sportingnews
As the Oklahoma City Thunder blossomed into one of the best teams in the NBA, Lu Dort set the tone.
Now, the piece of OKC's identity that comes from Dort is heading to the Atlanta Hawks.
The three-team trade details came from ESPN's Shams Charania on Sunday.
The Hawks get Dort from the Thunder.
The Dallas Mavericks get involved to get Zaccharie Risacher from the Hawks.
Dallas sends Ryan Nembhard to Atlanta.
And in all the movement, Oklahoma City gets three second-round picks.
Why did the Thunder trade Lu Dort? Before this move, OKC was still over the prohibitive second salary cap apron.
Now, they're below it, and they keep stockpiling picks as they usually do.
"Oklahoma City has now acquired seven second-round picks this offseason, shed $224 million in payroll and tax and positioned themselves comfortably under the second apron via the trades of Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins," Charania wrote on X.
Why did the Hawks trade for Lu Dort? Atlanta loads up its defense even more on the wing, and will have more cap space next summer.
"The Hawks now are teaming up a 27-year-old elite defender in Dort with Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker on the wings -- and will have $40+ million in cap space next summer," Charania wrote on X.
"Atlanta pursued several wings this offseason before landing Dort." It'll definitely be tough to score points against Atlanta this season.