With the NBA training camp only a month away and most free agents already plucked by GMs, it's time to focus on the NBA's ever-changing and sometimes befuddling trade market.
Lauri Markkanen’s saga ended with him re-signing with the Chicago Bulls so they could trade him to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a deal that also involved the Portland Trail Blazers. The arrangement was remarkable only in that it, A) did nothing to improve any of the three teams in the deal, and B) it ended any speculation about the Thunder attempting to reach the salary cap floor (the minimum amount NBA teams are allowed to use for player salary) by getting involved in free agency.
After the Thunder signed Vit Krejci to a guaranteed contract, the team still sits with approximately $33.5 million to spend on players before needing to employ any cap exceptions. If the team chooses to stand pat with this roster until the end of the season, the $22MM that they fail to spend to reach the salary cap “floor” will be divvied up among the players on the roster as a fiscal hardship bonus for playing on a crappy team.
General managers generally frown upon giving players free money, however, and GMs like Sam Presti—who meticulously creates salary cap space for his prized “flexibility”—are even less likely to allow that to happen. Last season, he used some of his sub-floor space to take a flyer on luring Argentinian wing player Gabriel Deck away from the Spanish League. It was a move that made little sense in the long-term plans of the team and even less sense in the short-term tanking plot. But it did utilize the money that otherwise would have just gone to players already on the roster.
Now that free agency is essentially over, the most likely way the Thunder could use that money burning a hole in their pocket is by using the trade market. As the only team in the league with significant cap space available, any team with a bad contract will have Sam Presti on their speed dial. Presti will eagerly take their call.
During his Sonics re-build, Presti used cap space to his advantage multiple times. The most impressive was when he absorbed the contract of Kurt Thomas from the Phoenix Suns in return for two future first-round picks. Later that season, he flipped Thomas to the San Antonio Spurs for another first-round pick. He essentially turned one bad contract into three future prospects, one of whom ended up being Serge Ibaka.