Salaries For 10-Day Contracts In 2025/26
While 10-day deals using the hardship exception can be signed at any time, this coming Monday represents the first day this season that an NBA team will be able to sign a player to a standard 10-day contract. As we explain in a glossary entry, a 10-day deal allows a club to temporarily add a player to its 15-man roster without any commitments beyond those 10 days.
Under the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, all 10-day contracts are worth a player’s minimum salary. The minimum salary in a given season differs from player to player, based on his years of NBA service entering the season. For instance, in 2025/26, a rookie on a full-season minimum deal will earn $1,272,870, whereas a 10-year veteran who is earning the minimum will make $3,634,153.
[RELATED: NBA Minimum Salaries For 2025/26]
The same is true for 10-day deals. A rookie will earn significantly less over the course of his 10 days with a team than a tenured NBA veteran will.
Because the 2025/26 regular season is 174 days long, a player’s full-season minimum salary can be divided by 174 to calculate his daily salary. From there, it’s just a matter of multiplying by 10 to determine his salary on a 10-day contract.
Using that formula, here’s the full breakdown of what salaries for 10-day deals look like in ’25/26:
| Years in NBA | Salary |
|---|---|
| 0 | $73,153 |
| 1 | $117,730 |
| 2 | $131,970 |
| 3 | $136,717 |
| 4 | $141,463 |
| 5 | $153,330 |
| 6 | $165,197 |
| 7 | $177,064 |
| 8 | $188,932 |
| 9 | $189,872 |
| 10+ | $208,859 |
Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger options, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of service to 10-day, minimum-salary contracts.
In those instances, teams are on the hook for $131,970, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience, while the NBA covers the difference. So a team would pay the same amount and carry the same cap hit ($131,970) whether they sign a player with three years under his belt or a player with 12 years of NBA experience.
NBA Dates, Deadlines To Watch In January
At the start of the 2025/26 campaign, we looked ahead and identified several dates and deadlines to watch on the NBA calendar this season. While that list covered the general highlights, it’s worth taking a closer look at some of those key dates to keep an eye out for in January, which should be a busy month.
Non-guaranteed contracts become guaranteed
January 10 is the date that all non-guaranteed NBA contracts for 2025/26 will officially become guaranteed, but January 7 is really the day to watch.
If a team wants to avoid having a salary become guaranteed, the player must clear waivers before January 10, which means he needs to be cut by January 7 — at the latest.
There are currently 32 players around the NBA who are on non-guaranteed deals. Many of those players without fully guaranteed salaries aren’t in danger of being waived by next Wednesday, but some teams will take the opportunity to save a little money and open up a roster spot.
Players on two-way deals (which are non-guaranteed) are subject to that January 7 waiver deadline as well, and will have their salaries become fully guaranteed if they’re still under contract as of January 8.
Prior to the 2023/24 season, the annual salary guarantee date for players on two-way contracts was January 20, but that changed in the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Teams can begin signing players to 10-day contracts
As of January 5, clubs will be able to sign players to standard 10-day contracts, which count against team salary for cap and tax purposes and require an opening on the 15-man roster to complete.
Prior to Jan. 5, teams were able to sign players to 10-day contracts only if they qualified for a hardship exception. Two banged-up teams – Indiana and Memphis – have taken advantage of hardship exceptions so far this season, with the Pacers signing five players to a total of seven hardship 10-day deals, while the Grizzlies signed three players to one apiece.
Rebuilding teams generally use 10-day contracts to audition G League standouts or other prospects to see if they might be worth investing in beyond this season. Contending clubs are more inclined to use 10-day contracts to bring in veterans who can step in right away to address a need or provide depth at a position hit hard by injuries.
Currently, 13 teams have an open spot on their 15-man rosters, making them candidates to sign a player to a 10-day deal. That number will likely increase after next week’s salary guarantee deadline.
More players become trade-eligible
A significant portion of the NBA’s offseason signees became eligible to be traded on December 15, but there are still many players who can’t be dealt. By the end of January, that list of players ineligible to be traded will shrink further, since there are 20 players currently on track to have those restrictions lift between now and January 31.
January 15 is the key date, with 11 players becoming trade-eligible as of that Thursday. That 11-player group includes some standouts who almost certainly aren’t going anywhere, such as Bulls guard Josh Giddey.
