This offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder were one of the busiest teams in the NBA and while most teams look to improve their team during the offseason, GM Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City front office completely dismantled this roster. The Thunder were picked to finish near the bottom of the Western Conference last season and ended up being the 5th best team in the conference over the course of the regular season, but that did not seem to matter for the Thunder as they are looking long-term.
As a result, Chris Paul, Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, and Danilo Gallinari (via sign-and-trade) were all traded from the Thunder this offseason in exchange for mostly first-round draft picks as it seemed like only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort and Darius Bazley were safe from the trade block.
The Thunder now own the rights to 18 first-round draft picks over the course of the next 7 NBA drafts and between first and second-round picks, they have 31 draft picks through the 2027 NBA Draft. To put things in perspective, the 2027 NBA Draft will have NBA prospects who are currently in middle school! What Sam Presti and this front office have done is quite remarkable, but the job is not done yet.
Who knows what Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder front office plan on doing with all of these draft picks, but they definitely have something up their sleeve to not only draft fantastic, young players to build their core of the future, but they will likely try and acquire at least one or two big time superstar talents.
For a team that is supposed to be “tanking” and be near the bottom of the league in the standings, The Thunder are 10-12 this year and actually look pretty well-balanced as a result of not having a solidified star player. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander keeps getting better and better every game he plays in OKC and looks to be the star player of the future for them, but right now, they have seven players averaging double-digit scoring per game and just look like they’re having fun out there on the court together.
Seeing as Oklahoma City’s front-office likes to acquire draft picks and young talent, they could potentially look to trade an aging veteran guy like Al Horford, who has a big contract and virtually no future with the Thunder. They acquired him this offseason in a trade with the 76ers, but at the end of the day, will Sam Presti actually hold onto Horford?
Let’s take a look at a potential trade that would send the 5x All-Star big man to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for a young offensive-minded player, a reliable big man and a second-round draft pick next offseason.
