The Oklahoma City Thunder had a wild summer, ditching Lu Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins to Eastern teams for seven future second-round picks and a boatload of saved cash for ownership. This wasn’t some grand player swap to boost the roster; it was a straight-up cost-cutting blitz to duck under the NBA’s second apron and avoid those brutal luxury tax penalties. The squad apparently has “ready-made replacements in-house” already, but that doesn’t stop everyone from wondering what their two-time MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, really thought about these moves.
What Presti Says About SGA’s Influence
You’d think the face of the franchise would have a massive say in who stays and who goes, right? We’re talking about a guy chasing championship rings to put himself in the same conversation as Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry. But, according to Sam Presti, the Thunder’s executive vice president and general manager, their dialogue is a little more nuanced. Presti shared in a 2026-27 preseason press conference that he and SGA “talk. I wouldn’t say regularly, but we have a good dialogue.” He doesn’t want to force SGA to “weigh in one way or the other in a way that could affect one of his teammates,” but he always wants to know what SGA thinks. It sounds professional, like a GM picking the brain of his star without putting him in an impossible spot.
The Lu Dort Decision and Why It Matters
Here’s where it gets interesting: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander reportedly vouched for the Thunder to keep Lu Dort. These guys were backcourt starters for years, riding that rebuild all the way to an NBA championship. But the team still moved on from him. Presti and the front office felt it “made way too much sense , both in basketball and financially” to ship him out. Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell are apparently “ready for more” responsibility on both ends of the court, so out went Dort. It’s a brutal part of the results-driven NBA, and it shows that even a superstar’s opinion on a beloved teammate might not always sway a bottom-line decision. Presti emphasized that SGA is “such a unique person” and that these conversations are “professional,” calling his best players “problem solvers and not guys who fan flames.”
This season is going to show us if those “ready-made replacements” are truly ready, and if the cost-cutting was worth potentially going against what your MVP wanted. Can SGA elevate the current roster enough to keep chasing that “jewelry”? That’s the real question as the season gets rolling.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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