The simple fix to Thunder salary cap ‘doom’ this summer, with a catch

The Oklahoma City Thunder saw their title defense come to an abrupt end on Sunday night, as The San Antonio Spurs defeated OKC in Game 7 111-103 to advance to the NBA Finals. It was a crushing end for a Thunder team that was the best in basketball all season long.

Now, questions will arise about the future of Oklahoma City’s roster this offseason. The Thunder are very young, which means they haven’t run into too many salary cap problems just yet. They also have the assets to make a major shakeup, such as trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo, if they want.

However, OKC also has some cap problems coming up with some big contract extensions coming soon. The Thunder have not been above the second apron yet during this era, but they are projected to be about $39 million over the second apron next season.

The good news is that there is a few easy things that the Thunder can do to avoid the second apron next season. Moving off of Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins would nearly shave the $39 million, and renegotiating Isaiah Hartenstein’s contract would keep them below that threshold, per Sam Quinn of CBS Sports.

Dort struggled mightily in the postseason and was not a part of a lot of the Thunder’s best lineups during the postseason. He shot just above 30% from 3-point range during the playoffs, making it very hard for Mark Daigneault to trust him.

Wiggins was not apart of the playoff rotation, while Joe saw very limited minutes after the addition of Jared McCain. McCain is both on a cheaper contract than Joe and he is a more well-rounded player, making the decision to move on from Joe an easy one.

Whether the Thunder make even more moves beyond that to improve the roster before next season remains to be seen. However, there is no question that changes will be coming for Oklahoma City very soon after it was dethroned by Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs on Saturday night.

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