The Oklahoma City Thunder made several franchise-changing moves this offseason. They traded MVP candidate Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for a boatload of picks. 2017 MVP and Thunder fan favorite Russell Westbrook was the next to go, sent to the Houston Rockets for Chris Paul and even more future selections. The Thunder seem to be heading into full rebuild mode in the very near future, so should center Steven Adams be on the trade block as well?
There are several reasons why the Thunder should hesitate to shop their long-time starting big man. First of all, although the Thunder are not title contenders, they still have quality players on their team. Thunder general manager Sam Presti is intrigued with the roster and appears likely to give them the start of the season to see how they play together.
Chris Paul, when healthy, is still one of the top point guards in the league. Danilo Gallinari is criminally underrated as a stretch 4 who can shoot the lights out. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed flashes of his All-Star potential in his rookie season. Why not let it ride and see if this Thunder team can surprise teams before blowing up the roster for good?
While the Thunder have some solid players, they don't have much center depth. Right now, the two centers on their roster are Adams and Nerlens Noel. After waiving Patrick Patterson, the only power forwards on the team are Gallinari and Mike Muscala, who can play some 5. It's not like the Thunder have young frontcourt players waiting in the wings who need minutes to develop, so Adams is not taking anyone's playing time right now.
Back to Chris Paul. While Paul has a history of not getting along with his teammates, there is no question that he is a master of making them better players. This is especially true with centers. In Los Angeles, Paul played alongside DeAndre Jordan. In the years playing alongside Paul, Jordan's field goal percentage averaged out to just over 70 percent in six seasons. When Paul left, the big man's shooting percentage immediately dropped to 64.4 percent and has remained around there for the last three seasons.
We saw a similar occurrence with Houston Rockets center Clint Capela. In the year Paul joined the Rockets, Capela shot a career-high 65.2 percent from the field. It'll be interesting to see if that number drops with Westbrook on the floor instead of Paul.
Paul clearly makes his pick-and-roll partners significantly better. The Thunder should let Paul and Adams play together and see how Adams' game improves. Best-case scenario, Adams becomes a lob machine, shoots a ridiculously high percentage from the field, and the Thunder can fetch a nice haul for him when it does come time to trade him. Perhaps this even helps with Paul's trade value, which is minimal thanks to his massive contract.
So, the Thunder should wait to pull the trigger on a Steven Adams trade. While the big New Zealander almost definitely is not in the team's long-term plans, they can still get quality minutes out of him while they search for his replacement and build his value for the future.
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