JULY 12: The Thunder have officially re-signed Felton, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 3: The Thunder have agreed to terms with Raymond Felton, who will return to Oklahoma City for the 2018/19 season, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Felton will ink a one-year, minimum salary deal, per Wojnarowski.
Felton, 34, served as Russell Westbrook‘s primary backup at the point in 2017/18, and the Thunder liked his performance enough to bring him back for another year. Felton appeared in all 82 games for OKC, averaging 6.9 PPG and 2.5 APG with a .406/.352/.818 shooting line.
Felton’s return doesn’t come as a real surprise, according to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, who notes (via Twitter) that the veteran point guard recently participated in a five-on-five scrimmage as if he was still on the team when the Thunder brought in some free agents for a workout.
With Felton set to receive another minimum salary contract, his new deal pushes the Thunder’s total projected bill for their 2018/19 roster above $300MM, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Oklahoma City is expected to make cost-cutting moves at some point, but for now they’re carrying about $150MM in salary and another $150MM in projected tax penalties, with new agreements for Paul George, Jerami Grant, Nerlens Noel, and Felton taken into account.
Wow, last season, he looked like someone’s fat uncle getting lit up by his nephew’s friends. The Thunder have to be able to find better than this dude, even for the vet min off the scrap heap.
I’m stealing that comparison. Too good.
Fat boy on a diet, don’t try it…..
……like a looter in a riot.
AKA: The Donut Man. But the bigger consideration is the 150MM in tax penalties.
I thought it was a typo. $300M and everyone knows this team isn’t going to win the west. Including them.
Credit to OKC for sticking in there to win, $300 million in a small market like that is impressive. Could never see Memphis, Charlotte, or NOLA doing something like this.
Melo won’t be on the OKC roster much longer. I smell a 50% buyout or he’ll be stretched, freeing him up to jump to the Lakers for a veteran’s minimum deal where he and LeBron can play together.
He’s not doing 50% if he didn’t opt out.
If only they had the same mind-set prior to the harden trade.
I can’t believe he’s still in the league.
More fans hating on Melo, come on guys he isn’t the player he use to be, but having a bad season as 3rd option still gets a 16/6, that’s not to bad you know. This guy if I am not wrong is got over 25K points scored in the league, just give him some respect, yes he have to realize he isn’t the guy he use to be but, there are still probably 300 guys in this league worst than him, so of course he still around, & hopefully he can jump to another team where he can be happy & enjoy the rest of his career.
Not hating on Melo at all — it’s just that he’s way too costly at the moment for the Thunder. They’re not going to pay $150MM tax, and that’s what they’d have to do if they kept him. Just guessing, but it makes a lot of fiscal sense to cut the cord with him before the start of the season. Once he’s free, don’t you think finishing his career playing alongside LeBron in LA makes sense? It does to me.