It's a balance D-rock and some teams are more extreme than others. SGA is on a rookie contract and Thunder want to know how much of a step forward he will take this year. They want to know if he has superstar potential. Even if he does, then on a bad enough team it won't affect their draft status too drastically. OKC already knows the ceiling for Gallo and CP3. To answer your question though, it wouldn't shock me if they traded SGA for a future asset. They want to stockpile assets and then go all in following the Hinkie model. If they can trade a 2nd year player for a almost equal value 2020 rookie, I think they will, even if they feel their losing value. This way, it allows them to maximize their free agent spending in say 2023 because all of their players are on rookie contracts, vs committing to SGA on his first major contract. Hinkie established the model years ago. They prioritized losing by drafting players that couldn't contribute their first year like Noel and Embid. They traded MCW right after he won ROY for a future asset. I think they would have done something similar for the right deal for Noel and maybe even Embid had they shown enough value, but Noel underplayed and Embid continued to be injured. OKC may not be as extreme because they are a small market team and need to keep fans in the seats. They may not have the luxury to fully "trust the process" the way a large market team like Philly could. There is a lot of directions they can go, but the worst thing they can do is be average. They want to be really bad, and trading talent like SGA for 85 cents on the dollar if it means a future asset makes sense.
We don't need a Rooster, we need a Firebird. What is a Firebird you say? It's a high flyer, it's the phoenix, king of the birds, king of the road, it has more dunking power than any player that ever touched the ground, it is:
I feel like if we wanted him we would have been in the initial CP3/WB deal. Would like him, he seems like a great fit.
You do realize that those pick swaps are virtually worthless and that the 24/26 picks may not convey at all ? If they fall within the protections , they are squashed …. no carry over year to year. Presti already did us two favors - took Felicia's contract and gifted us an MVP caliber player …. for next to nothing.
The 24/26 picks definitely aren't next to nothing since those protections are light and given that they will coincide with the end of Harden's prime. Yeah, they might land top 4 and not convey or we might be a top tier team and losing late first rounders isn't that big of a deal. There's also a reasonable possibility that those picks land in the lottery and still convey. The top 20 protection makes the 2025 swap not worth much. But the 2021 swap is a lottery ticket that could pay off since the Clippers and Miami picks OKC have can also be swapped. The Clippers will be very good absent injury. Heaven forbid, if we had a Harden injury and a Westbrook decline in two years it's not crazy that we could end up having to swap a pick around 10 or something for a pick in the late 20s, even if that's not a likely scenario.
Gallinari only missed 14 games due to injury last year, the healthiest he's been in a while. But he's missed an average of 32 games every year over his entire career. And over the last 6 seasons, he's only played 44 games per year. Think about that: The dude has missed nearly HALF (46%) of his games over the last 6 years.. Do we really want to pay that kind of money and give up valuable assets for someone who history says will likely miss a substantial part of the season? Isn't that one of the big positives of the CP3 trade, to avoid that same situation?
Over the past two seasons he’s logged minutes at the 3/4/5. That’s tremendous versatility. Especially when you consider how we essentially abandoned the PnR and went small; having a 5 that can spread the floor will be crucial. We currently don’t have anything [rotation worthy] that even remotely fits that description. Not saying this is the way we have to go to fill out the roster, but the trade isn’t official and he’s not likely part of OKC’s rebuild.
why would okc trade him away too? They need a respectable roster, they dont want to bring there rebuild status without any good vets on the club. You keep your team around 30 wins on a rebuild, although i doubt OKC gonna win 30 games with Adams,Schroder, Shai and Gallinari.
