OKC Thunder: Grading the trade deadline deal

This season has been different for the OKC Thunder in virtually every way from the prior 12 seasons. Part of that is the impact of the coronavirus as teams have to follow strict rules and protocols to stay safe.

The virus impacts all facets of the NBA. Fan attendance for example is either limited to a few thousand fans or not allowed like the Thunder who elected to not have fans at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Even with precautions players come into contact or catch the virus.

As far as team activities, health and safety protocols have resulted in players missing numerous games, practices being limited, and postponements. That’s led to frequent commentary from coaches that the lack of constancy made it difficult to assess where their teams were.

I bring this up because the overwhelming belief heading into the trade deadline was that it would be a quieter day than usual. Gee, was that assessment wrong. as the league witnessed the busiest deadline in 35 years.

Instead, 46 players were traded via 16 different trades involving 23 teams. For those who like to compare – there

Intentions hit many of the moves made with our Deadline power rankings…

As for OKC, unlike many clubs’ fan bases who weren’t sure if their teams would be buyers or sellers Thunder Nation had no illusions. We knew Sam Presti would be a seller the only question was how many players would be traded.

With that in mind let’s dive into the deadline assessing how Sam Presti did and grade the one deal the Thunder made.

Grading the OKC Thunder trade deadline:

Three team deal:

76ers receive:

• George Hill
• Ignas Brazdeikis

Knicks receive:

• Terrance Ferguson
• Vincent Poirier

OKC Thunder receive:

• Tony Bradley
• Austin Rivers
• 76ers 2025 second-round draft pick
• 76ers 2026 second-round draft pick
• Trade exception

The immediate takeaways from this deal are the Thunder did what was expected. They traded George Hill and picked up draft picks in return.

No one expected a first-round pick and even getting two seconds was a bit of a stretch given how many games HIll missed. For example– Evan Fournier is six years younger than Hill (albeit a free agent this offseason) and his deal also garnered two second-round picks.

Getting two players back in the process is a bit of a coup as well. Tony Bradley is a young asset who fits the Thunder timeline. He was stuck behind Joel Embiid and Dwight Howard in Philly so this is an opportunity for him with the Thunder. As Mark Nilon shared with us– Embiid is a huge fan of Bradley believing he can be special.

In fairness, Bradley might not get a ton of playing time in OKC either.  Al Horford, Moses Brown, and Mike Muscala would seemingly all be ahead of him in the pecking order. While the Thunder will load manage Horford they can’t afford to outright shut him down (barring an injury) because the goal will be to trade him in the offseason or next year which means he has to show his value by appearing in games.

Brown has already jumped ahead of Muscala in the rotation so the franchise can gauge his overall value and decide whether to upgrade him from a two-way contract to a full contract in a similar fashion as they did with Luguentz Dort. Even for that to happen, however, players would need to be waived to open a roster spot.

As it was the Thunder announced they’ve waived Meyers Leonard to create the room on the roster to complete this trade.  Further players may get bought out with Muscala someone that might fit the bill if the Thunder have no intentions of re-signing him in the summer. He’s on an economical $2.28 million deal so it’s not a stretch. That would open up a spot to sign Brown and also allow more minutes for Bradley.

Other buyout options are Austin Rivers and maybe one of the end-of-bench players such as Justin Jackson or Darius Miller.  I’d be surprised if Rivers is bought out immediately because the Thunder need depth at the guard position specifically.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will miss copious games but recently Theo Maledon and Ty Jerome also missed games. On several occasions, OKC was missing two of those three as well as Dort which led to lineups in games without a point guard on the court.

The other reason to keep Rivers is he’s signed through 2022-23 and like many before him, this opportunity could serve as a reminder of his ability. That’s the wish of the franchise too because then Sam Presti can flip Rivers for picks.

As for the sheer numbers:

In 20 appearances with the 76ers, Bradley averaged 5.5 points,5.2 rebounds, 0.7 blocks in 14.4 minutes per game while shooing 68.0 percent from the field.

In 21 appearances with the Knicks, Rivers averaged 7.3 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists in 21 minutes per game.

Closing and Grade:  B

Presti didn’t find a way to move Al Horford but including the prior Trevor Ariza trade, he did move two of the three vets and logically the two he needed to move.

The VP also accomplished the goal of adding picks that now balloon to 17 first-round and 17 second-round picks for the Thunder over the next seven seasons.

Rivers doesn’t move the bar, Bradley will be given a shot and truthfully the value of this trade won’t be fully recognized until the picks are made.

Ultimately, Presti didn’t pull a rabbit out of the hat as he has in the past, but this was a decent return with potential upside.