Wiggins renewed his contract, but not the No. 1 Wiggins who was denied the Warriors from representing Canada at the Olympics.
It's the Thunder's "three-point bench" Aaron Wiggins, who performed well last season.
According to NBA "whistleblower" Shams Charania, the Warriors refused to exercise his fourth-year $2 million player option and instead offered him a five-year, $47 million contract that locked in his future for the long term.
Wiggins' contract is quite interesting, as he was drafted by the Thunder with the fifth pick in the second round in 2021 using a "new offer clause."
The second-round rookie signed a 4-year-old contract with a guaranteed first two years, a non-guaranteed third year, and a non-guaranteed/team option for the fourth year.
He has been with the Thunder for three seasons now, playing in 78 games and four off the bench as a primary outside rotation this season, contributing 6.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 15.7 minutes, but shooting an exaggerated 49.2% from three-point range, once one of the most accurate three-pointers in the league.
And this signing of the Thunder also leaves enough room for operation.
Because Wiggins' salary last season was only 1.85 million, although the Thunder officially announced a contract extension with him, they can first use their own cap space to sign someone (such as Hartenstein), and then use the bird right to renew his contract.
If the Thunder end up pulling people up, they can just use the space to eat his contract and make up for this season's "poor ghost line" ($127 million), and they still have enough players to play in the new season.
But it can also be seen from this slightly generous contract extension that Thunder general manager Presti still prefers the native "Thunder's own people", in addition to the last resort, he still hopes to find the team's next "Seferosa" and "Ibaka".