NLL Insider - Team by Team: Oklahoma City Thunder

by Rootsey, updated on Monday, September 30 2019, 12:58 pm EST

2018-19 Finish: 56-26

Season Highlight:

Its hard to pick a highlight for OKC. For most teams and GMs in this league, coming runner up in the West for the regular season and in the West Finals would be a dream scenario, and just well may be where Nenjabin is happy to have landed. I think Nenja had his sights set higher as the season was comnig to an end and the playoffs began. The series went the distance with most experts picking OKC to come out on top in the West Finals, but it wasn't to be. This year looks even more promising if the team can deal with salary cap issues while retaining the high level of talent.

Season Lowlight:

The gut punch of the 1 point loss in Game 7 has to be the low point. Nenja took it on the chin, immediately congratulating Andrew, but that must have hurt. The team took its lumps and regrouped. The time will tell on the outcome of the trades that came through early in the offseason, with the acquisition of Chris Paul and Joe Ingles. After these trades we now live in a new world where OKC does not have a treasure trove of draft picks that will bloat his roster and force him to cut bait with the worst-good player on his team, which we have all come to appreciate. One 1st rounder and 3 2nds is all he has left. This is going to be fun to watch.

Best Trade:

Another hard choice for the writer. OKC was active in trades with maybe 9 different transactions as well as what I guess is Bank of Ben transfers and finalisations of deals made before, but none of the transactions really wowed me, and most of the work was done in the previous summer. My pick of the crop was...

Andre Iguodala and Okaro White for Taj Gibson and Seth Curry.

OKC had won the Seth Curry Free Agency and at the first chance to trade him he moved on for a great defensive wing. Iggy didn't have a great year in the boxscore over 44 games, but he fit the dynamic of the squad well in OKC.

Worst Trade:

Someone will have to remind me why this trade happened, because looking at it now, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

OKC brings in Kenneth Faried for Dennis Schroder.

OKC then pays 10GMs 3 months later to dump Faried.

Perhaps it was all a long term salary play by OKC, but now they've traded for Chris Paul who will play ahead of Dennis Schroder in NBA OKC but gets paid more than twice as much as him. I'm not here to be a Chris Paul hater, as I think the trade to bring him in is a quality team building move, that has given OKC a super squad. Just when you look at the moves over a year its a funny coincidence that both players have passed through OKC in NBA and NLL.

Other Notable Trades:

Sending Jimmy Butler away for two 1sts (CLE and ATL 2019), Justin Patton, Allen "Buyout" Crabbe, and Kelly Oubre.

Pretty good haul for Butler, but after declining his player option this offseason he was traded for Cam Reddish.

Keita Bates-Diop dumped for a Deividas Sivydis (who at that point was a New Orleans 2nd rounder)

Dante Exum and Kelly Oubre and the first rounder that became Darius Bazley for Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson, and a 2021 2nd from GSW.

Hindsight makes me squeamish about the deal considering Rose is an F loyalty, but at that point in time the move is completely justified as a win now move.

Frankie Ntilikina for Matisse Thybulle and Marcos Louzada Silva. Makes sense as much now as it did then. Frank has the pedigree of a high draft pick, and only cost a couple of picks. Thybulle does seem like an OKC type of guy though, I think he would have fit in really well to cover the absense of Iguodala.

Chris Paul for Iggy, MKG (who came in at the expense of Ricky Rubio a few weeks earlier), Josh Richardson and a couple of seconds. Good consolidation of assets into an elite point guard. It was either make this trade or run back the same team as last year. Ricky Rubio of course had an MVP World Cup and Josh Richardson got traded for Jimmy Butler, but all bets are placed and the roulette wheel is spinning, where the ball lands is TBD.

One final trade is Joe Ingles for a good second, MIA 2020, and OKC 2022 1st. This deal may look sour in a few years, but it fits this teams win now motive, so I'm all for it.

Free Agency:

I suppose they have a couple of things to do in OKC during Free Agency. There's this guy called Kawhi who wants a lot of money, but has really bad loyalty. OKC has a couple of things going for them to help retain, but a guarantee could still costs 50 plus points. Then you've got Derrick Rose who started to return to form and has poor loyalty too. The most worrying player for OKC surely has to be the stalwart JaVale McGee, a fixture in OKC since 2016, only has a C loyalty. Will that be enough to retain him? Moves will be made, as there are a few unsigned 2nd rounders wanting contracts and not enough spaces to fit them into.

Star:

Kawhi wins this with a solid year, only missing two weeks of action after a down year. He could be counted on for locking up the best players in the game, while leading the team in scoring and assists, grabbing 5 rebounds a game and stealing 1.5 balls a game, which was 2nd on the team.

Goat:

John Henson's wrist - Henson was looking to fill an important role for this team this season, which is shown by how he was quickly inserted into the line up once he returned from injury. But his wrist limited him to only 4 regular season games. If the tendon in his wrist didn't require surgery so early in the season, OKC may have won a few more games, may have had more time to tweak, may have gotten over the LAC hump in game 7. But it wasn't to be.

Draft Grades:

#25 Luka Samanic

#34 Admiral Schofield

#35 Deividas Sirvydi

#37 KZ Okpala

Luka seems like a steal at 25, considering he got drafted 19th overall in the NBA. Luka is a favourite of the GM, many heard him say he would have drafted him as high as 14th overall if he had the pick available to him. Admiral looks to get some heavy minutes in the NBA, and KZ Okpala was picked for the sake of a stash, but looks like he may have to have some space created for him on the roster.

If I have learnt anything in life and playing in the NLL, it is to trust the draft process with OKC. They have a knack of scouting talent making the right choice.

Grade: A

The Future-

The future is bright for OKC. The Clips who defeated them in game 7 have to trade D'Angelo Russell, and hope to get back value. While OKC has made its moves and just needs to lock Kawhi and Rose down. If there was one area that still needs attention it is the Shooting Guard position, but I can imagine some pre-season trades to reduce salary and balance out the team. Worst case scenario you put Rose in at 2 guard or maybe Kawhi slides over and Jingles starts. OKC is spoilt for choice. Draymond Green will probably have his ratings in the 90s shortly to go along with Jokic and Leonard. There are very few teams with that much talent on their squad. So draft picks be damned, OKC is in it to win it this year.

NLL Insider - Team by Team: Oklahoma City Thunder

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