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News - Oklahoma City Thunder - James
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Big Changes
Step 1 in building for the future is always trading away your 22 year old star player. So that's what the OKC Thunder did. On the surface, it really looks pretty stupid - trade your youngest and best player in order to rebuild with a team that has zero players under 23. What it was really about is recognizing that Devonte Graham can run things well enough at the point if needed, snagging the top pick in the draft to pair with two other lottery picks, and getting a very solid starting shooting guard in Caris LeVert. De'Aaron is great, and letting him go was tough but being able to get an impact guard and the #1 pick was just too tough to pass on.
Before coming down from the trade high, Dylan asked about the possibility of swapping Buddy Hield and Larry Nance for Julius Randle and Shake Milton. Desperate for some interior scoring and having just secured their likely starting shooting guard in Caris LeVert, the Thunder didn't even discuss the deal internally before accepting. Hield's impending $20 million raise was also cited as a major factor in the ease of the decision.
The team is still in a bit of an odd place where they have a decent 8-9 veterans that are in their prime who will likely be able to keep them in the playoff race - but now they're also bringing in 3 top 10 picks to learn from them. It will definitely be fun being able to win some games while watching the young guys grow.
Given the impending free agency of Jeff Teague and Tristan Thompson combined with all of the draft picks to be made, the team does at least have a decent amount of pieces that are in known positions. With Randle, Aldridge, and Lauri all really able to play only power forward, they still have quite a bit of excess there - but they all have very different skillsets so the team may just roll with it and try to find a combination of them that works together... not much defense will be played by any of them. The team will likely let Jeff Teague find a contending team to join, but would really like to bring Thompson back if he's interested - having one true center is probably worthwhile.
The draft picks are completely up in the air and likely will be for another couple of months. At this point it's looking like Anthony Edwards is emerging as a bit of a front runner. The team likely won't take a point guard at #1 with options they like being available at both the 4 and 9 spots, which would seem to rule LaMelo Ball out at the top spot. James Wiseman also make some sense, especially with the team's lack of a center - but drafting based on need instead of best player available is almost always the wrong path.
Currently Projected Lineup:
Tristan Thompson/Lauri Markkanen
LaMarcus Aldridge/Julius Randle
Gordon Hayward
Caris LeVert/Jeremy Lamb
Devonte Graham
Currently Projected Lineup:
Tristan Thompson/Lauri Markkanen
LaMarcus Aldridge/Julius Randle
Gordon Hayward
Caris LeVert/Jeremy Lamb
Devonte Graham
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