The only thing standing in between the OKC Thunder and the official kickoff to the 2021 NBA offseason is Sunday’s outing against the Los Angeles Clippers.
That’s it.
That’s right folks, after a long and grueling season where Oklahoma City will wind up finishing with one of the worst three records in the entire association, Sam Presti and co. can finally start putting their rebuild plans post initial tank season into action, as there will be much to do during this upcoming summer.
Perhaps the most polarizing event on the calendar will be the illustrious NBA Draft, which will commence on July 29th.
Then, directly following that will be free agency, which has an official start date of August 2nd.
Sprinkle in the fact that the Thunder’s front office will be looking to find a trade partner for the remaining two years of Al Horford’s contract throughout, and it’s evident that Presti has a jam-packed itinerary.
Of course, all of this is a cumulative effort for the franchise to get back to respectability, and a major mindset they’ll have during their offseason excursion will be centered on how they can best build around their current building block, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Arguably (though, to us, definitely) an All-Star snub this season, SGA is the reason in which the hard work in the team’s tankathon is seemingly over, for the majority of teams in this same phase are plummeting to the bottom of the standings in an effort to nab a top-tier selection in an attempt to add a young franchise cornerstone to the roster.
For the OKC Thunder, this has already been accomplished.
Now, as we progress forward into his fourth year, the front office will look to add players that will aid in the guard’s progressions which, in turn, would only stand to benefit to team as a whole.
Recently, the folks at Bleacher Report penned a piece discussing each lottery team’s top priority heading into the offseason and, for Oklahoma City, it’s believed that they must look to add another shot creator to run alongside Gilgeous-Alexander, citing the fact that no one in the rotation is creating 60 percent or more of their own looks since he went down for the season.
Frankly, we at TI couldn’t agree more with this narrative and, today, we present to you 2 specific players we believe the OKC Thunder should pursue this summer in an attempt to bring on that much-needed shot-creator: