OKC Thunder: 3 players worth trading draft capital for this offseason
By Mark Nilon
OKC Thunder trade target No. 2) Karl-Anthony Towns
Next up, we see Karl-Anthony Towns, a 2x All-Star whose talents have been wallowing away on the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves seemingly since he was selected first overall back in the 2015 NBA Draft.
His impressive season averages (24.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.1 blocks on 49 percent shooting from the field and 39 percent shooting from deep) once again went for naught, as the T-Wolves missed out on postseason action for the fifth time in his six-year tenure with the ball club.
Their lack of production over the last two decades (made the playoffs five times throughout this span) may be a sign that this team could easily continue to struggle even with arguably the best center currently in the association and, with this, it could lead to the star looking for an out from the franchise.
Even heading into the 2020-21 campaign, rumors were circulating that KAT should be viewed “as good as gone”, so seeing the ball club finish with the sixth-worst record certainly does not help make one believe these rumblings will be going away anytime soon.
To make matters worse for Wolves fans, just a few short months ago, Evan Massey of Hoops Analysis Network revealed that a source informed him that Minnesota will look to dangle their franchise cornerstone this coming summer:
The Minnesota #Timberwolves could be headed towards major changes in the offseason. In fact, one source tells @HoopAnalysisNet that both Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell will be on the trade block.
— Evan Massey (@massey_evan) March 30, 2021
Should this become a reality, we at TI believe the OKC Thunder should strongly consider pursuing the big man.
Right off the bat, his inclusion into their rotation would give Oklahoma City an unbelievably talented one-two punch with Gilgeous-Alexander in the backcourt and Towns residing in the frontcourt.
He would come in and immediately own the starting center position, which could certainly use for some talent bolstering, while also giving the rotation a tremendous floor-spacing big as well as another shot creator, both of which are viewed as two complementary attributes that could thrust SGA into superstardom.
With the fact that the team has ample cap space and an illustrious treasure trove of draft assets, if Towns were to become available, a deal could be rather simple for Presti to execute.