However, a handful of players on the list figure to be involved in trade rumors in 2026. Some – including, most notably, Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga – have already been the subjects of speculation.
Nine other offseason signees have unique trade-eligible dates in January, since they either signed as a free agent in October or inked a veteran extension in July.
That list features names both big (like Devin Booker) and small (such as Keaton Wallace). Of the nine players in that group, Pelicans forward Herbert Jones is perhaps the most intriguing in-season trade candidate, though New Orleans has reportedly set a very high asking price for the defensive ace.
Last day to apply for a disabled player exception
January 15 is the last day that teams can apply for a disabled player exception to replace an injured player who is deemed unlikely to return this season. If a player suffers a season-ending injury on January 16, his team would be ineligible to apply for a DPE.
A disabled player exception gives a club some extra cap flexibility, but not an extra roster spot, so they often go unused. So far this season, the Bulls, Rockets, Pacers, Clippers, and Thunder have reportedly been granted a DPE, while the Bucks and Mavericks have applied for them.
Several teams can fit free agents under their hard caps
As we outlined last month, there are a number teams around the NBA who are currently operating so close to first- or second-apron hard caps that they can’t presently sign a free agent to a minimum-salary contract. That will change for many of those teams at some point in the coming weeks, when the cap hit for a prorated veteran’s minimum deal will get low enough to fit below those clubs’ respective hard caps.
Here are the dates on which the teams right up against hard caps can legally sign a free agent:
- January 6: Dallas Mavericks
- January 7: Los Angeles Clippers
- January 8: Houston Rockets
- January 9: Orlando Magic
- January 18: Los Angeles Lakers
Those clubs are unlikely to sign a free agent to a rest-of-season contract as soon as they’re eligible to do so, since taking that route would leave them would essentially no cap flexibility for the rest of the season unless they make a separate cost-cutting move.
Two more teams right up against hard caps, the Warriors and Knicks, will have to wait until much later in the season to squeeze a free agent addition onto their rosters. That will happen on March 24 for Golden State and on April 2 for New York, though those dates would be subject to change if either team reduces its salary in a trade.
It’s also worth noting that January 26 is the first day that the Thunder can sign a free agent to a prorated minimum-salary deal without surpassing the luxury tax line.
Community Shootaround: NBA’s Christmas Day Schedule
Merry Christmas from the Hoops Rumors staff!
As usual, December 25 features a full slate of five NBA games that tipped off at noon Eastern time and will run well past midnight. The Cavaliers visited the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in the day’s early game, which will be followed by four Western Conference matchups:
2:30 pm ET: San Antonio Spurs (22-7) at Oklahoma City Thunder (26-4)- 5:00 pm ET: Dallas Mavericks (12-19) at Golden State Warriors (15-15)
- 8:00 pm ET: Houston Rockets (17-10) at Los Angeles Lakers (19-9)
- 10:30 pm ET: Minnesota Timberwolves (20-10) at Denver Nuggets (21-8)
Having the Spurs visit the defending champion Thunder on Christmas Day, with Victor Wembanyama coming off a major health issue and San Antonio having won just 34 games last season, was a risk. But it has paid off in a major way for the NBA — the Spurs have already upset the Thunder twice this month, and this will be just the second time in the past 40 years that the Western Conference’s top two teams have faced one another on December 25, per the league (Twitter link).
The rest of the teams currently holding playoff spots in the West – the Rockets, Lakers, Timberwolves, and Nuggets – will be in action in the final two games of the day, while the Warriors/Mavericks contest is the only contest to feature two teams outside the top six. However, Dallas has looked much improved as of late, having gone 7-4 after a 5-15 start. With Anthony Davis healthy and Cooper Flagg beginning to show his star-level upside more consistently, that bout with Stephen Curry and Golden State is hardly a bust.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the top Eastern Conference teams entering the season, the NBA was probably right to lean heavily on Western matchups, and it looks like the league picked the right teams. The Suns are the only top-eight club in the conference not in action today, and the Mavs – thanks to the presence of Davis and Flagg – are a compelling alternative despite ranking 11th.
While it’s disappointing not to see the 24-6 Pistons in action today, the league probably couldn’t have predicted that Detroit would be this good in the first half. Sticking with the Cavaliers and Knicks was a safe choice — Cleveland and New York were two of the last four Eastern Conference teams left standing in 2024/25, and the other two (Boston and Indiana) are both missing a star player due to an Achilles tear.
