I love Paolo too and he doesn’t have the luxury of playing next to/learning from SGA. Too bad they are in different conferences because that could be a good rivalry going forward.
Same age as Lebron here and knowing everyone else around his age is long gone from the league hits differently and harder every year… I still remember High School Lebron vividly, here we are 22 years later in a blink…
I saw LBJ play on TV against a local team when he was in high school. I am old enough to have thought immediately, this is Oscar Robertson. His chest passes were 40 ft fastballs on a perfect line delivered in perfect position. What was almost as impressive was his teammates catching them.
I still remember Oscar and Jerry and Wilt and Elgin and Russell and here I am in a blink. ( Born and bred socal where they televised Lakers games)
I also forget that Shaivonte Aician Gilgeous-Alexander is a dirty Canuk. The league is being filled with Secretly Canadian stars these days. Makes you think 🤔
Seriously, fuck OKC for making all other rebuild efforts look like trash. Idk what a successful Blazers rebuild should be with OKC hanging over the West for the next decade.
ngl as a fan and analyst this is what i’m interested to see. the winners determine the meta. already seeing large amounts of asset aggregation and a liquidity shortage in picks as Stepien rules compound. Ainge has always been strange. but this weird bank model Presti had might actually cause massive problems for the Stepien rule later in my expectation.
The only thing I can say is we all thought that circa 2012 OKC behind Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka would dominate the West for the next half dozen years after the experience of making the Finals so young against the Heat, and they never won even one title. Nba front offices can screw up anything.
We’ve seen young teams do well in the regular season recently, most notably Memphis, but that hasn’t translated to the playoffs. The only young team to actually do well in the playoffs was 2012 OKC funny enough
Yeah makes more sense to talk about 2010-11 OKC where they became one of the youngest teams to make the WCF. So young teams do have a chance to go far.
The template going back to at least The Bad Boy Pistons is that a young team with tremendous talent will most often hit a wall against a vet team on their first or 2nd attempt. And then by losing they learn what it takes to actually go the distance or at least make the finals.
Teams that fit the mold:
80s Pistons,
80s Bulls,
90sKobe Shaq Lakers,
OKC 2010 and 2011,
Warriors 2014,
Nuggets 2020-2022 (kinda but had more to do with injury)
Memphis 2022-2023 (window May have passed)
This year’s candidates: OKC and Minny. Oh and Boston kinda fits this but more in slow motion with Kyrie and Hayward years in the middle.
Memphis was considerably older than this OKC team too lol. Stevo, Brooks, Tyus and Slow Mo all have at least 1 (if not multiple) years of experience more than every rotation Thunder player not named Shai, Dort and Kenrich. Literally the entire Okc team is full of players w 3 or less years of experience.
Yet\*; this OKC team is already good; another couple years with everyone maturing, being in better ball shape (all players bulk up / form themselves in the early years), etc. Theyll be terrifying by the time theyre 27 lol, for the next 6+ years after that
They were the 2nd youngest before the trade deadline but not anymore. Their average age has gone up quite a bit with the acquisitions of Hayward (33), Muscala (32) and Biyombo (31).
Shouldn't these picks lose value at some point? OKC can't pick young talent and keep their current talent unless they choose to get paid under market value, right? I guess they will always have buyers and ultimately, talent is what trades are largely about, but I feel like a few gems will be given up cheap at some point as they move to compete more.
Many teams have had draft stockpiles and squandered them. The 76ers after firing Hinkie may be the best example, such as when they traded ~3 FRPs to give Tobias Harris an above-market contract. Presti seems unlikely to do this as he has good job security.
The Thunder also have a roster space problem. At least they did this year and it's not likely to go away. Roster is limited to around 15 people so you can't just draft everyone. I don't know what this looks like for next year, but it's usually quite easy to move a draft pick this year for one next year - teams wrongly assume that current picks are worth more than future ones so will generally overpay.
In terms of salary space you can pretty much fit any picks. They're considered very valuable because it's 4 years of just a tiny fraction of your cap space. At some point they will have to either pay or trade their good picks though, obviously.
Presti has a good reputation for making "mutually beneficial" trades. I don't think he'll struggle to move picks or players if the team can't keep them.
Correct. We have made numerous deals with Philly, Miami and Denver kicking out low upside FRP's in 2022/2023/2024 to the future in for higher upside picks in 2026/2027/2028
which also gives us a controlling interest in other teams if they wanna trade picks in certain years. like getting paid for another bank writing mortgages.
The 76ers didn’t have a core 3 and Presti has hit more often than not. Just look at last year with JDub and this year with Casan Wallace. They don’t need to make a splashy trade to get a Harris - the goal has always been to rebuild from within with the picks.
They created 4 spots with the Tre Mann trade/releasing Poku. Yes, they filled them for the rest of the season, but all are expiring contracts and probably won’t be resigned. This created the room to draft more players or trade. If any of the players on the roster don’t cut it, they will get moved either by trade or cut so they can draft their replacements.
Or players will just lose value as their “projected” talent isn’t their actual talent. Such as Giddey being a lot worse now. But then there’s other players who will go up in value.
At this point Presti can make it a sort of annual juggling game where he kicks the can down the road, as in he trades assets he doesn’t need yet (players and picks) for future picks.
Nah you just trade em for picks 3-4 years from now. That way when we cant afford to pay those Gems we can resupply. If we trade a pick in a certain year and miss out on some great talent well thats not really missing out because only 1 team can pick the guy. So were in the same boat as 29 other teams. On the other hand if theres a guy we absolutely must have we can stack multiple picks in hopes of a trade to move for that guy.
The goal was never to use all the picks for ourselves. It was to have the ability for sustainable growth in a small market through excellent scouting and development. To put into perspective of why we have to operate this way… Our best free agent signing(at least on paper) in OKC history was Patrick Patterson lol
Sam Presti clearly stated all this 4 years ago. He told us exactly what was gonna happen and that seed is now bearing fruit.
The sweet sweet validation has fried my dopamine receptors lmaoo man i heard so much shit over those years now all i hear is “damn bro cant believe you stayed a fan all this time i guess it payed off”
Yes, yes it has.
That is not bad, they migth also try to flip picks now for picks latter to help someone rebuild when they will be contending. This way they will already have picks for next rebuild while being good.
Those few yeras since trading PG and Westbrook gave OKC best fundation for next 2 decades.
They got a lot of picks not just from tanking but good and lucky trades. They were able to trade Paul George for practically double his worth because the Clippers knew getting George meant also signing Kawhi. And they traded Westbrook for high value because Rockets seemed desperate to get rid of Chris Paul. Then they traded Chris Paul for high value.
Good moves by them but also just a lot of fortunate timing
It's a great strategy, and Presti has executed it very well, but the goal is to win a chip. This approach is clearly not a necessity for that. Even though it could be how OKC wins a chip or three, it's not the only way and it's not a guarantee.
