All Things Thunder Offseason Thread

[Kizz Fastfists]

i understand your view, but i have serious doubts the thunder would share it. aside from the paul george temporary insanity, sam presti has never made moves like this. and i don't think he's going to start now.

I don't disagree. I'm just hopeful Presti does something to address the size/rebounding issue. The issue now is roster space. Topic, Jones, Joe and Wiggins get OKC to 14. If we assume they get an injured player exception for Topic and rule him out for the year due to his ACL that is two spaces. At this point I think my best case scenario is Kevin Love and a veteran PG/wing, i.e. CP3 if he hits FA or Buddy Hield on a two year deal. Dieng and Kenrich are both expendable to open up more roster space and cap room. I'm assuming Ajay Mitchell will get a two-way contract since they have one left to give out, but they could decide to give him a roster spot and leave the 15th spot open until the trade deadline and/or buy out market.

[Andre Roberstan]

i understand your view, but i have serious doubts the thunder would share it. aside from the paul george temporary insanity, sam presti has never made moves like this. and i don't think he's going to start now.

I don't disagree. I'm just hopeful Presti does something to address the size/rebounding issue. The issue now is roster space. Topic, Jones, Joe and Wiggins get OKC to 14. If we assume they get an injured player exception for Topic and rule him out for the year due to his ACL that is two spaces. At this point I think my best case scenario is Kevin Love and a veteran PG/wing, i.e. CP3 if he hits FA or Buddy Hield on a two year deal. Dieng and Kenrich are both expendable to open up more roster space and cap room. I'm assuming Ajay Mitchell will get a two-way contract since they have one left to give out, but they could decide to give him a roster spot and leave the 15th spot open until the trade deadline and/or buy out market.

Checked with Keith Smith; DPE isn't an option for Topic, at least as far as he knows. I checked it myself against CBAFAQ and my best reading of it is a no too.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Checked with Keith Smith; DPE isn't an option for Topic, at least as far as he knows. I checked it myself against CBAFAQ and my best reading of it is a no too.

They got one for Chet. Once Topic has ACL surgery and is declared out for the year they should be able to apply for one for Topic.

[Andre Roberstan]

Checked with Keith Smith; DPE isn't an option for Topic, at least as far as he knows. I checked it myself against CBAFAQ and my best reading of it is a no too.

They got one for Chet. Once Topic has ACL surgery and is declared out for the year they should be able to apply for one for Topic.

Holmgren was already on roster when he had his injury; it's a different situation. More like Embiid or Griffin.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Holmgren was already on roster when he had his injury; it's a different situation. More like Embiid or Griffin.

Embiid was already injured and known to be out for the year before he was drafted.

https://www.nba.com/news/free-agency-explained

"An application can be made with respect to a Salary Cap Year at any time from July 1 through January 15 of such Salary Cap Year, regardless of when the injury or illness occurred."

[Andre Roberstan]

Holmgren was already on roster when he had his injury; it's a different situation. More like Embiid or Griffin.

Embiid was already injured and known to be out for the year before he was drafted.

https://www.nba.com/news/free-agency-explained

"An application can be made with respect to a Salary Cap Year at any time from July 1 through January 15 of such Salary Cap Year, regardless of when the injury or illness occurred."

Correct.

Two things:

1) Topic will likely be available to play sometime before the year is out; the board would have to certify that he would be out the whole year, NOT redshirting a season.

2) CBAFAQ (and the CBA itself) is a little murky on DPEs for players that are drafted (with rights owned by the team) but not actually on roster at the time of the injury. Given the language around it on CBAFAQ it seems that they wouldn't be covered.

I was not sure of point 2, so I checked with a guy who 1) is a Boston Celtics fan and former CelticsBlog writer as a cap expert, so he's very familiar with writing about DPEs, and 2) does this as a job now.

Read on Twitter

I appreciate you keeping me honest, but rest assured I did my homework.

EDIT: Two more reasons I forgot.

1) No extra roster spot unless you trigger hardship. See section 79 of CBAFAQ. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q79

2) Even given all that ... why would the Thunder apply for an exception to sign another player to a 1-year contract greater than the minimum EVEN once they're over the cap given there's no extra roster spot? And the Thunder often leave a spot open, and they heavily use their two-ways?

EDIT2: Also, Topic's DPE would be, like, 2.5 million; barely more than a minimum.

[Kizz Fastfists]

EDIT: Two more reasons I forgot.

1) No extra roster spot unless you trigger hardship. See section 79 of CBAFAQ. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q79

That is the only one that matters. No extra roster spot means no point in it. I mistakenly thought it allowed another roster spot. Given that as the case we might see him in action late in the season instead of sitting him out the entire year.

[Andre Roberstan]

EDIT: Two more reasons I forgot.

1) No extra roster spot unless you trigger hardship. See section 79 of CBAFAQ. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q79

That is the only one that matters. No extra roster spot means no point in it. I mistakenly thought it allowed another roster spot. Given that as the case we might see him in action late in the season instead of sitting him out the entire year.

Possible. I'll be interested to see if they actually officially sign him to the roster this year or have him rehab away from the team.

[Devilanche]

Guys, it’s better not to be hopeful on trading for Lauri .
It’s looking less and less likely.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Guys, it’s better not to be hopeful on trading for Lauri .
It’s looking less and less likely.

The rest of the off-season is pretty predictable. 1) re-sign Joe 2) re-sign Wiggins 3) give press conference about internal growth and championships are irrelevant and sustainable playoffs appearances and we appear to arrive when we show up to appear, but don't arrive when we show up and show up when we appear and appear to show up when we arrive and we'll finally arrive when OKC gets some balls and drops Presti for a GM that is not happy with being a loser.