What do you think? Are you happy with the NBA’s Christmas Day slate? Would you have shuffled around any of the matchups, or avoided scheduling any of these 10 teams in favor of another? Which of the rest of today’s games are you most looking forward to?
Head to the comment section to share your thoughts, and enjoy the holiday basketball!
Community Shootaround: No. 1 Prospect In 2026 Draft
Ahead of the 2026 NBA draft, there is widely considered to be a three-player race for the top overall prospect and No. 1 overall pick. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson is ranked No. 1 on Jeremy Woo of ESPN’s latest big board, followed by BYU wing AJ Dybantsa and Duke forward/center Cameron Boozer.
Woo and Jeff Borzello of ESPN recently spoke to several NBA scouts and college coaches to get their impressions of the three freshmen, who are all viewed as “legitimate No. 1 prospects” who simply happen to be in the same class.
Peterson has been highly productive when healthy, but missed seven games with a hamstring injury and was forced to leave his most recent contest due to quad cramps. In four games, he has averaged 19.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals, with a shooting slash line of .528/.423/.769.
One Eastern Conference scout said the 6’5″ combo guard, who is touted as an explosive — and consistent — offensive player, was the top prospect on his board and it was hard to envision that changing no matter how well Dybantsa and Boozer play for the remainder of the season. While one coach had questions about Peterson’s ability to run the point, a different Eastern scout said that shouldn’t be an issue at the next level.
“What a point guard is now in the NBA, he’s that,” the scout told ESPN. “Are you able to create advantages, are you able to [be a] play-maker, are you a scorer when you see a defense break down? Darryn can do all those things.”
Dybantsa, a 6’9″ forward, is generally considered to have the most upside of anyone in the class, with outside shooting and consistency viewed as his biggest question marks. In 11 games, he’s averaging 21.1 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 3.3 APG and 1.3 SPG on .556/.321/.743 shooting.
“I would have AJ No. 1 still,” one Western Conference scout told ESPN. “The positional versatility, the size, is so unique. His ability to be able to create off the dribble, be dynamic from the mid-post. The fadeaway jumpers, that style of play. I think he can make really crisp passes off one hand, really good adjusting midair. … He takes long strides on defense, someone that you can insert in very different lineups playing different positions.”
As Woo and Borzello detail, Boozer had an extremely impressive résumé prior to entering college, winning four high school state championships in Florida and two gold medals — and two MVPs — with Team USA (at the FIBA U16 AmeriCup in 2023 and the FIBA U17 World Cup in 2024).
The son of former NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer has been the most productive college player in the country in the early portion of the season (he’s averaging 23.3 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 3.7 APG and 1.6 SPG on .563/.348/.789 shooting through 11 games) and is the favorite to win Player of the Year for the 11-0 Blue Devils. However, questions persist about the younger Boozer’s athleticism and upside at the NBA level, at least relative to Peterson and Dybantsa.
“Can you put the ball in his hands and you know he’s going to be able to get a bucket or create something at the end of a game, when the game’s on the line? Is he good enough at that at the NBA level?” an Eastern Conference scout said, per ESPN. “It’s not a knock on Cam, it’s just that those other two guys have the potential to be the best player on NBA championship teams.”
We want to know what you think. In what seems to be an eye-of-the-beholder draft, which prospect would you currently rank No. 1 overall? Do you agree that any of the three would ordinarily be considered top overall prospects in their own right? Head to the comments section to weigh in with your thoughts!.
NBA Players Who Can’t Be Traded This Season
As we explained when we identified the players who will become trade-eligible on unique dates this season, there’s a small group of players whose trade restrictions won’t lift until sometime after the February 5 trade deadline. These players meet one of the following criteria:
- They signed a free agent contract or were promoted from a two-way contract after November 5.
- A player who signs a free agent contract or is promoted from a two-way contract is ineligible to be traded for at least three months.
- They signed a veteran contract extension (meeting certain criteria) after August 5.
- A player who signs a veteran extension that keeps him under contract for more than four total years (including his current contract), includes a first-year raise greater than 20%, includes a subsequent raise exceeding 5%, or includes a renegotiation is ineligible to be traded for six months.
- They signed a super-max contract.
- A player who signs a super-max contract (also known as a designated veteran contract) is ineligible to be traded for one year.
