As the days dwindle down towards the March 25th NBA Trade Deadline, the OKC Thunder find themselves presented with more and more questions.
As things currently stand, the franchise has a desire to lean into a rebuild to better their odds of landing a top-tier pick in this upcoming draft. That said, with the way the roster is constructed, it would appear as though they are just too good to successfully tank, as they’ve found themselves in the running for a win in every outing and are constantly in and out of the playoff hunt.
Because of this, many are under the impression that Sam Presti and co. will try to be active participants this trade season, as they look to offload some of their impactful veteran commodities in Trevor Ariza, George Hill, and Al Horford.
Could the Dallas Mavericks be interested in OKC Thunder big, Al Horford?
Being we are now within a month till the deadline, the rumors will start to intensify and ideas will begin to surface in regard to where some of these players could find themselves come year’s end.
For Ariza, he’s more likely to be an additional piece in a deal or, frankly, a buyout candidate.
For Hill, we see many different destinations that could serve as suitable.
Predicting where Horford could end up is the one that has been the biggest struggle for us at TI to figure out.
Though he is averaging 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds,and 3.6 assists per game while shooting 36.4 percent from deep, his remaining two-years, $53.5 million left on his contract make finding a suitor for the veteran big a bit more challenging.
However, in a recent article published by Bleacher Report, they see the Dallas Mavericks as a potential landing spot, and believes that the trio of Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford could be quite menacing:
"Running out two bigs in the frontcourt is seldom workable. Horford knows this all too well after last season in Philly. But Porzingis isn’t Joel Embiid. He is almost exclusively a pick-and-pop option. Dallas doesn’t need to worry about them occupying the same space as often and can still play five-out when they’re both in the game. Staggering them guarantees Dallas will never have a below-average 5 on the court.Acquiring Horford makes zero sense if the Mavericks have to fork over meaningful assets. But if the Thunder are predominantly interested in cutting long-term costs, Dallas can absolutely justify green-lighting a package built around Powell, James Johnson’s expiring contract and low-level sweeteners."
Figuring out a package that satisfies both parties is the challenging part. With this, in the coming days, we at the site will try and concoct a few that could realistically work.