Sam Presti strategy set as OKC Thunder hits free agency moratorium

While the OKC Thunder won’t be actively looking to add free agents Sam Presti will forge ahead with the rebuild and could serve as a facilitator

At 6:00 p.m. Eastern, the NBA free agency moratorium begins. This follows a busy week for the OKC Thunder who made copious trades already.

That’s because Sam Presti is actively engaged in the OKC Thunder rebuild. Sure, he might refer to it as the repositioning and restructuring era but make no mistake this is a full-on rebuild.

With each trade, the executive vice president and general manager orchestrated this week the players with the most transferable assets have been packaged and included in the next trade.

Case in point, consider the two big deals made prior to the draft and the players who were jettisoned to new squads before the ink was dry:

• Lakers deal for Dennis Schroder:
  • Danny Green traded to 76ers
  • 28th pick from LAL deal – packaged to help complete the deal with Wolves
• Suns deal for Chris Paul
  • Ricky Rubio traded to Wolves and draft picks swapped to land Aleksej Pokusevski
  • Kelly Oubre traded to Warriors

That’s five teams the OKC Thunder interacted with (Lakers, Suns, 76ers, Wolves, and Wizards) based on those two initial deals.

OKC Thunder strategy is to add youth and picks

For those keeping track, the youthful assets obtained via these deals are:

• Ty Jerome and Jalen Lecque from Suns
• Vit Krejci (37th pick) and Admiral Schofield from Wizards
• Aleksej Pokusevski (17th draft pick)
• Rights to Vasilije Micic, Theo Maledon (34th pick) from 76ers

And the precious first-round draft picks gained via these trades are:

• Suns 2022 first-round pick (top 12 protected)
• 76ers 2025 first-round pick (top 6 protected)
• Warriors 2021 first-round pick (top-20 protected)

A subsequent trade was completed for Vincent Poirier with the Celtics which feels more like Presti doing Danny Ainge a favor to clear up salary space but we’ll see what happens in Bean Town tonight.

Although Presti will always maintain the franchise’s mission is consistently be competitive the 2020-21 roster will have to accomplish this task built primarily with youthful assets.

It’s less likely the OKC Thunder will be as active during the moratorium than they were heading into and during the draft given they are building for the future. However, that doesn’t mean Sam Presti will be idle especially given the dynamics of this unusual year.

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

With the pandemic still raging it’s forced the draft, free agency, and training camp into a tight window to get their rosters tweaked.  The free-agent class is limited which also means executives will be shopping to bolster their rosters from contracted players.

For those wondering who else is left for Presti to trade, a trio of veterans could draw interest.  Specifically, the trio of Steven Adams, the recently opted-in Mike Muscala, and recently added James Johnson. If they aren’t players on teams’ shopping lists prior to season start – it doesn’t mean they won’t be before the trade deadline.

The key OKC Thunder free agent is Danilo Gallinari and he falls in the unrestricted category.  And while Presti won’t be looking to re-sign the Italian to stay in OKC it doesn’t mean the duo won’t coordinate efforts in order to facilitate a sign and trade deal.

Not every team who wants to be competitive has the salary cap room to offer Gallo what he’ll want. That means Sam Presti could ink a deal with the Italian to serve as the catalyst for the trade and in return — you guessed it bring back in young assets and more draft picks.