Thunder Notes: Hard Cap, Luxury Taxes & Stretching Kyle Singler

Tyler Raye/Daily ThunderHard cap. Luxury taxes. Stretch provision. There’s all sorts of fun stuff swirling around Oklahoma City this month. Sure beats the old days of re-signing Derek Fisher in late July and calling it a summer.

Rudy Gay and the Hard Cap

The Thunder pursued Rudy Gay hard. No official offer terms were announced, but it’s likely Oklahoma City offered a contract starting at $5.2 million using the taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (MLE for short, TMLE if you want to get all nerdy).

Gay eventually passed on the Thunder’s offer and signed with San Antonio instead. The Spurs offered more money by using the non-taxpayer version of the MLE, which starts at $8.4 million. So why didn’t the…