With the Thunder facing an extremely expensive roster next season, rival executives are watching closely to see who might become available, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN. He states that Oklahoma City is currently projected to have about $250MM in salary with a roughly $200MM luxury tax payment, but that doesn’t account for three potential first-round selections in the 2027 draft. OKC has incoming picks from the Clippers, Nuggets (top-five protected) and Spurs (lottery protected), which will add to the cost of the payroll.

The Thunder hold a $7.8MM team option next summer on Jaylin Williams and face decisions by November 2 on whether to guarantee the salaries for Nikola Topic ($7.5MM) and Thomas Sorber ($5.1MM). Windhorst points out that they don’t have room on the roster to keep all three players and use all three draft picks, noting that retaining Topic and Sorber would add more than $60MM to the tax bill. He notes that the total projected payroll, including salaries and tax penalties, could reach $500MM after the draft.

“They will not be paying that much, so it comes down to who and how they cut some of it,” an executive from another team tells Windhorst. “(General manager) Sam (Presti) I’m sure has studied it at length and will develop two or three paths out and will look for the cleanest option over the next year.”

There’s more on the Thunder:

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander saw his streak of scoring at least 20 points in 141 consecutive games come to an end Thursday night, and he made the decision not to try to extend it, according to Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman. Gilgeous-Alexander had 17 points when Denver called time out with 1:24 remaining, but when he saw that the Nuggets had removed their starters, he went back to the bench as well. “I was going to go out there,” he said. “But then I saw that (Denver) had subbed, so I was like, ‘I should probably sub too.’ I feel like you should always treat the game with respect.”
• Tim MacMahon of ESPN looks at how Presti helped develop Gilgeous-Alexander into a two-time MVP. Presti emphasized patience for SGA as he dealt with plantar fasciitis after being acquired in a trade with the Clippers. “I just believed wholeheartedly and had trust in just like the human being Sam was,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “In this business, that’s another thing that you just can’t control — who runs your organization. I’ve been lucky to be placed with a guy like Sam. It’s been amazing. It feels like a partnership. I don’t work for him. He doesn’t work for me. We’re in this thing together.”
• Nuggets star Nikola Jokic shares his thoughts on Topic, his teammate on the Serbian national team, in an interview on the Oklahoman website.