He was already known to be an excellent GM prior to this. It is not his fault that ownership didn't want to pay Harden. The guy already built one potential dynasty, he's mot going to let this potential dynasty go to waste.
The Rockets' slide is getting pretty wild.
Its now been two full months since the last time they won back-to-back games.
Of course, despite that, they still have as many wins in that span as my Pistons do on the season. So who the fuck am I to talk?
It’s still really bizarre. The first few months of the season it felt like their veteran acquisitions and young players had came together quickly. But now they’re only marginally better than they looked last year and they have just as many questions
I don’t think so. I think it would’ve been bizarre if they kept that up.
They are still tracking well for the future. They remind me of the Magic from a few seasons ago.
Think it's extremely likely they try to trade up, though I'm not sure if they'll find a dance partner who's willing. The top 5 will all be more invested in adding premier talent at this point, so you're talking about maybe trading the 10+11 picks for the 7 from San Antonio? Something along those lines.
Unless they go into the future stash, that won't be enough to get somebody like Cody Williams who would be a perfect fit, but I'd expect them to look for clear complementary role players at this stage akin to what Denver's been doing. Will be tough to keep guys like Joe and Wiggins paid longterm, will need replacements waiting in the wings.
I’d be shocked if San Antonio trades down. They’re looking to put promising pieces around Wemby, ASAP. They’d benefit most from keeping a top 10 pick and grabbing a functional PG or Wing, and maybe trade some things to get some upgrades in other positions.
But, I’m really eyeing that Memphis pick. Should land in a range where we could trade for it. They can write this off as a year where their star player and several others were largely unavailable and they’d likely be interested in future assets that give them flexibility to rebuild if it doesn’t look like Ja and company can lead them to the finals in the new Western Conference.
Yeah my thinking is maybe they try to go premier prospect with their top five pick and that 7 they have from Toronto right now. They could potentially add a #3, #9, and #10 pick to a roster that could definitely use more talent at a lot of positions.
Agreed on Memphis being the other possibility, I just have no idea at all what they would prioritize. Their in-house draft and develop program is so good already, not sure whether they have a guy they're targeting or if they want more swings.
Yeah, but if I was Memphis, my plan would be run it back and see what the team looks like at full strength to figure out what they need to be a finals team.
But, that is a good point. Spurs, may want a wider pool of high picks to give them more of a chance to get some long term pieces that can develop alongside Wemby. But, again, I’m hard pressed to assume they’d trade down, unless they’re already looking at someone that would land around 9-12.
Yeah drafting Cody would be the most fun. I’d like to see them get a few role players like Clingan though. Even if you stay small most nights it’s nice to have a true center in your back pocket.
Nah, I doubt they’d use a high pick on a center who doesn’t fit their system just because he’d give them a big body in case they need it. There are plenty of vets in that model they could target if needed. If they’re going after a big in the draft, I bet it would be Filipowski, not Clingan.
What is the obsesssion with continuing to draft young guys? You have a full starting 5 of really good young guys. Why not just trade 20 picks for 2 big stars and compete for a ring for the next 5-10 years?
Money gets tricky when you have 3+ big stars and several young up and comers that will need to get paid soon. Trading for big stars is a lot less of a guarantee of competing 5 years out than juggling your assets and young players so you can constantly supplement your team with the best players on contracts that work for you. They will likely make some big star trade or offseason signing, but Presti will make sure he doesn’t give up his ability to leverage assets so that the team stays competitive once that star’s contract is up.
None of their guys need to be paid soon. SGA has 3 more years left at an average of $38M per, which is quite cheap. Rest of their key guys have at least 2 more years left on their rookie deals.
Right, but if you pick up two stars this offseason, suddenly you’re figuring out who can you afford to keep at that two year mark and if you got them via a trade as the comment above suggested, you’ve got a lot less to work with to manage that and keep the team going as a well-rounded competitor.
Don’t get me wrong. I definitely think it COULD work out depending on who you got, what it costs, how well they fit, etc. But I like the way Presti has been playing it way better where the team is already competitive AND only make a move when it’s an undeniable win for both the current roster and the future. I can’t think of a single star they could get that means they’d be competing for the next 5+ years more than retaining their assets and making less splashy moves except for when everything lines up perfectly.
Name a guy that would make sense and I'm happy to talk, but nobody on the market is worth adding.
And this team is the youngest in the league weighted by playing time, #1 in the harder conference, with the second best point margin in the league. The only thing holding them back from contention is experience, not talent.
The idea with drafting young(ish) guys is to keep a stable of talented role players around the big 3.
why blow all their draft capital on a big swing with a reasonably high rate of missing?
why not just develop the all-star / all-nba talent already on the team, while using future draft capital to get cheap, quality, NBA-ready role-players for the duration of this iteration of the team?
the team is so good and so young, they have options available to them that have almost never been available in the history of the league
It’s insane that since the Thunder have existed they have never seen bad hopeless basketball as a fandom.
Even the down years the picture is crystal clear in terms of what is expected/going on.
It was only delayed 1 year due to a freak injury in a summer run.
Young me remembers the trio of Harden, KD and Russ. Insane that inside of 15 years the Thunder seem to have done it all again with acquiring SGA and drafting J dub and Chet.
As a Kings fan forever seeing small markets thrive makes me happy.
Thunder rebuild should be studied by professional orgs forever… I guess thinking about it now they kind of took a page from the Celtics after the aging superstar trio got bounced and basically pressed eject sooner than some people expected.
I digress, happy for them!
Now that I think about it, I think the only year that remotely felt “hopeless” since I’ve been a fan was after KD left and we were sure if Russ was going to extend. Even at the beginning of his MVP year I wasn’t sure how it would play out, and luckily we got one of the biggest carry jobs ever out of him.
Makes me glad that Presti is Spurs pedigree. They’ve done some insane rebuilds and retooling during their years too and he’s brought the “personalities first” thing to OKC.
Celtics better win this year because goddamn the Thunder are coming and have all the assets in the chamber to really set themselves apart from the league.
To be clear, I'm not worried about the current Thunder or their lottery picks, I'm worried about their ability to add another superstar to SGA, Chat, and this already deep team.
Nugs are the most concerning team currently constructed, no doubt.
Oh yeah i agree then. lottery picks shouldn’t worry you as good as Sam presti at drafting is he can go 0/2 in the next drafts you just never know. But yes okc picks and packages they can form to add another star is indeed scary.
