Why Thunder’s Aaron Wiggins Trade Shows OKC Will Be At the Center of NBA Trade Market This Offseason

The Wiggins trade could be just the first of many Thunder moves as they look to trim the cost of their bench.

The Thunder shipped Aaron Wiggins to Atlanta on Sunday, the first of several trades OKC could be involved in this summer. | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

As the NBA world watches the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes unfold with bated breath, the Thunder and Hawks pulled off a big trade over the weekend. Even if it doesn’t seem like it on the surface.

Oklahoma City sent Aaron Wiggins to Atlanta in exchange for two second-round picks. Wiggins, 27, was the 55th pick of the 2021 NBA draft and spent the last five years developing on the Thunder bench as the franchise went from perennial tankers to NBA champions. He has three years remaining on a reasonable contract worth $45 million and a club option for the final season.

As a player, Wiggins is a solid bench guard with modest counting stats; he averaged only 9.4 points per game for OKC last season and fell out of the rotation by the postseason. But the widely-held view is that was a consequence of the ludicrous talent dotting the Thunder roster than a poor reflection of Wiggins. He was very steady filling in for Jalen Williams at the start of the year, can hit shots from all three levels and was good enough to stick in coach Mark Daigneault’s demanding defensive scheme. He did not play well down the stretch and that’s why Ajay Mitchell and Jared McCain wound up taking his minutes but Wiggins flashed enough to believe he’s a rotational player—the Thunder just don’t have room for him with their loaded roster.

He’s a great fit with the Hawks, who could use some better two-way play out of their guards given the (different but equally restricting) limitations CJ McCollum and Dyson Daniels have on one side of the floor. The cheap price Atlanta paid to bring him to town makes it an even better deal for general manager Onsi Saleh, who has done some really excellent work in the last 12 months for the Hawks.

The most interesting aspect of the deal, however, is that it figures to be the first of several deals the Thunder will be involved in this offseason.

Why OKC will be at the center of the NBA trade market this offseason

OKC GM Sam Presti figures to make more deals this offseason. | DOUG HOKE/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma City already has a championship-caliber core in place with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. The franchise won’t be active in the trade market in the “shopping for upgrades” sense. But nobody in the rest of the rotation should really be considered safe. Why? Finances, mostly.

After several seasons of enjoying star-caliber production on rookie contracts, the Thunder will now have to pay their big three of SGA, Williams and Holmgren superstar-level money. Just those three alone will account for just a shade under $125 million combined in salary next season—nearly 75% of the team’s cap space before accounting for a single other player, with the projected line for next season at $165 million. Before the Wiggins trade they were projected to be nearly $30 million over the second apron, which comes with extremely stiff penalties—particularly when it comes to the luxury tax.

So while Wiggins needed a change of scenery, Oklahoma City was no longer in need of his services and hold several draft picks in a loaded class this year, he really got shipped out because it saved the team a hilarious dollar amount. Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, trading Wiggins lowers the Thunder’s anticipated tax penalty from $213 million to $152 million. Yes, you are reading that correctly: even though Wiggins was only slated to make $9 million next year, getting his salary off the books will save OKC $65 million.

Such is the nature of the second apron. Every single dollar counts several times over as long as the team is past it. It will be tough to avoid that reality as long as the Thunder are willing to pay all their star players, their star role players and a championship-caliber bench. But they can mitigate just how severe those financial penalties can be by replacing veteran talent with young players on rookie-scale contracts. And keeping those penalties as low as possible is paramount to ensure the current title-winning core stays together as long as possible. At some point it will become too expensive but kicking that can down the road by trimming salary where possible is what the best teams have to do to survive in this cap environment.

Wiggins was merely the first sacrifice in pursuit of that goal. Given the team’s tremendous depth and how drastically they can alter their luxury tax penalties by moving medium-sized contracts like Wiggins, he will be followed by at least one (and possibly more) of his teammates out of town.

Other Thunder players who could get traded this offseason

Luguentz Dort has been a key member of the Thunder rotation since entering the NBA in 2019. | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

We know for sure SGA, Williams and Holmgren are safe. We can be extremely confident that Alex Caruso isn’t going anywhere. Jaylin Williams, Cason Wallace, Mitchell and McCain all make very little compared to the importance of their roles on the roster (none make more than $7.7 million) so they should stay put. Further complicating the cap sheet is the possibility Wallace gets a sizable raise this season; he’s up for an extension and just led the NBA in steals while being named second-team All-Defense.

Which leaves two obvious trade candidates as the Thunder try to cheapen the roster without sacrificing their contending status: Lu Dort and Isaiah Hartenstein.

Both veterans played huge parts in winning the title back in the summer of ‘25. Both also have team options that OKC must decide upon this offseason—Dort’s is worth $17.8 million, while Hartenstein’s is worth $28.5 million. The organization can decide to decline them outright to save as much money as possible but that wouldn’t be in line with GM Sam Presti’s overarching goal to maximize every asset to the greatest possible extent. Signing the pair of role players to long-term deals to lower their immediate cap hit is also an option but not a necessity given their replacements are already on the roster (or could be found in the draft on Tuesday).

The Lakers were linked to Dort by NBA insider Jake Fischer over the weekend. Hartenstein’s consistent paint play on both ends could be of great value and he did a solid job guarding Victor Wembanyama in the postseason. The Thunder are likely to offload them to manage their finances but won’t need to salary dump them—there will be interest.

Beyond those two, Isaiah Joe’s name has come up in trade rumors already this offseason. Any deal involving the sharpshooter figures to be closer to the Wiggins trade than any possible Dort or Hartenstein transaction. There’s also Kenrich Williams, the grizzled vet of the team at 32 years old who has a $7.2 million player option for next season.

It’s unlikely that the Thunder will trade all of these players. They can replace all of them (or even upgrade if Presti wanted to wield his absurd war chest of assets), but replacing anywhere from two to four rotation players in one offseason is a tough task for a team looking to contend. Yet discussions will be had because it is in OKC’s long-term interest to ensure the roster around its three stars remains as cheap as possible. Even if it means moving on from championship contributors.

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