We identified all the players who fell into these three categories in our previous story on unique trade dates, but they may have slipped through the cracks amid the larger list of players we discussed in that article.
With that in mind, we want to specifically single them out today to make sure it’s clear which players won’t become trade-eligible at all until sometime after the 2025/26 regular season.
Here are the players who fall into the three aforementioned groups and who can’t be traded this season:
Players who have signed standard contracts since November 5:
- Seth Curry (Warriors)
- Micah Potter (Pacers)
There hasn’t been a ton of action on the free agent market since the regular season began, with most players who have signed with NBA teams receiving two-way contracts rather than standard deals.
Still, there are a couple players who fit this bill. Curry didn’t sign with Golden State until December 1, meaning his trade restrictions won’t lift until March 1, well after this year’s deadline. The Pacers, meanwhile, have rotated several players in and out of their 15th roster spot, signing Monte Morris, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Garrison Mathews to standard contracts before waiving them and making Potter their 15th man.
Both Curry and Potter are ineligible to be moved this season, and this list will continue to grow if more free agents sign standard contracts between now and February 5.
Players who have signed veteran contract extensions meeting certain criteria since August 5:
- Toumani Camara (Trail Blazers)
- A.J. Green (Bucks)
- Aaron Nesmith (Pacers)
- P.J. Washington (Mavericks)
Camara likely wouldn’t have been a trade candidate regardless of whether or not he signed an extension in recent months, since the Trail Blazers could have made him a restricted free agent in 2026. But given the way the Bucks, Pacers, and Mavericks have struggled so far this season, it’s entirely possible Green, Nesmith, and/or Washington would have become the subject of in-season trade speculation. Due to their recently signed contracts, all of them are ineligible to be dealt until the 2026 offseason.
It’s not uncommon for some players who are eligible for in-season veteran extensions to sign new deals well into the season, so it’s certainly possible more names will be added to this group before February’s trade deadline.
Players who have signed super-max contracts:
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder)
Gilgeous-Alexander signed his designated veteran extension on July 7, 2025, which means he won’t become trade-eligible until July 7, 2026.
No other players will join the reigning MVP on this list prior to February’s trade deadline, since super-max deals can’t be signed during the season.
Note: This article refers to players on standard contracts. Players on two-way contracts can’t be traded for 30 days after signing, meaning any player who signs a two-way deal after January 6 this season will be ineligible to be dealt by the deadline.
Community Shootaround: Knicks’ Title Drought
The Knicks finally stood atop the NBA world this week, even if it was just the in-season tournament. Winning the NBA Cup was a nice way to head into the holidays but the franchise and its fans are looking for something much bigger – a trip to the Finals and the Larry O’Brien trophy.
They reached the Eastern Conference Finals last season for the first time in a quarter century, only to get knocked out by the underdog Pacers. They haven’t sniffed the Finals since the 1998/99 season, when the Spurs’ Twin Towers of David Robinson and Tim Duncan bounced them in a five-game series.
As their long-time fans know, the Knicks haven’t hoisted the trophy since 1973, when the iconic starting five of Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe carried them past the Lakers.
The Eastern Conference certainly seems ripe for the taking. The Pistons have been nothing short of marvelous during the first two months of the season but they haven’t won a playoff series since 2008.
The Cavaliers, who rolled to the top seed in the conference last season, are hovering around .500. Perhaps a young team like the Magic can get hot at the right time, but currently the Knicks are a solid favorite to come out of the East.
Via trades and free agency, the Knicks have assembled a formidable starting five (or six, if you count Mitchell Robinson) in Most Valuable Player candidate Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart.
Offensively, they rank in the top five in points and three-point shooting while keeping their turnovers down. Defensively, they rank in the top five in opponents’ field goal percentage.
Their bench may be somewhat underwhelming, though they have some veteran pieces. Their ability to make moves is severely hamstrung by the fact that they’re hard-capped and operating narrowly below the second tax apron.
That brings us to today’s topic: Is this the season the Knicks finally reach the Finals again and perhaps even win the championship for the first time in 53 years? If not, what do you think will hold them back?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
The Knicks Players Who Benefited Most From NBA Cup Prize Money
The Knicks‘ team salary this season is nearly $208MM, which is the second-highest figure in the NBA, behind only the Cavaliers ($228MM+). However, five of the 14 players on New York’s standard roster are on minimum-salary contracts, while a sixth is earning just slightly above the minimum.