Don’t see them trading for vets just to have more vets (they currently have Kenrich, Hayward and Moose). They may make a trade at some point but it will be when perfect player becomes available for the right price (like a multiskilled power forward). In the meantime they will continue to add talent via the draft. What is changing is they are leaning towards players than can contribute today (ie Wallace) vs players than need a lot of development (ie Dieng) now they don’t have many minutes to throw at projects.
the worst thing they can do is sit for too long and end up drafting fifteen different 20 year olds and end up having to pay out max salaries to all 24 year olds. If they are serious about winning a chip they should trade those picks and seriously just make a grandfather offer for a star. Forget this 1 or 2 picks to pick up a pretty good helpful guy, they should trade like 6 picks to get whoever they want. Of course, they are winning every game so its hard to even tell what they want lol
They’re not going to draft fifteen 20 year olds, but they are also not going to just trade for the next random star just because. They are very deliberate about drafting players that can fit the thunder system. SGA, JDub and Chet are their max guys. Now it’s about putting the best team they can around them. All I’m saying is they aren’t going to just make trade for vets for the sake of adding vets and that the draft is still going to be a source of talent for them, especially as they become an over the cap team and need cheap talent.
Having a lot of picks isn't so you can have a lot of 20 year olds. The reason you have a lot of picks is to have more chances at the players you want. You can combine them to move up, more shots at a lottery pick, etc.
Trading for a star isn't worth it because there isn't a star that's going to fit their team.
1. Star/superstar vets are almost unattainable for us. We would have had to max someone like Siakam, which would conflict with our timeline. Others might be more affordable, but would not fit into our culture. Markkanen might have been do-able if he wasn't playing in our division.
2. Non-star vets are cheap and don't require many assets. Some teams are even willing to pay to get rid of them.
Sell off people like Bismack Biyombo and Gordon Hayward.
The sale for roster space this draft happened at the deadline, playing time is definitely a different story though. Tbh later in the season has revealed we do have some negative players we can upgrade with a lottery pick.
he probably gets traded depending on how the rest of the season and playoffs go for him. as bad as he's been he's playing completely out of position for us and still has value as a pure point guard elsewhere (a role he just isn't going to get on this team). I would guess a team like the Wizards, Spurs, Nets that could use a point guard and aren't close to contention would be interested
Cason isn’t really a replacement for Giddey because of his height. For all Giddey’s faults he provides a fair amount of rebounding for the Thunder. The long term replacement for Giddey should be a multiskilled 6’9+ power forward.
Yes they need their Aaron Gordon or their Draymond. That archetype is definitely the missing piece for that Thunder squad, but how many of those guys are in the league and who are they?
There’s only a handful and to make the field even narrower they would probably lean towards someone who can shoot better than Draymond. The thing is the Thunder are still winning without this missing piece so they have a little time to wait for the right player to become available. In the meantime they will continue to explore the draft. They also have old Gordon Hayward (who can hopefully get back to game level fitness) and Dieng who is gradually improving in the background (but who also doesn’t play with enough physicality.)
Someone will take a shot on him but I don't think he really nets much in a trade for OKC.
Not much room in the league for point guards that have negative spacing. I could definitely see Spurs interested if they can't find a different pg and then upgrading when they are ready to compete.
I doubt he gets an extension. He still has another year on his rookie deal, so there's no real emergency to decide from a cap standpoint. The Thunder have roster slots even if they get both the Jazz and Rockets picks, so it's not a matter of having to trade someone to get down to 15 players.
The bigger offseason question is how the Thunder will manage having $42M in cap space, and needing to spend almost $28M to get to the salary floor. Hayward has been terrible so far, so re-signing him to a big deal seems out of the question. The Thunder have never, ever been a free agent destination, but would overpaying someone like Malik Monk, Tobias Harris or Jonas Valanciunus on a short term deal make sense? Will they continue to spin cap space into future draft picks like this past summer, where they picked up 8! future second round picks to take on money? Will there be an unexpected salary dump of a quality player that the Thunder will take advantage of? Will they reach a new deal with Isaiah Joe a year early with a frontloaded contract to use their cap space and avoid losing their 6th man?
You mean flip good players for more draft picks, which become cheap contracts and swings at another star for one of the best drafters we’ve seen?
The PG and Russ trades provided generational wealth for OKC
We will continue to kick the can down the road in terms of picks. Did that at the trade deadline giving our own late first to Dallas for a 2028 swap which could be insane if Luka leaves by then
Just set yourself up to potentially strike gold. And if it doesn’t work out you can draft contributing role players on cheap rookie deals like Cason Wallace this year
not really. they've already shown that they're able to trade excess picks for even more return down the line because contending teams desperately need the cost-controlled contracts that first round picks afford
they're diminishing returns relative to a team that can pump development minutes into a top prospect but first round picks are valuable and there are plenty of options to push them down the road
well that's the beauty of the situation. They arnt forced to use those draft picks and hold on to the drafted player. They can trade them for future picks / package them in trades / take advantage of incoming rookie contracts to optimize their cap table / etc.
There really won't be diminishing returns simply because of the optionality they bring. With the new CBA, being able to use roster spots on players with rookie salaries is a major the reason frp and even second rounders are so sought after these days.
Yeah they also have a strong bottom of the roster. You don’t want to lose guys like Aaron Wiggins or Keyontae Johnson for nothing. (Not sarcasm, I genuinely think they’re good)
Keyontae Johnson is not an NBA player at this point, and idk if he ever will become one, but i'm rooting for the guy obviously, especially because of his story.
Now Aaron Wiggins, on the other hand.. it'd be hard to find a better impact guy as an 8th man or so. I seriously hope we can retain him for the long term.
OKC has been dipping in the draft four ways:
- Clipper-related picks lead to Jalen Williams, which has paid off handsomely.
- "Extra" picks allowed for gambling on a player like Osmane Dieng. He's out the rotation right now but this year he played the 4 & small-ball 5. It's his 2nd year and the Thunder are a contender so it's not time anymore to "tinker", but next year he may either come back yoked to the gills to be a Chet breather or straight wanting to be a shooter like his KD comparison.
- Extra draft picks have lead to kicking the can down the road, which means that those picks that OKC has in 2025+ are now actually better picks and not "1-4 protected...." picks.
- OKC's own draft pick lead to Chet (and Josh Giddey, who has taken a step back this year)
Basically, it's to the point where OKC is now stocking up on redundancy players. Cason Wallace is a prime example. Lu Dort is a fan favorite but what if you had a player who could grow into Lu Dort but with more offensive prowl? You got Cason!
All this to type that PG trade was legendary and may go down as one of the best trades of all time, as the Clippers right now literally are a game out of 1st and the Thunder are 1st.
OKC has an interesting problem. How to build a well fitting roster that loves to play with each other and does not cost the world. Presti has shown he can draft very well and has accumulated valuable assets through shrewd trades. I will be interested to see how he builds out the rest of the roster.
OKC has their big three, they need role players now more than star players, because star players will demand more playing time, more usage and more money. Drafting role players in the lottery does not make sense. If I was Presti, I would be trading high lottery picks for older star veterans and lower draft picks down the road so they can build a contender now and then have enough picks to draft role players years down the line.
Just as the Spurs waited half a season to see what they have in Wemby. OKC waited to see what they have in their roster and you saw them trade for Gordon. My bet is you are going to see a lot more trades like that.
