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The Oklahoma City Thunder are in an interesting position at the NBA trade deadline. They have gathered many draft picks for the next few seasons and could potentially decide to move a few of them if the right player becomes available. There are rumors that the Indiana Pacers are looking to trade most of their team and head into a rebuild situation. This could be a great opportunity for the Thunder to get back Domantas Sabonis who was originally on the team in the 2016-17 season. There are plenty of other young guys who might become available who could potentially fit with this young Thunder roster.
There have been nights where the Thunder do not look like a great team. Other nights there is a glimpse of a promising future as the organization has made some great draft picks and has really hit the rebuild in the perfect way. Their sixth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft Josh Giddey has performed better than most expected him to. During the draft, many felt that he was not the pick that the Thunder should have made, but he looks like he's going to be a very good player in this league.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort are also high-level players who are going to end up being potential All-Stars in this league. Oklahoma City might decide to speed up their real rebuild process and bring in some guys who are young and can make an immediate impact with some of the young stars that they have. Let's take a look at some players the Thunder might decide to bring in at the NBA trade deadline, as well as maybe why they shouldn't spend.
Thunder NBA Trade Deadline
Domantas Sabonis
Sabonis has been a very good player for the past few seasons including two All-Star appearances in the last two years. He is somebody who could score 18 plus points per night while also grabbing about 10 plus rebounds. This could be the perfect decision for the Thunder as he was part of their team in the first year of his career.
Domantas Sabonis becomes the third player with a first-half triple double since 1997-98! 🤯@Dsabonis11: 26p/19r/14a in @Pacers W pic.twitter.com/RKkwNxZWCK
— NBA (@NBA) May 2, 2021
It is clear that the Pacers are going to be in a rebuild situation and Sabonis might just be the perfect guy for this Thunder team. They have plenty of draft picks that they could decide to move and if they don't have to give up most of them, they also have some young guys who the Pacers might be intrigued in to help them and their rebuild.
Sabonis would be a perfect guy to put next to Gilgeous-Alexander, Giddey, and Dort to make the Thunder have an impressive starting five.
Don't move any draft picks
Outside of Sabonis, it wouldn't make much sense for the Thunder to go out and get anybody else. Unless the organization wants a guy like Ben Simmons who's asking price is way too high for a player of that caliber, Sabonis should be the only option for this team. The organization has done the rebuild perfectly and there's no reason to speed that up unless they can get a player for player trade that significantly gets them better and doesn't make them lose any assets. Their front office has worked tirelessly to get all the draft picks that they currently have so it would make little to no sense to trade all of those for a player who still won't make this team contenders.
There are going to be some veterans at the trade deadline who could potentially help this team out and even help the younger guys on the team. Guys like Terrence Ross, Marvin Bagley, Eric Gordon, and a few others could be guys who can come in and make immediate impacts while helping the younger guys on the team.
The reality is that none of these guys are necessarily good enough for Oklahoma City to trade draft picks to other rebuilding teams and help them out. Terrence Ross can come in and be an electric score for this team but they already have Giddey and Gilgeous-Alexander at the one and two positions so there's not a place for him to really play. The same goes for Eric Gordon.
Marvin Bagley could be interesting because he could be the starting forward and he's young. They could decide to move on from Darius Bazley. Bazley has looked decent with his minutes this season as he's averaging 8.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He hasn't been great but he is more than serviceable and unless it was a player for player trade, there isn't much of an upgrade between him and Bagley in the eyes of the front office.
