5 Potential buyout candidates the Oklahoma City Thunder should target

The Oklahoma City Thunder gained a number of things when they made their Trade Deadline move to add Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward. The most prominent is that they added a versatile player who can boost their offense and add secondary playmaking, and they did so without giving up significant assets of any kind.

Another thing that they gained was a pair of roster spots. In sending out three players for Hayward the team now has two open roster spots that they can use to sign other players. They will almost certainly turn their eyes to a suddenly frothy buyout market.

Let's look at five players the Thunder could sign off of the buyout market and how they would help the team. We start with the replacement for Vasilije Micic, freshly out the door to Charlotte.

No. 5: Cory Joseph, Point Guard

The Oklahoma City Thunder have plenty of ball-handling and playmaking on the roster, so it's very reasonable for them to use their two open roster spots at positions other than point guard. Yet the old adage "you can never have too many point guads" is both fictitious and true, and the Thunder just moved on from two guards and got back a forward.

Joseph was superfluous on a Golden State Warriors team with Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and Brandin Podziemski, but he can absolutely still play. The 13-year vet is a steady hand at the point, has a track record as a good shooter, and can be trusted to come in and fill a role if called upon. He's the perfect third point guard behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Cason Wallace.