Once the 2019 NBA Draft finishes up on Thursday, the next major date league-wide will be June 30 when NBA free agency kicks off at 6 p.m. EST. With the way the roster is currently constituted, there’s not much the Oklahoma City Thunder will be able to do.
Nerlens Noel is the only player who can opt out at this stage, but that’s not helping the cause when it comes to the cap since he would only get the minimum next season. The Thunder could use their mid-level exception, though they didn’t use it last year.
Oklahoma City’s handling of the Carmelo Anthony situation landed the Thunder a $10,883,189 trade exception that expires at the end of July, which brings things to Steven Adams and the $25.8 million he has coming his way in 2019-20.
Although he has a tough contract to move — he’s locked in for 2020-21 at $27.5 million — there’s a chance the Thunder could attempt to move him. On the most recent episode of “The Lowe Post,” ESPN’s Zach Lowe expressed the Thunder center, as well as other players with big contracts, could be on the move this summer:
Chris Paul, Clint Capela, Steven Adams … all of these guys would not seem moveable for value, right? But they’re the guys that are gonna be on the market and the league is just gonna do a complete 180 in the next two weeks and maybe there will be a market for those players.
In the aftermath of the Los Angeles Lakers’ trade and the Golden State Warriors’ injuries, the NBA is due for some a shakeup, as Lowe points out. If the Thunder think they’ll be stuck in the same spot as they were in 2018-19, even with Andre Roberson expected to return for camp, finding a landing spot for Adams may be the only move to enable further significant adjustments for Oklahoma City.
