Breaking down reformulated OKC Thunder roster following trio of trades

With the exits of Paul George, Jerami Grant, and Russell Westbrook the OKC Thunder take a significant dip in the Western Conference. T.I. examines what the new roster compilation looks like as of July 23rd.

With the OKC Thunder 23 days into free agency despite trading Russell Westbrook, the team already has their point guard of the future. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might also be the only untouchable player on the roster. That said, for as much as OKC are in a rebuild the team isn’t as terrible as one would presume given who they lost.

Depending on which analysts opinions you put stock in several feel this revamped Thunder squad shouldn’t be automatically ruled out of playoff contention. That said, given the draft picks OKC has in hand it might not behoove them to overachieve. This season will definitely be a balancing act and we’ll know more about the intentions of the team depending on the minute distribution, particularly of the youngsters.

If Donovan plays the youngsters consistently then what we can glean from that is Presti is desirous of tanking and wants to see the youngsters as much as possible to assess their talent and potential. Conversely, if the vets get more minutes it might indicate the Thunder want to try to balance the line of being competitive while building akin to what the Nets or Clippers did last season.

Prior to the trio of trades, the Thunder had very little money to work with including the Melo trade exception of $10.8M (usable until July 25th) as well as the mid-level exception of approximately $5.7 million which presumably the team used part of to sign Noel.

What we do know is Presti has more moves coming and the team still has significant gaps to fill.  With that, let’s examine what the revamped roster looks like positionally as of July 23rd.