2 teams that could trade draft capital to the OKC Thunder

OKC Thunder trade partner No. 2) Boston Celtics

Less than 48 hours removed from the end of the season for the Boston Celtics and already they are caught in the offseason spotlight, as General Manager and President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge, stepped down and Head Coach, Brad Stevens, moved on up to the front office to take Ainge’s latter role.

On top of this, names for head coaching replacements have already made their way into the rumor circuit and, perhaps more important to our narrative, offseason plans and potential trade scenarios have already been brought to light.

One of the bigger agendas that have been discussed for the franchise pertains to former All-Star point guard, Kemba Walker, who has struggled mightily both with injuries and consistency during his two-year tenure with the franchise.

Long has it been rumored that the Cs would love to rid themselves of the 31-year-old’s remaining two-year, $73.7 million remaining on his contract and, recently, it was mentioned that many view Walker as a “negative asset” and that it’ll likely take draft capital attached to him to simply get a team interested in partaking in such a move.

See where we’re going with this?

Last month, we discussed the notion that because of the great success the OKC Thunder had with taking on Chris Paul two offseasons ago where they wound up turning a lacking-value veteran into a highly sought-after trade target, they may wish to try their luck again and, with this idea, we mentioned the concept of taking on Kemba as another fallen-star passion project:

"With the ample cap space that the Thunder have, coupled with their recent track record when dealing injury-prone star guards, perhaps the Sooner State could prove to be a quality landing spot for all parties involved. Just a season removed from being named an All-Star starter, and two seasons removed from being named All-NBA, yes, the 30-year-old Walker is in the midst of a down season but is still posting impressive averages of 17.8 points, 4.8 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game on 40 percent shooting from the field and 35 percent shooting from deep. His willingness to play as a second fiddle alongside Jayson Tatum last season despite already being a perennial All-Star himself helped aid in the young stud’s ascent into stardom, which could, in theory, be duplicated in Oklahoma City with Gilgeous-Alexander. Should his stock completely plummet — which is certainly not a far-fetched concept –, the Thunder should strongly consider buying low on a fallen franchise player who, by all accounts, should be in the midst of his prime. Perhaps, like CP3, Kemba Walker can re-gain his star status in Oklahoma."

The OKC Thunder have the luxury of taking a chance on a player like Kemba Walker for, if he recaptures his form, they could simply give him the CP3 treatment and flip him for more valuable assets that better align with their rebuilding cause and, if he doesn’t, it hardly impacts them, for winning isn’t the main priority for this ball club anyway.

Should the rumors be true, and the Celtics are willing the attach a future pick to a deal involving the veteran point guard, Oklahoma City should strongly consider using their ample cap space to absorb Walker’s outlandishly large contract.