Thunder re-sign Jaylin Williams, trade away Dillon Jones
The roster is getting uncrunched.
After sending Dillon Jones to the Wizards yesterday, the Thunder agreed to a three-year, $24 million veteran extension with end-of-bench center Jaylin Williams. Williams, a fan favorite and solid on- and off-court teammate, is a quality reserve who contributed as a shooter and survived as a defender in Oklahoma City's patchwork frontcourt rotation last season. The 23-year-old (today is his birthday) was also a valuable innings eater against Denver and Nikola Jokic in this year's second-round postseason matchup.
Williams will get a handsome raise for the upcoming season, and OKC will keep him cost controlled through 2027-28 if it wants (the third year is another team option). Had Executive VP Sam Presti chosen to pick up Williams' minimum rookie option, he would have become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
HoopsRumors adds some helpful context on the latest Thunder moves:
The Thunder have taken this route on team-option players like Luguentz Dort and Aaron Wiggins within the past few years, declining their options in order to sign them to multiyear contracts as RFAs. Oklahoma City’s minor salary-dump trade of Dillon Jones on Saturday will allow the team to stay out of luxury tax territory while giving Williams a pay bump for 2025/26. The tax line is projected to come in at $187.9MM, while the Thunder currently have a projected team salary of $186MM, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
2 years ago
Jones was a dice roll in last year's draft, a multi-tooled wing who caught Presti's eye enough for the GM to throw five second rounders at New York in order to acquire. He may find a brighter development path elsewhere, but he hadn't shown he could soon hang with the Thunder demons in 10.2 minutes played across 54 appearances as a rookie. He scored in the double digits just once in a non-blowout, the most turnover-prone (16.2 TOV%) player on the roster and least efficient shooter (25.4% from three, 46.4% true shooting) outside of the legend Adam Flagler. Dumping Jones opens a regular season spot for rookie arrival Thomas Sorber to occupy this year.
The bottom line: The Thunder are close to an established 15-man roster for the 2025-26 season, should they choose to move the championship squad together with continuity. Today is the deadline to pick up Ajay Mitchell's team option, news of which hasn't broken yet. Extensions for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and/or Lu Dort could soon be announced as well.
Daily Thunder Staff
While anything could happen once free agency begins and the trade market keeps spinning (I would expect OKC to be engaged and opportunistic for any no-brainer rotation improvements) it seems unlikely there will be much more drama filling out the end of the roster. The additions of hopeful role players in rookies Sorber and Nikola Topic (redshirted due to injury last season) will be complemented by new faces at the two-way (hello, Brooks Barnhizer) and non-guaranteed margins (OKC has added Zack Austin, Chris Youngblood, and Payton Sandfort) for summer play. Branden Carlson, Adam Flagler, and Alex Ducas remain unsigned restricted free agents.
