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     Saarang Kurra Bewarse Username: Saarang Post Number: 1814 Registered: 04-2015 Posted From: 206.29.176.52 Rating: N/A |
Thunder point of view Meanwhile, the draft of my free-agency winners and losers column (coming soon) contains this line about the Thunder: I am weirdly worried about Oklahoma City, considering they won 48 games with the league's ninth-best point differential. It felt like they were trapped into a roster that had peaked. Any uptick in shooting from Westbrook would probably balance out a slight downturn from George's MVP-level performance. They were in salary-cap prison, a notch below the best teams in the West -- a more crowded group today than it was a month ago. It seems obvious now, but the Thunder had to know their only way out was to trade George. Steven Adams has limited trade value on his near-max contract. Westbrook's supermax, which will pay him $47 million in 2022-23, is a straight-up albatross. They may mind-trick some dumb team into taking it at some point, but the Thunder have to assume Westbrook carries negative trade value. (Sam Presti, Oklahoma City's GM, "pursued a package" of Westbrook and George to the Raptors late Friday as he attempted to leverage Toronto and the Clippers against each other -- and, in the case of the Clippers, against the threat of a superteam in the same building -- knowing that Leonard wanted George and George wanted out, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. It is unclear how interested the Raptors were in taking on Westbrook if it were to cost them Pascal Siakam. Toronto "couldn't keep up" with the Clippers' outlay of picks anyway, Wojnarowski reported.) They don't escape from cap jail with this trade, though they get some relief from the luxury tax -- and a good player on a movable contract in Danilo Gallinari. They do get a road map for a post-Westbrook future. Gilgeous-Alexander is a stud. I'd bet on him making multiple All-Star teams. The Thunder now almost draft on behalf of three teams -- themselves, the Heat, and the Clippers. Miami has more downside than the revamped Clips, though they insulated themselves some by acquiring their own Star No. 1 in Jimmy Butler. Regardless: This is a haul for Oklahoma City. In five or six years, the Thunder may come out of this as the biggest winners. Think about it like this: In a roundabout way, they turned Serge Ibaka (starting with the 2017 deal sending Ibaka to Orlando for Victor Oladipo and the pick that became Domantas Sabonis) into everything they got in this deal. Even if Presti got roped into the proceedings late, he did a remarkable job making the best of it. |