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The Thunder’s stars delivered a championship last month, and the franchise paid them handsomely weeks later.
Jalen Williams has agreed to a five-year extension with Oklahoma City that could reach up to $287 million, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The deal comes a day after the team agreed to a max extension with Chet Holmgren, which starts at $237 million but has incentives that can boost the deal to $250 million.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the 2025 regular-season and Finals MVP, agreed to a four-year, $285 million extension with the Thunder on July 1, which made him the first player to sign a deal that had an average annual value of more than $70 million.
Oklahoma City is paying up to $822 million among its three stars—all of whom are under 27 years old. The timing also works out, as all three players are locked into their deals until the 2030–31 season.
Despite the massive deals, the Thunder are expected to be under the luxury tax and aprons for next season—a luxury in a league where salary-cap management has become an enormous focus. The deals for Williams and Holmgren, who the Thunder drafted in 2022, will start in the 2026–27 season, while Gilgeous-Alexander’s extension begins the following year.
However, the Thunder will face questions regarding the future of their roster in two years, as the three stars will account for about 75% of the salary cap. By the 2027–28 season, they will account for roughly 86.4% of the salary cap.
This will likely mean the team will have a revolving door of players, particularly when it comes to veterans like Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, and potentially even Luguentz Dort, who is also eligible for an extension this offseason.
What makes Oklahoma City’s situation unique is that it may be able to backfill those roles with young talent on cheap contracts, considering its war chest of first-round picks for the rest of the decade. GM Sam Presti also has one of the league’s best track records for drafting, which includes three former MVPs (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden) as well as Holmgren and Williams.
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