Lu Dort’s stint in Oklahoma City is over. The Thunder shipped the All-Defensive wing to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team trade Sunday, according to a report by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Oklahoma City walks away with three second-round picks in the deal, per Charania’s reporting. Atlanta also lands guard Ryan Nembhard, while the Dallas Mavericks absorb former No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher as the third piece, a structure Marc Stein later confirmed. For Atlanta, Risacher’s exit closes the book on a rookie hype cycle that stalled once he lost his rotation spot. The move caps a summer of roster-shedding for the reigning champions, one that started long before Dort’s name entered trade rumors.
Lu Dort’s Journey From Undrafted Grinder to Champion
Dort arrived in Oklahoma City as an afterthought, a 2019 castoff who went undrafted out of Arizona State despite earning All-Pac-12 Second Team honors as a freshman. He clawed his way onto a two-way deal, then a standard contract, then the starting lineup, and never left it. Across 432 regular-season games, Dort has put up 11.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists a night while shooting 35.8 percent from deep for his career, numbers that undersell what actually made him worth building around.
Dort earned All-Defensive First Team honors in 2024-25, according to grades from Thunder Wire, and drew Defensive Player of the Year buzz while helping the Thunder win the 2025 title, the physicality he brought nightly against names like Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell part of the price of admission.
Dort picked up a flagrant foul and an ejection for tripping Nikola Jokic in February, a play the Nuggets star called an “unnecessary move and a necessary reaction.”
Dort owned it afterward.
“That’s a physical game and there’s limits to it, and I went over the limit,” Dort said at the time, as quoted by Jon Hoefling of USA Today. Ten days later came a second flagrant, this one an arm to Jokic’s face.
“I didn’t mean to hit him in the face, but when I go over screens and stuff like that, my arms are just everywhere,” Dort said this time, as quoted by Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
What Trading Lu Dort Means for Oklahoma City’s Cap
Dort’s $17.7 million team option for 2026-27, which Oklahoma City exercised in June, pushed the roster into the NBA’s second luxury tax apron, a status general manager Sam Presti had spent the offseason trying to shed. Oklahoma City had already dealt Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins for second-round compensation, cost-cutting moves that trimmed tens of millions off the books, according to a report from Thunderous Intentions. Even after those trades and Kenrich Williams‘ return, the Thunder still sat roughly $13 million above the threshold entering July.
Dort’s exit changes that math instantly, clearing his full salary off Oklahoma City’s books while netting three future assets. His five-year, $87.5 million contract, signed in 2022, is now Atlanta’s obligation, according to player records kept by RotoWire. That deal carried a $17.7 million team option for the final season, the same option Presti exercised weeks earlier before deciding the roster still needed trimming. For the Hawks, it’s a defensive infusion. For the Thunder, it’s another domino in an offseason built around staying flexible enough to win another championship, even if it means saying goodbye to a player who helped win their first one.
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