Pros and cons of Thunder potentially trading for Jerami Grant

The OKC Thunder have been quite active thus far during the 2024 NBA offseason, as they've hit a trifecta agenda of scooping up widely believed draft-day steals, signing big-name free agents, and locking down some of their own promising young players to long-term deals with the franchise.

Frankly, the one key category Sam Presti and company have yet to hit this summer is a blockbuster deal for an established top-notch talent already residing in the league.

Perhaps the Portland Trail Blazers can help Oklahoma City achieve this lofty fourth venture.

Recently, reports have surfaced stating that trading guard Anfernee Simons or Jerami Grant before training camp is "definitely the goal" for the Blazers.

Pros and cons of OKC Thunder trading for Jerami Grant this summer

While both could, in theory, be of great value to this Thunder team, considering they already have an influx of backcourt talents in tow heading into next season, should the club be at all interested in hopping into the Oregon-based sweepstakes, perhaps a reunion with the latter-mentioned forward could be considered a possibility.

Of course, before committing to any such pursuits, OKC must consider all the pros and cons of such an ordeal.

Pro: Bringing on a legitimate power forward

Though the Thunder finished off last season as the top seed in the Western Conference standings and, at times, appeared to be legitimately unstoppable, they were still far from being considered a perfectly constructed squad.

While they were without question flush with talent, as they boasted a roster headlined by superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and budding stars Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, missing from their arsenal was a legitimate power forward option.

They experimented with Williams serving as their primary four within the rotation, and, in many ways, it worked as they went on to win 57 games while the sophomore dropped tremendous per-game averages of 19.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.1 steals while shooting 54.0 percent from the floor and 42.7 percent from distance.

However, keeping the 6-foot-5 natural wing at the position for the long-term is not a recipe for sustained success, especially when matching up against other monstrous frontcourts out west like Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in Minnesota and Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon in Denver.

Adding Jerami Grant would not only add more size (6-foot-7 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan) to their main rotation, but it would also help stabilize their starting five, as it would have him slot into the main power forward role and simultaneously slide Williams up to his more traditional position of small forward.