As we head toward the New Year, NBA trade rumors are going to start picking up. There is six weeks until the NBA Trade Deadline and we are already seeing which teams could be buyers and which could be sellers.
One team who should clearly be buying ahead of the deadline is the Oklahoma City Thunder. At 20-9, the Thunder are in second place in the Western Conference. Teams with this much youth normally aren’t considered powerhouses or contenders in the NBA, but Oklahoma City could be the exception to that.
The Thunder have an MVP-caliber player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams look like All-Stars in the making. There are six players on the team averaging at least 9.5 points per game as everyone has bought into the role head coach Mark Daignneault has set for them.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Draymond Green, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors Updates
Armed with more assets than any team in the NBA thanks to wheeling and dealing done by general manager Sam Presti and the Thunder are in position to make some big moves. Given the drafy capital that they have acquired, Oklahoma City could make multiple trades without even putting a dent in their warchest.
Who could the team look to target ahead of the deadline? During a recent episode of his podcast, Bill Simmons suggested that they take a shot on Golden State Warriors veteran power forward, Draymond Green.
“I still feel like the Draymond-Steph [Curry] connection and the stuff he does for Steph offensively is pretty special. But there might be other stuff that he’s done that we don’t even know about and [Golden State] just might be ready to move on. But I thought that’d be an interesting gamble for OKC to just say f— it,” Simmons said on his podcast recently.
Green is currently serving an indefinite suspension handed down by the league for striking Jusuf Nurkic of the Phoenix Suns in the face. This could be an avenue Golden State explores because they have had players emerge as rotation pieces since Green was suspended.
Would Steve Kerr remove players such as Trayce Jackson-Davis from the rotation to make room for Green again? He wouldn’t have to make that decision is the Warriors did the trade with the Thunder which Simmons suggested.
NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Draymond Green, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors Updates
Green would head to Oklahoma City in exchange for Davis Bertans, Ousmane Dieng/Aleksej Pokusevski and two first-round picks. The Thunder would get an enforcer to play alongside Holmgren and someone with championship experience to bring to a young team.
However, there is one potential obstacle to overcome in such a move; Stephen Curry. As Simmons stated, trading Green may not be something the former MVP would sign off on.
“That’s the thing,” Simmons said. “I don’t know. And I guess we’ll know in three weeks when Draymond comes back from wherever the hell he went.”
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