[Woerzboerg]

The offseason yet:

- traded Josh "can't play him in the playoffs" Giddey for one of the best defenders in the league without giving up any assets
- drafted the possibly best rookie of this class (although he won't play this season)
- drafted another rookie, who will adress some of our issues (rebounding)

Now it is very likely that we will extend two valuable bench guys with team-friendly contracts.

I'd like to see a signing of a backup bigman and ideally a trade for proven big forward, but even if we only bring back Muscala and that's it, this offseason made the team much better and internal growth will do the rest (for real: young players like Wallace, Chet, JDub and maybe even Dieng WILL get MUCH better than they were last year).

Therefore, I think this offseason will be a success.

[Kizz Fastfists]

- traded Josh "can't play him in the playoffs" Giddey for one of the best defenders in the league without giving up any asset
I'd like to see a signing of a backup bigman and ideally a trade for proven big forward, but even if we only bring back Muscala and that's it, this offseason made the team much better and internal growth will do the rest (for real: young players like Wallace, Chet, JDub and maybe even Dieng WILL get MUCH better than they were last year).

Therefore, I think this offseason will be a success.

Here's a fun fact. Giddey is a career 35% 3pt shooter in the playoffs. Caruso is 30% in the playoffs. Internal development didn't matter with Kd, Russ, Ibaka, Adams, etc. did it?

Presti press conference: "I made a yuge trade and all the smartest people think it was the best trade in the history of trades. Rebounding is for losers like Brandon, Boston and Dallas. I'm the best golfer of all the GMs. None of the other GMs can hit a ball 50 yards and I get a hole in one every time. I talk to a lot of really smart people because I'm really smart and they all say I'm the smartest GM in the history of GMs and that only losers sign and trade for players over 6'6. We will arrive when we arrive and until then we haven't arrived. Hey man, the team that scores the points, ummm, you know the thing. In our research we learned guards can rebound just as good as big men, because we choose truth over facts. Those other GMs have the morals of an ally cat. I know the difference between right and wrong."

[Devilanche]

- traded Josh "can't play him in the playoffs" Giddey for one of the best defenders in the league without giving up any asset
I'd like to see a signing of a backup bigman and ideally a trade for proven big forward, but even if we only bring back Muscala and that's it, this offseason made the team much better and internal growth will do the rest (for real: young players like Wallace, Chet, JDub and maybe even Dieng WILL get MUCH better than they were last year).

Therefore, I think this offseason will be a success.

Here's a fun fact. Giddey is a career 35% 3pt shooter in the playoffs. Caruso is 30% in the playoffs. Internal development didn't matter with Kd, Russ, Ibaka, Adams, etc. did it?

Presti press conference: "I made a yuge trade and all the smartest people think it was the best trade in the history of trades. Rebounding is for losers like Brandon, Boston and Dallas. I'm the best golfer of all the GMs. None of the other GMs can hit a ball 50 yards and I get a hole in one every time. I talk to a lot of really smart people because I'm really smart and they all say I'm the smartest GM in the history of GMs and that only losers sign and trade for players over 6'6. We will arrive when we arrive and until then we haven't arrived. Hey man, the team that scores the points, ummm, you know the thing. In our research we learned guards can rebound just as good as big men, because we choose truth over facts. Those other GMs have the morals of an ally cat. I know the difference between right and wrong."

Maybe this is the offseason our young players grow some inches ?

Cason grew 3 inches
Dieng grew 3 inches
Jaylin grew 2 inches
Jalen grew 2 inches

[slick_watts]

I'd like to see a signing of a backup bigman and ideally a trade for proven big forward, but even if we only bring back Muscala and that's it, this offseason made the team much better and internal growth will do the rest (for real: young players like Wallace, Chet, JDub and maybe even Dieng WILL get MUCH better than they were last year).

who are our starters, currently? every iteration of the roster seems far too small even for this team. if they're planning on slotting caurso into giddey's spot, i dunno man. the moves so far have been great but there still has to be something to give because we can't possibly be going into the season like this.

[slick_watts]

i'm with keith on the dpe, i do not think the thunder can apply for one with topic.

[ThunderBolt]

Read on Twitter

?

[Kizz Fastfists]

If Presti signs Hartenstein to be Perkins 2.0 at least none of us can claim he didn't warn us at the end of season press conference that he was an idiot that was still learning like a deaf, blind toddler trying to learn to read.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Jonas Valanciunas to Washington for 3yrs/$30M. Would have been a cheap center option of Presti wanted more of a traditional big for matchups. Would have made a lot more sense than Hartenstein at $20M/yr, give or take.

[Xatticus]

Jonas Valanciunas to Washington for 3yrs/$30M. Would have been a cheap center option of Presti wanted more of a traditional big for matchups. Would have made a lot more sense than Hartenstein at $20M/yr, give or take.

Hartenstein was an elite defensive center last year. He would be a significant addition.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Jonas Valanciunas to Washington for 3yrs/$30M. Would have been a cheap center option of Presti wanted more of a traditional big for matchups. Would have made a lot more sense than Hartenstein at $20M/yr, give or take.

Hartenstein was an elite defensive center last year. He would be a significant addition.

So you believe Chet should be the PF and Hartenstein should take over the starting C position and OKC should reinvent their offensive scheme? The other option is Hartenstein comes off the bench for the 16 minutes Chet is resting and OKC has two offensive playbooks, one for when Hartenstein is on the bench and other for when he is in the game. Hartenstein can not run the same offensive plays that Chet and Jaylin can at center.