Oklahoma City Thunder Receive: C James Wiseman
Golden State Warriors Receive: F/C Derrick Favors, LAC 2022 1st Round Pick (via OKC), MIA 2023 1st Round Pick (Lottery-Protected, via OKC)
In the offseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder decided to involve themselves in a handful of trades to once again add more future talent. The job general manager Sam Presti has done for this Thunder organization to accumulate draft picks through the years is quite remarkable and as a result of the trades he has made over the years, Oklahoma City has over 30 total draft picks through the 2028 NBA Draft!
They literally have enough picks to field two entirely new NBA teams over the next several years, which is why Presti and the Thunder’s front-office could look to be aggressive in terms of adding more building blocks for the future.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley, Aleksej Pokusevski, and Josh Giddey all seem like key, young talents the Thunder will build with for the future, but they could definitely be intrigued by the idea of adding James Wiseman this season.
Moving Derrick Favors, a player the Thunder acquired this offseason in a “salary dump” trade with the Jazz, for Wiseman is definitely advantageous to OKC and this deal gives them another young player to build with.
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Favors is now 30-years-old and entering the last guaranteed year of his contract, so the Thunder are going to look to leverage him around the trade deadline if they can. He is owed $9.72M this season and then the veteran center has a $10.18M player option for the following year.
James Wiseman is a “work-in-progress” right now for the Warriors and while he can definitely help them in terms of rebounding and shot-blocking because of his length, he is not really a player that can be the difference in them making a deep playoff push. Derrick Favors may not be this kind of a player either, but he definitely gives the Warriors a better chance to contend for a title given his experiences in this league.
The Warriors may view trading James Wiseman as a loss in value since they drafted him second overall last season and truly believe he can be an All-Star-level talent one day down the road, but in addition to Favors, they would be receiving two immediate first-round picks as well in 2022 and 2023.
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Bob Myers and the Golden State Warriors’ front-office have made their intentions to keep the young center long-term very clear in the offseason, but this could be a little bit too much value for them to pass up on, especially since they are in a “win-now” situation with the clock ticking.
