Why This Trade Makes Sense For The OKC Thunder
Draft picks, cap space, and young talent. These are the three things GM Sam Presti and the OKC Thunder front-office have looked to acquire over the years in hopes of potentially landing a couple of big name players. CJ McCollum is certainly a big name player and could thrive in a backcourt next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Both guys are extremely unselfish players and with McCollum’s pure scoring abilities, he could end up being named an NBA All-Star for the first-time in his career in Oklahoma City. Not to mention, the Thunder would absolutely love to pair SGA with McCollum as they would not have to give up “much” to land him.
We say “much” in quotes because for what would be a lot for any other team in the league, what the Thunder are trading away does not even put a dent in their draft capital, nor does it affect their roster much. Trading away Al Horford, who is owed $81M over the next three years for CJ McCollum, who is owed about $129M over the next four years is a mega-win for the Thunder and while losing Luguentz Dort may seem like it would hurt this organization, they would be able to replace him with an All-Star level talent in McCollum.
Not to mention, the Thunder would still have enough money and cap space to be able to sign another max-contract level player in the offseason, giving the Thunder SGA, McCollum, another All-Star level talent, Darius Bazley and a slew of young talent.
The possibilities on how to build this roster in Oklahoma City are endless and GM Sam Presti is going to have a lot of fun assembling what looks to be a very promising and exciting roster in OKC over the next few years.
If they can get CJ McCollum in their first big move, the Thunder will be able to have a field day with getting high-level talents to sign with this team. Not only would they be an extremely young team, but they would have guys on their team that superstar players would love to play with.
Team executives and players around the league have nothing but nice things to say about both McCollum and Gilgeous-Alexander, which is exactly why OKC could end up with numerous high-level talents wanting to come to play for them in free agency. Getting CJ McCollum would be the first big move OKC could make, but it definitely will not and would not be the last.
