B/R says young roster for OKC Thunder is not built for the future

The official countdown to the trade deadline is on with the  OKC Thunder likely to be actively involved on March 25th. In previous years that would’ve implied Vice President and General Manager, Sam Presti was about to pull a trade rabbit out of his hat.

It meant the Thunder were already securely residing in a playoff seed. And, it most certainly meant the team intended to do whatever was necessary to make a long postseason run with the ultimate goal of winning the Larry O’Brien trophy.

This year, however, the expectation of Presti’s trade deadline involvement is due to an entirely different franchise goal — stockpiling draft picks to aid in the rebuild.

Leading up the 25th, the OKC Thunder already made two moves. Hamidou Diallo was sent to the Pistons for Svi Mikhailiuk and Trevor Ariza to the Heat for Meyers Leonard. Both trades will also return a second-round pick. While the Ariza deal was expected, the Diallo trade speaks more to the future direction of the club.

Bleacher Report says OKC Thunder young core built to tank

Diallo is having his best season as a pro, and a respected teammate with quality character. However, he was also in the final season of his rookie contract which meant it was time to make a decision whether he was an essential piece of the future core. That he was moved is in line with a Presti pattern to get something in return for a player before their contract expires

This brings me to the next point. Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey wrote an article assessing the young cores in the NBA. His opinion piece notes which current youthful rosters are built to succeed (contend now) and which are still in the process of a rebuild (tank mode). Here is a portion of his excerpt on the OKC Thunder:

"After SGA, though, the Thunder are mostly mysterious. They have seven more 25-and-under players with at least 400 minutes this season, all of whom have below-average box plus/minuses (most are below replacement level).The highest upside of that non-SGA group might belong to Aleksej Pokusevski, who just turned 19 in December. But his occasional flashes of playmaking 5 ability aside, he appears to be years away from steady contributions."

Bailey credits Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and gives the hat tip to Aleksej Pokusevski’s potential. It’s a tad frustrating Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley and Theo Maledon got no love from Bailey, but it’s his opinion.

I could counter with how the youngsters have overachieved or the second game back-to-back scenarios where they excelled. That’s part of the problem with diving into statistics – – you need to dive all the way in to get the full picture.

That said, Bailey is essentially correct. The OKC Thunder are not anywhere close to completing their rebuild, nor should they be given all those draft picks. Bailey has a similar mindset to Intentions regarding trading for assets in that OKC should be open to the situation but address each situation individually.

For now, we await the looming trade deadline next Thursday when I’d bet good money Sam Presti trades at least one veteran and adds at least one draft pick (although I’d suggest you bet the over on those odds too— wink, wink).