OKC Thunder Trades and Transaction Thread

[Clav]

OKC muscling up on D with recent additions is a good look. So is being non dreaded and tattoo less.

WTF do dreads and ink have to do with anything you racist piece of garbage?!?!?!

Yeah Ringo, that's not right at all. Garbage post. And Ringo's favorite player, Steven Adams, has tattoos all over his body as well.... so...

[yves15]

Brook Lopez and Jalen Smith was the pipe dream. Hope Ihart gels well with the other guys at fit coach D's scheme. We have our big now.

[RingoKid]

OKC muscling up on D with recent additions is a good look. So is being non dreaded and tattoo less.

WTF do dreads and ink have to do with anything you racist piece of garbage?!?!?!

Seems someone is off their meds and hasn't gotten the help sorting their anger issues out yet.

Wipe the drool and get back in your lane. There's a good lad!

[RingoKid]

Yeah Ringo, that's not right at all. Garbage post. And Ringo's favorite player, Steven Adams, has tattoos all over his body as well.... so...

Oh please. You're not gonna tell me Jordan Clarkson or LaMelo Ball's ink makes for better optics than a clean skinned SGA or Caruso ?

And given the nature of Adams tattoos i doubt he'll regret any of them. In Pasifikan context, they're spiritual armour and not permanent doodles on skin.

If you want to have a serious discusssion about it let's do that.

[RingoKid]

Btw...i had dreadlocks for over 20 years so as a fashion statement I'm over it too.

I also have a Samoan Pe'a. Old school stick n bone tatau covering half my body.

My personal preference for athletes is clean skinned and great hairstyle. Tattoos and dreads not so much.

Don't see how that makes me racist anymore than acknowledging Presti and OKC has a preferred type of player of which intangibles matter when it comes to marketing.

Remember when Enes Freedom Kanter was a good fit until he wasn't and it had nothing to do with his play ?

Those Stache brothers days were a hoot though!

[Kizz Fastfists]

My personal preference for athletes is clean skinned and great hairstyle. Tattoos and dreads not so much.

Don't see how that makes me racist anymore than acknowledging Presti and OKC has a preferred type of player of which intangibles matter when it comes to marketing.

Remember when Enes Freedom Kanter was a good fit until he wasn't and it had nothing to do with his play ?

Those Stache brothers days were a hoot though!

We don’t care about your sexual fantasies. Kanter was never a good fit and was unplayable in the playoffs. Maybe Presti wanted to trade KD because of his ink, but no one would trade for him. Presti just refused to offer a contract to someone with ink and GS was willing to overlook it and signed him.

[Kizz Fastfists]

And given the nature of Adams tattoos i doubt he'll regret any of them. In Pasifikan context, they're spiritual armour and not permanent doodles on skin.

Your argument is that Adams won’t regret the doodles he has because he’ll never grow enough brains to stop believing in superstitions, but others will grow new views and beliefs that will make them regret theirs? Interesting.

[Devilanche]

Back to topic .

Our clear weakness is a bench scorer ?
I do think we will let the guys play it out and figure it out at trade deadline in case it’s a big weakness.

[slick_watts]

i'm reticent at best when it comes to pairing chet with another big, even one as talented as hartenstein. and this acquisition means that this will occur something like 5-10 minutes or more per game.

but i have to get props to sam presti. the nba is a talent league and talent usually trumps all. given what i imagine his constraints were (no big 2026-27 salary additions), hartenstein may have been the best or close to the best talent he could have added in the summer to this group. i like the idea of adding talent and then figuring out, even if i don't like the idea of chet being neutered with a big man next to him specifically. hartenstein has been blowing up aio metrics for years now and is probably a lot better than his boxscore numbers would indicate. i'm not sure who our starting pf is but swapping out giddey for caruso and hartenstein is about as good as it gets for an offseason of work.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Back to topic .

Our clear weakness is a bench scorer ?
I do think we will let the guys play it out and figure it out at trade deadline in case it’s a big weakness.

Joe, Caruso, Cason and Wiggins can all score off the bench. Topic will end up as the big time 6th man when he gets on the court. They still have the option to trade for Lauri.

Anyone out there you like as a scorer off the bench? A big man would be ideal given the wing depth. Maybe they will use Wiggins or Joe as part of a trade with Kenrich and Dieng for a bigger contract at the deadline. Kenrich, Dieng and Joe for Tobias?

[retrobro90]

i'm reticent at best when it comes to pairing chet with another big, even one as talented as hartenstein. and this acquisition means that this will occur something like 5-10 minutes or more per game.

but i have to get props to sam presti. the nba is a talent league and talent usually trumps all. given what i imagine his constraints were (no big 2026-27 salary additions), hartenstein may have been the best or close to the best talent he could have added in the summer to this group. i like the idea of adding talent and then figuring out, even if i don't like the idea of chet being neutered with a big man next to him specifically. hartenstein has been blowing up aio metrics for years now and is probably a lot better than his boxscore numbers would indicate. i'm not sure who our starting pf is but swapping out giddey for caruso and hartenstein is about as good as it gets for an offseason of work.

