The Thunder have a GOLDEN opportunity…

The Thunder have a GOLDEN opportunity…

the Oklahoma City Thunder may have just set themselves up for the future without even realizing it five years ago as there’s been new rules limitations put in place to limit teams from buying all these star studded Superstars out in the league and forming dynasties and super teams whereas the Thunder may be the only team you know that don’t have to follow by these rules because the amount of draft Capital they’ve built up along with the price that some of their players that inner free agency will be worth due to their rookie deals right now what up it’s Bryson Akens with thunder digest before you get all this though want to take a moment and say that if you guys are coming back to the channel and you find yourself enjoying this content it would mean the world to me if you guys could subscribe as you can see here just over 20% of you guys coming back and watching the channel are subscribed and if you’re new to the channel and you enjoy the content we put out here it mean the world to me if you guys hit that subscribe button and it’s the best way to support the channel that out of the way we can go ahead and get into the video and talk about what I mean by the Thunder may be set up for the future I think we are I’ve mentioned it before about the reason that we can have a long Dynasty and a uh super team for years and years is because the amount of draft Capital we have built up so far in previous trades when you look at what we got from Russell Westbrook then also from the Los Angeles Clippers some picks that we can use next year and the year after that as well I think we have four first round picks that for next uh NBA draft we’ll go into that in a deep dive for uh our draft picks in the next two years as we have quite a few to use but this is one of the reasons that we are probably set up for long-term success when you look at the players that we already have locked down for shild Alexander who is also eligible for another max deal I believe in two years which would be worth 80 million a year now with salary caps having rise because of all these insane contracts coming out here if you want to be able to keep some of your players of course uh salary cap will rise you know teams will be able to spend more money right now I believe it was 179 million this offseason I believe we could probably see it upwards of 200 million in the next two to three years because of how much revenue the NBA and some teams are bringing in along with how much some players are worth but there’s a recent new ruling in the CBA which kind of explains why the thunder will be successful as you can see right here the new rules uh severely punish teams that breach the second apron a new salary cap threshold they not only have to sacrifice on possible signning trade scenarios but will also have their drafting capacity severely limited teams can no no longer aggregate contracts and trades and cannot on board more money in contracts than they trade out if teams have more than two players on a Max contract and acquire a third they’d be closing in on a dangerous territory cap wise the penalties get worse each year that uh that a team is above their second apron leaving them no choice other than to trim the roster this means no team could build a dynasty with the same core even if they draft and develop their Superstars so as you can see there this kind of shows you that if you want to keep a ton of your core players like your you know top five or six you might be limited and face some punishments because you’re going into that second apron tax which they’re trying to limit they’re trying like the CBA and NBI are trying to limit teams from going into that second apron tax because they just really don’t want to do that and it forms super teams it does and so a lot of teams are going to have to look into that when they try to sign certain players or trade for some people on their team via sign and trade so it’s interesting to look at that but I don’t really think this will apply to the Thunder when you look at who our core three guys are cuz it shows you you can get three guys there but you are pushing into a dangerous territory when you see who our three guys are okay that will try to build around sure Shay Alexander is going to take a large amount of that money being worth $80 million per year it will take a large portion out of that but you also have to remember Chad and jdub coming off their last contracts they will be restricted free agents but they will be extended and I guarantee you we will give them the max but it only be a Max rookie extension which we can offer them I believe for another four to five years is what they would be uh signed on board for four or five I can’t remember the exact number but I guarantee you the Max rookie extension is not going to be as much as people are going to realize it’s not going to be this astronomically large number sure it’s still going to be a large number but it’s not going to be 650 million a year it’s not going to be worth that much at all which is something that we got to look at for the future and it also put points of question at okay what about building like a bench and some guys that can you know kind of play with Chad and dubb and SGA well this is where the draft picks come in hand and which is also mentioned by Bobby marks which is kind of you know where we got all this here he even said it let’s say the Oklahoma City Thunder win a championship next year but because they have so much draft draft equ Equity they could keep replenishing I think you can pay Chad hren Jaylen Williams and Shay guilis Alexander Max money here and maybe that core could be a dynasty here and add players to the draft through the lottery and keep replenishing that key word Adam through the lottery and you’re probably wondering oh Bryson we’re going to be you know a playoff contending Team every single year so how can we keep you know replenishing through the lottery this is where all the draft picks draft picks that we have built up over the years come in handy when you just look at our draft piics for the next two seasons here 2025 and 2026 look how many we have we could potentially package some of these in trades and get some more in later drafts such as 27 28 and 29 which I don’t believe we have much in 2028 we have a few second round draft picks but we could definitely use some more first round draft picks in the future because we do have quite a bit I believe it’s 15 or 14 uh first- round draft picks in the next six years I believe which is nice but majority of them are in these next two season when you look at this right here 2025 we have the potential to have five draft picks if I’m reading this correctly here we have our own of