In NBA discussions, Kyle Singler’s name is rarely mentioned. He averaged 6.5 points per game during his six professional seasons before retiring in 2019. He was never the type of player whose highlights are remembered years later. Nevertheless, Singler had earned more than $21 million in NBA salary by the time his final check from the Oklahoma City Thunder arrived in 2023. It’s a figure that sparks curiosity, raises eyebrows, and provides insight into the real workings of professional basketball contracts.
By all standards, the start was unremarkable. After graduating from Duke, where he had been truly outstanding in college, Singler signed a rookie contract with the Detroit Pistons in 2012. He made slightly more than $1 million in each of his first two seasons. He was a rotational forward who did the right things without being noticeable and shot fairly well from three.
The Pistons were a poor team. Singler didn’t play a major role. However, he was dependable enough to maintain his spot on the roster, and when Oklahoma City called in 2015, his versatility as a shooting wing made some sense for a Thunder team centered around Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.
Those who look at the numbers are still perplexed by what transpired next. Singler signed a five-year contract extension worth almost $25 million with OKC in July 2015. Over the first three years of the contract, he received between $4.5 and $4.8 million every season.
The basketball community took notice right away because Singler had only averaged 6.5 points per game at the time, and the extension coincided with a decline rather than an increase in his on-court output. The Reddit comments weren’t polite. In a post from that era, it was made clear why OKC paid this man $19 million over the course of four years when he was only making a few appearances and averaging two points per game.
Looking back, it seems like the Thunder valued something more than the stats. After Durant left in 2016, Singler was a seasoned player on a team dealing with a lot of roster turnover. He was a well-known asset, a presence in the locker room, and a professional with a Duke degree who knew how to organize and interact with others. Front offices take those factors into account even though they don’t appear in box scores and seldom survive the scrutiny of public contract disputes. It’s another matter entirely whether it was worth $4.8 million a season.
In Oklahoma City, his output drastically decreased. In 32 games during 2016–17, he averaged three points. He made 12 appearances the next season before the Thunder waived him in August 2018 with two years left on his contract. This is where the stretch provision, a salary cap mechanism, comes into play. Instead of taking Singler’s remaining guarantyd money all at once, OKC was able to distribute it over several seasons.
As a result, Singler earned slightly less than $1 million annually from 2018 to the 2022–2023 season. Despite never participating in another NBA game, he continued to appear on Oklahoma City’s cap books for four years after his actual career ended.
It’s difficult not to find that arc to be subtly intriguing. Early in his career, Singler put in enough effort to secure a big contract. He then used a system designed especially for circumstances such as his to collect the entire amount of that contract. The Thunder handled their cap appropriately. Everyone complied with the regulations. And by 2023, one of the most peculiar financial tales in recent NBA history had been resolved by a player who hadn’t played in an NBA game since 2019.
According to salary records, his total career earnings of just over $21.8 million place him firmly in the category of NBA players who earned far more than the general public believes, mostly because he was good enough to land a big contract at the right time and let the terms of that deal take care of the rest.
