Dion Waiters, Thunder Fail to Reach Agreement on Contract Extension
Dion Waiters is set to become a free agent at the end of the upcoming NBA season. The Oklahoma City Thunder announced they could not reach an agreement with Waiters.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti explained to fans why the team elected to allow Waiters to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season, perAnthony Slater of the Oklahoman:
With the salary cap set to increase after this year, there's no telling how much Waiters could earn on the open market.
Who would've thought the Thunder would be paying Enes Kanter $70 million over four years? By re-signing Waiters before the early-extension deadline on Nov. 2, OKC would have avoided the potential perils of restricted free agency and offer sheets.
However, Kevin Durant is a free agent after this year, and Russell Westbrook enters free agency the season after that. Assuming OKC re-signs both players, they'll eat up a ton of the team's salary-cap space.
Waiters played more on a nightly basis in OKC than in Cleveland last season, but his usage rate and per-36-minute averages actually dropped, per Basketball-Reference.com:
| Cavaliers | 33 | 23.8 | 15.8 | .404 | .256 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 24.0 |
| Thunder | 47 | 30.3 | 15.1 | .392 | .319 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 21.7 |
The Thunder will need every bit of financial flexibility they can get in the future in order to fill out their roster, and it remains to be seen if Waiters will be a part of it beyond this season.
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