The Thunder and forward Davis Bertans have agreed to revise part of the sharpshooter’s contract, sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
As Scotto details, if Bertans had appeared in 75% of Oklahoma City’s games this season, his partially guaranteed deal for 2024/25 would have become fully guaranteed at $16MM. However, that clause has been removed. Instead, Bertans will receive a slight increase to his partial guarantee for next season, from $5MM to $5.25MM.
Bertans has only played in five of the Thunder’s 17 games this fall, so it seems unlikely he would have hit the 75% trigger threshold. By agreeing to remove that clause, he’ll earn $250K.
The move won’t have an impact on Bertans or the Thunder in ’23/24, as his salary for this season is fully guaranteed at $17MM.
Bertans, who turns 32 in a couple weeks, is averaging career lows of 3.4 points and 9.2 minutes per night. Nicknamed the “Latvian Laser” for his shooting prowess, Bertans holds a career mark of 39.7% from three-point range. He has converted three of his 12 looks from beyond the arc in ’23/24.
Milwaukee should aquire him!
Good move for both parties. It was one of the dumbest contract provisions I can remember in any sport.
So he still has his ETO, correct?
Yes.
OKC does not need to play him and probably only does to keep his trade value. He had to sit out at least 21 games to avoid his salary becoming guaranteed. Or more if the team makes the playoffs. 12 games of this were reached.
One reason why they do this is because they want to trade him in the coming weeks to a team that wants to be able to play him all of the games.
While it has a little cost, this makes him more attractive to be traded. If the salary guarantee date for next season would have been pushed, that would even be better. And who knows 5.25 million is a better salary matching number next offseason.
Wonder where he’ll end up.
– Dont think he will be the trade target for a third team.
– This reduces the chance of a buy-out for me, which OKC would not likely do anyway
– Maybe a third-team piece to make salary matching work.
-> But why not a contract OKC combines with draft assets to improve their roster, given their current standings. Most interesting upgrades available in a one-for-one trade with a “Bottom-Half Team”: Bogdanovic, Finney-Smith, Dinwiddie, Joe Harris and Brogdon.
A nice trade could also be Bertans + Pokusevski + draft assets for Finney Smith and Royce O Neil. Curious which draft assets Brooklyn would need for this, given the big interest in these players. But OKC has many assets to spend, why not spend some to make a play-off run this year.