Oklahoma City Thunder Trade Guide: Finding the RIGHT personality 👀 | NBA on ESPN

Oklahoma City Thunder Trade Guide: Finding the RIGHT personality 👀 | NBA on ESPN

A happy Wednesday out there and hopefully everyone is doing great uh we are going to do a little bit of an Oklahoma City Thunder trade guide uh you can find the Western Conference um the online edition trade guide on espn.com we’ve got the Eastern Conference that went up on on Tuesday we will

Continually pump out videos uh trade guide videos reaction videos um you know content oncom um you wake up on a Wednesday morning in late January and look who’s sitting on top of the Western Conference standings at 30 and 13 tied with Minnesota is the Oklahoma City Thunder and um we I posed

A question back in December um in an article we put out as far as big questions the teams have to ask what big questions front offices will need to ask and the big question I had for Oklahoma City was was this roster mature enough to handle um a player from the outside

Group and when you and why I asked that is that when you look at the the group youngest roster in the NBA um they have built within whether it be through the draft they get Shay um guildas Alexander from the Clippers who was still on a rookie contract at the

Time um Lou Dort was an undrafted player that they signed as a free agent uh Bon they go out and trade um Kendrick Williams was a trade but the majority of this group I would say like 90% of this group has been drafted has been nurtured

Has been raised within and that was the B big question and when I posed it I think I did it after we wrote the article and then I asked after the Boston game when they won at home everybody’s like oh my God everybody wants to make a change with Oklahoma

City and I no I I don’t I mean if this team did nothing at the deadline I would be certainly fine with it um but I that was kind of a question because when you’re going through this process of adding to your play um adding to the

Players on the court and you’re taking away a player and then there’s also that dynamic as far as that locker room dynamic because the last thing you want to do is get an a-hole and a trade and then all of a sudden what you’ve built has now just been like basically you

Throw a a match to it and that’s kind of the one of the things that when Oklahoma City is going through this process over the next two weeks and their you know hey do we what do we need to get out go out and address when we’ll talk about it

Here um that’s the that’s for me is the biggest thing is that you have to have the right personality to fit in with uh with this current group here and and Sam presty who’s been doing this as long as anybody out there and ironically has made the most trades uh regular season

Trades as any executive out there more than d m um you know he said that he had the perfect line um you know before the season start and I’ll read it I’m not trying to dismiss everyone’s excitement but we’re not a 500 team and they weren’t a 500 team last year they went

Against New Orleans in the playing then they lose to um they lose to uh Minnesota in the next playing game and then all of a sudden we’re trying to anoint them as the team of the future and it’s like and he said we have to finish our breakfast before we start

Acting like we’re on a cusp for something and that’s right they didn’t get to a first round and lose in seven they didn’t get to a second round they didn’t get to a a Conference Finals you know this team was still in the process of taking um taking baby steps and

Everything like that and that’s why you have to kind of temper the excitement here there are two different ways that you could look at Oklahoma City at the deadline you could take the approach and say we I want to see what this team looks like when we get into a first

Round Series against um Dallas or New Orleans um you know that you know basically it could be Phoenix and the Clippers duking it out at at four and five maybe you get Denver in the first round um unlikely I’m just throwing teams out there as far as um who they

Could potentially could um could face here maybe you get um maybe you get the Lakers in the first round here but you could take that approach and say you know what we’re going to stand Pat I’m going to keep all my draft assets and we’ll talk I’m not going to go through

All them but we’ll talk about it in a minute and I want to see what this team looks like and then I’m going to get addressed what our needs are in the off season here or you could take the the um the approach where you’re looking at um

What our deficiencies are and and certainly when you look at it it’s certainly rebounding when you’re 29th in defensive rebounding percentage and you’re 29th in points uh Second Chance points allowed which means second worst in the NBA you have to figure out is there a big out there that and I’m not saying

Start over chat or move chat to to the four and you go big no no you keep as is but is there kind of an insurance policy as far as what you have available as far as from a trade standpoint without basically giving up the farm here and I don’t think you have

To give up the farm to go out and do that and from a trade meter standpoint we have them at a four right now because they’re kind of like in that in between it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t and it would you know and it wouldn’t

Stun me if if they did here they’ve got a ton of draft picks right we know about all the the draft picks they’ve got 21 seconds they go out and do um they’ve got a total of 14 11 of those that can be traded um the reason why 14 a 14

First but 11 can be traded is because remember you can’t trade your first in every year like you the stean rule you can only trade your first in every other your own first in um or every other year but you have to have something there so

