One of the biggest stories in the NBA right now is how the second apron under the collective bargaining agreement has effectively turned into a hard cap, saving owners tens of millions of dollars and forcing general managers of top teams to give away some of their key rotation players. It’s been most apparent this offseason with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Thanks to the deepest roster in the NBA, Oklahoma City has posted a 132-32 record (.805 winning percentage) with a championship and two trips to the Western Conference Finals in the last two seasons. Unfortunately for general manager Sam Presti, the NBA’s second apron has forced him to make multiple trades this summer to shed significant payroll.
During the 2026 NBA offseason, Oklahoma City has traded away Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe and Lu Dort in exchange for seven future second-round picks and no players in return. As reported by ESPN‘s Bobby Marks, the moves shed more than $300 million off the Thunder payroll for the 2026-27 NBA season.
DateSalaryTaxTotalJune 15$261M$296M$557MJuly 19$214M$20M$234M
Oklahoma City’s depth for next season has taken a significant hit, jeopardizing their chances of making it back to the NBA Finals and remaining a perennial championship contender. This week, just over a month after stating at his season-ending press conference that the second apron wouldn’t force the team to break apart its roster due to the finances, Presti admitted it drove those trades and he didn’t seem particularly confident in assurances given by ownership.
In an interview with Justin Martinez of The Oklahoman, Presti stated that he was under the “impression” from ownership that the money saved this offseason will be reallocated to future seasons. However, he didn’t exactly sound extremely confident in that and he admitted trading Dort was strictly a financial move.
“This was a financial decision. The impression I have been given is that the savings generated this summer, and from being out of the tax the last several years, will be re-allocated to future teams. Along with other new well-documented revenue streams, this will allow us to make more basketball-related decisions over the next several years…We have a team that is capable of contention. And as I understand it, the decisions this summer have positioned us financially to maintain a team of this caliber.”
Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti on the salary-dump trades made this offseason
Presti, who is widely regarded as the best general manager in the NBA, doesn’t exactly have a ton of options. Thunder ownership effectively gave him a mandate this summer to shed payroll, in this case saving them more than $300 million for the upcoming season.
While he was given the “impression” that all of that money saved can be used to build around the team’s core in future years, it’s clearly not even a promise being made by ownership. He just simply has to hope that in future years, if he can build a team equally as talented and deep, ownership will give him the green light to spend that money.
However, given that the overwhelming majority of NBA owners pushed for the second apron to effectively serve as a hard cap to save themselves hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s hard to see that desire to cut costs and enrich their own pockets changing in future years.
Matt Johnson is Senior Editor of NFL and College Football for Sportsnaut. His work, including weekly NFL and college … More about Matt Johnson