OKC Thunder Trades and Transaction Thread

[Kizz Fastfists]

Ajay/Sorber/Topic and probably Dillion Jones is not incredible but still interesting enough to watch in the summer league.

I am under the impression that Sorber won't be playing in the summer league because of his foot.

[Xatticus]

i think the sorber pick is decent but uninspired, but that came as a result of the nba just showing up a lot smarter than they generally are, that was a killer run at 9-14 a lot of teams really did it right with their picks and trades - prioritizing uniqueness, intensity and impact across multiple game situations over archetypes in this draft's sweet spot.

Isn't that what we did though? I had scarcely looked into the prospects before the draft. I liked Coward, but I don't see the dynamic athleticism that others do.

I knew nothing about Sorber before the draft, but I really like him. He has very strong numbers for a freshman. His block and steal rates are encouraging. He has a high turnover rate, yet he still had a positive AST/TOV ratio. He's a bit of a tweener because he lacks great size or athleticism and he doesn't space the floor, but the latter could come with time. Even if it doesn't, there is a pretty good example of how he can find success in the NBA on our roster.

I expect Sorber will be a very effective defender with a combination of size/mobility that we currently lack. He was among the most impactful defenders in college as a freshman. His overall upside will be determined by how he builds out his offensive toolkit, but even if he doesn't, he should be a very useful player for a long time to come.

my biggest knock with him and his fit at what thunder needs is that even if you figure out a way to guard jokic, you can't guard his switch hunting.

so against jokic you got to have someone guarding him that don't get pushed but also when he sets screens and seals, your big needs to ne able to defend the small guard, wall him and recover to jokic (reason why that caruso adjustment was so great)

and sorber is not nearly impressive enough at this complexity. he's a very good interior defender prospect but there's levels, and if he struggles vs college switches on 1 guards... what does he do vs nba 1 guards?

i think he's a solid prospect but mere leverage vs hartenstein and jaylin financial situation

maybe my standard is a bit too high

This is a very specific application though, which sells him a bit short.

Addressing the thing about lateral quickness that was mentioned earlier in the thread... it generally refers to your ability to defend in space in isolation. Many young bigs are going to struggle with this because they haven't done it much or haven't been taught how. The important tools are hip fluidity and posture. Some guys just don't have good hips and they are hopeless. You can't defend in space if you turn like a freighter. He definitely moves like a big, but that wide base is part of what allows him to defend larger bigs without getting displaced. You can teach guys to move their feet instead of reaching.

What's missed in the analysis of his physical tools is that he is a very intuitive defender. He reads the floor exceptionally well for a young big. I'm not going to compare him to Draymond, but if you abstract your analysis of Draymond down to his measurables and combine scores, then you completely miss what makes him special.

His floor intelligence is obvious at the offensive end as well. He isn't a threat off the dribble, but you can see that he will use a dribble to manipulate weak-side defenders to open passing lanes. This is a guy with a good motor that is tactically switched on all the time. I think he will be ready for some minutes right away due to his value at the defensive end.

Offensively, he's very smart, but he isn't a threat to score, so he has to find some spots on the floor that he can exploit or he will always be a hindrance at that end. Hartenstein without his little push shot/floater is a completely different player. Sorber actually looks coordinated enough on his load up. It's slow, but it looks consistent and he seems to be fine at appraising whether or not he has time to get it off. If he has time, he fires. That's all good. I think the issue is his release. The rotation doesn't look good. I think he is catapulting the ball a bit. We have had some recent successes with developing shooters.

I think there is a definite ceiling on his statistical productivity, but I expect he will be a guy whose actual value far exceeds his rather modest stat line.

[Big nick]

Ajay/Sorber/Topic and probably Dillion Jones is not incredible but still interesting enough to watch in the summer league.

I am under the impression that Sorber won't be playing in the summer league because of his foot.

That’s what I understand also what a shame.

[spearsy23]

Check out maxime raynaud's profile on NBA.com https://www.nba.com/draft/2025/prospects/maxime-raynaud they just started naming every white guy that's 6'11 they could think of

[spearsy23]

Wth is a brooks barnhizer

[Kizz Fastfists]

Check out maxime raynaud's profile on NBA.com https://www.nba.com/draft/2025/prospects/maxime-raynaud they just started naming every white guy that's 6'11 they could think of

Naz Reid is the player they were trying to think of, but were limiting themselves to players he looked like.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Wth is a brooks barnhizer

A temu version of Nick Collison. That is the best comparison I can come up with on short notice. I hadn't looked at him before we drafted him. He did a bit of everything, except shoot, in college. He was productive and filled the stat sheet, but he's older for a rookie. Typically, if you are drafting a senior you want one that dominated college in their final year. He'll be a two-way guy for a year or two then be gone most likely. I'm not trying to be negative about a mid 2nd round pick as he is what you expect to get at that spot. A long shot to ever be productive, but has just enough of a skill set to say there is a chance they could be a useful back of the rotation glue guy.

