The Chris Paul Thunder era is now officially over. Although it was good for the team and the young players to have him around, trading CP3 needed to happen.
After losing Kevin Durant then losing Russell Westbrook and Paul George, the Thunder needed to rebuild and reset the franchise. That didn’t happen when Chris Paul remained on the team last season but it is definitely happening now.
The Thunder first traded away Dennis Schroeder to the Lakers for a first round pick in this year’s draft and Danny Green (who could be bought out or traded) and now have traded Chris Paul to the Suns for Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre, Ty Jerome Jalen Lecque, and three first round picks. It was quite the haul for a star late in his career making over $40 million the next couple of years.
The picks here are what’s important. With the Suns three first round picks, the Thunder now have 16 first round picks from now until 2026. That’s right 16 first round picks over the next 6 years.
It was the perfect time to go into rebuild mode. All of the picks not only give them, well a lot of picks, but it also gives them flexibility to trade some of those picks away to acquire better players. They have to hit on a few of those picks though. They already have a young star in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and nice young pieces in Lu Dort and Darius Bazley. Those are truly nice building pieces but they need more.
Hitting on a few of those picks and having the rest as flexibility would set the Thunder up for years to come. But again, they have hit on those picks. Cannot stress that enough. By hitting on those picks, it means drafting players that will turn into stars or players that will be able to contribute every night or players that will net you a return for someone that can contribute every night. They will need some combo of both.
Since drafting James Harden in 2009, the Thunder have drafted 12 guys and have only really hit on 3 with Steven Adams, Reggie Jackson, and last year’s pick, Darius Bazley. The Thunder have been good and had KD, Russ, Harden, and Ibaka during a lot of those 11 years so they haven’t necessarily had to hit on those picks but it doesn’t look good that they have only hit on a few.
They were drafting after the lottery and late first round for many of those picks but when you see a team like the Lakers and Spurs hit on many of their late first round picks and even some second round picks over the last few years, you see that it’s very possible to draft guys that late that can contribute every night.
For now, they should be happy with themselves after acquiring so many picks and nice young pieces after trading away 3 All NBA players and a 6th Man of the Year candidate and its’s all good that they have so many picks over the next few years but for this to be a success, they will need to do a much better job drafting.
Until then, celebrate that Sam Presti got another haul.
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