CHA/OKC

[HornetJail]

Charlotte trades #4 (CHA 1st)
OKC trades #10, #11 (HOU and UTA 1sts), Dort


--

OKC combines some assets for one premier talent, conserving roster spots and salary, while not marginalizing the young talents they already have. If Cody Williams (Jalen's brother) is available at #4, this feels like a pretty natural fit, and something worth moving up for.

Chet/Jaylin
Jalen Williams/Dieng
Cody Williams (#4)/Hayward?/Kenrich
Giddey/Joe
SGA/Cason

Charlotte is already proving 3 games after the deadline that having depth on an injury prone team is super important. Micic, Mann, and Grant already look like keepers. I see them targeting Dort for wing defense, a natural fit between Melo and Miller, but in the event that he simply isn't available, there's definitely enough assets in OKC's stockpile to find a replacement (Dieng and a future pick?). This trade gets Charlotte 3 for the price of 1 and start to fill some of the many holes that are on this roster. I admittedly do not know a lot about the draft prospects yet, but could Charlotte go into next season with:

Mark/Filipowski (#10)
Bridges/GWill
Miller/Holland (#11)
Dort/Mann
LaMelo/Micic

as its top 10, and is that better than:

Mark/Richards
Bridges/GWill
Cody Williams (#4)/Cody Martin
Miller/Mann
LaMelo/Micic
?

[HadAnEffectHere]

I think the gap between 9 and 4 is basically nonexistent in this draft and there's no one interesting for OKC. OKC can probably move up more cheaply to like 8 for their guy.

People talk a lot about Cody Williams because Jalen plays there, but Cody Williams is REALLY BAD on defense and is unplayable on a contender for several years. Cody needs 20 pounds of muscle and needs to get way more athletic to be playable in the NBA. He's legitimately a very bad defender in college and it's going to be a massacre in the NBA.

Holland is just a better prospect than Cody Williams and the Thunder give up a ton of stuff to get Cody Williams instead?

[louc1970]

I think OKC is better off staying where they are -currently 10/11. Their need is centers. They could take shots at Clingman, Filipowski, Messi, Edy.
Going earlier puts them in line to get a Holland, Walters, Buzelis level forward.
I would prefer to take chances on the bigs and have Holgrem by my PF.
If Filipowski actually works out, he and Holgrem could be interchangeable positions.

[Envelopes]

Will Sarr be available at 4? who knows

[HartfordWhalers]

I think the gap between 9 and 4 is basically nonexistent in this draft and there's no one interesting for OKC. OKC can probably move up more cheaply to like 8 for their guy.

People talk a lot about Cody Williams because Jalen plays there, but Cody Williams is REALLY BAD on defense and is unplayable on a contender for several years. Cody needs 20 pounds of muscle and needs to get way more athletic to be playable in the NBA. He's legitimately a very bad defender in college and it's going to be a massacre in the NBA.

Holland is just a better prospect than Cody Williams and the Thunder give up a ton of stuff to get Cody Williams instead?

If we accept this premise, that Holland is considerably better than Williams, then shouldn’t OKC want to trade up to get Holland?

I don’t think we can assume there is a clearly better player and also that the clearly better player will be drafted later.

[HadAnEffectHere]

I think the gap between 9 and 4 is basically nonexistent in this draft and there's no one interesting for OKC. OKC can probably move up more cheaply to like 8 for their guy.

People talk a lot about Cody Williams because Jalen plays there, but Cody Williams is REALLY BAD on defense and is unplayable on a contender for several years. Cody needs 20 pounds of muscle and needs to get way more athletic to be playable in the NBA. He's legitimately a very bad defender in college and it's going to be a massacre in the NBA.

Holland is just a better prospect than Cody Williams and the Thunder give up a ton of stuff to get Cody Williams instead?

If we accept this premise, that Holland is considerably better than Williams, then shouldn’t OKC want to trade up to get Holland?

I don’t think we can assume there is a clearly better player and also that the clearly better player will be drafted later.

Holland is not considerably better, he's just very slightly better.

Cody Williams is just not a very good prospect (he's still a top 5 guy because this draft is awful) and he's a terrible fit with OKC because he's a ball handler (and he would never get the ball...) who plays PF but doesn't rebound (their biggest weakness...) and is way too unathletic currently to defend.

So I just think the Cody Williams to OKC meme is really bad. He's a massive project that probably wouldn't be good until year 4 if he ever gets there in general.

[HartfordWhalers]

I think the gap between 9 and 4 is basically nonexistent in this draft and there's no one interesting for OKC. OKC can probably move up more cheaply to like 8 for their guy.

People talk a lot about Cody Williams because Jalen plays there, but Cody Williams is REALLY BAD on defense and is unplayable on a contender for several years. Cody needs 20 pounds of muscle and needs to get way more athletic to be playable in the NBA. He's legitimately a very bad defender in college and it's going to be a massacre in the NBA.

Holland is just a better prospect than Cody Williams and the Thunder give up a ton of stuff to get Cody Williams instead?

If we accept this premise, that Holland is considerably better than Williams, then shouldn’t OKC want to trade up to get Holland?

I don’t think we can assume there is a clearly better player and also that the clearly better player will be drafted later.

Holland is not considerably better, he's just very slightly better.

Cody Williams is just not a very good prospect (he's still a top 5 guy because this draft is awful) and he's a terrible fit with OKC because he's a ball handler (and he would never get the ball...) who plays PF but doesn't rebound (their biggest weakness...) and is way too unathletic currently to defend.

So I just think the Cody Williams to OKC meme is really bad. He's a massive project that probably wouldn't be good until year 4 if he ever gets there in general.

Yeah, I think I wouldn't be reading much into the individual names in the OP. Who is a top 4 and who is a top 10 pick always ends up fluid in hindsight from around this time of year.

Which brings it back to, would OKC go 2 for 1 to move from 10ish to 4ish and get more opportunity to control who is there for them?

[HadAnEffectHere]

I'm only focusing on this because people constantly mock Cody Williams to the Thunder because Jalen Williams is his brother and it's getting a little annoying. He's a bad fit.

[Saints14]

Reasonable value if there’s a guy at 4 that they really like. Would def do it for Charlotte