[spearsy23]

Wth is a brooks barnhizer

A temu version of Nick Collison. That is the best comparison I can come up with on short notice. I hadn't looked at him before we drafted him. He did a bit of everything, except shoot, in college. He was productive and filled the stat sheet, but he's older for a rookie. Typically, if you are drafting a senior you want one that dominated college in their final year. He'll be a two-way guy for a year or two then be gone most likely. I'm not trying to be negative about a mid 2nd round pick as he is what you expect to get at that spot. A long shot to ever be productive, but has just enough of a skill set to say there is a chance they could be a useful back of the rotation glue guy.

It's not the first time presti has used a pick to get a player for the Blue.

[Kizz Fastfists]

It's not the first time presti has used a pick to get a player for the Blue.

There was no one on the board I cared about so I don't have anything negative to say about it. I thought Kobe Sanders could have be an intriguing pick, but that is another player that would have just been playing on the Blue with no expectations of NBA impact. I'll give Presti an A for the draft. Sober was a great pick, moving #24 for a future pick was a solid move and Barnhizer is as much as you could realistically expect at #44. I'm sure some here are going to knock moving #24 instead of taking Jase Richardson and if I would have been making the decision I would have drafted Fleming there. I understand the reasoning behind moving the pick forward instead of creating more of a roster logjam so I can appreciate the trade and I expect the pick to convey as the Spurs are going to be good.

[spearsy23]

It's not the first time presti has used a pick to get a player for the Blue.

There was no one on the board I cared about so I don't have anything negative to say about it. I thought Kobe Sanders could have be an intriguing pick, but that is another player that would have just been playing on the Blue with no expectations of NBA impact. I'll give Presti an A for the draft. Sober was a great pick, moving #24 for a future pick was a solid move and Barnhizer is as much as you could realistically expect at #44. I'm sure some here are going to knock moving #24 instead of taking Jase Richardson and if I would have been making the decision I would have drafted Fleming there. I understand the reasoning behind moving the pick forward instead of creating more of a roster logjam so I can appreciate the trade and I expect the pick to convey as the Spurs are going to be good.

Should've moved dieng with the 24, that's the only knock I'd have. Your excitement and watching some highlights has me higher on sorber. I was wanting a defensive big anyway, I would've preferred a switchable 4 but a rim protecting 5 is the next best thing.

[cjmcallist]

The beauty of Chet can’t be underrated here. The only reason I feel like Sorber could play long term is because of Chet. If we only had traditional 5s I’d feel less confident about most big men.

[Devilanche]

Wth is a brooks barnhizer

A temu version of Nick Collison. That is the best comparison I can come up with on short notice. I hadn't looked at him before we drafted him. He did a bit of everything, except shoot, in college. He was productive and filled the stat sheet, but he's older for a rookie. Typically, if you are drafting a senior you want one that dominated college in their final year. He'll be a two-way guy for a year or two then be gone most likely. I'm not trying to be negative about a mid 2nd round pick as he is what you expect to get at that spot. A long shot to ever be productive, but has just enough of a skill set to say there is a chance they could be a useful back of the rotation glue guy.

Hopefully he can follow the Aaron wiggins path.

Work hard on the edges and somehow become nba productive

[spearsy23]

Signed udfa Payton sandfort, thank God, I was worried we wouldn't get a tall white guy to satisfy presti's fetish.

[Dadouv47]

Really hope we play our young guys more next season because I think it would be key to give Shai a bit more rest for him to be at 100% in the POs.
He probably wants to play 65+ games for award/all NBA team stuff but he can play less minutes/rest more and we should still easily finish first in the West if we don't have some major injury bad luck. Can also give a bit more rest to JDub.
Chet is probably the only core guy that needs to play a good amount of minutes to regain his offensive confidence but really hope we see a lot of Topic, Ajay and Sorber next season.

[Dadouv47]

Presti still recovering from hangover because we currently have 16 players under contract. Keeping Dieng makes 0 sense so I hope he's the one leaving.

[Dadouv47]

It's not the first time presti has used a pick to get a player for the Blue.

There was no one on the board I cared about so I don't have anything negative to say about it. I thought Kobe Sanders could have be an intriguing pick, but that is another player that would have just been playing on the Blue with no expectations of NBA impact. I'll give Presti an A for the draft. Sober was a great pick, moving #24 for a future pick was a solid move and Barnhizer is as much as you could realistically expect at #44. I'm sure some here are going to knock moving #24 instead of taking Jase Richardson and if I would have been making the decision I would have drafted Fleming there. I understand the reasoning behind moving the pick forward instead of creating more of a roster logjam so I can appreciate the trade and I expect the pick to convey as the Spurs are going to be good.

