OKC's Bargain Didn't Walk Out the Door With Dort, Wiggins and Joe

2026-09-28

Look, Media Day in Oklahoma City is supposed to feel like a victory lap for a team opening another season as a title favorite. Instead Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe are gone, three regulars and roughly 10,000 minutes leaving together.

Last summer this roster came back almost untouched. Now Shai Gilgeous-Alexander loses Dort, his Team Canada teammate, in the first real shake-up of his tenure. So you have to ask: was last season's bargain built on the guys who just left?

I don't think so, and one chart talked me down. Last season only 29% of the Oklahoma City Thunder payroll sat with players in the Steal! tier. Wait, what? A team with a 89 WAGE Score wasn't propped up by a pile of cheap overachievers.

It was the 15th-highest payroll for the most wins in the league. That makes this less a heist than a sitcom with a deep writers' room (the kind of show that survives cast changes because the scripts carry the jokes). Lose three characters and the laughs can keep coming.

The test is depth next season: the new hires have to produce ahead of what they're paid. Sequels usually disappoint, but this one kept the showrunner.