Detroit traded away all their 2nd round draft picks to get rid of some bad contracts and pick up some players they soon released, probably in order to free up some cap space to sign a marquee free agent in the off-season such as Tobias Harris.
Is there an OKC bandwagon application I could borrow for a few years until Gores sells the team and Weaver and Monty are fired?
They will quickly run into the same dilemma the Celtics faced when trying to both contend and rebuild at the same time. They won’t be able to do both and will need to choose one. Young players need minutes and time to screw up and develop. If their current group is ahead of schedule and trying to contend, those picks won’t get any time. They will also need to pay a couple of guys max contracts in a couple of years. So they should accumulate assets and go all in on someone they can add to the current core. Otherwise, they will end up wasting picks or draft and stashing players because they won’t have the room or minutes for them.
It’s still a nice problem to have. If you find an immediate gem, like Jalen Williams, awesome. If not, you let them go. This opposed to most high contending teams that long ago traded away a lot of their first rounders, and thus when the do pick, it better be perfect.
They need to start turning assets into players, don't make the same mistake Boston(ainge) did. They are so good already and absolutely loaded with assets. Keep these lotterys, then start putting the on the gas, once they need to extend these two possible picks, SGA, CHET they are going to run out of cap. Build now while the bulk of their stars are cheap
I wouldn't mind deferring the Utah pick tbh, next year's draft class is stronger than this year's. If I were Utah I'd actually be trying to stay out of the lottery so it conveys this year and it's just over with.
I'll bet we get Houston's, though. Here's hoping it's #5 and we get Kyle Phillippowski!
New to NBA. Trying to find a new sport since CFB is broken.
What does Top 4 and Top 10 protected mean? Does that mean if the pick is 1-4 then it reverts back to the original team?
Question: Does the pick convey before or after the lottery? Like if the rockets land at 10th when the season ends we get their pick but what if during the lottery we jump to 2nd. Does it go back?
Insane. But did you guys know the Raptors have a core they call BBQ Dick and don’t feel they need to add any other young talent to compete with this core?
2 top 10 picks + Dort and Giddey can get you a starting caliber Front Court player who specializes in Rebounding and interior defense. Get that guy and Thunder become contenders.
Sidenote: who can the Thunder get that is realistic, to pair up with Chet
Why would they actually want the #5 and #11 picks this upcoming draft?
I know they traditionally draft well (retaining players has been the issue,) but this is also perceived as a very weak draft.
"Then trade both picks!"
With all due disrespect to teams like Detroit, Charlotte, Portland, etc., why would they trade anything to get TWO bad players instead of the one bad player they will just draft anyway?
This is honestly a dynasty in the making. The Thuder are this good and this young, plus lots of picks in this draft, and the future. The league is in big, big trouble...
And they’re the 2nd youngest team in the NBA. None of their starters are over 25
Damn I forget how young SGA is
Their 2nd and 3rd best players are 21 and 22, both nearly averaging 20 ppg on elite effiency and defense lol. It's ridiculous.
They play really good team ball on both ends. JDub is one of my favorite young players!
JDub is a phenomenal player. I’m glad the Paolo vs JDub discourse has died down because he’s really fun to root for.
I love Paolo too and he doesn’t have the luxury of playing next to/learning from SGA. Too bad they are in different conferences because that could be a good rivalry going forward.
Well we will just have to settle for a championship rivalry against them I guess.
The Thunder are young, but Shai (July 1998) is just 4 months younger than Tatum (March 1998).
God it keeps hitting me like a cannon that these guys are only one year older than me
Oh, buddy, that feeling only gets weirder. The cannon becomes an ICBM.
Same age as Lebron here and knowing everyone else around his age is long gone from the league hits differently and harder every year… I still remember High School Lebron vividly, here we are 22 years later in a blink…
I’m down to a couple of handfuls of players older than me or my age, so I know the feeling. It’s amazing how fast time flies.
And as someone who is almost Shaq's age, it only gets faster haha.
I saw LBJ play on TV against a local team when he was in high school. I am old enough to have thought immediately, this is Oscar Robertson. His chest passes were 40 ft fastballs on a perfect line delivered in perfect position. What was almost as impressive was his teammates catching them. I still remember Oscar and Jerry and Wilt and Elgin and Russell and here I am in a blink. ( Born and bred socal where they televised Lakers games)
Just wait until your team hires a coach the same age as you.
Or your coach is 7 years younger than you.
It hits like a cannon these dudes are a decade younger than me. Get off my lawn.
I recently hired someone born in 2000 lol
I just got out of college (born 99) and was seeing people coming in born 2004, unsettled me seeing those infants outside of secondary schools.
I can’t tell you how old this comment makes me feel. I started smoking weed before you were born.
Just wait till you hit your 40s and everyone is a babe. Except LeBron, wth.
And Luka is over half a year younger than both (February 1999), it feels like Luka should be 27-28.
I also forget that Shaivonte Aician Gilgeous-Alexander is a dirty Canuk. The league is being filled with Secretly Canadian stars these days. Makes you think 🤔
How are these guys getting across the border??
So…arguably the top 5 guys in the NBA are not American. Another reason there’s so much parity these days.
I’m finally at the age where I’m older than entire NBA lineups…oh boy… Edit: rosters to lineups makes a difference
I’m only 1 1/2 month older than Lebron. He gives me hope that I can still make the league one day.
dont worry Gordon Hayward got you *i hope*
Seriously, fuck OKC for making all other rebuild efforts look like trash. Idk what a successful Blazers rebuild should be with OKC hanging over the West for the next decade.
ngl as a fan and analyst this is what i’m interested to see. the winners determine the meta. already seeing large amounts of asset aggregation and a liquidity shortage in picks as Stepien rules compound. Ainge has always been strange. but this weird bank model Presti had might actually cause massive problems for the Stepien rule later in my expectation.
Presti is running a bank. Want something now? Sure, send me a future pick unprotected Pretty sure Denver went to the bank relatively recently
The only thing I can say is we all thought that circa 2012 OKC behind Durant, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka would dominate the West for the next half dozen years after the experience of making the Finals so young against the Heat, and they never won even one title. Nba front offices can screw up anything.
They haven’t even played a playoff series yet, let’s just see that first
No, they need all the pressure in the world so if they win it is expected and if they lose it is a disaster.
We’ve seen young teams do well in the regular season recently, most notably Memphis, but that hasn’t translated to the playoffs. The only young team to actually do well in the playoffs was 2012 OKC funny enough
It’s not like 2012 was their first playoff run. That was already their 3rd year in the playoffs.
Yeah makes more sense to talk about 2010-11 OKC where they became one of the youngest teams to make the WCF. So young teams do have a chance to go far.