I don't know him well enough but I read a ton of people laughing because his strength is defense and Presti is basically drafting good defenders only right now but can't complain about that since the bust prospects we got since 2021 are bad defenders (Giddey, Mann and Dieng). Add Bazley and JRE in the front court and u have an all time low defensive team.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I don't know him well enough but I read a ton of people laughing because his strength is defense and Presti is basically drafting good defenders only right now but can't complain about that since the bust prospects we got since 2021 are bad defenders (Giddey, Mann and Dieng). Add Bazley and JRE in the front court and u have an all time low defensive team.

Calling Giddey a bust is a wild take. He would have been great coming off the bench as a ball handler. I'm not knocking the trade for Caruso, but Giddey is a good player and far from a bust. He didn't fit with the team as a starter going forward and I think there might have been some concerns about moving him to a bench role and how he would take it and how big his extension was going to need to be in RFA, etc. Giddey put up 14 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds this year while shooting 38% from 3. I'll completely agree with bad fit, but not bust.

Yes, Presti has missed on some picks. I'm not going to get hung up on that given everyone misses on picks. Sober is my favorite pick since Chet. Going for defensive minded players is fine given the offensive power of SGA-JDub-Chet and the shooters that are on the team and the ball handling expectations for Topic. The offense should be solid so role players that can get at it on defense is good as long as they can at least provide some other utility and Barnhizer has some utility with his passing and other skills, but he can't shoot. Sober is a everything you want from a bang in the paint big man, although I hope he adds a decent mid-range game.

[Dadouv47]

I don't know him well enough but I read a ton of people laughing because his strength is defense and Presti is basically drafting good defenders only right now but can't complain about that since the bust prospects we got since 2021 are bad defenders (Giddey, Mann and Dieng). Add Bazley and JRE in the front court and u have an all time low defensive team.

Calling Giddey a bust is a wild take. He would have been great coming off the bench as a ball handler. I'm not knocking the trade for Caruso, but Giddey is a good player and far from a bust. He didn't fit with the team as a starter going forward and I think there might have been some concerns about moving him to a bench role and how he would take it and how big his extension was going to need to be in RFA, etc. Giddey put up 14 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds this year while shooting 38% from 3. I'll completely agree with bad fit, but not bust.

Yes, Presti has missed on some picks. I'm not going to get hung up on that given everyone misses on picks. Sober is my favorite pick since Chet. Going for defensive minded players is fine given the offensive power of SGA-JDub-Chet and the shooters that are on the team and the ball handling expectations for Topic. The offense should be solid so role players that can get at it on defense is good as long as they can at least provide some other utility and Barnhizer has some utility with his passing and other skills, but he can't shoot. Sober is a everything you want from a bang in the paint big man, although I hope he adds a decent mid-range game.

yeah I agree with you he isn't a bust. I probably only feel that way because of how high he was drafted and he still has to work at least on his defense and shot to become a very good NBA player. He didn't fit in our team for several reasons but I would be concerned to offer him a big contract because of his flaws (his ceiling remains very high though).

Glad to read that you liked the Chet pick too because my only concern with the Sober pick since we got him is the fact that u liked something Presti has done for the first time in years. He nailed a ton of things u hated so I usually feel better when u hate a Presti move

Didn't watch the kid enough but he passes the eye test easily watching several NBA draft scouting videos. Had the same feeling after drafting JDub and Cason and learning more about those guys. Sorber looks like a guy that could become a very good NBA player if he puts enough work into it. Wingspan, defensive numbers and his shot mechanic is fine enough. I don't know the medical issues well enough and that's probably a small gamble from Presti on that part otherwise he could have been drafter higher.

[Devilanche]

I don't know him well enough but I read a ton of people laughing because his strength is defense and Presti is basically drafting good defenders only right now but can't complain about that since the bust prospects we got since 2021 are bad defenders (Giddey, Mann and Dieng). Add Bazley and JRE in the front court and u have an all time low defensive team.

Seemed like a jack of all trades who tries hard at least .

Might be good bench practise guy. Could be more if he start making 3s

[Kizz Fastfists]

Presti still recovering from hangover because we currently have 16 players under contract. Keeping Dieng makes 0 sense so I hope he's the one leaving.

Technically, there are 13 players under contract. The team has not signed Sorber. Jaylin and AJay are not under contract. The team has until the 29th to exercise their team options on Jaylin and AJay. I'm a bit surprised they haven't already exercised those options.