The OKC Thunder offseason has officially wrapped up with their recent move to shuffle in a new two-way player, a few re-signings, and of course, Sam Presti trades. It is time to grade how Oklahoma City faired this summer.
It is hard to believe that as we sip on our morning cup of coffee on September 23rd, we are five days away from training camp, less than two weeks away from preseason games, and 27 days away from the regular-season opener against the Utah Jazz…yeah, I am going to need more coffee.
With the start of media days, training camp, and the preseason the offseason is finally over. We made it! It is time to shift into preseason predictions and before we know it the regular season will be underway.
Grading the OKC Thunder offseason
The Oklahoma City Thunder started the offseason off on the wrong foot, to no fault of their own, they slid down the NBA Lottery order to the sixth selection. Before June 22nd, visions of owning the first and fifth pick in the NBA Draft danced in Thunder fan’s heads. Instead, the team was outside of the top five altogether.
Despite a ton of smoke screens, nothing prepared fans for the shocking pick Presti would make on Draft night. No, the team could not swing a trade into the top five, and no they did not select Jonathan Kuminga, despite the G-League Ignite product being considered a top-5 prospect all year until draft night.
Sam Presti elected to go with the 6’9 guard that possesses elite playmaking ability, Josh Giddey. Walking into the draft with six selections, Presti came away with four new rookies, after trading away fan-favorite Alprene Sengun, and trading up for solid big man Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
The other rookies include Tre Mann, a sharpshooting guard that can create for himself and others, and an interesting two-way option in Aaron Wiggins that has 3-and-D potential.
The team made a few surprising moves in the draft, many were displeased with the decision to trade Sengun, many would have preferred a different top ten pick than Josh Giddey, and most had no opinion on Mann, Robinson-Earl, or Wiggins.
For this segment of the offseason, it is a resounding wait and see. However, I am higher on Josh Giddey’s fit with the Oklahoma City Thunder than most, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is a legitimate rotational piece, and Mann is a huge upside swing, so I will give Presti a solid B+ for the NBA Draft.
Then, the free agency period began and the OKC Thunder were not very active, though they did the most important thing in inking Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to a max contract extension. The team also re-signed Mike Muscala and agreed to terms with Paul Watson Jr on a two-way deal.
The team also buyout Kemba Walker, who they acquired via a trade that sent Moses Brown and Al Horford to the Boston Celtics. Since that deal, Walker is now a Knick, and Brown was re-packaged to the Dallas Mavericks from Boston.
The team also acquired Derrick Favors from the Utah Jazz in a deal that sent another future second-round pick to Bricktown. Favors is on a team-friendly pact that will certainly have contending teams lining up to trade for him around the deadline. In the meantime, he will represent a strong locker room leader while being the starting man in the middle for OKC.
The offseason moves ended as the Oklahoma City Thunder bought out Vit Krejci‘s overseas contract bringing him over on a standard NBA deal, though he will likely spend time with the OKC Blue coming back from a torn ACL.
The roster currently sits at 18, the team can add two more players heading into next week’s training camp before having to trim the roster back down to the 17-active players (including two-way spots) for the 2021-22 NBA regular season.
Ultimately, this offseason deserves an A. The team did what they could with their resources, made the roster chock-full of young guys that have room to progress and will see a ton of minutes this season.
How would you grade Sam Presti’s offseason for the OKC Thunder?