Should We Try for The Thunders 1st Round Pick

[ThomasCredle]

Bleacher Report had a tweet from Woz that indicated the Thunder could be shopping their 1st rounder for multiple 2nd rounders to avoid the guaranteed salary.   Wondering what folks thought about offering up our second rounders for the Thunder pick (#21 I think).   That would really give us the ammo to trade up if TS is in love with a player and he has proven he can find quality players in the high teen and twenties.   If the Thunder really want to unload a 1st for financial reasons I think the Hawks could be in a great position to load up.   

[JTB]

Yup I hope we get a deal done soon 

[thecampster]

3 hours ago, ThomasCredle said:

Bleacher Report had a tweet from Woz that indicated the Thunder could be shopping their 1st rounder for multiple 2nd rounders to avoid the guaranteed salary.   Wondering what folks thought about offering up our second rounders for the Thunder pick (#21 I think).   That would really give us the ammo to trade up if TS is in love with a player and he has proven he can find quality players in the high teen and twenties.   If the Thunder really want to unload a 1st for financial reasons I think the Hawks could be in a great position to load up.   

You're a brave man. Last year the guys roasted me for suggesting a team would prefer to pick 1st in the 2nd than bottom 5 in the first to avoid the mandatory salary.

[AHF]

47 minutes ago, thecampster said:

You're a brave man. Last year the guys roasted me for suggesting a team would prefer to pick 1st in the 2nd than bottom 5 in the first to avoid the mandatory salary.

OKC’s circumstance this year is radically different from where we were last year.  OKC is a tax repeater.  Every dollar they spend over the tax line this year costs them $5.50 with tax penalties.  So cutting $2M in salary saves them $11M ($2M in salary and $9M in penalties); $10M cut saves them $55M ($10M in dumper salary and $45M in penalties); etc. Their goal is to ditch the pick with a salary to help them cut costs.

OKC is not concerned about guaranteed or non-guaranteed dollars.  They only care about actual dollars spent.  

[JTB]

I think the only thing holding this deal back from happening (and I’m guessing just to be clear) if there’s anything holding it back anyways  ....is probably which ever available player(s) okc is willing to trade contract. 

I don’t know if okc has an expiring contract outside of Roberson but he’d be a nice pickup if he could get back fully healthy and we get the #21 pick and trade off a few of  our 2nd rounders to okc

[JayBirdHawk]

8 hours ago, JTB said:

I think the only thing holding this deal back from happening (and I’m guessing just to be clear) if there’s anything holding it back anyways  ....is probably which ever available player(s) okc is willing to trade contract. 

I don’t know if okc has an expiring contract outside of Roberson but he’d be a nice pickup if he could get back fully healthy and we get the #21 pick and trade off a few of  our 2nd rounders to okc

I think OKCs first priority would be trying to move Dennis Schröder ($15) and his 2 years remaining, but I think they'll have a hard time doing it. Not many takers.

Roberson ($10) and Patrick Patterson($5) are the two expiring contracts.

The question though is this:

Is OKC just looking to just cut cost to save luxury tax payments or are they looking to also upgrade their roster since making these trades does not take them below the cap to sign any players in FAcy, they'll be limited to exemptions and vet mins to improve their roster.

Here's a trade idea if OKC is just not looking for salary relief with pick #21:

OKC trades - Steven Adams (25x2), Roberson, (10) Patterson (5),  OKC 2019 1st, OKC reduces the protection to top 8 on the  2021 1st owed to the Hawks.

Hawks trade - Kent Bazemore ($19), Alex Len ($5), picks #41 and #44.

The deals saves OKC $14 mil and provide them with defense at the wing and 3pt shooting and 3 point shooting at C.

Hawks get a C (his offensive fit is not ideal but we get defense), another 2019 1st and better porotection on the future pick and we finally get rid of Baze.

[Colin]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I think OKCs first priority would be trying to move Dennis Schröder ($15) and his 2 years remaining, but I think they'll have a hard time doing it. Not many takers.

Roberson ($10) and Patrick Patterson($5) are the two expiring contracts.

The question though is this:

Is OKC just looking to just cut cost to save luxury tax payments or are they looking to also upgrade their roster since making these trades does not take them below the cap to sign any players in FAcy, they'll be limited to exemptions and vet mins to improve their roster.

Here's a trade idea if OKC is just not looking for salary relief with pick #21:

OKC trades - Steven Adams (25x2), Roberson, (10) Patterson (5),  OKC 2019 1st, OKC reduces the protection to top 8 on the  2021 1st owed to the Hawks.

Hawks trade - Kent Bazemore ($19), Alex Len ($5), picks #41 and #44.

The deals saves OKC $14 mil and provide them with defense at the wing and 3pt shooting and 3 point shooting at C.

Hawks get a C (his offensive fit is not ideal but we get defense), another 2019 1st and better porotection on the future pick and we finally get rid of Baze.

I like the direction you're speculating in and what you're trying to build, i'm just highly skeptical that OKC would move Adams and take back Len when big man depth and size has been an achilles heel for them. Obviously the Adams contract makes it possible because he is getting paid pretty heavy, but I just can't convince myself that the Thunder would be alright rolling out Alex Len and Nerlens Noel as their only two bigs on the entire roster.

 

We would probably be better off trying to bring Capela over from Houston than Adams from OKC.

 

I would love your proposed deal though.

[JTB]

11 minutes ago, Colin said:

I like the direction you're speculating in and what you're trying to build, i'm just highly skeptical that OKC would move Adams and take back Len when big man depth and size has been an achilles heel for them. Obviously the Adams contract makes it possible because he is getting paid pretty heavy, but I just can't convince myself that the Thunder would be alright rolling out Alex Len and Nerlens Noel as their only two bigs on the entire roster.

 

We would probably be better off trying to bring Capela over from Houston than Adams from OKC.

 

I would love your proposed deal though.

Agreed that’s an excellent trade proposal from  @JayBirdHawkbut I too see it hard for okc to give up Adams....but if they do, great for us in my opinion. Every center we bring in doesn’t have to have the 3pt skill. Adams definitely brings some things to the table that would help us greatly starting with  Defense, great box out ability  to allow his teammates to get and steal his rebounds (unless he decides he wants to grab them himself), strength of an ox, and to me I think he’s a pretty good passer but just like Marc gasol couldn’t really fully display his passing skills in Memphis I  think Adams has the same issue in OKC based on how the roster is arranged with not many shooters and how they play offensively 

anyways I’d love that trade.

[Spud2nique]

I like Adams too. He has mileage but he’s a pretty good center for Trae, minus his inabilities from deep.