The Thunder just made a SNEAKY good move...

So Sam Presti is in the midst of one more evil, evil plan here in this offseason. One that would result in one of the most sneaky good signings of the entire free agency period. As we've got some breaking news to get into here today on Thunder Digest. The Thunder had one more roster spot to fill after trading away Lou Dort to Atlanta last week. And it looks like they have found their man that they are ready to replace that final roster spot with. And it would be a player that they would be able to snag away from a rival in the Western Conference. That being the Denver Nuggets and that player being Spencer Jones. A true 3 and D wing defender slash 3 point shooter that people have been clamoring for for the Thunder in this final composition of the roster this season. And so I want to talk about it here today because this is not officially confirmed as of yet. As the Nuggets do have up to 48 hours to match that offer. Meaning that their deadline would be approaching at the very end of today Sunday July 26th. So we're going to talk about this exact offer right here. Why this plan from Sam Presti is evilly brilliant in every single way. And what it would bring to the Thunder as well as the pressure that it puts on the Denver Nuggets as of right now. So we're going to get into that here in today's video. Appreciate you guys for being in here on the channel. And I apologize that I haven't been able to post in a while. I've been really really busy over the last week or so. I went to Boston for 3 days. I'm back home in Wisconsin with my family. I'll be back in Oklahoma here in a couple of days celebrating my birthday turning 25. So yeah just been kind of on the move on the go. But wanted to sit down and get this video out for you guys here today. Talking about Spencer Jones. But I have a lot of thoughts on this signing. If the Thunder are able to get this to go through which my opinions, my feelings tell me that this will go through for the Thunder. And I'll explain why throughout the course of this video. But the Thunder acquiring the scoliosis shooting, crazy formed, great defensive, very cerebral player that is Spencer Jones. Would be the perfect filling of that final roster spot for this team. It's not a guy that you're never going to throw out there to have see the light of day. Spencer Jones would be a impactful rotation player and the data shows exactly why. Just like the data shows why you guys should be using Otis Edge if you have not already so far. Emotion loses and data wins and that's exactly why Otis Edge is the place you guys should go for all your analytics for passion meets data. Their team of 30 year Vegas pros and their next gen analytics delivers daily expert picks across your favorite leagues. Powered by real numbers not just punches. So go ahead and take a smarter approach to your sports betting. If you're going to do it for the NFL coming up, join the NBA here in October when that gets back going again. Go download Otis Edge the app there today and see exactly why their quick growing community is getting ahead of the game because that is the Otis Edge. Go check it out on the app store. I've got a link in the description of this video as well as the comments. Denver restricted free agent Spencer Jones has agreed to a two year $12 million offer sheet with the Oklahoma City Thunder. It would be a $6 million annual yearly salary AAP. He from the Nuggets last year had an NBA best 69% from the three point line. But it was in very limited three point opportunities throughout the course of that Minnesota series where they ultimately lost to the Timberwolves. If he moves on to OKC he would solidify that final roster spot which would look like this right here. You can go ahead and pause that, read all those guys that are there. Obviously you've had a lot of guys that have come in and out of that building here this offseason. Really the most tumultuous offseason the Thunder has had throughout the course of this current era of time where you're in win now mode. You're trying to keep as much of your core together for as long as you can. That second apron really crept up on the Thunder and we knew that it was not going to be any sort of instance where you could keep this whole team together for more than a couple of seasons. The Thunder have had a lot going on, a lot coming in and out of the door. And this move right here for the Thunder bringing in Spencer Jones would be the final move of the offseason for OKC. So I want you guys to go ahead and get involved in the comments down below. Let me know your thoughts on this offseason as a whole for Sam Presti. One out of ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. As a reminder, here's exactly everything that Sam Presti has to say. So he started by offloading $37 million in salary which saved the Thunder over $300 million in luxury tax. He turned that into seven second round picks which the Thunder didn't have any leverage