Entering the 2026 offseason, Oklahoma City was facing a potential payroll of $557MM for the coming season, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Simply exercising their team options on Isaiah Hartenstein, Luguentz Dort, and Kenrich Williams and making their draft picks without completing any trades or free agent signings would’ve left the Thunder with a team salary of $261MM and a projected tax bill of $296MM.

Since then, however, the team has brought back Hartenstein and Williams on slightly more team-friendly deals and traded away Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins without taking back any salary in the process. As a result, Oklahoma City’s projected payroll has dipped to $234MM — roughly $214MM in team salary and about $20MM in tax penalties.

While Dort, Joe, and Wiggins all played rotation roles for the Thunder last season, they weren’t among the club’s most effective postseason players. In fact, among the 12 players who logged at least 75 playoff minutes for OKC, Dort, Joe, and Wiggins had the worst on/off marks. As Marks notes, the Thunder were able to generate upwards of $320MM+ in savings without touching their “big three,” their backcourt rotation, or their bigs.

Here’s more on the Thunder:

• The team’s owners are “officially on watch” after the Dort trade, according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman, who observes that head of basketball operations Sam Presti put governor Clay Bennett and the ownership group under a spotlight when he called the deal a “financial” move and said he’s been told the savings will be reinvested in future versions of the team. As Mussatto points out, the optics of forcing a cost-cutting trade at the same time the team is building a new arena primarily funded by taxpayers aren’t great for ownership.
• In a pair of stories for The Oklahoman, Jenni Carlson looks at the impact Dort made, especially on the defensive end, during his seven seasons with the Thunder, while Mussatto refers to the former undrafted free agent as one of the best developmental success stories in team history.
• Speaking at a charity event in Oklahoma City on Monday, Joe said he’s looking forward to a new opportunity in Detroit but will always treasure the time he spent with the Thunder, according to Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman. “This place is home,” Joe said. “Everybody that I met is great people, lovely people. The connection is going to live on forever. So, for that, I can never thank this city enough.”