With the busiest days of free agency behind us, ESPN handed out offseason grades for all 30 NBA teams.
For the Oklahoma City Thunder, it was a quiet summer. The only additions to the roster came in the 2022 NBA draft with four rookies: Chet Holmgren, Ousmane Dieng, Jalen Williams and Jaylin Williams.
The team also handed out contracts to Lu Dort, Kenrich Williams and Mike Muscala.
For ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, these moves earned the Thunder a B grade
“As usual, the bulk of the Thunder’s additions came through the draft, where the team made three of the first 12 picks after parlaying three future first-rounders into the No. 11 selection (Ousmane Dieng) from the Knicks. No. 2 overall pick Chet Holmgren joins Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in Oklahoma City’s core.
We probably also have to put Lu Dort in that category after the Thunder declined his team option in order to re-sign him to a five-year, $87.5 million deal, betting on his development and a rising cap.
Before Gilgeous-Alexander’s extension kicked in, Oklahoma City leveraged leftover cap space to take on JaMychal Green from Denver and add a future first-rounder in exchange for this year’s 30th pick, later buying out Green. And the Thunder also extended Kenrich Williams for four years and $27 million, another deal that could age well as the cap rises.”
A “B” grade sounds about right. The Thunder didn’t do anything spectacular but stayed the course and made the proper moves a rebuilding team should make in an offseason.
The Thunder also get a win for being able to lock up two contributing players in Dort and Williams to long-term contracts that are friendly enough to be flipped in the future if necessary.
