Presti Trades Carmelo to Atlanta for Dennis Schroder

Given the situation with Carmelo, this is a fairly decent ending as far as I’m concerned. OKC gets rid of the elephant in the locker room and will save itself around $100 million dollars without having to stretch Carmelo’s $27 million over three years.

But more importantly OKC gets a talented guard in Schroder who if he will embrace the Sixth Man role could genuinely help the Thunder.

When I think of Schroder’s game I immediately think of Reggie Jackson. Two players who can get to the rim and score the ball. I do not think of either as premier starting point guards for contending teams in this league.

OKC has a premier starting point guard—his name is Russell Westbrook. What this Thunder team needs is for a guard like Shroder who averaged just over 19 points a game last season to come off the bench and score the ball. This also makes the Thunder much faster. This also gives Billy Donovan the opportunity to develop sets with Westbrook, Paul George, and Schroder all together on the floor.

I’m thinking 28-30 minutes a game for Schroder if he embraces this role in Oklahoma City. I’m thinking he would clearly have a chance to be one of OKC’s six best players who could fill a role which has been empty since Reggie Jackson was traded to the Detroit Pistons.

So if you had to pick between Reggie Jackson, Dion Waiters, and Dennis Schroder as your Sixth Man…I’m thinking Shroder and Jackson are about the same with Waiters being better on the defensive side of the game.

To me, this was very simple, Carmelo is too old and too slow to play with the greyhounds Sam Presti has on his roster. Never again will we see the Thunder wait for Carmelo to lumber up the floor and run an awkward offensive set geared to get Carmelo a touch.

The Hawks will waive Carmelo and someone in Houston, LA, or Miami will eventually pick him up. Good luck, Carmelo.

It was a horrible situation, but given the options, this is interesting. This gives the Thunder a chance to become a better basketball team and save a $100 million dollars.

If Schroder can score 19 points a game and not turn over the ball the Thunder just completed their team makeover which in reality started on July 5th, 2016.

And, in essence, that’s precisely what has happened these past two years as Sam Presti has remade his team in Oklahoma City after Durant’s departure to Golden State.

Say what you want, but I would give Presti an A for the manner in which he put a team around Russell Westbrook which should have a chance to win around 50 games this season if Billy Donovan can connect the dots as an NBA head coach.

Fantastic summer for one Sam Presti. He’s done everything I’ve asked for as a rogue Thunder blogger with the exception of getting Brian Davis out of the Thunder broadcast booth.

This isn’t cruel. Put Matt Pinto in the booth and re-assign Brian Davis as the sideline reporter and put Leslie Mac with Antonio on the post game show. Nobody has to be fired. Nobody has to be a grinch.

Anyway, it’s a good sign for me when that’s the only thing I can bitch about heading into August.

On a sidenote, as a Philly fan, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot never made an impression on me one way or another. A bit of a project, but clearly an athlete with fluidity and speed. Maybe they can turn him into another Thabo—although I guess he was Swiss. Here’s the thing though, he was the 24th player selected in the first round of the 2016 draft. So, in essence–Presti is already hedging on the 2022 conditional first round pick he just gave up to make today’s trade. Watching this dude is like reading a Michael Lewis book on commodity values. He’s always thinking two moves ahead. I think he has a history degree as well.

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