OKC Thunder trade Jerami Grant to Denver for pick
By Rylan Stiles
The OKC Thunder entered their rebuilding stage on Saturday morning when they dealt Paul George to the Clippers. Now, the Thunder have traded another critical forward.
The OKC Thunder are getting ready for a rebuild, and acquiring as many draft picks as they can. It’s the OKC process, and it has its next casualty.
The OKC Thunder are shipping rising forward, Jerami Grant, to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Denver’s 2020 first round pick.
Oklahoma City Is trading F Jerami Grant to Denver for a 2020 first-round pick, league sources tell ESPN. Deal brings OKC it’s sixth future first in past week and saves Thunder $39M in salary and luxury tax.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 8, 2019
The Thunder will likely be able to keep their own pick this year, as it is top 20 protected or else it would convey to the 76ers due to trade the organization made. Moving Jerami Grant allows the Thunder to now have two draft picks in the upcoming NBA Draft.
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These two picks, according to Tankathon.com, are projected to be picks 13, and 24 in next June’s NBA Draft.
This move will also save the Thunder a ton of money, as Jerami Grant has a 9.3 cap hit in this upcoming season.
While we all love Grant, in fact, he was my favorite player on the Thunder, this move makes sense.
The Thunder are rebuilding, and despite Grant young age of just 25 and his tremendous growth and upside shown, he was not in the future plans for the OKC Thunder.
Grant is set to hit the open market next offseason, and given the shallow pool of talent in Free Agency next year, someone is going to hand Jerami Grant a ton of money next July. That team was not going to be the Thunder, they would have been outbid.
Now, he goes to a Denver team that fits his play style and is ready to contend for a spot in the Western Conference finals if not more in the wide open wild west.
Sam Presti is right GM to lead rebuild. dark. Next
The OKC Thunder are probably not done making moves, and TI has you covered through it all.