What will the OKC Thunder do at the trade deadline? | The Athletic NBA Show

What will the OKC Thunder do at the trade deadline? | The Athletic NBA Show

I mean some Thunder fans are like Drawing the Line like the Thunder have the stavas Bron’s contract you know and I think and obviously the Thunder don’t need another like 63 64 guard that does everything they have tons of those guys but all the guys they have that do that

Outside of Dort are totally inexperienced like if the Thunder want to make a playoff run I think just having Bruce Brown around for a couple years I think could be helpful or even just this year like if you if you could do Bruce Brown for Davis bton in one of

The 45,000 picks that the Oklahoma City Thunder have moving forward it’s not a bad idea uh the other piece for the Thunder is like I think the Thunder more than anything just need to go find a big that can match up with Nicole yic in a playoff series like I I just

Don’t I don’t love the idea of Chad having to deal with that for 48 minutes a game and then them not having anybody else that can do it like you essentially have to match Chets minutes to yic and that feels like a problem I would just want another body the good news for

Thunder is that they have the mittit and poku deals that can get them up to like I think they can move those guys for up to like a contract worth $15 million so there’s like a little bit of flexibility to be able to maybe answer both questions if you wanted those

Things I I just don’t know what the Thunder are going to do uh they are they are their usual quiet selves uh you know multiple weeks out to the deadline right now uh according to the people I talk to at least they have um they’re they’re not

Uh they’re not like out there yeah the way that I would phrase it is like they’ll be opportunistic if something comes about but they’re not out there to force anything to happen right well and like a thing for them that you know a couple of other teams have

Told me is like look the way that they will sometimes operate is they’ll say hey we like our team we love our team we’re not going to do anything and then like two days before the deadline you know just so that yeah you know nothing gets out there’s no leaks there’s no

Anything they’ll go to somebody and say hey like you know what about this what about that I just I would be floored if they did nothing with that Burton’s contract like I would be really really shocked I would be for what it’s worth uh I would be really surprised like

Kelly alen is sitting right there and makes a lot of sense you think the Jazz would trade him now like this is that’s a that’s a guy who’s like on the list who I think is he’s like tailor made to play for the Thunder no I know that’s

What I keep thinking as well uh you know dribble pass shoot is a big that’s exactly the thing that the Thunder love to have uh I think Jazz jet too which is like another thing it’s like getting a big that you feel comfortable playing with Chad is like not the easiest thing

Especially if you want to continue to play the way you want to play like you can still do it with him he’s basically like their backup point guard in Utah yeah totally no that’s that’s what they do they like throw him the ball like entry passes like at the top of the key

And just like have him kind of operate their offense for swads of time uh look the Jazz I think they understand that Kelly alic is on an expiring contract and their front Court situation is crowded with lry marinan John Collins Walker Kessler Taylor Hendricks right like I would say that the Hendricks

Thing does make it more interesting because like they just can’t find any time for him right all four of those guys are likely bigger pieces of the Jazz’s future than Kelly oen is yeah is Kelly oen such a valuable piece to them this season that it’s worth losing him

For nothing potentially in the offseason because like Kelly Len’s probably gonna want to go find somewhere where he knows he’s going to get consistent playing time I think the Jazz would love to retain him but like I I don’t can they can they promise him minutes even like next season I I don’t

Know if they can necessarily right now so it’ll be interesting to see what they do they might keep them they might just say like we really want to be as good as we can be this season and Kelly Alin a big piece of that that wouldn’t surprise

Me at all yeah they could they could also like save the Jazz a lot of money because of this Burton deal they could take back oen and ton Horton Tucker’s expiring contracts and like save save the uh the Jazz some money you know this season they could save him like six

Million bucks by taking yeah those guys and like the idea that I kind of came up with was like let’s say the Jazz really want that 2024 first round pick to transfer this year right yeah because they they want to clear their C clear their pick books moving forward they

Want to make sure that uh you know that they transfer this pick in what is considered a down draft at the top the Thunder could theoretically like remove some protections on that pick for you know and say like hey we will say that this pick transfers this year give

Us a you know we’ll give you a second round pick in addition to that or two second round picks in addition to that and you know do Ain and Berton for uh as a deal like something like that yeah uh there there’s like Synergy there between those two teams because

They’re connected by their pick this year to where I wonder if um it does line up a little bit but we’ll see you know it’s it’s early in the process still

The Athletic NBA Show discuss the Oklahoma City Thunder’s trade deadline plans.