This is exactly where I'm at right now. Fit is imperfect and curious about the minutes distribution as we all are. Ready to rationalize though as I agree Hart is a great role player and I would rather they add imperfect talent than none at all. As you mentioned he has always been an adv stats darling.

Neither starting nor coming off the bench would surprise me for Hart but I think a reasonable minutes breakdown might look as follows:

Chet - 25-35 mpg

Hartenstein - 15-30 mpg

Chet with Hartenstein - 7-20mpg

(All depending on matchups)

I'd guess there's a 60% chance he actually starts because I think they're mostly going to close with Chet at the 5 and they'll need to play him a certain amount to not cause any rift

[Kizz Fastfists]

Option A: Hartenstein is the starting center and OKC has abandoned the 5-out idea and they improved drastically.

Option B-Chet is still the starting center, OKC destroyed their floor stretching ability with Hartenstein, who makes Giddey look like a Curry, and OKC got worse this off-season.

[retrobro90]

Option A: Hartenstein is the starting center and OKC has abandoned the 5-out idea and they improved drastically.

Option B-Chet is still the starting center, OKC destroyed their floor stretching ability with Hartenstein, who makes Giddey look like a Curry, and OKC got worse this off-season.

If we're just talking about space and not ability as a shooter between Giddey/Hart I think there's still going to be plenty of driving lanes in the minutes Chet/Hart play together. Hart has range out to the elbows at least and does good work on the short roll either with the floater or extra pass. Also plenty of teams wisened up by guarding Giddey with their center anyway. There's even a (non-zero) chance Hart could extend out to 3 with our squad in the long term.

[Dadouv47]

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[Bremzi]

There’s no way OKC is worse with the offseason. Caruso himself is the better fit than Giddey and Hartenstein is a very serviceable big man. He routinely had 15-20 rebounds per game games playing nearly 40 mins a game when Robinson was out. He is very mobile. He puts pressure on the offensive boards and sets great picks. Those two are low usage and very good role players, which Giddey is not.

This was the best possible outcome to go with by retaining all the picks - which is a miracle Presti pulled off tbh. They have a few months to look how well it works - it might work without shipping out picks for a chance with someone else. If it doesnt work, Presti has the deadline or next year’s offseason to further correct things or improve the team. There’s no point going head through a wall with fairytale trades that are lopsided as nobody wants to just hand out great players to OKC.

The plus with having too many good players is that they can be packaged at a point in time when a star gets available and you can send out 3-4 solid young players and a pick or two. So far Presti has addressed the roster shortcomings and he followed his principle that they got bigger and stayed as good or better defensively than they have been.

As far as offense in the playoffs goes, OKC couldnt do much with 5 out anyway. I think Hartenstein picks and offensive boards with dunking potential will prove more reliable to base your offense than picks with a thin Chet and Giddey in the corner.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Have I missed something? Who is Buddy Boeheim?

https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/6752/

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Have I missed something? Who is Buddy Boeheim?

https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/6752/

[Zagor]

only exciting one is the LAC swap.

I'm afraid the Jazz pick will never convey

That draft will be deep. There is real possibility Presti could draft excellent young player, someone who could contribute from day 1.

Caruso is the only pending FA. Will Presti let him walk next year for a rookie or is Presti still trying to put a contender together for this season? If Presti doesn’t do something with those picks soon they’ll be worthless. What good is four picks when you only have one roster spot? Every other GM knows that as well and hopes Presti holds on to them and is forced to use them without the ability to sign the player or give them away for 2nd round picks in the future.

Probably Dieng will be traded next summer. Maybe even Kenrich. Those picks will not be worthless. I believe he will either trade to climb in draft or he will just use two picks and trade others for future picks.

[Devilanche]

Have I missed something? Who is Buddy Boeheim?

https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/6752/

Summer league roster

https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2024/07/former-syracuse-basketball-player-buddy-boeheim-signs-with-nbas-oklahoma-city-thunder.html?outputType=amp

[Devilanche]

Back to topic .

Our clear weakness is a bench scorer ?
I do think we will let the guys play it out and figure it out at trade deadline in case it’s a big weakness.

Joe, Caruso, Cason and Wiggins can all score off the bench. Topic will end up as the big time 6th man when he gets on the court. They still have the option to trade for Lauri.

Anyone out there you like as a scorer off the bench? A big man would be ideal given the wing depth. Maybe they will use Wiggins or Joe as part of a trade with Kenrich and Dieng for a bigger contract at the deadline. Kenrich, Dieng and Joe for Tobias?

3 young ones kind of unproven and might not be consistent enough but if we sign someone now they will never be able to grow into the role.

I don’t think Caruso is someone we can count on to score 15-20 for us on a regular basis.


If we are going for bench scorer and based on makeup of team it’s probably kuzma who is most available and easiest to obtain. But don’t believe it’s wise to make a move now or clutter the rotation too much this early.
Maybe a committee approach might work out ?

I definitely see Kenrich potentially being moved this trade deadline for salary matching. Dieng too if he doesn’t start showing more.