Thunder & Lightning The Rebuild Underway in OKC

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By Alex Horton

Well here it is! The first article for the Take Your Base Sports Blog! Please enjoy and make sure to listen to the pod from this week!!

Okay so onto the real article, The Oklahoma City Thunder went pretty much total rebuild. The thought that we all had that Russell Westbrook would be with the Thunder for his entire career is just a pipe dream now. I wrote an article a couple months ago saying that the team the Thunder had would never win a championship because of the massive contracts bound to it. The thought of moving George who had just signed would make them an undesirable location for free agents and trading Westbrook would galvanize their entire fan base. That aged well didn’t it? I’ll stand by the take, because it’s still true. The Thunder had no reason to trade Paul George, UNLESS he asked to be traded because his relationship with Westbrook was deteriorating and he saw a chance to go somewhere else that would give him a chance to win now. The Clippers gave up a lot but it set them up to be one of the best teams in the NBA with two top ten players at the helm in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

But this article is about the Thunder and the ridiculous haul they got for both George and Westbrook. For Paul George the Thunder took home Danilo Gallinari who is still a quite serviceable player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a rookie last year who had a productive year and showed quite a bit of potential moving forward. Oh and a haul of SEVEN first round picks. 2022, 24 & 26, pick swaps for 2023 and 25, and Miami’s 2021 and 2023 first rounders. That was just for Paul George. Sam Presti also traded Westbrook to the Rockets for Chris Paul, and first round picks in 2024 and 2026 and first round swaps in 2021 and 2025. The Rockets had been trying to find a trade partner for Chris Paul and after the Paul George trade it looks like Sam Presti took the call from Daryl Morey and proceeded to bend him over the table like he did with the Clippers. Take that anyway you want, but Sam Presti did his job and did it well. He now has a ton of first round picks to work with the next six years and he is still probably not done. Chris Paul’s contract is ridiculous, he’s set to make $40 Million the next two seasons, which just screams trade me to any team trying to rebuild and get money off the books.

The Thunder still have some moves left to make. Trading Chris Paul may be difficult but pair him together with another bad contract in Steven Adams and you may have yourself a nice package. I know Chris Paul has said that he wants to go to Miami and honestly that would look kind of nice. Chris Paul and Steven Adams next to Jimmy Butler? That three might just be good enough to be top 5 in the East. Presti may hold on to his assets for now and look to play the waiting game up to the trade deadline. But only time will tell. For now Sam Presti has worked his magic, and the Oklahoma City Thunder have completed their dismantling of the 2015 Finals team. No more Harden, no more Ibaka, no more Durant, no more Westbrook. It’s time to start fresh and with a league as volatile as the NBA who knows what Sam Presti will cook up next.