$46 million gone! Jaylen Williams is officially out of the running for the award, and the Thunder are saving a lot of money

On November 23, the Thunder will face the Trail Blazers tomorrow. The official injury report shows that Jaylen Williams will continue to be absent due to recovery from wrist surgery. As a result, Jaylen Williams has been confirmed to miss 18 games this season and is officially not eligible for regular season awards.

Williams underwent surgery to repair a completely torn scapholunate ligament in his right wrist during the offseason - he had been fighting with the injury during the Thunder's championship campaign last season. At the end of October, he underwent follow-up surgery on his wrist again to remove a screw that caused discomfort during the recovery process. He has not played since.

However, Williams' truce has saved the Thunder salary space for next season.

In July this year, Williams signed a five-year rookie maximum salary extension contract with the Thunder. If the best team and other incentive terms can be reached, the total contract value can reach up to US$287 million. If it cannot be reached, it will be 241 million in five years.

According to data from the salary website Spotrac, this season is the last year of Williams' rookie contract, and his annual salary is US$6.5 million; the new contract will take effect from next season, with an annual salary of US$41.5 million. The contract extension signed in July includes a salary increase clause: if he can be selected to the All-NBA Team again, be elected as the regular season MVP or the Defensive Player of the Year, he can trigger the "super maximum salary" increase mechanism - which will increase his salary in the 2026-27 season by more than 8 million US dollars, reaching nearly 50 million US dollars. A similar case is Mobley. After being elected as the Defensive Player of the Year in May this year, his salary increased by approximately US$8 million this season.

Last season, Williams reached the peak of his career: averaging 21.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. He was selected to the All-Star for the first time in his career, and also won the All-NBA Third Team and the All-Defensive Second Team. Although it is difficult to be selected for the first team of the All-NBA Team, he has a high hope of being promoted to the second or third team, and he will also receive a corresponding salary increase (although the magnitude is smaller than the super maximum salary increase). The starting salary of his contract extension is 25% of the salary cap. If he is selected for the second team of the best team, his salary will increase by 1 percentage point (about 3 million US dollars); if he is selected for the third team, his salary will increase by 0.5 percentage point (about 1.5 million US dollars).

Although Oklahoma City, where the Thunder is located, is one of the smaller cities in the NBA market, the team system built by general manager Presti has made the salary saved by Williams' truce an "icing on the cake" rather than a "necessity."

Currently, the Thunder have paid a total salary of more than US$822 million for Williams, Holmgren and Alexander, but they still do not need to pay luxury tax this season. According to ESPN salary expert Marks, the team's total salary next season will reach 246 million US dollars, which means that they will move from the "no-tax camp" this season to the dreaded "second luxury tax line."

However, Presti holds a non-guaranteed contract of US$77 million and a large reserve of draft picks, which is enough to reshape the rotation around the core lineup without touching the second luxury tax line for a long time. NBA regulations stipulate that teams that exceed the second luxury tax line will face signing and transaction restrictions; if this clause is triggered in three years within five years, the team's first-round draft pick will be forced to be reduced to the 30th overall pick (regardless of the regular season record).

While the Thunder were waiting for Williams to make his season debut, he helped the team in a unique way-saving the team valuable salary space a year before the team faced the highest salary bill in franchise history.

In addition, the Thunder's depth is indeed terrifying. The data media Hoop Muse calculated the Thunder's record when Williams was not playing. Last season, in the 13 games he missed, the Thunder went 13-0; this season, they are currently 16-1.