in those trades. I'm not surprised they couldn't get any firsts. There are reports out there where they tried to get a first rounder for the door, they could not. They drafted a Dynamara at pick 12, then it starts at pick 16, Opega away in the second round. And they used one of those trade player exceptions that they were able to grab from those trades here in this offseason to apply some pressure to a competitor and potentially steal one of its rotation players in Spencer Jones who had a very interesting career up to this point. He's 25 years old. He spent five years at Stanford. He's the all-time leader in three-pointers made for the Stanford Cardinal. A career 37% three-point shooter throughout his time playing competitive basketball at the college and the NBA realms. And he has some stats that really show why he can be a very impactful player. But he also has some stats that show why obviously his value of $6 million isn't one that may end up being contested by the Denver Nuggets for a multitude of reasons. I want to start it off by showing some of his offensive game in a little bit of a film breakdown. Again, I can't do a ton of film breakdowns here for copyright reasons, but he's more of a three-point guy and his shot does not look pretty. I mean, you'll see it right here. He really has a hitch to his jumper that you don't see from many successful three-point shooters, but it works and it has worked for him at a consistent level throughout the course of his competitive career. His three-point game is where he's going to live offensively. He has the size and the wingspan that obviously if you lose him, he can go and attack the rim. He's not going to be an efficient scorer at the basket by any stretch of the imagination. He's not a mid-range guy either. Defensively, I think that there's a little bit more to be desired there on the perimeter, but you're not bringing him in to be a perimeter defender. You have some of the best perimeter defenders in the world in Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso. AJ Mitchell is another one there as well who's a great defender that people don't even realize. The Thunder don't really necessarily need a perimeter defender. This is a guy who's a true wing that can kind of go toe-to-toe with some of the power forwards in the NBA if he needs to be a big body, but he's just a solid, solid role player for that 15th roster spot, low ceiling, but can be a higher impact than a lot of 15th men around the league. And the impact for this type of player would actually be pretty crazy. You look at the high leverage minutes that he played versus not played last season for the Nuggets, 130 minutes when he was on the floor in playoff time, the Nuggets were a positive net rated team, but in the 134 minutes that he was not on the floor during the postseason, the Nuggets were a minus six net rated team, and throughout that playoff series against Minnesota, when Spencer Jones was on the floor, he was guarding Julius Randle, and he did a great job guarding a notorious playoff dropper in Julius Randle. You see it in some of these clips right here of basically just holding his ground and not letting Julius back him down, kind of the Carl Anthony Towns, the Marcus Cousins meme from back in the day that you saw, but great job defensively on these possessions from Spencer Jones. There's definitely some low lights that I could show you of him getting blown by, of him not being able to rotate over, but being in a defensive scheme like Wunder, where you have some of the best defensive players and best defensive philosophies in the world, Spencer Jones will be a better defender than he ever has in his entire life, and I mentioned the cerebral aspect of things. Spencer Jones obviously spent five years at Stanford. The man is very smart. The man, when you watch him speak, if you go watch some of his interviews, he's very calculated in the way that he composes himself, and another little stat right here that shows some of his impact. This is a filter right here amongst players that you would consider to be, you know, wing type of players. Five plus offensive rebound percentage, above the league average three-point shooters, a thousand plus minutes, there's only ten guards or wings in the NBA that fulfill those criteria, and Spencer Jones is one of those ten, so he does have a niche role that he does fill in this type of situation, and the Thunder, in doing this, bring in a player, as I mentioned, who is usable in that final roster spot for 15, and they also apply a lot of pressure to the Denver Nuggets, and I'm going to show you why right now. Denver is in a very similar situation to Oklahoma City, where they are very close to the second apron, and if they were to accept and match that Spencer Jones offer sheet, they would firmly be in the second apron, which would give them all of those penalties, as well as upping their tax penalty from $36 million to $68 million, so they would nearly double the