Trade season is in full swing OKC Thunder fans and, with only a few days to go till the March 25th NBA trade deadline, things are destined to get more interesting.
Though no big “blockbusters” have been made as of this writing, there have been a few dealings that have transpired, and Sam Presti and co. have managed to take part in two of them with the Hamidou Diallo trade to the Detroit Pistons and the more recent Trevor Ariza deal to the Heat.
Now, with roughly 72 hours to go until these sorts of transactions are no longer allowed, Thunder fans are curious to know what other moves, if any, will the team’s front office try to partake in.
Recently, we discussed the idea of the Boston Celtics being the ideal trade partner for Oklahoma City should Presti wish to continue his wheeling and dealing ways, and cited their various holes within their championship hopeful rotation that could find band-aid solutions from a few players found on the Thunder.
To strengthen our argument as to why these two parties make sense as trade partners, Bleacher Report writer Mandela Namaste went about and wrote a piece that discussed the concept of Beantown being the ideal landing spot for OKC’s veteran center Al Horford at this year’s deadline:
"There’s been a lot of talk about the Boston Celtics landing another swingman, particularly the aforementioned Harrison Barnes. But while the Celtics certainly have their fair share of roster holes, the wing is not one of them, given Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s All-Star play this year. Danny Ainge should be looking to the frontcourt. Because of injuries and various other reasons, Boston’s lack of quality bigs has been noticeable this year. To address this concern, the team would be well-served to add a floor-spacing center, and there’s a familiar and available name who could fill this need: Al Horford. After a disappointing season in Philadelphia, the big man has quietly rehabbed his trade value in Oklahoma City, averaging his most points per game (14.3) in five years while recording a 3.03 assist-to-turnover ratio, sixth-best among centers. Horford is 34, but he’s still a playoff-caliber contributor."
What could the OKC Thunder get back from the Celtics in an Al Horford trade?
When asking our followers on Twitter about how they’d feel about a potential Al Horford trade to the Celtics, many brought up a very reasonable question: what would the OKC Thunder be able to get in return?
With this, it sparked the desire from us here at TI to play the role of General Manager and try to this up a few trade scenarios that we believe could realistically take place.
Here are 2, in specific, that we came up with: