Grade the Trade: Thunder land veteran power forward in new win-now proposal

Laying out the trade

Though the Thunder may be one of the youngest teams in the entire league with an average age of 23.9, it's more than evident that they are in a position where they could realistically win a title now, and, as a result, they're looking to capitalize.

For clubs in this position, rostering experienced, tried and true talents is generally an absolute luxury to have in tow, and, in Kline's proposal, Oklahoma City is seen adding on such a commodity via trade with the Brooklyn Nets.

As noted in the piece, considering the Nets are expected to be heading straight into a full-fledged rebuild following the blockbuster trade that sent centerpiece Mikal Bridges out to their cross-borough rival, the New York Knicks, "Brooklyn no longer has need of Finney-Smith's veteran presence."

Instead, they likely are looking into ways where they can either fetch draft capital and/ or young, promising prospects to help aid in their future-focused endeavors.

In Kline's eyes, this tandem of Ousmane Dieng and Dillon Jones heading Brooklyn bound could essentially be seen as "the equivalent of a first-round pick and change" in a hypothetical exchange.

Both are two recent first-round selections made by the Thunder, with the former being taken 11 overall in the 2022 draft and the latter being snatched up at 26 this past June. They are also both 22 years of age and below and are still attached to their low-cost, rookie-scale contracts.

On top of this, the Nets would also be able to rid themselves of their fifth-highest salary in Finney-Smith's $14.9 million pay-day for 2024-25, thus allowing them to continue to chip away at their egregious $165.7 million payroll -- despite being projected as a bottom-feeder moving forward, they have more committed salary than some title-hopeful teams like Cleveland and, ironically, the Thunder.

Adding the promise of a recent lottery pick in Dieng and a Swiss Army Knife-type talent in rookie Dillon Jones may truly be one of the more strategic and better value packages this clearly tanking team could end up fetching.

Assuming GM Sean Marks would agree to these terms, what should the Thunder's though process be on this kind of proposal?