Last summer, after the ‘Durant Defection’ the OKC Thunder could have spent big money on their next small forward. Instead, they put their trust in Andre Roberson, and here is why that was a great decision.
Last summer Kevin Durant left the OKC Thunder for the Golden State Warriors. This was in an effort to cherry pick a Championship. As a result many people thought that the Thunder would be in a world of trouble.
General Manager Sam Presti could have over-reacted to the hole he had in his roster. He could have gone out and spent large amounts of cap space to fill that hole.
Some of the players that were available at the time were LeBron James, Nicholas Batum, Harrison Barnes, Luol Deng, Joe Johnson, Jeff Green, Evan Turner, Maurice Harkless ,Matt Barnes. and Chandler Parsons
Most of these players would have improved the OKC Thunder. James and Batum would have made the Thunder immediate contenders. Harrison Barnes may have as well.
Neither James or Batum were going to leave their respective teams. Harrison Barnes was a restricted free agent who chose the Dallas Mavericks.
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Matt Barnes, Johnson and Deng are at the wrong end of their careers for the OKC Thunder to be interested.
Green, Turner and Harkless are not big enough game changers for Presti to be interested in throwing big money at. The only player on the list who may have interested Presti enough to open the check book in a big way was Parsons
History shows us that Presti chose to stay with future Defensive Player of the Year, Andre Roberson. Today I am looking at why this was the right move.