OKC Thunder: 2 trades to consider for NBA’s least desirable contracts

OKC Thunder bad contract trade No. 2) Blake Griffin comes home

Yes, we’re quite aware that Blake Griffin is not the same player he once was — an athletic specimen that can dunk from anywhere/ anyone, shoot at a +35 percent clip from deep, and who is one of the more menacing point-forwards in the game.

That said, Bleacher Report came up with this idea (shout out B/R) of the big man coming back to his home state of Oklahoma to play for the OKC Thunder, and, frankly, we at TI kind of dig it for a multitude of reasons.

For starters, writer Zach Buckley discusses that, though Griffin’s contract is bad, it is for just one more season after this — though, 2021-22 is a player option –, whereas Horford’s is guaranteed for two more years. Though just a one-year difference, the flexibility added could be significant, either via free agency endeavors or in future trades.

Next, we have to acknowledge the fact that, though Griffin is obviously hobbled in his return-campaign after playing just 18 games in 2019-20 due to a lingering knee ailment that required surgery, he is just two years removed from an All-NBA season where he posted 24.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists on 46 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from deep.

Though highly unlikely, there is a chance he can tap back into something similar to this level of play — at the very least, his ceiling is much higher than Horford’s is at this stage in both of their careers.

That said, while we should not fully expect these same scoring numbers to resurface, as his knee is likely to hinder this aspect of his game for the rest of his career, the playmaking side of his game could come in handy as a complimentary piece of this Thunder core.

At the end of the day, flipping a longer-lasting undesirable contract and two current bench warmers for the hometown kid Blake Griffin and a future second-round pick isn’t such a bad move to consider making if you’re OKC.