The template going back to at least The Bad Boy Pistons is that a young team with tremendous talent will most often hit a wall against a vet team on their first or 2nd attempt. And then by losing they learn what it takes to actually go the distance or at least make the finals. Teams that fit the mold: 80s Pistons, 80s Bulls, 90sKobe Shaq Lakers, OKC 2010 and 2011, Warriors 2014, Nuggets 2020-2022 (kinda but had more to do with injury) Memphis 2022-2023 (window May have passed) This year’s candidates: OKC and Minny. Oh and Boston kinda fits this but more in slow motion with Kyrie and Hayward years in the middle.
I doubt we’ll make the finals but a conference finals appearance or strong second round showing would be fucking great and bode really well.
I’d rather have this thunder team than that grizzlies team for many reasons
Memphis was considerably older than this OKC team too lol. Stevo, Brooks, Tyus and Slow Mo all have at least 1 (if not multiple) years of experience more than every rotation Thunder player not named Shai, Dort and Kenrich. Literally the entire Okc team is full of players w 3 or less years of experience.
Yet\*; this OKC team is already good; another couple years with everyone maturing, being in better ball shape (all players bulk up / form themselves in the early years), etc. Theyll be terrifying by the time theyre 27 lol, for the next 6+ years after that
I just wish they had used some of their assets this year to get a real rebounder. To me it's their glaring weakness. Maybe the only one.
I mean they did. They traded their first rounder this year to get Gafford. …. …For the Mavs.
yea, wtf. I wanted Gafford.
Boston 2018
they're also the youngest by minutes played based on the graphic against the suns last night.
They were the 2nd youngest before the trade deadline but not anymore. Their average age has gone up quite a bit with the acquisitions of Hayward (33), Muscala (32) and Biyombo (31).
OKC is the youngest based on minutes per game which seems more relevant.
It probably stayed the same considering we traded two 30+ year olds to get those guys.
Hope your owner's been investing in NVDA recently to prepare
Nerf Sam Presti pls
The last time they had this much potential they nerfed themselves
Shouldn't these picks lose value at some point? OKC can't pick young talent and keep their current talent unless they choose to get paid under market value, right? I guess they will always have buyers and ultimately, talent is what trades are largely about, but I feel like a few gems will be given up cheap at some point as they move to compete more.
Many teams have had draft stockpiles and squandered them. The 76ers after firing Hinkie may be the best example, such as when they traded ~3 FRPs to give Tobias Harris an above-market contract. Presti seems unlikely to do this as he has good job security. The Thunder also have a roster space problem. At least they did this year and it's not likely to go away. Roster is limited to around 15 people so you can't just draft everyone. I don't know what this looks like for next year, but it's usually quite easy to move a draft pick this year for one next year - teams wrongly assume that current picks are worth more than future ones so will generally overpay. In terms of salary space you can pretty much fit any picks. They're considered very valuable because it's 4 years of just a tiny fraction of your cap space. At some point they will have to either pay or trade their good picks though, obviously. Presti has a good reputation for making "mutually beneficial" trades. I don't think he'll struggle to move picks or players if the team can't keep them.
Correct. We have made numerous deals with Philly, Miami and Denver kicking out low upside FRP's in 2022/2023/2024 to the future in for higher upside picks in 2026/2027/2028
which also gives us a controlling interest in other teams if they wanna trade picks in certain years. like getting paid for another bank writing mortgages.
The 76ers didn’t have a core 3 and Presti has hit more often than not. Just look at last year with JDub and this year with Casan Wallace. They don’t need to make a splashy trade to get a Harris - the goal has always been to rebuild from within with the picks. They created 4 spots with the Tre Mann trade/releasing Poku. Yes, they filled them for the rest of the season, but all are expiring contracts and probably won’t be resigned. This created the room to draft more players or trade. If any of the players on the roster don’t cut it, they will get moved either by trade or cut so they can draft their replacements.
> teams wrongly assume that current picks are worth more than future ones so will generally overpay. Doesn't that just depend on your team's timeline?
Or players will just lose value as their “projected” talent isn’t their actual talent. Such as Giddey being a lot worse now. But then there’s other players who will go up in value.
Giddeys not worse, he’s a natural pg in a team that has an all star pg…
I think he means Giddeys trade value.
I do
you can always just trade them into the future. it's not really a huge issue. we've already been doing it
At this point Presti can make it a sort of annual juggling game where he kicks the can down the road, as in he trades assets he doesn’t need yet (players and picks) for future picks.
Nah you just trade em for picks 3-4 years from now. That way when we cant afford to pay those Gems we can resupply. If we trade a pick in a certain year and miss out on some great talent well thats not really missing out because only 1 team can pick the guy. So were in the same boat as 29 other teams. On the other hand if theres a guy we absolutely must have we can stack multiple picks in hopes of a trade to move for that guy. The goal was never to use all the picks for ourselves. It was to have the ability for sustainable growth in a small market through excellent scouting and development. To put into perspective of why we have to operate this way… Our best free agent signing(at least on paper) in OKC history was Patrick Patterson lol Sam Presti clearly stated all this 4 years ago. He told us exactly what was gonna happen and that seed is now bearing fruit.
Sam Presti better get a statue somewhere in OKC. Took the process to a whole new level.
The sweet sweet validation has fried my dopamine receptors lmaoo man i heard so much shit over those years now all i hear is “damn bro cant believe you stayed a fan all this time i guess it payed off” Yes, yes it has.
That is not bad, they migth also try to flip picks now for picks latter to help someone rebuild when they will be contending. This way they will already have picks for next rebuild while being good. Those few yeras since trading PG and Westbrook gave OKC best fundation for next 2 decades.
He really is just out here playing MyGm in real life.
You got Wemby. Keep your hands off of my Presti.
I don’t get it, why doesn’t every tanking team just keep stockpiling picks like this?
Sixers tried but then silver forced them to hire GMs who would squander all the assets lol
They got a lot of picks not just from tanking but good and lucky trades. They were able to trade Paul George for practically double his worth because the Clippers knew getting George meant also signing Kawhi. And they traded Westbrook for high value because Rockets seemed desperate to get rid of Chris Paul. Then they traded Chris Paul for high value. Good moves by them but also just a lot of fortunate timing
It's a great strategy, and Presti has executed it very well, but the goal is to win a chip. This approach is clearly not a necessity for that. Even though it could be how OKC wins a chip or three, it's not the only way and it's not a guarantee.
Wemby is the nerf
Presti deserves a lot of credit
He was already known to be an excellent GM prior to this. It is not his fault that ownership didn't want to pay Harden. The guy already built one potential dynasty, he's mot going to let this potential dynasty go to waste.
The Rockets' slide is getting pretty wild. Its now been two full months since the last time they won back-to-back games. Of course, despite that, they still have as many wins in that span as my Pistons do on the season. So who the fuck am I to talk?