course we have Utah it’s protected 1 through 10 they’re probably going to get that back so bring it back down to four Miami they’re going to be a playoff team I believe and so we could potentially get that one as well Philadelphia they should be a playoff team it’s only protected one through six so that we should have that one as well it’s probably going to be like the 23rd or 24th overall pick Miami would probably be like 16th or 17th would be my guess if they make the playoffs uh then this Houston and Clippers Houston or Clippers one okay OKC has the rights to swap its 2025 first- round pick for Houston’s 2025 first round pick protected for selections 1 through 10 now they could be a playoff team and it might be the better of the two picks but the Clippers one is unprotected all right and so when you’re reading it through here it’s a it’s a huge long ordeal it’s like it’s it’s hard to explain but we’d be swapping our own for the better of Houston or the Clippers whichever one Falls in a better spot for us and if La plays like how it kind of looks out to be with kawh always he’s being injured and then Harden having to lead this team with just a bunch of role players around him I would not be surprised if they don’t make the playoffs they make the play in game sure but then they lose in the plays they don’t make the playoffs and it becomes a lottery pick I wouldn’t be surprised if somehow it bumps up to 10 or 11 I would not be surprised by that we could definitely use that to add someone on this team then package the three other picks or probably just two when you’re looking at Miami and Philadelphia Force another first round draft pick or two later in year and you look at it we also have uh two second round picks Atlanta’s or Boston or Memphis is no protections Atlanta’s protected 31 through 40 I have I had no clue you can protect a second round pick but going into some more about that in 2026 we only have f one first round pick which is probably the year we probably want to bolster up a little bit either 2026 or 2027 so I would be surprised if we end up trading for more first rounders in 2026 and also 2027 but three second rounders in 2026 you could package those three together alone for a first round pick for competing team so you could still get role players and with prey’s knowledge and experience that we’ve seen with him drafting I’m not worried about what position we’re in I have faith in prey when it comes to the draft very rarely does he ever draft someone that doesn’t turn into a serviceable option A lot of people want to point out some guys that haven’t worked out in recent Years A lot of people want to point to Josh giddy as someone that didn’t work out Josh giddy is a great player and he looked like he was going to fit in OKC system when you look at what he did his first two years last season though was a clear example of like okay the path has changed because some of these guys have actually progressed better than what we’ve expected and so giddy doesn’t really have a place on the team anymore he’s still a great player it just no longer became a fit on the team that we ended up trading him for some value in return we see this with a bunch of our guys that we’ve draft step Adams was a great example of that someone that we drafted had instant impact success even though we did have to trade James Harden it was a great addition to the team look at some other guys that we drafted we drafted three MVPs so far in prey’s time here and uh Russell Westbrook Kevin Durant and James Harden two of them won the MVPs on our team the other one James Harden won it in Houston but prey has the knowledge of drafting on his side so I’m not really worried about where we end up in drafts I don’t care if we get lottery picks late first rounders middle first rounders bunch of second rounders either I know pre is going to get value he’s also showing it lately in his U recent draft as well with uh Dylan Jones and AJ Mitchell who have been balling out in summer league by the way AJ Mitchell looks like the second coming of Aaron Wiggins even though Aaron Wiggins is only 23 24 years old something around there so like it’s just insane how much he hits on the draft it’s insane so I’m not worried about where these picks end up that we have so many of and this is the reason with the new CBA rules where we can just replenish our role players in depth with these guys because if our core three can just go out there and ball every single night I’m not worried about who we have backing them up because teams are going to be so focused on our three guys that you’re going to leave some people open and when they develop sure their first year they might might not be that good but the second and third and fourth year that we have them do not be surprised if we win those championships when those guys are older along with Chad and dub going into their fourth year next year they do have a chance going to their third year their fourth year it should be a championship I am saying that right now along with the players that we’ll have around them because there’s no guarantee we keep kuso he might walk after this he might you never know we never you never know if we’re going to resign him to another team friendly deal but there’re going to be guys that are walking that we can replenish through the draft and it’s another situation with topic as well you know he’s replenishing what we lost in Josh gidy so it’s just one of those things where s prey sees that and goes okay these new rulings I’m not worried about it because I’ve built up all this draft Capital we are now probably the most not by terms of money but trade value the most expensive team in the NBA because if you want to win and get something of value you have to go through the Thunder because we have almost everyone’s draft pick but that’s all I got for this video let me know if you guys kind of agree or disagree with Bobby Marx with him talking about how this doesn’t really appeal with the Thunder or um kind of I say Appeal on the same page as a thunder because of the amount of draft C we have we don’t have to worry about that second apron tax at all let me know what you guys think down in the comment section below and I’ll I’ll see you guys in the next video

The new rules in the CBA regarding the salary cap will limit teams, but the OKC Thunder may not have to worry about the new rulings. Bryson Akins breaks down why the Thunder can still build a super team, despite the new rules in the CBA.

Thunder Digest covers the latest reports, news and rumors regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you want to stay updated with every trade, move and tidbit on players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Josh Giddey, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.