What Does the Acquisition of Davis Bertans Mean for the Oklahoma City Thunder?
After this past Thursday’s NBA Draft, all eyes are on the Oklahoma City Thunder’s newest first round pick, Cason Wallace. But there’s also another notable player that the franchise acquired during draft night: Davis Bertans, formerly of the Dallas Mavericks.
Bertans, a 30-year-old stretch forward, was largely seen as a salary dump by Dallas in a deal that allowed the Thunder to land Wallace by swapping the 12th pick in the draft for the Mavericks’ 10th pick.
In exchange for jumping up two spots, the Thunder agreed to absorb the two-years, $33M remaining on Bertans’ contract. The veteran is scheduled to make $17M next season and $16M in 2024-25 with an early termination option attached and will be the second highest paid player on the Thunder’s roster next year as things currently stand.
Before the trade was executed, the Thunder were projected to have about $32M in cap room, but with the addition of Bertans’ contract, they will have approximately $15M to work with going forward.
That number could rise however should they choose not to pick up Lindy Waters’ $1.93M option or decide to waive any of their players on unguaranteed contracts such as Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
The big picture is that the addition of Bertans’ contract to Oklahoma City’s books seemingly allows the Thunder some flexibility in the trade market going forward — an important note considering that Aleksej Pokusevski is extension eligible now while both Josh Giddey and Tre Mann will be as soon as next summer.
And while the Thunder are operating under the cap right now, that is likely to change in the near future should they choose to extend anyone. Once they go over the cap, trades can become a bit more difficult, especially for a rebuilding team saturated with young talent they'd rather not trade if they can help it.
Bertans' contract will offer an alternative or a release valve, if you will. Should the Thunder encounter a favorable opportunity to bring in another talent via trade, they will be able to use his larger contract to assist in matching any incoming salaries.
But for now, Bertans is the Thunder's newest veteran. And it remains to be seen what kind of role he will play on the team next year, if any, but given that he's nearly a career 40 percent 3-point shooter, he could stick around for a while and offer both floor-spacing and depth to the team's forward rotation.
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