Oklahoma City Thunder fans who have Twitter notifications on for tweets from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski may have felt a momentary surge of panic when a post with the words “Thunder” and “Lu Dort” popped up on their phone on Wednesday.
Not to worry. It wasn’t a trade deadline-related transaction. It was just the easiest decision general manager Sam Presti will make this week, and an obvious one for Oklahoma City fans to have predicted.
The Thunder fully guaranteed the final two years of Dort’s contract, Wojnarowski reported. He will be owed $1,782,621 next season and $1,930,681 in 2022-23 before hitting unrestricted free agency.
It’s one of the most team-friendly non-rookie-scale contracts in the league, and it was a no-brainer for the team to pick up.
Dort has been one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA this season and is playing better on the offensive end as well. He is averaging 12.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
His 3-point shooting of 32.9% has been up-and-down this season — better than last year, when it was simply down.
The second-year wing out of Arizona State University has shown some skill at driving to the lane and finishing. He is a truck barreling into the lane and has taken some ball handling duties this season. With some refining, he could become a true, consistent positive on the offensive end of the court.
On many nights, he is a positive on offense. His defense is consistently excellent. Owed less than $4 million over the next two seasons, this was a reminder at how good Presti is at negotiating.
On that topic, let’s get back to your trade deadline news.
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