OKC Thunder: 3 teams to pursue an Al Horford trade with
By Mark Nilon
Based on popular beliefs, the OKC Thunder will likely be active participants during the 2021 NBA trade deadline.
When looking at the state of their roster, coupled with their desire to build towards the future, it’s not shocking to see this type of projection, especially considering how keen Sam Presti and co. have been on wheeling and dealing over the past several seasons.
As things currently stand, it would appear Oklahoma City might be better off setting itself up for a high-end pick in this year’s draft.
However, coming into the year some brought up the idea that their talent pool is simply too good to properly tank and, through 36 games, this has somewhat proven to be the case, as they are right on the edge of play-in tournament contention and are constantly finding themselves vying for a ‘W’ during every outing.
The OKC Thunder must consider trading away their valuable veteran assets
Because of this, it would not be shocking to see the OKC Thunder steering into the tank a bit more and, in turn, shipping off some of their more valuable vets and exchanging them for assets that better fit their youth movement, be it draft picks or young talents.
One of their most valued trade assets in the shape of a seasoned player is their 14-year center, Al Horford.
Having himself a quality season manning the middle for Oklahoma City, the 34-year-old is increasing his stock with virtually every passing game.
Today, we present to you 3 teams that could be interested in dealing for Al Horford:
OKC Thunder trade partner No. 1) Toronto Raptors
Despite a slow start to the season, the Toronto Raptors have managed to turn things up as the games have rolled on and, as things currently stand, they are slotted in the eighth seed out East with a record of 16-18.
This team appears to be hungry for a second-half surge, as franchise player Kyle Lowry only has a few years left in him and wishes to spend said time contending.
Should the front office adhere to his desires, they’ll likely want to address their big man troubles for, since the departures of Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol this past offseason — two major factors in their recent successes –, this has easily been the team’s biggest weakness within the rotation.
A guy like Horford would easily help aid in their quest to contend once again.
On the season, the Raptors rank just 14th in points per game, 24th in field goal percentage, 27th in points in the paint, and dead last in rebounds.
For his career, the veteran big posts averages of 13.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game on 52 percent shooting from the floor and 36 percent shooting from the floor.
His offensive prowess would be a tremendous upgrade over what they currently have rolling out at the pivot now, while his veteran leadership could only help galvanize this relatively underwhelming ball club that, just last season, made it to within one game of their second-straight Eastern Conference Finals run.