This Has Thunder Fans SERIOUSLY Concerned…

This Has Thunder Fans SERIOUSLY Concerned…

This has Thunder fans seriously concerned as superstar Jaylen Williams still has yet to play this season and his status going forward is still largely unknown. However, when he does return will have serious implications on this team. We’re going to talk about that today here on Thunder Digest. I’m Ryan Breeden and welcome into the channel. If it’s your first time being around, make sure you subscribe, check out the channel. We’re pumping out content every single day. me and Gabriel doing this thing for you. Super excited to have a video today. Hope you guys are having a great day. Before we get into it though, 67% of you guys are not subscribed to the channel. We’re trying to grow this thing to 8K subscribers by the All-Star break. I know we can do it. So, smash the subscribe button down below. But in today’s video, we’ve got to talk about JDub and the fact that he has not played yet this season. We’re all left in the dark, right? The last update that we got was October 31st on Halloween. It wasn’t necessarily a spooky update, but it was a bit concerning. Had a screw removed from his hand. Had to go back to LA, get his surgery done. Thunder personnel were there. They said it would be 10 to 14 days before we get another evaluation. Well, those 14 days have come and gone as of 5 days ago. And we still do not have an update on Jaylen Williams other than the fact that he is still out for tonight’s game against the Sacramento Kings. And you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Okay, Ryan, we know he’s been out. What does this matter now?” It actually matters a lot to this basketball team, to Jaylen Williams, to the future of the Oklahoma City Thunder as well. And if you’re not familiar with all of that, I’m going to make sure that you know everything that you need to know here in this video. Make sure you leave a like if you enjoy the content. But want to get back to JDub here and really what the schedule is to come because this matters a lot. This is absolutely everything when it comes to JDub, when it comes to his contract, when it comes to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and what things look like over the next five years. So, this right here is a comprehensive look of eight games here on the schedule. Starting with that backto-back against the Warriors and the Lakers where you just devastated those fan bases. And then the next four games to come, the Sacramento Kings tonight, 7 o’clock, the Utah Jazz after that, and the Portland Trailblazers. And that Trailblazers game matters a great great deal. Not just because you’re trying to avenge your lone loss this season through 15 games, but because that Trailblazers game will be game number 18 of the season. And you may be thinking, Ryan, who cares? Game number 18. So what? It’s a Sunday night in Oklahoma City. I’ll show you exactly why this matters. It all stems around the 65game minimum here in the NBA. a minimum that is really wreaking havoc on yearly awards. It certainly has derailed Victor Wimbeyama’s chances of awards last year. Hopefully doesn’t derail his chances this year. Maybe hopefully it does. Uh if you’re wanting chat to have a chance at defensive player of the year. Uh if you don’t play 65 games, you’re not eligible for any AllNBA teams for any awards after the season is over. And that matters a lot for the Thunder. Now JDub, he did repost this. Shout out to Con. Everyone loves Con. Who doesn’t, right? Um, but basically, this is the the closest concrete evidence that we have that JDub could be close to a return. We’ve got nothing from Sam Prey, nothing from Mark Dagnel, nothing specifically from Jaylen Williams other than this. 5 days ago, Cohen put out today is day 14 from that most recent update. The JDub return is near and JDub reposted that on his social media. So, maybe you could use that as a a glimmer of optimism. This video was also taken earlier today around the Thunder camp at shootaround and JDub had his practice jersey on. He still had his hand wrapped on that right side. I don’t know if you were able to see that, but uh he he still is out for tonight. We won’t know his status for Friday’s game until we get closer to that. Get through tonight. Obviously, he’s been traveling with the team all season long. He’s been a part of the team. He just has not been able to play. Called himself an expensive cheerleader. I guess you could say that. But he may be a less expensive cheerleader than what you would think if he does not hit those 65 games, which would have to be against the Portland Trailblazers. He would have to play this week before Sunday in order to satisfy any chance of 65 games. And even if that happens, he would have to play 65 of the last 65 games to be eligible for those awards. And you’re probably wondering, “Okay, Ryan, you keep mentioning the 65 game minimum. Why on earth does it matter?” I’m going to show you right here. This is Jaylen Williams contract breakdown from this year through his 203031 season. That is when his contract extension, the rookie extension that he signed, the rookie max contract, that is when that deal would expire. Obviously, after this season, that will take into effect. And it’s basically a percentage of the salary cap starting at at 25% of the cap. The salary grows every single season for each team. And with that, the contract that Jaylen Williams signs, his yearly salary would also in theory go up next year starting at 41 a.5 million could end in the the low50s range in 2030. It’ll it’ll gradually climb along with the salary cap. But along from this, I pulled that meme of Patrick Star a little bit too early. We’ll get to