with the new teams to incentivize specific selections (e.g., giving up draft capital to make sure a valuable unprotected player isn’t taken). Remember, existing franchises don't actually want expansion teams to be good. The protection system largely ensures they won't be.
- Restricted free agents taken immediately become unrestricted free agents, free to sign with anyone, new or incumbent team alike. Unrestricted free agents are ineligible to be selected.
- New teams have only ⅔ of the salary cap of existing teams in their first year – that projects to be $110.7 million of a $166 million cap.
- Expansion teams can waive players they select and have it count toward the salary floor, but not toward the salary cap – this could be important if they swing a deal to take a big contract off of an incumbent team’s books, but we won’t worry about that today.
- The expansion teams’ initial draft pick in the 2028 draft will be fixed, likely at the fourth and fifth picks. This is done to ensure that existing teams who are in dire straits aren’t completely screwed out of a chance at lottery luck and to make sure expansion teams aren’t given too big a leg up.
We know that the city of Seattle will eagerly embrace the return of the SuperSonics, but it was only while drafting two new teams from scratch that I realized how heavily SuperSonics 2.0 could lean into their past.
Here’s one stab at a realistic starting roster; after this, make sure to jump over to Blue Man Hoop to see what their sister team, the Las Vegas To-Be-Named-Laters, could look like.
Seattle SuperSonics Starting 5
PG: Cason Wallace
SG: Christian Braun
SF: Marcus Spears Jr. (Rookie)
PF: Kevin Durant
C: Jay Huff
The SuperSonics have a great chance to draft talented (if flawed) young veterans who still have upside while leaning into nostalgia to create early buzz.
Let’s start with the irresistible headliner. Would Kevin Durant want to sign a low-dollar deal to return to the team that drafted him? It’s impossible to predict what Durant will want to do in 27 months, but he’ll turn 40 right before the 2028-29 season tips off. He’ll have some defensive issues by that time that could limit his opportunities and impact on a contending team, yet he could drop 20 in his sleep until the end of days. The Seattle crowd will set decibel records when he hits his second game-winner for them, 21 years after his first.
Even at 40, Durant can provide some scoring punch. But he’ll need a defensive infrastructure around him.
In two years, the Oklahoma City Thunder will still be contenders, but the apron reality means they’ll need to scavenge for every nickel and dime in the couch. Cason Wallace is one of the league’s best perimeter defenders, and he has untapped playmaking potential. But with a forthcoming high-money extension and Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain waiting in the wings, Wallace could be deemed expendable in relatively short order. He’d provide the SuperSonics with a dog at the point of attack with real offensive upside. And wouldn’t it be fun to steal a valuable contributor from the hated Thunder?
Another intriguing defender could join him. Christian Braun’s $125 million contract is already looking a little iffy, and it goes all the way until 2031. Would Denver be willing to pay an expansion team to take Braun off their hands? Braun has offensive limitations, but he’ll be just 26 and turbocharges any team’s transition attack. And while he’s not an All-Defensive candidate, he’s above-average in that respect. He’d be a cozy fit on any new franchise if Denver sweetens the pot a little.
Right now, there aren’t a ton of great small forward prospects for the 2028 draft class. Luckily, Durant’s marksmanship at the four-spot opens up the floor for some shooting-challenged tweener options. Marcus Spears Jr. projects as more of a power forward offensively, but he is a versatile, multipositional defender with a very high motor. While the offensive game is still raw, Spears’ hard-playing style would endear him to the Seattle faithful.
Spears, Brown, and Wallace are all questionable three-point shooters. Durant can’t be the only floor-spacer, so let’s go ahead and add Jay Huff. The reverse-dunking, three-point-bombing big man gets absolutely killed on the boards, but hey, Seattle isn’t gonna find a perfect player at a minimum salary slot. Huff is a career 35 percent shooter from deep who puts them up in volume. His ability to play on the perimeter will allow Spears and Braun to crash their way to the rim.
Bonus player: Although I’m only projecting starters here, let’s go ahead and add Gary Payton II to the end of the bench as a defensive specialist and vibes guy. That way, old SuperSonics fans might be able to get a little more usage out of the “Payton” jerseys they’ve been holding onto for decades.