So while the $530,933 bonus for winning the NBA Cup may be a drop in the bucket for the highest-paid players on the Knicks’ roster, like Karl-Anthony Towns ($53.1MM), OG Anunoby ($39.6MM), and Jalen Brunson ($34.9MM), it represents a significant pay raise for the players on the lower half of the Knicks’ cap sheet, as well as the players on two-way contracts who will receive bonuses worth $265,467 apiece (50% of the full prize share).
[RELATED: Details On NBA Cup Prize Money For 2025]
The NBA Cup prize money results in at least a 14% raise for each of the following Knicks players, whose 2025/26 base salaries are noted in parentheses:
Players receiving a $530,933 bonus:
Jordan Clarkson ($3,634,153)- Landry Shamet ($3,080,921)
- Pacome Dadiet ($2,847,600)
- Tyler Kolek ($2,191,897)
- Ariel Hukporti ($1,955,377)
- Mohamed Diawara ($1,272,870)
Players receiving a $265,467 bonus:
- Tosan Evbuomwan ($636,435)
- Trey Jemison ($636,435)
- Kevin McCullar Jr. ($636,435)
The bonuses for Diawara and the Knicks’ two-way players represent a raise of more than 40% on their respective base salaries.
None of this prize money will count against the salary cap, so the Knicks’ team salary for cap, tax, and apron purposes remains unchanged, as do the team salaries for San Antonio and the other six clubs who made the knockout round of the NBA Cup. Their prize money is as follows:
- Spurs: $212,373 per player ($106,187 for two-way players)
- Magic and Thunder: $106,187 per player ($53,094 for two-ways)
- Heat, Raptors, Lakers, and Suns: $53,093 per player ($26,547 for two-ways)
Players Traded After Tuesday Can’t Be Re-Aggregated By Feb. 5 Deadline
As we explain in our glossary entry on salary aggregation, when a team trades for a player by matching salaries or using a cap exception, that team is typically ineligible to aggregate the player’s salary in a second trade for the next two months.
However, the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement includes one exception to that rule. A player traded on or before December 16 can always be “re-aggregated” on the day before – or the day of – that season’s trade deadline.
Any player who is acquired in a trade via salary-matching or an exception after Tuesday will be ineligible to be aggregated at this season’s Feb. 5 trade deadline.
We saw this rule in action during the 2024/25 season when the over-the-cap Warriors acquired Dennis Schröder from Brooklyn on December 15, then re-aggregated him at the February 6 trade deadline as part of their package for Jimmy Butler. If Golden State had acquired Schröder from Brooklyn on December 17, his salary couldn’t have been aggregated with those of Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Lindy Waters to match Butler’s incoming cap hit.
Now, there are two important points worth clarifying here. The first is what exactly it means to “aggregate” a contract.
Our glossary entry covers this rule in more depth, but aggregating a player’s salary with another salary means combining the two cap figures for matching purposes. For instance, a team operating over the cap and below the tax aprons can’t trade a $15MM player for a $35MM player, but that team could aggregate its $15MM player with a $20MM player in order to legally acquire the $35MM player.
Crucially, sending out multiple players in the same trade doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be aggregated. For example, if a team sends out a $15MM player and a $5MM player for a single player earning $15MM, there’s no need to aggregate the two outgoing salaries, since the $15MM player is enough to legally match the incoming $15MM salary on his own. So a player traded on Dec. 20 could still be flipped at the deadline in a multi-player trade — his salary simply couldn’t be combined with another player’s for matching purposes within that deal.
Only teams operating below the second tax apron are permitted to aggregate salaries, meaning this rule – and the Dec. 16 exception to it – won’t matter much for the Cavaliers, the NBA’s lone second-apron team this season. Even if the Cavs were to trade for a player today, that player couldn’t be aggregated at the deadline unless Cleveland was able to shed enough salary to move below the second apron.
The second point worth clarifying is that this restriction doesn’t apply to players who are acquired using cap room. The Nets are the only club currently operating under the cap, but they have more than $15MM in space, meaning they’re in a great position to trade for one or more players without sending out any matching salary.