that here in a second. The escalators in his contract are absolutely everything. And you may be wondering, Ryan, what are escalators other than just the thing that you take to go from one floor to another? Well, they’re the thing that could take the Thunder salary cap situation from one floor to another over the next five seasons. If Jaylen Williams wins no yearly awards this year, if he has no NBA third team, NBA second team, first team, MVP, defensive player of the year, none of that, his contract will be locked in at 25% of the salary for his entire extension. Meaning it’d be $41.5 million next year, would climb to just over 43, then to 45, then to 48, then to 50.4. Now, if JDub were to do what he did last year and get an AllNBA third team, it would go up from 25% to 26% and he would be locked into that percentage of the salary cap for the five years. Would raise it by just over $2 million a year in pay for JDub. So, obviously from 41 a.5 to 43, from 45.8 to 47.6 in 2028, from 50.4 to 52.5 in 2030. So, it would have an effect there. But if he were to go higher than that, second team, he would be making four plus million dollars a year more, especially in the later years of the contract. And if he were to make a first team or win a defensive player of the year, which I I mean, he it would have maybe been a long shot wi with how I guess how crowded the top of the league is right now in terms of talent, but there are a lot of guys that have been injured. If JDub had a fully healthy season, you never know. Maybe he takes the leap and is an allNBA first team. Or if that was the case, he would have been making $49.8 8 million a year in year one, which is almost what he would make in year five of that extension. If you really draw this whole thing out, the difference in JDub not having any awards this year versus getting a first team or an MVP or a defensive player of the year. The difference in pay for him is over $8 million a season. And that’s money that will go back into the Oklahoma City Thunder pockets. It’ll be more money that you can use to maneuver the second apron. The Thunder obviously are going to be way over the the salary cap, going to be over the luxury tax, over the first apron, all about staying out of the second apron. But maybe this extra four to5 million gives you some playing room to try and keep around both Lou Dort as well as Isaiah Hartenstein. Maybe it gives you the flexibility to resign Kase Wallace to an extension. It may give you the ability to keep Alex Caruso around. A lot of things that were not on the table all of a sudden could very much be at play even with just an extra one and a half to$2.5 million a year in salary cap that you would get from JDub not being a thirdteamer as opposed to winning no awards at all. So big big big big difference. And for JDub, I mean, it’s okay JDub. You can go when you feel like it, just like Patrick’s pet Rocky, who ended up winning the race, just like the Thunder won the finals. The Thunder clearly don’t really need JDub healthy right now. He can take his time. You’re 14-1. You’re the best team in the league, and you’re dominating teams night in and night out. But with JDub on the court, this team will transcend levels that the basketball gods have never seen before. the league will fall to its knees and plead to the powers it be to give themselves a chance against the Oklahoma City Thunder. So when JDub comes back, it will be chaos for the rest of the NBA. But in the meantime, he can rest up. We know nothing else other than he is out tonight and that if he does not play in any of the next three games, he’ll be ineligible officially for any postseason awards which will make him ineligible for that contract escalation of the escalators. He’d be locked in at the 25% salary cap for his entire extension. And if you’re curious why this is a thing, you can you can thank CJ McCollum for all of this, right? It’s in the current CBA. It’ll all be renegotiated here in a couple of years. And uh another player that has a similar contract to JDubs with these escalators is Jarrett Allen. So you could go check that out for him as well. You can also check out the rest of our channel. Let me know down in the comments below what you guys think of this whole situation, right? Are you upset that JDub is still out? Do you think it’s better for this team if he doesn’t satisfy the 65game minimum, giving you more of an opportunity to save money down the stretch? Let me know if you’re concerned about this, how you feel about the fact that we haven’t really gotten an update. We’ve really been kept in the dark about this whole thing. Haven’t gotten anything since that 10 to 14 day window. We are now 19 days through that and have nothing else left. Also, leave a like and maybe subscribe if you have not. Again, we are trying to climb up to 8K subscribers by the All-Star break. We’ll see you guys next time here on Bunder Digest.

In today’s Oklahoma City Thunder injury update, Ryan Breeden breaks down the current status of superstar G/F Jalen Williams (JDub). OKC has been without JDub for the entire season to this point, and his potential return is a major talking point in this video. The Thunder are 14-1 thanks to MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay Mitchell, Cason Wallace and others, OKC has beaten the Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers in his absence, but Williams’ return remains a massive story this season and has huge implications on the years to come. It’s a major Thunder injury news and Thunder news update.

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, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.

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