The Oklahoma City Thunder spent the summer locking up the core to a championship team and reloading through the NBA Draft. In the process, however, they may have missed out on a move that will cost them down the line -- offloading the contract of Ousmane Dieng.
It is increasingly hard to criticize Sam Presti and the Thunder front office. They have nailed a staggeringly large number of moves, from the Paul George and Russell Westrbook trades to drafting Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams to filling in the roster around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with the likes of Isaiah Joe, Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso.
The result was an NBA Championship and the path forward to many more; the Thunder over/under on titles in the next decade may be as high as 3.5. They are young, under contract and fit together extremely well.
Maintaining a contender in the new era of the NBA is not an easy task, however, and it requires delicately managing the back-end of the roster to keep young, inexpensive talent ready to step up into larger roles. The Thunder have done that with Cason Wallace, ready to step up for one of their perimeter defenders when it's time financially to move on from Lu Dort or Alex Caruso.
The Thunder continued that process this summer, locking up their core while adding talent in the draft. Which move they made was the best value? And was there a move that they should have made to further maximize their assets and continue the creation of a dynasty?
Let's look at the best move that the Thunder did and didn't make this offseason.
Best Move: Drafting Brooks Barnhizer
The most impactful moves for the franchise will come from the extensions that they worked out with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. The supermax for SGA was the most they could offer; they got a tiny concession from Williams on his extension with tiered Rose Rule escalators, but they (rightfully) offered him the max. Holmgren didn't get escalators, which matters, but given his injury history and supplementary offensive role his leverage was much lower. Those were all good bits of business, but the value on top of the baseline wasn't massive.
The most value can often times come from the moves with the lowest cost, so we have narrowed in on the drafting of Brooks Barnhizer. The 6'6" wing has a massive 6'11" wingspan and is strong enough to defend down the positional spectrum. The four-year player at Northwestern was an inconsistent 3-point shooter but shot well from the free-throw line, suggesting he has room for improvement.
If the shot comes around, Barnhizer looks like a truly special defensive prospect. He enveloped opponents in Summer League, averaged 3.2 steals per game and showed off superb help and rotation instincts -- not easy to do in Summer League. He looks like a defensive difference-maker right from the jump.
The shot needs to come around, but he already looks like a steal in the second round of the NBA Draft.
Move They Missed: Trading Ousmane Dieng
The Oklahoma City Thunder drafted three players in the lottery of the 2022 NBA Draft: Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams...and Ousmane Dieng. The French forward was a raw, toolsy player who was always going to need a long ramp of development. Three years in, however, that ramp doesn't appear to be leading to an NBA player.
The slim 6'10" forward has shown some flashes here and there, but this past season he showed very little consistent growth. Injuries may have played a part in that, but Dieng played just 37 games in part because he was entirely out of the rotation. He looked to be processing the game at a higher rate, but his shot was still below average and his defensive impact inconsistent.
There is no path to becoming a rotation player in Oklahoma City, so Dieng will need to leave via trade or free agency next summer. Sam Presti may be holding onto Dieng in hopes of using his salary in a trade during the season, but the ideal time to strike on a Dieng trade was this summer, while he still held some of the shine of being a recent lottery pick.
Teams had the flexibility under the tax aprons to add someone like Dieng this summer and take a flier on him. Will a championship team likely to be at the top of the standings once again make any sort of significant move during the season? Perhaps, but most likely not. If they were going to make a move, it would have been best executed during the offseason.
Now Dieng and the Thunder are barreling toward a breakup. If the Thunder decide not to make an in-season trade they may get to next summer and let Dieng walk away for nothing, having wasted a roster spot that could have gone to someone helpful. Or even if they do use him as matching salary at midseason, the team acquiring him could view him as negative salary. More flexibility during the summer equals more teams willing to take a flier; now it has to be the specific team with the player the Thunder want.
It's not that painful of a critique; the Thunder had another excellent summer setting up a defense of their title. The road not traveled, however, may lead to regret that Ousmane Dieng is still on the roster heading into the season.