Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman<\/a>. “The impression I have been given is that the savings generated this summer, and from being out of the tax the last several years, will be re-allocated to future teams.<\/p>\n“Along with other new well-documented revenue streams, this will allow us to make more basketball-related decisions over the next several years. We have a team that is capable of contention. And as I understand it, the decisions this summer have positioned us financially to maintain a team of this caliber.”<\/p>\n
Dort played a key role in the Thunder’s rise from cellar dweller to NBA champions. The undrafted 6-foot-4 forward developed into one of the league’s premier wing defenders over seven seasons in Oklahoma City, earning All-Defensive first-team honors in 2024-25 and finishing fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting that same season. He averaged 8.3 points and 3.6 boards across 69 appearances in 2025-26.<\/p>\n
But with Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams’ contract extensions kicking in this upcoming campaign, the Thunder made several cost-cutting moves this offseason.<\/p>\n
In addition to Dort, reserve guards Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe were moved in separate deals. The trio of moves shedded more than $200 million in payroll and tax penalties, while also putting Oklahoma City below the second apron.<\/p>\n
Presti knows the departure of Dort – the club’s longest-tenured member – will have ramifications, but he believes the Thunder will be able to adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n
“Losing Lu will certainly have an effect on the team, but I think we are positioned well to reimagine ourselves and continue to find new avenues to win,” Presti said. “Cason (Wallace) and Ajay (Mitchell) will have more responsibility, as will others.<\/p>\n
“But, as has always been our belief, it is necessary to embrace change and not fall victim to trying to imitate ourselves, or our previous play style.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Presti dealt Luguentz Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team trade Sunday in hopes of setting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-813259","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\/813259","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=813259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}