Kizz Fastfists wrote:Knrstz wrote:There is no way to trade single players and upgrade our roster. Abrines alone wouldn't get us a good sf. He would have to be paired with a second player.
This is the problem. If you accept this truth then you must also accept that OKC can not improve the roster. That means you are accepting that OKC is capped out as a fringe playoff team. Very few fans can accept that reality. That is why most places you look you read Thunder fans talking about the greatness of Jerami Grant and his upside and how McDermott is going to be awesome and Kanter is a great center and that this team of young low ceiling players is going to emerge into greatness. I remember when Singler was a young player and how that worked out. Perry Jones and Jeremy Lamb were once young also and that worked great. Just 18 months ago it was Mitch McGary who was somehow going to turn into Blake Griffin. Semaj was supposed to be the second coming of Reggie Jackson.
I'm so glad all those young players worked out and OKC won a lot of playoff games with them as starters and key contributors.
If OKC can dump Kanter, make a good selection with # 21, possibly sign a guy like frank mason as a backup pg with a second round pick, and hope every single player gets a little better, that's their most realistic path to getting better. I'm not saying it's possible but it's more likely to me that happens than that we are able trade existing players for better players. I actually think Presti was being honest when he said that our path forward is with internal growth. It may not work but he knows that it's going to be unlikely we pull off great trades. The flip side of this is that there are always GM's that are in the hot seat that abandon their plans for a win-now move. Doubtful that happens but you never know.
