Jalen Williams third OKC Thunder player to get max deal, how much cap space to OKC have left?
The Oklahoma City Thunder spent years building a championship team and now they are looking to hang on to that title winning team for the years to come.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are fresh off their first NBA title since the team moved from Seattle, and it looks like they are building a team that is going to be around for a long, long time. Jalen Williams became the third player to sign a max deal since OKC hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy a little over two weeks ago.
Big money floating around OKC
Williams is the latest Thunder player to get rewarded with a jaw dropping deal that will keep in at the Paycom Center for the years to come. He inked a five year max rookie contract that could be worth up to $287 million when it’s all said and done, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
You hate to throw around terms like dynasty, or repeat, or even three-peat. Today’s NBA isn’t like it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago where teams can build teams and keep teams. There hasn’t been a repeat winner of the NBA title since the Golden State Warriors did so in 2017 and 2018. How were they able to manage that? They had a core group of three players that stayed around for the long run, and built around those guys.
The Thunder seem to be following the trail blazed by the Dubs, because in the last few weeks, they have shelled out three contract extensions to what will know be known as the Big Three in OKC. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the first to get rewarded with an extension, to the tune of a four-year, $285 million. Then it was Chet Holmgren who signed a rookie max, 5-year $250 million deal that will keep him around until the end of the 2030-31 season.
The NBA’s newest Big Three
They are trying to build a team that won’t just contend for titles. They are looking to build the newest dynasty in OKC, but it’s not going to be easy especially considering the near billion dollars that has been handed out in the days following the Thunder’s first title.
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The Boston Celtics tried a similar path, first giving Jalen Brown a max deal a couple summers ago. They would win the title that next year, and give Jayson Tatum a max deal. Browns was a $304 million deal for five years and Tatum signed a five-year $314 million dollar deal. The C’s finished second in the East, but crashed out of the playoffs in the 2nd round of the playoffs, and now they are going through a complete restructure of their team.
The Thunder are now going to have to try and balance their Big Three’s astronomical contracts with finding role players that can come in and contribute at a reduced price. Before the Willliams deal that brought the three signings to a whopping $822 million over the last couple weeks, the Thunder were $38.4 million over the salary cap, but did have $8.6 million in the first apron and $20.4 million in 2nd apron space according to Sportrac.