{"id":161272,"date":"2025-09-22T11:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/161272\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T11:10:07","slug":"thunders-ousmane-dieng-extension-decision-is-painfully-obvious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/161272\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder’s Ousmane Dieng extension decision is painfully obvious"},"content":{"rendered":"

The OKC Thunder went on an all-out spending spree <\/a>this offseason, committing themselves to upwards of $877.21 million in new, standard deals, $822 million of which is tied up in the trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren alone.<\/p>\n

Of those who were eligible for a rookie-scale extension, only Ousmane Dieng remains unsigned.<\/p>\n

Heading into the offseason, many pundits were already predicting<\/a> that the forward would go extensionless ahead of the 2025-26 season, and, based on their lack of negotiations over these past few months, it seems painfully obvious that such an outcome is all but certain.<\/p>\n

Thunder are extremely unlikely to extend Ousmane Dieng<\/p>\n

It’s not simply the fact that there is still no agreement on a contract figure that should convince fans Dieng’s days in Oklahoma City are numbered, but rather the lack of actual talks held this summer.<\/p>\n

For those familiar with the Thunder and how he’s fared since being selected 11 overall back in the 2022 NBA Draft, this should not come as a surprise. We’re talking about a man who, throughout his three years so far with the club, has seen his minutes and usage gradually drop with every passing season.<\/p>\n

2024-25 proved to be easily his least productive in the association yet, as he dropped career-lows in points (3.8) and minutes (10.9) per game while shooting just 32.4 percent from deep<\/p>\n

Now, of course, this lackluster kind of play shouldn’t deter prospective buyers from the untapped potential Dieng still objectively has within his bag of tricks. After all, we’re talking about a 6-foot-9, recently lottery-selected 23-year-old talent who has the tools necessary to serve as a consistent two-way role player in the right setting.<\/p>\n

Sadly, due to his still raw nature that requires plenty of internal development and extended run on the floor to help him reach his full potential, residing on the win-now and absolutely stacked depth chart of the defending champion Thunder certainly doesn’t provide such luxuries.<\/p>\n

At this point, it seems that the most likely outcome of Dieng’s final year under contract is that he’ll be dealt elsewhere<\/a> to either create a roster spot via salary dump or to attain some sort of one-up talent upgrade. Frankly, this kind of plan seems all the more likely following the recent injury to rookie big man Thomas Sorber.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is still the possibility of him simply staying put rather than being shipped outbound, especially if Oklahoma City were to view his expiring deal as a part of their plan to cut costs and create roster space in their efforts to circumvent the dreaded second apron come the summer of 2026.<\/p>\n

However, even if the goal is to follow this latter route, an agreement on a contract extension between the Thunder and Dieng would not be met, making it more than apparent that the once highly touted draft prospect should be expected to head into year four in the league as a lame-duck baller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The OKC Thunder went on an all-out spending spree this offseason, committing themselves to upwards of $877.21 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-161272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}