In this continuing series, Thunder Wire assigns three goals to each of the 21 players, per Spotrac, that make up the Oklahoma City Thunder roster.
The Thunder’s season kicks off on Oct. 25 against the Chicago Bulls. After a surprising 40-42 campaign that ended a win shy of the playoffs, OKC enters this year with playoff aspirations.
Buy Thunder TicketsLet’s assign three goals for Davis Bertans. The veteran wing was shipped to the Thunder from the Dallas Mavericks in a draft night trade as a salary dump.
If he can return to having an average season after a down year, then he can provide immense value on the court despite his hefty salary.
Become trade asset
When the Thunder acquired Bertans, he was viewed as a bad asset due to his bloated salary combined with declining play last season in Dallas.
In recent years, the Thunder have done an excellent job at flipping the value of players from a negative to a positive — with the most famous example being Chris Paul.
Bertans will likely be another possible reclamation project for the Thunder. He is owed potentially $33 million over the next two seasons, which means he’s likely too expensive to simply waive. Instead, he’ll likely make the OKC roster with the hope of bouncing back from a bad season last year.
If that happens, then there’s the possibility that Bertans will develop trade interest from other teams by the trade deadline. This means the Thunder could gain additional draft assets if they choose to do so by trading him.
Avoid guaranteeing $16 million next season
This is cheating a bit since this is a Thunder goal and not a Bertans’ goal, but it’ll likely influence his playing time this upcoming season.
Bertans has an early termination option for next season that’ll get decided on depending on how much of it is guaranteed. If he plays 75% of regular-season games next season — which equates to roughly 62 games — then he’ll be guaranteed $16 million, which he’ll most likely pick up.
If not, then that number drops to $5 million, making it more likely he will decline the option.
If the Thunder wants to keep their payroll as clean as possible next season, then making sure Bertans doesn’t play more than 62 games will help with that.
Provide spacing
Bertans’s bread and butter is his 3-point shooting. The 30-year-old is shooting 39.8% from 3 on 4.7 attempts in eight NBA seasons.
If he can have that type of production with the Thunder, then Bertans can be a real weapon for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a drive-and-kick option — especially with his deep range.