Denver Nuggets tax sheet that they would have to pay this coming season, and on top of that, Denver has never been a tax team. I mean, this stat right here blew me away, but then when I think about it, I mean, it kind of makes sense. Since 2002-2003, Denver has paid a total of $53 million in tax penalties, and again, if I were to show you guys this right here, their number, if they were to accept the Spencer Jones offer sheet, would put them over, and it would put them over by a metric ton, $60 million over in that repeater tax. They'd pay more tax this year than they had paid from 2002-2025, if they were to accept this Spencer Jones offer, and that's why this is kind of an evil, perfect villain move from Sam Presti, because you basically put a front office in Denver into kind of a bit of a panic mode. And I kind of agree with Matt Sanders on this, too. The San Antonio Spurs own Atlanta's pick next year. He made Atlanta infinitely better, giving them Luthor and Aaron Wiggins as players to add to that rotation. That seems like a calculated move. This seems like a calculated move, applying pressure to one of your contenders to steal one of their players on their roster, knowing that if they accept that offer sheet, there is no way that they're going to be able to afford those tax penalties that come along with it. They're not in the same situation as the funder who could afford to be in the second apron and really give themselves the major penalties that come along with that, not only from a financial standpoint, which we've shown here in this video, but from a standpoint of infractions of not being able to have any players that are more than veteran minimum players, not being able to trade assets while you are in the second apron. The funder basically just woke up and twisted the arm of the Denver Nuggets and said, give us your player or else. And the funder can perfectly afford this right up to the point where basically they would be $700,000 away from the second apron. They have just enough money to accept this offer right here, because they traded away Lou Doerr, and this would be the final move of the funder offseason. So again, let me know what you guys think down below of this move and of the entirety of the offseason for OKC. One out of ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. Spencer Jones is going to be one that would be part of the rotation to finalize that 15-man roster, and honestly, I'm a fan of this move. I think that there is plenty to be desired in Spencer Jones' game, but all things considered, as a 15-man on this roster, this would be the perfect pick-up for the funder. He is a one-of-one kind of player from a skillset standpoint. He would take over a role of an Isaiah Joe-esque, a little bit more size, a little bit better of a defensive player as well, and more of a true wing player than what any other player is on this funder roster. Him, kind of paired along with some of these other guys off the bench, I think would be a perfect role player on this team. And Denver has until midnight tonight, midnight Eastern time, on July 26, to offer that, to match that offer sheet. Otherwise, Spencer Jones will officially be the final member of that funder roster, and if this tells you the kind of guy that Spencer Jones is, the dude announced this news himself on LinkedIn, and he may be the most active NBA player on LinkedIn of any other out there. You see Stanford graduate, five years that he spent there. The dude fits in with the culture that is there in Oklahoma City, and Sam Presti saw someone that he liked, said, we'll give you $6 million a year in Denver. There's nothing you can do about it unless you put yourself in financial trouble. And that's exactly what Sam Presti did. So Spencer Jones, we will know for sure by midnight tonight whether it is confirmed that this man is officially a member of the Oklahoma City funder, or if Denver is willing to break the bank and keep him around. I would bet personally on the first option on the ladder of him deciding to stay with OKC because Denver cannot match that offer sheet. So again, we'll keep you guys updated on all of that. Appreciate you for watching this video. Again, I apologize that I haven't been super active as of late, but I also have not forgotten about our giveaway. Please don't think I have. I promise that it is coming. I promise that I will announce our winners. We'll get them to you. You guys will get to pick a Thunder Jersey of your choice for helping us reach 10K subscribers. Two of you out there on our channel that are supporters, that gave us some of those comments throughout the time we did our giveaway, we'll be reaching out to you. I'm going to have that wheel spin of the players, of the people that are our winners. I'm going to do those two wheel spins once I get back home to Oklahoma, which will be here in the next couple of days. So stay on the lookout for that and for more content. We'll see you guys later here on Thunderdive.