Sam Presti traded Chris Paul and Abdel Nader to the Phoexnix Suns yesterday in exchange for Rickey Rubio, Kelly Oubre Jr., two young prospects, and a first round draft pick.
It’s the perfect time in Oklahoma City to rebuild or retool so why not do it now during a COVID-19 pandemic with another shortened regular season and at best half empty arenas on the horizon.
With the exception of LeBron’s Lakers the NBA as a whole is in a period of time when the financial sheets across all of pro sports are in flux as we wait to see how bad this winter is going to be in the United States as the tempertures grow colder with no leadership in place currently in Washington D.C.
Chris Paul gave Thunder fans a year to enjoy last season and it was time to move his contract. It’s time to be grownups and accept the reality of a rebuild in OKC.
Presti not only got another first round pick to add to his cache of picks, but he got a nice young role player in Kelly Oubre Jr. who could be a keeper to go along with SGA, Lu Dort, and Darius Bazely looking down the road.
Last week Presti made his G League coach Mark Daigneault his NBA coach and in essence this will be a developmental team in Oklahoma City the upcoming season. But look it it this way…the LA Dodgers house their top Triple AAA team in OKC—so that’s what we’re going to see this season with some promising young players trying to reshape the Thunder’s next decade of NBA basketball.
Maybe one or two these young players will turn into a Cody Bellinger, a Corey Seager , or a Chris Taylor. There won’t be any Mookie Betts-like free agent coming to Oklahoma City…but lots of youth and less payroll.
I enjoy seeing young players evolve so this will be kind of fun for me. Presti will need to get some luck with some of these draft picks, but if you were going to give any GM in the league this arsenal of picks you’d probably have Presti near the top of your list of GMs.
It is what it is. Young players on the horizon. A new young coach. With the hope Sam Presti can rebuild the Thunder into a contender two or three years from now in an NBA city which just voted for Donald Trump by a seventy per cent plurality margin even though Joe Biden won the White House with 306 Electoral College votes.
Sam Presti has a profound challenge in front of him in the NBA’s most challenging job heading into the 2020 season.