The Oklahoma City Thunder spent the offseason trimming, and the Minnesota Timberwolves should be paying attention.
OKC’s latest move sent defensive stopper Lu Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in a salary dump, with the Thunder getting back three second-round picks. Dort is now the latest name to leave a summer that has already seen Aaron Wiggins go to Atlanta and Isaiah Joe head to Detroit.
BREAKING: The Oklahoma City Thunder trading All-Defensive wing Lu Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team deal that sends three second-round picks to OKC, former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher to the Dallas Mavericks and Ryan Nembhard to Atlanta, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/4ewUxhRQA5
- Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 19, 2026
That doesn’t mean the Thunder are suddenly falling apart. Far from it.
They still have a strong front office, they had to manage the second apron, and they remain a very good team. But they also didn’t get better this offseason, and the depth that made them so difficult to deal with has taken a hit.
That matters for Minnesota.
The Timberwolves are trying to close the gap on Oklahoma City and San Antonio, and every little opening counts. If the Thunder are even a touch less airtight than they were before, that gives the Wolves a better shot at making things interesting.
Oklahoma City did add Bennett Stirtz and Aday Mara in the first round, and last year’s first-rounder Thomas Sorber is back after a knee injury. Mara and Sorber bring size to the frontcourt, and Stirtz should help some with scoring. But those additions don’t replace the scoring Wiggins and Joe provided, and they don’t replace Dort’s on-ball defense.
The Thunder still have elite defenders in Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace. Jared McCain made Wiggins and Joe expendable.
And Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is still, arguably, the best player in the world. The supporting cast around him remains strong.
Still, it’s no longer the kind of depth that feels untouchable.
That’s where Minnesota can start to see a path. Anthony Edwards has never shied away from the Thunder, and he clearly enjoys the matchup.
Now he has a better partner in LaMelo Ball, and that changes the equation. Before, Oklahoma City could load up on Edwards without worrying much about another high-end ball-handler punishing them.
Ball makes that approach harder.
There’s also another angle that could matter: Oklahoma City’s vulnerability to teams that can really shoot it. The Thunder ranked in the bottom 10 in both opponent 3-point frequency and accuracy, and losing Dort could make that even more of an issue. That opens the door to a simple plan for Minnesota - beat them from deep.
The Thunder and Spurs are still the teams to beat in the West. But Oklahoma City’s cost-cutting summer has created a little more daylight than before, and the Dort trade is the clearest sign yet.
In Other News...
Timberwolves Solved One Problem And Created A Bigger One
LaMelo Ball and Josh Green have changed the Timberwolves look in a hurry, giving Minnesota a real upgrade at point guard after the roster-shaping trades that sent Naz Reid, Julius Randle and draft capital out the door. It is the kind of move that can make a team feel more dynamic overnight, and for a club trying to stay in the Western Conference mix, the appeal is obvious.
The catch is that the Wolves did not just solve one problem, they also thinned out a frontcourt that already needed attention and pushed the front office into a tighter financial corner. Tim Connelly has already acknowledged the need for creativity at power forward, and Minnesota still has work to do just to get to a 14-man roster while staying close to the second apron, so the next move may say as much about the teams flexibility as the first one did about its ambition. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves May Be Running Out Of Time With This Core
The Timberwolves have spent the last few seasons building around a young core that looks good on paper and, at least for now, is locked in through 2029. Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and Jaden McDaniels give Minnesota the kind of talent base most teams would love to protect, but the problem is the price tag that comes with keeping a contender intact in the NBAs new financial climate.
The second tax apron has a way of turning long-term optimism into immediate roster math, and Minnesota is headed toward those same decisions. Edwards is likely to wait until next summer for his supermax, Balls next deal should land well north of $40 million a year, and McDaniels is also in line for a major payday, which means the Wolves may have only a narrow window to keep this group together before the pressure starts forcing harder choices about who stays and how much flexibility remains. [Read more 🡒]
Wolves Fans Are Split On What Ayo Dosunmu Will Be Worth
Ayo Dosunmus place in Minnesota has become one of those roster questions that says as much about team-building as it does about one player. Once the Timberwolves added LaMelo Ball, Dosunmus value shifted from standalone scorer to complementary piece, the kind of versatile guard who can slot next to Ball and Anthony Edwards without needing the ball to define his night.
That is why the reaction around his contract has been so divided. Some fans see a player whose all-around game fits the profile of the useful pieces that tend to show up on championship teams, while others focus on the price tag and wonder whether Minnesota is paying for a ceiling that still needs proving. The broader market view is more forgiving, with Dosunmu expected to land well below the leagues highest-paid names, which only sharpens the debate over whether the Wolves found a bargain or simply committed early to a role player whose value will be judged by what happens around him. [Read more 🡒]