We all know about the Harden trade. OKC currently has two players on its roster, Steven Adams and Alex Abrines, who came from that trade. Jeremy Lamb is now in Charlotte and Kevin Martin was a one year rental.
Likewise, we all know about the Reggie Jackson trade at the deadline several years ago. OKC was forced to trade Jackson at the deadline and in return got DJ Augustin and Kyle Singler. Augustin is no longer with the team and to date Kyle Singler has not panned out as a reliable rotation player.
But think back to last summer prior to Durant leaving for the West Coast Nike All-Star team. Sam Presti traded Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic for Victor Oladipo, Domas Sabonis, and Ersan Ilyasova. Last night we witnessed what Sam Presti parlayed out of Oladipo and Sabonis, but don’t underestimate what Sam Presti did when he traded Ersan Ilyasova to my Sixers for Jeremy Grant. What he got in Grant is an uber athletic player at 6’9″ with the ability to defend four different positions. For those of you old enough to remember—think Stacey Augmon.
The Harden trade will forever be debated. The Reggie Jackson trade turned out to be a bad trade, but the Serge Ibaka trade was pure gold because what OKC got in return for Ibaka was a Top 10 NBA player in his prime and a versatile role player in Jerami Grant.
Whether George stays more than one year is irrelevant. Russell Westbrook now has the opportunity to morph his game back to what it was with Kevin Durant, perhaps play an even more team oriented style and show Paul George why he should stay in OKC beyond next season. That’s on Russell Westbrook and Billy Donovan, not Sam Presti.
And just think what Al Horford must be thinking right now as Boston to date has not made one move of consequence to become a serious championship contender in what now is a dying Eastern Conference. If Horford had come back to play for his college coach Billy Donovan what we’d be looking at this morning in OKC is a starting lineup of Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Al Horford, Steven Adams, and probably Andre Roberson. Think about that, Al Horford. Show some fucking loyalty to your college coach next time.
For the Daily Thunder millennials who’ve worn themselves out looking at graphs and charts with colored spheres all week. Stacey Augmon–The Plastic Man.