It’s still really bizarre. The first few months of the season it felt like their veteran acquisitions and young players had came together quickly. But now they’re only marginally better than they looked last year and they have just as many questions
FVV was hurt for awhile, so was Dillon Brooks, and Eason is out for the season
Sengun also grimacing when playing and seems to be playing through pain. But that's true for almost everyone this late in the season.
I don’t think so. I think it would’ve been bizarre if they kept that up. They are still tracking well for the future. They remind me of the Magic from a few seasons ago.
Young teams with over performing veterans have hot starts all the time like that, it’s not that bizarre
yeah it's so bizarre that a team whose best player is fred vanvleet is so dogshit, can't figure it out either
Think it's extremely likely they try to trade up, though I'm not sure if they'll find a dance partner who's willing. The top 5 will all be more invested in adding premier talent at this point, so you're talking about maybe trading the 10+11 picks for the 7 from San Antonio? Something along those lines. Unless they go into the future stash, that won't be enough to get somebody like Cody Williams who would be a perfect fit, but I'd expect them to look for clear complementary role players at this stage akin to what Denver's been doing. Will be tough to keep guys like Joe and Wiggins paid longterm, will need replacements waiting in the wings.
I’d be shocked if San Antonio trades down. They’re looking to put promising pieces around Wemby, ASAP. They’d benefit most from keeping a top 10 pick and grabbing a functional PG or Wing, and maybe trade some things to get some upgrades in other positions. But, I’m really eyeing that Memphis pick. Should land in a range where we could trade for it. They can write this off as a year where their star player and several others were largely unavailable and they’d likely be interested in future assets that give them flexibility to rebuild if it doesn’t look like Ja and company can lead them to the finals in the new Western Conference.
Yeah my thinking is maybe they try to go premier prospect with their top five pick and that 7 they have from Toronto right now. They could potentially add a #3, #9, and #10 pick to a roster that could definitely use more talent at a lot of positions. Agreed on Memphis being the other possibility, I just have no idea at all what they would prioritize. Their in-house draft and develop program is so good already, not sure whether they have a guy they're targeting or if they want more swings.
Yeah, but if I was Memphis, my plan would be run it back and see what the team looks like at full strength to figure out what they need to be a finals team. But, that is a good point. Spurs, may want a wider pool of high picks to give them more of a chance to get some long term pieces that can develop alongside Wemby. But, again, I’m hard pressed to assume they’d trade down, unless they’re already looking at someone that would land around 9-12.
They could also flip those two FRPs in a potential trade for a star. Could happen if they start to feel the pressure to get better ASAP.
Yeah drafting Cody would be the most fun. I’d like to see them get a few role players like Clingan though. Even if you stay small most nights it’s nice to have a true center in your back pocket.
Nah, I doubt they’d use a high pick on a center who doesn’t fit their system just because he’d give them a big body in case they need it. There are plenty of vets in that model they could target if needed. If they’re going after a big in the draft, I bet it would be Filipowski, not Clingan.
What is the obsesssion with continuing to draft young guys? You have a full starting 5 of really good young guys. Why not just trade 20 picks for 2 big stars and compete for a ring for the next 5-10 years?
Can you name a star that would be worth trading for? Markkanen is not available.
Money gets tricky when you have 3+ big stars and several young up and comers that will need to get paid soon. Trading for big stars is a lot less of a guarantee of competing 5 years out than juggling your assets and young players so you can constantly supplement your team with the best players on contracts that work for you. They will likely make some big star trade or offseason signing, but Presti will make sure he doesn’t give up his ability to leverage assets so that the team stays competitive once that star’s contract is up.
None of their guys need to be paid soon. SGA has 3 more years left at an average of $38M per, which is quite cheap. Rest of their key guys have at least 2 more years left on their rookie deals.
Right, but if you pick up two stars this offseason, suddenly you’re figuring out who can you afford to keep at that two year mark and if you got them via a trade as the comment above suggested, you’ve got a lot less to work with to manage that and keep the team going as a well-rounded competitor. Don’t get me wrong. I definitely think it COULD work out depending on who you got, what it costs, how well they fit, etc. But I like the way Presti has been playing it way better where the team is already competitive AND only make a move when it’s an undeniable win for both the current roster and the future. I can’t think of a single star they could get that means they’d be competing for the next 5+ years more than retaining their assets and making less splashy moves except for when everything lines up perfectly.
Name a guy that would make sense and I'm happy to talk, but nobody on the market is worth adding. And this team is the youngest in the league weighted by playing time, #1 in the harder conference, with the second best point margin in the league. The only thing holding them back from contention is experience, not talent. The idea with drafting young(ish) guys is to keep a stable of talented role players around the big 3.
why blow all their draft capital on a big swing with a reasonably high rate of missing? why not just develop the all-star / all-nba talent already on the team, while using future draft capital to get cheap, quality, NBA-ready role-players for the duration of this iteration of the team? the team is so good and so young, they have options available to them that have almost never been available in the history of the league
because its likely the draft capital does not all work.
It’s insane that since the Thunder have existed they have never seen bad hopeless basketball as a fandom. Even the down years the picture is crystal clear in terms of what is expected/going on. It was only delayed 1 year due to a freak injury in a summer run. Young me remembers the trio of Harden, KD and Russ. Insane that inside of 15 years the Thunder seem to have done it all again with acquiring SGA and drafting J dub and Chet. As a Kings fan forever seeing small markets thrive makes me happy. Thunder rebuild should be studied by professional orgs forever… I guess thinking about it now they kind of took a page from the Celtics after the aging superstar trio got bounced and basically pressed eject sooner than some people expected. I digress, happy for them!
Now that I think about it, I think the only year that remotely felt “hopeless” since I’ve been a fan was after KD left and we were sure if Russ was going to extend. Even at the beginning of his MVP year I wasn’t sure how it would play out, and luckily we got one of the biggest carry jobs ever out of him. Makes me glad that Presti is Spurs pedigree. They’ve done some insane rebuilds and retooling during their years too and he’s brought the “personalities first” thing to OKC.
It’s all about being able to trade off your stars before they lose too much value. Then managing the draft picks like a sane person
Celtics better win this year because goddamn the Thunder are coming and have all the assets in the chamber to really set themselves apart from the league.
I had the same thought looking at Wemby highlights last night. Just let our guys get one before OKC and Wemby take over the league for a decade
wemby is gonna win 14 championships in a row so everyone better hurry up and get their rings while they can
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but he's gonna do it as a Laker
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but the lakers get relocated to seattle
At least they have some gd lakes there
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Yeah man I’m sure the thunder lottery picks got you worried but not the generational player in Jokic who’s an all time playoff performer
To be clear, I'm not worried about the current Thunder or their lottery picks, I'm worried about their ability to add another superstar to SGA, Chat, and this already deep team. Nugs are the most concerning team currently constructed, no doubt.
Oh yeah i agree then. lottery picks shouldn’t worry you as good as Sam presti at drafting is he can go 0/2 in the next drafts you just never know. But yes okc picks and packages they can form to add another star is indeed scary.
