Following its official audit of the 2014-15 season, the NBA announced the new salary cap number for the 2015-16 season will be $70 million, about $3 million higher than initially projected. The luxury tax threshold will be $84.7 million.

The question: How does this impact the Thunder? With Kyle Singler's new deal officially on the books and with incremental raises ($4.35 million in 2015-16, $4.676 million in 2016-17, $5.002 million in 2017-18, $5.329 million in 2018-19 and $5.655 in 2019-20), the Thunder will be on the hook for $81,160,957 in salary for 2015-16, assuming they sign Cameron Payne to his rookie scale contract (they will).

However, if they re-sign Enes Kanter to a deal in the $15 million per range -- which is where the current negotiations are hovering -- that bumps their number to $96,160,957, with a full 15-man roster. That's $26,160,957 over the cap and $11,460,957 over the tax. (But the Thunder are cheap remember? Oh, forget it.)

However, if they can trade Perry Jones III and Steve Novak for a couple second-rounders and/or a Serbian drafted in the second round in 2001 (they will try to, if they re-sign Kanter), that would trim $5,788,207 in salary off their books, taking their cap number to $90,372,750. That's now $20,372,750 over the cap and $5,672,750 over the tax threshold.

Why is this significant? Well, if the Thunder are at the $96 million roster cap number (about $11.460 million over), that puts them in the third tier of the tax penalty ($10,000,000 to $14,999,999). That's a tax rate of $2.50 for every dollar over in the third tier, which would put the Thunder's tax payment at $19,902,393. For perspective, that's basically two-thirds of the profit the franchise made last season. Wiped away.

If they trade Jones and Novak, not only does that bring the roster number down to 13, but it also puts them in the second tier of the penalty ($5,000,000 to $9,999,999). With a new tax rate of $1.75 for every dollar over in the second tier, their payment would be $8,677,312. So, to recap, by trading Jones and Novak, the organization would save something like $11,225,081.

And if they could trade one more guy and shave off another $2 million or so, they could get into the first tier of the tax rate, which would be even bigger savings, as well as potentially under the tax apron ($4 million over the tax threshold) which can be a critical place to be. If you're over the apron, you're essentially hard-capped -- no sign-and-trades, no bi-annual exception, smaller mid-level, etc. With Sam Presti valuing flexibility as much as any general manager in the league, you can be sure this is something the Thunder are thinking about.

(Note: I said $2 million, because that would put the roster at 12, and you have to have 13 by rule, so I'm assuming they'd sign 2014 first-rounder Josh Huestis.)

(Another thing, for hypothetical purposes: If the Thunder really cared about saving the dollars, they'd trade Novak and Dion Waiters -- making $5,138,430 next season -- which would be $8,888,431 total off the books, and putting them just $2,572,526 over the tax, firmly in the first tier, and paying a $3,858,789 penalty.)

So, here's my theory on Kanter's offer: It's a number to put the Thunder in that first tier, possibly even under the tax apron, after trading Jones and Novak. Probably something in the $14.3 million-per-year range, or at least something near that number starting next season. That's where the hangup is in negotiations, with Kanter and his representation possibly hunting an offer sheet closer to the max, which would force the Thunder to make a decision on matching.

Oh, and one more thing: Had the Thunder been taxpayers (like so many people wanted them to be) in three of the past four seasons -- remember, they paid it last season -- they would be paying $31,363,350 in luxury tax penalties after this season (after signing Kanter), because of the repeater tax. And that's with Kevin Durant set to be a free agent next summer, and Russell Westbrook the summer after that. So maybe you see why they've been pretty meticulous about avoiding it until now?

Now, they could just let Kanter walk, and they'd miss out on paying the tax another year altogether. But that's not going to happen.

Probably.