The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the most talked about teams in the NBA during trade season. Their plethora of assets make it possible to nab any player on the market.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will be thrown into trade rumors until the end of time -– or at least until their abundance of future NBA draft picks dry up somewhere in 2045 –– so when news broke on Wednesday that the Milwaukee Bucks and superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo were ready to split between now and this offseason as the Feb.
5 NBA Trade Deadline looms, it made sense for National outlets to place fake packaged sending Antetokounmpo to Bricktown at the feet of their consumers.To make a trade for one of the best players to ever play the sport, the Oklahoma City Thunder would need to take one of two routes. Either depleting their current injury-plagued roster down to ten players remaining with no recourse for reinforcements or altering the very bones of this title team on the fly for a superstar that is currently in street clothes with even less time to acclimate himself to his new squad. While neither option is practical or in the realm of possibility, the first option isn't feasible. The second option includes a few different variations. Either the Oklahoma City Thunder could send out both Defensive ace Lu Dort and Starting big man Isaiah Hartenstein with an overwhelming allotment of picks to allow the Bucks to fully hit the reset button with two expiring deals if Milwaukee just simply declines their team options - or the Thunder could part with one of those two alongside some blue chip prospects such as defensive-ace Cason Wallace and top 15 picks Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber alongside picks still. That is, of course, under the notion that Oklahoma City isn't going to part with a member of their big three in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, or Chet Holmgren. Neither outcome bodes well for Oklahoma City when you factor in that this isn't a video game. While Antetokounmpo is an out-of-this-world talent and hypothetically makes this the best defense ever assembled, the offense has plot holes. The Thunder's shooters are already shaky at best, another non-shooter who does his damage in the mid-range and in makes that problem even more heightened and isn't the slam dunk fit in Mark Daigneault's system that it might appear on paper given the raw player rankings of Antetokounmpo. Even setting aside his injury history and the questions of how his taxing style of play ages, the Oklahoma City Thunder have worked overtime to set up a clean long-term salary cap sheet to give the Bricktown Ballers a runway of more than half a decade of contention in a small market in the most restrictive roster-building and parity era in NBA history. A trade for Antetokounmpo erases that legwork. It shrinks the Thunder's window to two seasons, including this one, with it being far from a sure thing that the superstar would even consider returning to Oklahoma City, much less if it would be a CBA-approved possibility with how messy Oklahoma City's salary cap sheet becomes. The only avenue for this news to impact OKC is if Antetokounmpo is added to a Western Conference contender and if the Thunder could jump in as a third team in helping aid a trade while getting an asset in return. Even those two items seem unlikely. Sure, it is fun to think about the two-time MVP joining forces with Gilgeous-Alexander, but in practice, it isn't something OKC should entertain.Rylan Stiles is a credentialed media member covering the Oklahoma City Thunder. He hosts the Locked On Thunder Podcast, and is Lead Beat Writer for Inside the Thunder. Rylan is also an award-winning play-by-play broadcaster for the Oklahoma Sports Network.
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