Everyone wants a flashy trade where you acquiring the big name star that can take your favorite team to the next level, but those trades rarely (if ever) happen. A more realistic option is trading for young guys that you believe can develop into something far greater because of a bunch of potential or acquiring a veteran rotation player that doesn’t fit in with the time schedule of the team he currently on (Wilson Chandler of the Denver Nuggets).
There are however multiple under the radar type moves that a team can make and hitting on these trades can easily take a team to the next level. Here are several under the radar moves that I believe are not only realistic for the Thunder, but would provide them with a significant boost. A couple of quick guidelines first.
- OKC cannot trade its 2017 1st round draft pick
- OKC can gain approximately 7.2. million in cap space if they were to renounce the trade exception they received from the Ersan Ilyasova/Jerami Grant trade
Trade – Brooklyn Nets and Oklahoma City Thunder
OKC Receives – Bojan Bogdanovic, Trevor Booker, and Joe Harris
Brooklyn Receives – Alex Abrines, Enes Kanter, and two second round picks
This trade would allow Brooklyn to acquire young talent (Abrines) and would restock them with several draft picks (they don’t really have any of significance). While second round picks are usually home-run type players, you can unearth talent in the second round. This trade would also pave the way for Brooklyn to trade Brook Lopez to someone like the Celtics (by acquiring Enes Kanter), which would further help the rebuild process for the Nets. You might wonder why the Nets would move pieces like a Bogdanovic, but they did move Thaddeus Young last summer for a late first round pick.
The Thunder would acquire a second unit scorer (Bogdanovic), a feisty garbage type player in Booker, and a player capable of hitting a 3 in Joe Harris. Bogdanovic is a career 36.5% 3 point shooter who is averaging 14.8 points per game this season. While his defense is still a work in progress (and probably won’t ever become great), he wouldn’t be tasked with being a lock down defender on this Thunder team. He would be a guy who would be asked to score points against a teams second unit. That is a role that I believe he can succeed in. He is also 27 years old, which fits in the Thunder’s time window. Being a restricted free agent next summer would allow the Thunder to bring him back, even if it was somewhat expensive.
Trevor Booker is a guy who will get you offensive rebounds, put backs, and extended possessions while being able to guard players in the post and on the perimeter. He would definitely be a guy that can be in the Thunder’s big rotation.
Harris is kind of an unknown, but is having a decent season for the Nets.
The big question with these players is whether or not they are just piling up stats for a bad basketball team in the Nets. Would the actually be quality rotation players for the Thunder? I believe they would.
OK Presti, MAKE IT HAPPEN