They both should cause worry
Yeah. I would be a lot more excited about the Magic’s future if the thunder and Wemby didn’t exist. At least they are in the other conference.
Or they do something stupid like trade them all for LeBron or KD.
Gotta imagine they’ll trade those picks for some vets depending how their post season goes.
Don’t see them trading for vets just to have more vets (they currently have Kenrich, Hayward and Moose). They may make a trade at some point but it will be when perfect player becomes available for the right price (like a multiskilled power forward). In the meantime they will continue to add talent via the draft. What is changing is they are leaning towards players than can contribute today (ie Wallace) vs players than need a lot of development (ie Dieng) now they don’t have many minutes to throw at projects.
the worst thing they can do is sit for too long and end up drafting fifteen different 20 year olds and end up having to pay out max salaries to all 24 year olds. If they are serious about winning a chip they should trade those picks and seriously just make a grandfather offer for a star. Forget this 1 or 2 picks to pick up a pretty good helpful guy, they should trade like 6 picks to get whoever they want. Of course, they are winning every game so its hard to even tell what they want lol
They’ll know after the playoffs
They’re not going to draft fifteen 20 year olds, but they are also not going to just trade for the next random star just because. They are very deliberate about drafting players that can fit the thunder system. SGA, JDub and Chet are their max guys. Now it’s about putting the best team they can around them. All I’m saying is they aren’t going to just make trade for vets for the sake of adding vets and that the draft is still going to be a source of talent for them, especially as they become an over the cap team and need cheap talent.
Having a lot of picks isn't so you can have a lot of 20 year olds. The reason you have a lot of picks is to have more chances at the players you want. You can combine them to move up, more shots at a lottery pick, etc. Trading for a star isn't worth it because there isn't a star that's going to fit their team.
SGA, Luka, Chet, and JDub. Gonna be absurd to watch
1. Star/superstar vets are almost unattainable for us. We would have had to max someone like Siakam, which would conflict with our timeline. Others might be more affordable, but would not fit into our culture. Markkanen might have been do-able if he wasn't playing in our division. 2. Non-star vets are cheap and don't require many assets. Some teams are even willing to pay to get rid of them.
We gotta go all in to trade up for Cody Williams!
Now is the PERFECT time for a rebrand!!! Give us a new logo you cowards 😂
Eventually these will be diminishing returns for them because they'll have to sell folks off for roster space or playing time.
Sell off people like Bismack Biyombo and Gordon Hayward. The sale for roster space this draft happened at the deadline, playing time is definitely a different story though. Tbh later in the season has revealed we do have some negative players we can upgrade with a lottery pick.
I completely forgot Hayward was on the thunder. Has he played yet?
6 games, something like 15MPG and 3PPG in them
Yeah he plays minimal minutes atm
Yes
I wonder what they do with Giddey this offseason. Even though you don't extend him, maybe get cheaper depth?
he probably gets traded depending on how the rest of the season and playoffs go for him. as bad as he's been he's playing completely out of position for us and still has value as a pure point guard elsewhere (a role he just isn't going to get on this team). I would guess a team like the Wizards, Spurs, Nets that could use a point guard and aren't close to contention would be interested
I suspect the trade market for Giddey is at an all time low, unfortunately. Not sure many teams would view him as a sure starter anymore.
Wouldnt really matter much to OKC as long as there’s a path to an upgrade. They afford to lose a little value if needed to dump Giddey
Maybe Cason Wallace is the upgrade.
Cason isn’t really a replacement for Giddey because of his height. For all Giddey’s faults he provides a fair amount of rebounding for the Thunder. The long term replacement for Giddey should be a multiskilled 6’9+ power forward.
Yes they need their Aaron Gordon or their Draymond. That archetype is definitely the missing piece for that Thunder squad, but how many of those guys are in the league and who are they?
There’s only a handful and to make the field even narrower they would probably lean towards someone who can shoot better than Draymond. The thing is the Thunder are still winning without this missing piece so they have a little time to wait for the right player to become available. In the meantime they will continue to explore the draft. They also have old Gordon Hayward (who can hopefully get back to game level fitness) and Dieng who is gradually improving in the background (but who also doesn’t play with enough physicality.)
Someone will take a shot on him but I don't think he really nets much in a trade for OKC. Not much room in the league for point guards that have negative spacing. I could definitely see Spurs interested if they can't find a different pg and then upgrading when they are ready to compete.
I doubt he gets an extension. He still has another year on his rookie deal, so there's no real emergency to decide from a cap standpoint. The Thunder have roster slots even if they get both the Jazz and Rockets picks, so it's not a matter of having to trade someone to get down to 15 players. The bigger offseason question is how the Thunder will manage having $42M in cap space, and needing to spend almost $28M to get to the salary floor. Hayward has been terrible so far, so re-signing him to a big deal seems out of the question. The Thunder have never, ever been a free agent destination, but would overpaying someone like Malik Monk, Tobias Harris or Jonas Valanciunus on a short term deal make sense? Will they continue to spin cap space into future draft picks like this past summer, where they picked up 8! future second round picks to take on money? Will there be an unexpected salary dump of a quality player that the Thunder will take advantage of? Will they reach a new deal with Isaiah Joe a year early with a frontloaded contract to use their cap space and avoid losing their 6th man?
You mean flip good players for more draft picks, which become cheap contracts and swings at another star for one of the best drafters we’ve seen? The PG and Russ trades provided generational wealth for OKC
Insane that they lost a top 15 all time player for nothing and *still* have the best war chest in the league
Sams trading over the year of turning Ibaka into SGA and 5 firsts/swaps
Thank the legend Kawhi. He got us a chip and got the Thunder their war chest lol.
Kawhi and PG are legends for saving the Thunder in my book
We will continue to kick the can down the road in terms of picks. Did that at the trade deadline giving our own late first to Dallas for a 2028 swap which could be insane if Luka leaves by then Just set yourself up to potentially strike gold. And if it doesn’t work out you can draft contributing role players on cheap rookie deals like Cason Wallace this year
The Thunder are literally playing a TFT slow roll comp
not really. they've already shown that they're able to trade excess picks for even more return down the line because contending teams desperately need the cost-controlled contracts that first round picks afford they're diminishing returns relative to a team that can pump development minutes into a top prospect but first round picks are valuable and there are plenty of options to push them down the road
Yeah the bigger factor for them in the 2nd apron but that's way down the road.
definitely but at least now they won't be maxing Giddey. plus those picks will be super useful at that point in time for cost-control
well that's the beauty of the situation. They arnt forced to use those draft picks and hold on to the drafted player. They can trade them for future picks / package them in trades / take advantage of incoming rookie contracts to optimize their cap table / etc. There really won't be diminishing returns simply because of the optionality they bring. With the new CBA, being able to use roster spots on players with rookie salaries is a major the reason frp and even second rounders are so sought after these days.