If you traded your own 24 first and then you can’t trade your 25 first maybe if you have it first from another team but we’re going with 11 tradeable first and then 21 seconds 21 seconds is a lot that gets you in the ballpark as far as

Moving three for a big potentially if you don’t want to go out and move a first tier so there are plenty of options for Oklahoma City as far as at the deadline here the one there’s two different trades that I propose and this is just for me talking right this is not

You know firsthand information it’s just looking at the roster and being realistic as far as what they have Ava available the one that’s not on here and this is actually coming out on Monday is that we have to do a um trades that we would like to see article and I’m going

To give a little bit of a spoil alert here like that for me is challenging because I don’t I’m not a person that just throws things up against the wall and then we’re going to get clicks here like I’m looking at it from a front office perspective here so I looked at

It like okay what team out there that’s either fighting for a playing spot or in a lottery that has bigs would want to maybe move off it and for me it would be Andre Drummond in um in Chicago and I know Chicago is in the thick of being in

A plane Drummond’s on an expiring contract um 8.4 rebounds in 16 minutes which is ridiculous I mean that is U per cleaning the glass ranks in 100% percentile and offensive and defensive rebounding percentage you know two two um two twos um you know 3 tws does it

Get you that would Chicago do something like that I don’t know but that’s the deal that if you’re in Oklahoma City that you should be looking at now that takes into the dynamic how does Drummond fit within your locker room the other thing that I you know we look at here is

A team that you know certainly is in the lottery is wash Washington and when you look at a big like Daniel Gafford who um has got three years left on his contract including this year um is in this first year of this rookie extension is at a

Really good number at like $12 million would you be willing to go out out and and move a one in a deal and so we have in the trades we’d like to see uh let me scroll up there um we have um Berton a 2018 first top 10 protect in a 2020 you

Know 22s for Gafford it sounds a little Rich here but by 28 you know this team that pick could be in the you know mid to to late 20s here um and so but that’s the thinking that if you’re in Oklahoma City how do I go out and get another big

As an insurance policy to check not to start over chck to have an insurance policy because when you look at this lineup right now you can make a case that there’s going to be two Thunder players in this All-Star game and I know you’re like two cat and Shay I’m like no

No CH Shay and jayen Williams and I’m writing something for when allar starters come out and he’s not a starter but guys to keep an eye on when we we get to the uh Reserve process here and I think Jaylen Williams has as much of a

Case as any player to be selected as a reserve and it’s basically the Derek white argument for the Western Conference here and when you have a roster as this and it’s there’s a timeline here like every I think you have to be careful when you say the T we the window is open

Forever with this group because of they’re the youngest team in the NBA and you can say that but there’s a financial timeline here because eventually things will get start to get expensive when Josh giddy is extension eligible this summer and if Shay when Shay earns all MBA and is supermax eligible this um

To to sign an extension next summer um that will kick in two years down the road and then when Chad is um rookie extension eligible and Jaylen Williams is like everything starts to add up so you have a three-year Financial window before you can really maximize and go

Out and and do these deals these gaffer type deals or maybe a PJ Washington type deal that gives you a you know not a rebounding specialist but a you know a big that can play multiple positions can play center for you here but for Oklahoma City you have Endless Options

Here where you’re not you don’t have to trade three first round picks or four first round picks you can just continually to tweak um to tweak this roster here and they’re in they’re in great shape 12.3 million below the luxury tax great shape um we’ve talked

About the the uh the draft as as a far as far as you know basically having almost three picks every year here and you know this year they’ve got a top five protected first from uh Houston unprotected first from the Clippers and a top 10 protected first from Utah they

Could have at least favorable of those will go to Toronto um they’re going to have probably three first round picks again to you know to figure it out again in the draft and find a good player here so from a draft Equity standpoint they are loaded we’ve kind of talked about

That before um 21 seconds man you can get into you don’t have to you can basically consolidate those or if you want to move out of uh move one of those first you you can here but um you know as I said Sam presty has been aggressive

You know leads the league and trades but you know last year didn’t have to go out and make a big deal muscala for Justin Jackson in two seconds they traded darus basley to Phoenix for Sarge in a second those are the type of deals now we’re

Just going to move it up one level because this is where this roster is but that’s it on on Oklahoma City as far as kind of the timeline and just My Philosophy as far as you know um you know how they’re building um building this roster and what um you know what

Could happen when we get closer to deadline but keep an eye on those seconds keep an eye on Oklahoma City going out and targeting a big everyone have a great day out there

Bobby Marks presents his Oklahoma City Thunder trade guide.
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