Views from OKC: Two days of trade deadline drama left

Welcome to Views from OKC, Thunderous Intentions’ daily roundup of the best OKC Thunder stories across the web.

New to Views? Glad to have you here, and I hope you’ll make this a daily destination. Well, let’s get started!

Let’s start this off with a hypothetical trade because why not?

“Blockbuster trade alert!  The Thunder are that prospective buyer as they look to build a future with Russell Westbrook at the helm for the foreseeable future.  The number one priority is gathering shooters around the human triple-double because any man can see that the open jumpers are there but the conversion rate isn’t.  (The Thunder rank dead last in three-point conversion rate, despite averaging the most open three-point shots a game.)  So the addition of Chandler (15.9 ppg) and Barton (13.9 ppg) give the Thunder a starting SF and a quality SG to come off the bench behind Oladipo.”

Here’s the trade (it’s a three-teamer but I’m only including things that concern the Thunder). OKC gives up: Anthony Morrow, Cameron Payne, Andre Roberson and Domantas Sabonis. They receive: Will Barton, Wilson Chandler and Ben McLemore. Trades like these get you excited, until you realize it kills the Thunder’s five-year plan. As much as we all want a trade, we have to come to grips that it may not be beneficial for the franchises future.

Related Story: Temper down your trade deadline expectations

Ranking the Thunder players in terms of trade value

“I’ll apply the same ground rules as last year. “Trade value,” for purposes of this column, means, “who would be the most attractive trade bait?” This takes into account several factors such as talent, potential, salary, contract, and anything else my esteemed opinion deems valuable. Moreover, the intent is not prognosticate any actual trade scenarios. Basically, this is one man’s rambling thoughts on subjective player “value” and probably has little basis in reality.”

Here’s the thing Mr. Napier. Your ranking has a very large basis in reality. Sure I would argue Enes Kanter is still a more valuable trade piece than Alex Abrines, but I can’t nitpick one spot. But after reading through the list, you start to realize something. The hierarchy in OKC is so easily apparent and I don’t know what to make of it. Is it good that everybody has an understanding of their role and spot on the team? I’d argue no. And for the simple fact that we want the young guys to compete against each other and raise each others play both in practice and in games.

Views from Twitter

This is what I live for. If I was an NBA player I would tweet out the most cryptic tweets possible during the deadline just to troll all the trolls out there. I’ll give Derrick Favors the benefit of the doubt and say that’s what he was doing. But boiiiiiii if anyone from the Thunder does it (I’m looking at you Cameron Payne) I’ll be so sad.

Breshad Perriman, a football player, is now a solidified legend.

By now you all know Lou Williams got traded to the Rockets. And this tweet above is exactly why we don’t want him in OKC. Don’t get me wrong this is hilarious. But Lou is regarded as one of the worse locker room presences around the league for a reason. These young guys don’t need that, especially not from a bench player.