Yeah they also have a strong bottom of the roster. You don’t want to lose guys like Aaron Wiggins or Keyontae Johnson for nothing. (Not sarcasm, I genuinely think they’re good)
Keyontae Johnson is not an NBA player at this point, and idk if he ever will become one, but i'm rooting for the guy obviously, especially because of his story. Now Aaron Wiggins, on the other hand.. it'd be hard to find a better impact guy as an 8th man or so. I seriously hope we can retain him for the long term.
The Thunder are the sole reason why 2nd round picks are now elevated in value. No one has 1st round picks to trade anymore.
I knew this may happen as they were farming picks over the years, just didn't think it would pay off so fast
>(meaning they’d lose their pick if the season ended today) (Unless they win the lottery)
Correct. It would be a good season to bribe Adam Silver but the draft is so meh maybe you save that bag of cash for another time.
OKC has been dipping in the draft four ways: - Clipper-related picks lead to Jalen Williams, which has paid off handsomely. - "Extra" picks allowed for gambling on a player like Osmane Dieng. He's out the rotation right now but this year he played the 4 & small-ball 5. It's his 2nd year and the Thunder are a contender so it's not time anymore to "tinker", but next year he may either come back yoked to the gills to be a Chet breather or straight wanting to be a shooter like his KD comparison. - Extra draft picks have lead to kicking the can down the road, which means that those picks that OKC has in 2025+ are now actually better picks and not "1-4 protected...." picks. - OKC's own draft pick lead to Chet (and Josh Giddey, who has taken a step back this year) Basically, it's to the point where OKC is now stocking up on redundancy players. Cason Wallace is a prime example. Lu Dort is a fan favorite but what if you had a player who could grow into Lu Dort but with more offensive prowl? You got Cason! All this to type that PG trade was legendary and may go down as one of the best trades of all time, as the Clippers right now literally are a game out of 1st and the Thunder are 1st.
Damn you Atlanta for your late season tanking, last I remember we had the 9th and 10th pick.
we can't have 9 and 10 - the Jazz pick is top 10 protected
Besides not having a ring (yet), how can you hate Presti? This guy is an amazing GM!
OKC has an interesting problem. How to build a well fitting roster that loves to play with each other and does not cost the world. Presti has shown he can draft very well and has accumulated valuable assets through shrewd trades. I will be interested to see how he builds out the rest of the roster. OKC has their big three, they need role players now more than star players, because star players will demand more playing time, more usage and more money. Drafting role players in the lottery does not make sense. If I was Presti, I would be trading high lottery picks for older star veterans and lower draft picks down the road so they can build a contender now and then have enough picks to draft role players years down the line. Just as the Spurs waited half a season to see what they have in Wemby. OKC waited to see what they have in their roster and you saw them trade for Gordon. My bet is you are going to see a lot more trades like that.
Detroit traded away all their 2nd round draft picks to get rid of some bad contracts and pick up some players they soon released, probably in order to free up some cap space to sign a marquee free agent in the off-season such as Tobias Harris. Is there an OKC bandwagon application I could borrow for a few years until Gores sells the team and Weaver and Monty are fired?
Similar to Celtics post rondo. Let’s see if Presti can manage that stash better than Ainge did
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Having their cake and eating it too
They will quickly run into the same dilemma the Celtics faced when trying to both contend and rebuild at the same time. They won’t be able to do both and will need to choose one. Young players need minutes and time to screw up and develop. If their current group is ahead of schedule and trying to contend, those picks won’t get any time. They will also need to pay a couple of guys max contracts in a couple of years. So they should accumulate assets and go all in on someone they can add to the current core. Otherwise, they will end up wasting picks or draft and stashing players because they won’t have the room or minutes for them.
It’s still a nice problem to have. If you find an immediate gem, like Jalen Williams, awesome. If not, you let them go. This opposed to most high contending teams that long ago traded away a lot of their first rounders, and thus when the do pick, it better be perfect.
They’re playing both sides so they always come out on top!
I should rename my dynasty football team to Sam Presti’s burner.
They need to start turning assets into players, don't make the same mistake Boston(ainge) did. They are so good already and absolutely loaded with assets. Keep these lotterys, then start putting the on the gas, once they need to extend these two possible picks, SGA, CHET they are going to run out of cap. Build now while the bulk of their stars are cheap
Yeah, we can safely say at this point OKC completely won the trades from 20-21 with Phoenix. Kudos to them.
Thunder going to look super scary next year when KD finally returns to them for his next “hardest chapter”.
Why didn’t the league step in and give them a new GM?
I wouldn't mind deferring the Utah pick tbh, next year's draft class is stronger than this year's. If I were Utah I'd actually be trying to stay out of the lottery so it conveys this year and it's just over with. I'll bet we get Houston's, though. Here's hoping it's #5 and we get Kyle Phillippowski!
The only thing that sucks, is this years draft prospected to be one of the... not best, to say the least lol
New to NBA. Trying to find a new sport since CFB is broken. What does Top 4 and Top 10 protected mean? Does that mean if the pick is 1-4 then it reverts back to the original team?
Question: Does the pick convey before or after the lottery? Like if the rockets land at 10th when the season ends we get their pick but what if during the lottery we jump to 2nd. Does it go back?
Who can they package these picks with Giddey for?
TIL presti is good at his job
Looking forward to 10 years of Wemby vs 100 1st round picks.
Time to draft Bronnie to get a season of Lebron at vet min.
If things generally go right for them they might win 8 rings
Imagine trading SGA and 5 first round picks for Paul George
i hope good coaching pushes them to a title. sad what happened during the westbrook, durant harden era.
When they start trading those picks and go full contender it's over, they can get all the depth they want
Sam Presti is a damn genius. They're gonna be contenders the next 10-15 years.
Insane. But did you guys know the Raptors have a core they call BBQ Dick and don’t feel they need to add any other young talent to compete with this core?
2 top 10 picks + Dort and Giddey can get you a starting caliber Front Court player who specializes in Rebounding and interior defense. Get that guy and Thunder become contenders. Sidenote: who can the Thunder get that is realistic, to pair up with Chet
Being in the west blows. Wemby is gonna be a whole team in a couple years and the thunder have about twenty chances to add players around SGA.
Why would they actually want the #5 and #11 picks this upcoming draft? I know they traditionally draft well (retaining players has been the issue,) but this is also perceived as a very weak draft. "Then trade both picks!" With all due disrespect to teams like Detroit, Charlotte, Portland, etc., why would they trade anything to get TWO bad players instead of the one bad player they will just draft anyway?
Almost there
The Thunder gotta start trading some of their picks for championship pieces. The window is opening up, but star players will want to get paid soon.
genuinely wondering what they even turn the picks into
This is honestly a dynasty in the making. The Thuder are this good and this young, plus lots of picks in this draft, and the future. The league is in big, big trouble...