Evaluating the cost
The Oklahoma City Thunder have the most draft capital of any team in the league and certainly of any other contenders. Many teams likely lean on the Thunder to overpay because of that fact, but Sam Presti has worked hard not to let their deep pockets lead to wasting assets in trades.
He did so again in this deal, not moving a single first-round pick to bring back Gordon Hayward. The pessimistic view would say that they sent draft capital, an intriguing young guard and a necessary point guard for an injury-prone forward who could walk this summer. All of that is technically true, but it's a narrow obfuscation of what actually happened.
Let's try another angle. The Oklahoma City Thunder are jostling for first place in a loaded Western Conference and added a former All-Star for a pair of second-round picks and three players outside of their full-strength rotation.
Tre Mann showed potential but he was never able to bring it together consistently and was immediately passed by rookie Cason Wallace in the rotation this season. Vasilije Micic was instantly beloved by Thunder fans, but ultimately he was averaging 3.3 points, 2.5 assists and shooting 40.7 percent from the field and 24.4 percent from 3-point range. He wasn't factoring into the playoff rotation.
The Thunder will have at least one other first-round draft pick coming in this summer, likely a lottery pick, and they will want to be active in free agency and on the trade market (more on that in a moment). They didn't have room to develop Mann any further, and Micic wasn't going to factor on the team now or moving forward. This was an incredibly inexpensive cost for a player who has a lot of upside balancing out his injury-risk downside.
A