What if OKC gets the #1 pick?

Durantist · Post #1 » by **Durantist** » Thu Apr 9, 2009 6:22 am

"With the number 1 pick of the 2009 NBA draft, The Oklahoma City Thunder selects Blake Griffin from Oklahoma University"
Now this changes EVERYTHING

mcmokken · Post #2 » by **mcmokken** » Thu Apr 9, 2009 6:32 am

That would be a very good thing. I hope that it happens.

Rome · Post #3 » by **Rome** » Thu Apr 9, 2009 9:49 pm

I hope it dos'nt it would only cause a logjam unless Durant plays SG , I would trade down and get Thabeete and a decent SG but that's just me.

Joel Embust · Post #4 » by **Joel Embust** » Thu Apr 9, 2009 10:36 pm

Rome wrote:I hope it dos'nt it would only cause a logjam unless Durant plays SG , I would trade down and get Thabeete and a decent SG but that's just me.

+1

OKC needs a true SG who can hit shots from outside and a big presence who can rebound, block shots and (has the potential to) plays defense. A force in the middle.

mnWI · Post #5 » by **mnWI** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:12 am

Haha, I can't believe anyone would want to trade Blake Griffin. He's is by far the best prospect in this draft, and the rest of the west would be absolutely terrified of the future Thunder squad if they landed him.

mcmokken · Post #6 » by **mcmokken** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:28 am

Rome wrote:I hope it dos'nt it would only cause a logjam unless Durant plays SG , I would trade down and get Thabeete and a decent SG but that's just me.

I disagree. If we draft Griffin, then we could have Green as the sixth man off the bench. He would still get plenty of minutes and would greatly add to the team's depth. If Griffin is a bust or slow to develop, Green keeps his starting position and Griffin comes off the bench. If it ends up not working out, then make changes later on down the road, but it would definitely be worth trying and I think it would work.

Durant stays at SF, no question. Making your best player play out of position is a bad idea.

The team needs a SG and C, but teams often make the mistake of drafting for need instead of taking the best player available. Thabeet could be the answer, but in my eyes he is way more risky a pick than Griffin. OKC will have plenty of flexibility to upgrade those positions through trades/FA signings in the near future too. No need to try and get it all done in one draft.

Durantist · Post #7 » by **Durantist** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:29 am

In Sam Presti we trust.

Rome · Post #8 » by **Rome** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 12:05 pm

So you are telling me that we develope Jeff for the last 2 years to make him a 6th man

Post #9 » by **wizkid27** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:01 pm

If we have some kind of plan that involves Green on the bench, then (even though I'd hate it) we have to trade him and get as much value for him as we deserve. Not let it turn into one of these weird situations where every other team knows we've gotta get rid of them and are trying to make 50% value bids on him.

OzThunder · Post #10 » by **OzThunder** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:34 am

can griffin play 5? otherwise, i still see no problem in durant guarding 2's on D, and Green playing 2 on offense.
Also imagine how versatile our team could be. Tall line-up, everyone can shoot the ball, everyone can run, they're all quick for their height. We can play run and gun, or half court with the same team.
Also, imagine trying to match up on a team with 4 guys over 6'9"....

Big_Mac79 · Post #11 » by **Big_Mac79** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:38 pm

Here is an idea I thought of if we landed the #1 overall
OKC trades: Durant/Westbrook/Kristic/#25
ORL trades: Dwight/Lee/Alston

OKC
Alston/Livingston
Lee/Weaver
Green/Thabo
Griffin/White
Dwight/Collison

ORL
Jameer/Johnson
Westbrook/JJ
Durant/Pietrus
Lewis
Kristic/Battie

Post #12 » by **wizkid27** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:03 am

I think just because of the star status of the young guys in that trade, neither team would go after it.

mcmokken · Post #13 » by **mcmokken** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:09 am

Rome wrote:So you are telling me that we develope Jeff for the last 2 years to make him a 6th man

We developed a lot of players for longer than 2 years, does that mean that they should be starters because of it? Robert Swift should be starting over Krstic then. I don't get what you are saying at all.

Manu Ginobili comes off the bench. So does Lamar Odom (when Bynum is healthy) and Jason Terry. They get plenty of minutes minutes and numbers and are very important players on their teams. It really amounts to having more depth, scoring off the bench, and not having too rely too much on the starters to do too much.

Am I wrong here? Does everyone think that Green is so good that either he has to start or we have to get rid of him? Couldn't he be the number one guy in the second unit? Do bench players have to suck or something? Please, someone explain this line of thinking to me. And if it is simply a matter of minute allocation, Green is versatile enough to fill in at more than one position, so I think he would get enough PT.

Keep in mind this all assumes of course that we actually get Griffin AND he is significantly better than Green to warrant starting right away, which would not necessarily be the case.

Post #14 » by **Nolan** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:55 pm

I think we'd have to take Griffin and make things work, he's just too good of player to pass up.

jacksgrapes · Post #15 » by **jacksgrapes** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:00 am

Nobody trades griffin this draft. Exactly how many young dominate PFs are there in the league right now? None. the best young PFs are LaMarcus Aldridge and Josh Smith. If you get the first pick you need to think about trading green before you think about trading griffin. No disrespect to green but he will never be better than average at rebounding, while i expect griffin to be one of the league's elites.

jacksgrapes · Post #16 » by **jacksgrapes** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:03 am

Big_Mac79 wrote:Here is an idea I thought of if we landed the #1 overall
OKC trades: Durant/Westbrook/Kristic/#25
ORL trades: Dwight/Lee/Alston

OKC
Alston/Livingston
Lee/Weaver
Green/Thabo
Griffin/White
Dwight/Collison

ORL
Jameer/Johnson
Westbrook/JJ
Durant/Pietrus
Lewis
Kristic/Battie

you have to be kidding... the talent level trade off is pretty equal and you still managed to turn orlando into a lottery team.

Big_Mac79 · Post #17 » by **Big_Mac79** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:25 am

jacksgrapes wrote:you have to be kidding... the talent level trade off is pretty equal and you still managed to turn orlando into a lottery team.

Maybe you are unaware of how the East is but all you need is 39 wins to be a playoff team
constantly sub .500 teams make the playoffs

TheNewEra · Post #18 » by **TheNewEra** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:34 pm

The Thunder should look to manage Green as sixth man. He is a sure thing young talent you try to keep him and make him your sixth man off the bench. This could help in other ways because he can then be played as a back-up to th SF spot:

Thunder line-up
PG: Westbrook/Livingston
SG: Thabo/Weaver
SF: Durant/Green
PF: Griffin/Collison/Green
C: Krystic/White(can he play C)

Only problem with this is the Thunder don't address the huge need of a low-post consistent shot blocker (which will be hard to find in free agency). With Thabeet the team is better balanced with Griffin while keeping Green the team becomes better in depth.

alphad0gz · Post #19 » by **alphad0gz** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:17 am

Being a small market team, I doubt you are going to be able to pay all these guys when the bill comes due. Durant is a max player. Griffin would be a max player. Jeff Green will command big money. Looks like Westbrook is going to be a good one. I do not know who your owner is but that is going to start becoming a real financial burden in just a 2-3 years. Even though OK would hold all the Bird rights and be able to go over the cap, would the money be there?

TheNewEra · Post #20 » by **TheNewEra** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:20 am

depends how badly they want to win.