The Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the pleasant surprises of the 2019-20 NBA season thus far. Despite losing both Russell Westbrook and Paul George, the team still sits in seventh place in the Western Conference as of January 5th, with a 5.5-game lead on the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers.
With the Thunder being a fringe playoff team, they are at a crossroads: they could attempt to swing for the fences and try to make a big move, or they could start acquiring young talent and build for the future.
Whichever path the team decides to go down, one piece they should try to move before the trade deadline is veteran forward Danilo Gallinari. Gallinari could provide experience, quality defense and improved shooting to a team looking to make a run.
If they decide to be sellers at the deadline, the Thunder may be able to turn the veteran into a first-round pick and Tyler Johnson. The Suns are sick of being a laughingstock in the league, and have the cap space to deal for pricey players like Gallinari, who is set to make $22.6 million this season.
“Not many teams will have cap space next summer. The Suns probably would be able to re-sign Gallinari at a much better price,” one Western Conference executive said via Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. “There's uncertainty, especially if they give up a first-rounder, but the difference in price would make Gallinari the better target.”
Gallinari is an ideal trade piece, being that he is an unrestriced free agent at the end of the season and can provide veteran experience to an up-and-coming team. He has always been an underrated NBA player, averaging 16.0 points per game and 4.9 rebounds per game his whole career while shooting 39.3 percent from three this season.
With his nearly 40-percent clip and his length on the defensive end, he could be an ideal 3-and-D that a contender could rent for half a season.
As Bruno Manrique of ClutchPoints pointed out earlier this week, Gallinari is an intriguing trade piece because when healthy, he theoretically does everything that forward Kevin Love can do at 75 percent of the price.
What would draw concerns from trade partners would be that Gallinari is about as durable as a plate of fine china. He has yet to play a full 82-game season due to a tumultuous injury history and is just coming back from a nagging ankle injury this week.
That injury risk might be one that the Suns are willing to take, being that they are making a legitimate run at the playoffs and are clearly sick of being a bottom-feeder in the league.
As Nick Crain of Forbes pointed out in mid-December, Johnson and Mikal Bridges could be an ideal haul for the Thunder. Johnson more than replaces Gallinari's shooting ability, and even though he has been up-and-down in his first few seasons, Bridges is a young ball of clay that could be molded into one of the best defenders in the league.
Whatever the Thunder end up doing, they have almost limitless flexibility based on all the young talent and draft picks they already have stocked up. Acquiring more young talent in return for Gallinari could make Oklahoma City one of the deepest teams in the league in a few short years.
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