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Have you looked at the Thunders salary structure the next few years? They have a core of Durant/Westbrook/Harden/Green (and an excellent prospect for a few years down the road in mullins). Today they traded 6 million of expiring contracts for 7 million of expiring contracts and in the process picked up minnys 2nd round pick and etan thomas a banger they can use. That type of deal my not seem like a big deal but now the sonics have over 10 million in expirings to use this season for whenever the next Memphis Pau gasol salary dump happens. Not only that but look forward in 2010 counting re-upping all there promising youngs durring their 4 year contracts they have less the 40 million commited. in 2011 they have no money commited at all....0 now obviously thats about the time they have to re-up their young guys but they should be able to add a max player and re-up all their qaulity players who pan out by then and still have a team thats not incredibly far over the luxory tax.

Presti is being smart and not rushing things, he knows the next year or two they have no chance to compete for anything but the last playoff spot but he has put them in a position to in 2 years with a couple of shrewed moves be a contender, they will likley get another lotto pick this season which they can package for an expierenced vet along with contracts next season.

Imagine this lineup in 3 years
Russel westbrook
All star level player signed using cap space
Durant
Jeff Green
All star level player aquired using expirings



Todays trade was just a good example he wasted a million dollars of his owners money to gain more unexpiring contract and a 2nd round pick that could be pretty high and thus valuable.


well done sam presti, well done.

I know this is silly because we won a championship and will win another this year, it still pisses me off we didn't get Durant.

What was the trade today? I haven't seen anything

They also have Serge Ibaka who I think is going to be a great energy big man coming off the bench.

He has the asset, the big question is what can he do with it.

I am big time BigAl fan, but If DA wouldn't have traded for Allen and kept enough assets to get KG (without giving up rondo or perk) then we would have bee still rebuilding.

it is a matter of couple years before they become and Bulls and have to give out contracts to all these players under rookie contracts, would they be able to do something then is the big questions.

I like what he has done so far but I don`t think the move today was anything special. Atkins has only partially guaranteed contract (760k), so I actually like the deal for Minny better if they decide to waive him and save some additional money.

Etan Thomas barley played last season and with his heart condition it is questionable if he will be able to play in the future. Wilkins and Atkins are both nice player, IMO. And the two second rounders. It all depends on the protection...


It is also not hard to build a young promising team when you don˙t need to win. Bright future is always sexy for the fans but when it comes to winning now the reality hits. Besides if they hadn`t had the luck in the Oden/Durant draft their team wouldn`t look that special...it is all about KD. Westbrook, Green, Harden are all nice players but Durant is what makes the difference and that was pure luck...

Again, I like what Presti has done so far but the real work is yet to come...

Presti's going to regret letting Swift go, just like Pitino with Ben Wallace

thebirdman wrote:I like what he has done so far but I don`t think the move today was anything special. Atkins has only partially guaranteed contract (760k), so I actually like the deal for Minny better if they decide to waive him and save some additional money.

Etan Thomas barley played last season and with his heart condition it is questionable if he will be able to play in the future. Wilkins and Atkins are both nice player, IMO. And the two second rounders. It all depends on the protection...


It is also not hard to build a young promising team when you don˙t need to win. Bright future is always sexy for the fans but when it comes to winning now the reality hits. Besides if they hadn`t had the luck in the Oden/Durant draft their team wouldn`t look that special...it is all about KD. Westbrook, Green, Harden are all nice players but Durant is what makes the difference and that was pure luck...

Again, I like what Presti has done so far but the real work is yet to come...

Chucky atkins was well past his prime whenhe was playing for us like 5 years ago, the beauty of what he did today was gaining more expiring contracts (well one larger one that was signifigantly bigger then the 2 smaller ones) that extra million in expiring my mean the difference in being able to trade for a max player. For example, lets say NO wants to trade Chris Paul, if The thunder can send all expirings and westbrook for him thats a deal a cash strapped NO might think about. 10 million is within 25$ of a 12 million max contract 9 million is not.

Presti has done a good job of stockpiling assets and managing the salary structure. He got lucky with drafting Durant. At some point, he will need to turn those picks/young players/cap space into one or two really good players to build around Durant. So far he has done well, but there's a lot of work to do before the team is anywhere close to contending.

Way too premature to be giving him props, especially considering that he didn't start out as a lottery/new franchise, but rather a team with two players (Allen, Lewis) who have started in the finals in the past two years. At some point he has. I personally think the book is still out on Green and Westbrook, and in Prestis place would see if I could get a guy rumored to be available like oh rondo for them and picks etc.

Guys like Gasol don't get traded to places like OKC.

Spin Move wrote:
Chucky atkins was well past his prime whenhe was playing for us like 5 years ago, the beauty of what he did today was gaining more expiring contracts (well one larger one that was signifigantly bigger then the 2 smaller ones) that extra million in expiring my mean the difference in being able to trade for a max player. For example, lets say NO wants to trade Chris Paul, if The thunder can send all expirings and westbrook for him thats a deal a cash strapped NO might think about. 10 million is within 25$ of a 12 million max contract 9 million is not.

Don`t see the big difference in 1 million of expirings...They can throw Weaver in a deal and there is your 1 million. He has fully unguaranteed contract if waived before August 1st 2010...Besides they can always send 3 million in cash along in a trade...

Maybe one of Minny`s second rounders is without protection, so it is basically a first rounder...

Actually, since they're under the cap, adding expirings in return for cap space is of NO help to them in flexibility.

There's nothing you can do with an expiring you can't also do with cap space -- except, of course, have the guy suit up and get out on the court.

bruno sundov wrote:I know this is silly because we won a championship and will win another this year, it still pisses me off we didn't get Durant.

Same here. I wanted the nasty inside outside combo of Jefferson-Perk/Durant-Rondo

I still hope that one day Kevin Durant will wear Celtic green.

If they somehow pulled off the Chandler and then the Okafor trade NO just did, I think I'd guarantee them a 40+ win year next season.

I like how their team's built, but I don't think Green has a role with the team given his skillset. It'd be ideal if they could trade him for a real PF, because I doubt running him at the combo forward splitting time at PF with Ibaka down the road's going to work, especially with a lack of a real C long term. It really would have been something for them if they ended up with Griffin, but oh well.