Thunder Lightning Round

By Randy Renner

Well kids I'm outta here for a few days to visit family and friends so posts here on the website may be a tad infrequent until Monday or so. But I will tweet once in a while (when I have WiFi) but there will be some mountains involved in the journey so I may be out of touch more than I'm in touch.

For now I thought I'd leave you with some thoughts as we head into the dog days of summer before training camp gets going.

The Thunder have filled out their roster now, it stands at 15 which is the NBA maximum for the regular season. Rosters can expand over the summer and during training camp and the team may bring in a player or two but remember two draft picks remain unsigned.

Neither the Thunder's second 1st round pick Josh Huestis nor the team's 2nd round pick Semaj Christon have signed deals with the team.

Speculation has centered on the Thunder convincing them to sign D-League deals with the 66ers who are moving to Oklahoma City from Tulsa.

More than likely that's what will happen but the Thunder do have a bit of wiggle room because the contracts of Hasheem Thabeet and the one just signed by free agent Sebastian Telfair are not guaranteed.

With the players the Thunder have signed OKC has committed $75,424,205.00 to salaries for the 2014-15 season. That puts them $12.4 million over the salary cap and just $1.4 million under the luxury tax line.

Kendrick Perkins cap hit for this season has increased by a quarter million dollars because he made that much in extra incentives which were included in his contract so Perk will count $9.654 million this coming season.

At the moment the Thunder have the eighth highest payroll in the NBA behind only the Nets ($95.5 million) Knicks, Clippers, Celtics, Grizzlies, Kings and Wizards ($75.7 million).

The Thunder payroll is higher than the Mavericks ($64.4 million), Bulls ($63.6 million), Spurs ($60.2 million) and Rockets ($59.8 million) of course those numbers will likely increase as those teams continue to pursue some free agents and perhaps trades but it gives you a pretty good read on where things stand now.

Have a great rest of the week, I have a plane to catch...be sure to check out our feed page for constant updates from InsideThunder, Darnell Mayberry, Anthony Slater, Royce Young and others (even me when I have WiFi).