{"id":752210,"date":"2026-06-04T11:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752210\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T11:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T11:24:17","slug":"oklahoma-city-thunder-enforcer-reiterates-desire-to-stay-with-the-team-amid-free-agency-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752210\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma City Thunder Enforcer Reiterates Desire to Stay With the Team Amid Free Agency Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lu Dort<\/a> is keen on extending his stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, despite seeing his playing time dwindle in the past few weeks due to his shooting slump and Cason Wallace<\/a> usurping him in the pecking order.<\/p>\n

The one-time NBA All-Defensive First Team member has a $17.7 million team option<\/a> for the 2026-27 season. If the Oklahoma City Thunder doesn\u2019t exercise it, he\u2019ll become an unrestricted free agent and may have to find his next deal elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI have a lot of trust in this organization and in Sam. I\u2019m really grateful for all the stuff that he did for me to this point. Obviously, I want to stay here,\u201d Dort told the Thunder Wire.<\/a> \u201cThis organization and this city have really shaped me as a person and as a player. So the conversation is going to happen. My main goal is to stay here. This is like a home to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the trust in this organization and the relationship that I have built with them. The situation may be different. You never know how it\u2019s going to be. Like I said, my main goal is to be here and whatever we got to do to get it done,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"MayMay 24, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Luguentz Dort (5) moves the ball while defended by San Antonio Spurs<\/a> guard Stephon Castle<\/a> (5) in the fourth quarter during game four of the Western Conference Finals for the 2026 NBA playoffs at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn ImagesOklahoma City Thunder faces a similar situation with Isaiah Hartenstein<\/a><\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder must also decide what to do on Isaiah Hartenstein, who has a $28.5 million team option for next season. Like Lu Dort, Hartenstein is also keen to extend his stay, citing his love for the city and community.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe just lost yesterday, so at the end of the day, that\u2019s something that will be discussed more at the end. I love being here. I love the organization, but it\u2019s a lot in their hands,\u201d Hartenstein said.<\/a> \u201cI think that them and my agent will talk. It\u2019s a business at the end of the day. But whatever happens, I\u2019m truly grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community is big for me. I think since I got here, I really started connecting with the community and just how they approach just giving back, how they approach being selfless and so on. It\u2019s always a big thing, I think me in general, the whole Oklahoma City<\/a> have gotten pretty close pretty fast. There\u2019s always a personal side to it. But again, it\u2019s not really in my court,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lu Dort is keen on extending his stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder, despite seeing his playing time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,205,839,949,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,474,930,312,4207,11015],"class_list":["post-752210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-basketball","tag-cason-wallace","tag-dort","tag-isaiah-hartenstein","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-oklahomacity","tag-oklahomacitythunder","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-stephon-castle","tag-thunder","tag-thunder-wire","tag-unrestricted-free-agent"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116691590662349392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}