NBA

Lu Dort’s contact details with OKC Thunder: salary, years left..

One of the key figures in the OKC Thunder’s playoff run this season has been Lu Dort, who is in charge of stopping Luka Doncic in the Conference Semis.

JOSHUA GATELEYAFP

It may have taken a little while, but the Oklahoma City Thunder are finally seeing the fruits of their labor playing off. Using a handful of early draft picks and one undrafted player they have built a title contending team, surrounding MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with young talent that has turned this team into a serious threat in the West.

Shut down Dort

The Thunder have gone from one of the worst teams in the league two years ago to the one seed in a Western Conference that is one of the toughest we have ever seen. They outlasted the defending champions to finish the regular season tops in the West, and are in the Conference Semis after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans.

Their first round sweep led to a must see match up with the Dallas Mavericks and one of the most important players in the series has been and will be Lu Dort. Dort averaged 10.9 points and 3.6 rebounds in the regular season, but if OKC is going to get past the Mavs it is going to be largely on the shoulders of the 25 year old former undrafted free agent.

The Thunder don’t rely on him to light up the scoreboard, in fact they pay him to do the exact opposite. He is a lock down defender that has been been called the best on ball defender in the league by one of the top scorers in the league, Damian Lillard.

Skip to my Lu

The Thunder have known this for a long time, and that’s why they wrapped him up two summers ago, signing Dort to a long term, big money contract back in 2022. Dort signed a five-year, $82,500,000 million dollar contact with the team that took a chance on him after he went undrafted out of Arizona State. He is set to make $15,277,778 dollars this season and has two more seasons, with a third-year team option in which he would make $17,722,222 in 2026/27.

Dort has drawn the assignment of slowing down Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic who is one of the NBA’s best scorers and was named as one of three MVP candidates this year after averaging 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 9.8 assists. Even Doncic tipped his hat to Dort, saying that Dort is “a top three defender in the league, guarding perimeter position. I think he’s very good defensively, he understands what he’s doing so he’s pretty smart on defense too, so it’s going to be a tough matchup.”

So far is has been an excellent match up. Doncic has been battling through a knee and ankle injury in this series, and hasn’t reached 30 points in any of the first three games of the series. Chalk that up to injuries if you want, but Doncic isn’t making excuses. Instead he is giving credit where credit is due.

Dort and Oklahoma City won the first game of the Conference Semis, but Dallas lead the Thunder 2-1 heading into Monday night’s Game 4 from American Airlines Center.

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