The Thunder’s 2025 offseason showed restraint and loyalty but highlighted the mistake of overlooking a glaring weakness in 2025 free agency.

Got all that? Good. As the Thunder have neither paid the tax nor gone above the second apron yet, this means they are still four taxpaying seasons away from the repeater penalty and three second apron seasons away from seeing a first-round pick drop to No. 30 overall. This begs the question of when that cycle will actually start for them.