Let’s say the Nets use their remaining cap room to acquire a player earning $14MM. Even if they make that trade on February 5, they could turn around and aggregate their new player’s salary with, say, Terance Mann‘s $15.5MM cap hit the very next day in order to acquire a player earning $30MM. Because the $14MM player was acquired using cap room and not using an exception or by salary-matching, Brooklyn wouldn’t face the two-month aggregation restriction.
There has been no indication that any trades are on the verge of being completed in the next 15 hours, but if they are, it’s worth keeping this rule in mind, since it could be a key reason for the timing of the move.
79 NBA Players Newly Eligible To Be Traded
Today is December 15, which means that – by our count – 79 NBA players who signed as free agents this offseason have officially become eligible to be traded.
The list of newly trade-eligible players, which can be found right here, features a number of guys who almost certainly aren’t going anywhere this season, like Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard.
However, it also includes some players whose names have already popped up in trade speculation in the months since they were signed. The most obvious name in that group is Clippers point guard Chris Paul, who has unofficially parted ways with the team but remains on the roster for the time being. Paul is now eligible to be dealt.
Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Myles Turner, Julius Randle, Fred VanVleet are among the other biggest names who are newly trade-eligible as of Monday.
Fourteen of the players on the list, including Lillard, Harden, and VanVleet, can’t be moved without their consent, since they have the ability to veto trades this season. The Rockets, Clippers, and Bucks are each carrying multiple players who fit that bill.
Six newly trade-eligible players are still on non-guaranteed contracts, including a pair of Spurs. If one of those players is included in a trade prior to the league-wide salary guarantee date of January 10, only the non-guaranteed portion of his salary would count for matching purposes for the team trading him away (the team acquiring him would still have to account for the player’s full cap hit).
[RELATED: Trade Rules For Non-Guaranteed Salaries]
Finally, it’s worth noting that there are still a number of recently signed players around the NBA who remain ineligible to be dealt. Many will become trade-eligible on January 15, while others will see their trade restrictions lift on unique dates.
Typically, teams wait until closer to the trade deadline (February 5) to make their moves rather than striking deals as soon as trade season unofficially opens on December 15, so we should count on most of the in-season trade activity occurring in January and February.
Still, it’s worth noting that a pair of trades were officially finalized on December 15 last season, so it wouldn’t come as a major surprise if two or more teams come together for a deal sooner rather than later.
A player who is traded on or before December 16 can be “re-aggregated” (ie. have his salary combined with another player’s salary for matching purposes) in a second deal prior to the trade deadline. The Warriors did this with Dennis Schröder last season, acquiring him from Brooklyn on December 15, then sending him to Detroit in the five-time Jimmy Butler blockbuster at the deadline.
Community Shootaround: Thunder’s Dominance
The NBA has spent the last decade or so trying to keep the playing field level. The aim for parity generally seems to be working, especially with the restrictive tax aprons making it difficult for some contenders to make meaningful roster moves.
Only one problem: The Thunder, thanks to draft pick hoarding maneuvers by top executive Sam Presti, seem almost invincible.
Courtesy of the highly productive 2019 Paul George trade with the Clippers, the Thunder acquired a superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander along with multiple first-round picks. The reigning Most Valuable Player led them to last season’s championship and seems poised to do so again.
The Thunder have a ridiculous 24-1 record and could break Golden State’s record of 73 regular season victories.
They rank in the top five in nearly every offensive and defensive statistical category. They’ve achieved this despite their second-best player, Jalen Williams, appearing in only six games. He’s rounding back into form after recovering from a wrist injury – he had a 25-point, 8-assist performance against Utah on Sunday.
Oklahoma City has arguably the deepest team in the league and heads into the NBA Cup semifinals this weekend after thrashing the Suns by 49 points in the quarterfinals.
What makes the Thunder even scarier is that they could legitimately control the next few drafts. They have a shot at multiple lottery picks next June, including the reeling Clippers’ unprotected first-rounder.
Imagine dropping AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson or Cameron Boozer onto this already loaded roster. OKC is also owed multiple first-rounders in the 2027 draft as well.
Of course, trying to retain all their top players will eventually create luxury tax issues for the Thunder. It’s still hard to envision this franchise not being a dynasty.
That brings us to today’s topic: Will the Thunder breaks the Warriors’ record of 73 regular-season wins this season? Are they destined to win back-to-back championships? If not, which team can prevent them from taking the title again? How many titles can the Thunder win over the next decade?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.