Stiles Points: OKC Thunder NBA’s Best Case Study for New CBA

The NBA's new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has turned heads and led to plenty of speculations around the league. It has made for NBA analysts to turn into chicken little when evaluating rosters.

Teams like Oklahoma City and Memphis - who sit atop the West - are met with as much skepticism as praise with eyebrows raised and fingers pointed opining about the impending doom of second aprons and hard caps.

"How are they going to keep all these guys together?" the NBA world collective spouts believing they have conjured up a novel thought.

Time will tell if the worrying and wondering is warranted, but look no further than the Oklahoma City Thunder.

If Sam Presti can not keep this core together, then no one can. Oklahoma City is loaded up with talent but also has draft picks galore to supplement the massive contracts soon to be shelled out to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren with cost-controlled talent.

In the same breath that NBA observers are trembling at taxes and aprons, they pound the table for these picks to be used on expensive win-now players with each passing transactional window that opens.

That is missing the forrest through the trees. Oklahoma City has curated a salary cap sheet as clean as a whistle, with bargain contracts on key role players and the necessary runway to lock down its stars.

These picks that Presti keeps kicking down the road act as currency not only to add in talent on cheap pacts as trades and free agent signings get tougher with each passing restriction under the new CBA, but they also act as a get-out-of-jail free card for any possible misstep along the way.

Do not let the low-hanging fruit topic make you timid about the future of the Thunder. Oklahoma City has the ability to keep its top three for the long haul and a loaded rotation to boot. If they can't pull it off, no one can, and it would be time for a revision.

Stiles Points

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