As the Oklahoma City Thunder’s young core continues to mature, their treasure trove of draft picks proves a valuable commodity for the future. It gives them a chance to land nearly anybody in a trade.
The Thunder enter the 2023-24 season with playoff aspirations after overachieving last season with a 40-42 record. If the Thunder continue to progress with their young core, a contention window will likely start to open.
With so much draft capital, the Thunder could be in every conversation as a potential interested team in the inevitable sweepstakes of the next superstar who requests a trade.
One possibility is two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Milwaukee Bucks superstar recently told the New York Times he wants to continue to compete for championships throughout his career and acknowledged the possibility that might mean eventually moving on to a new team.
As the Bucks’ 2021 championship core continues to age, this doomsday scenario for Milwaukee could quickly materialize. Antetokounmpo is signed through the 2024-25 season.
This means the Bucks have two seasons to persuade Antetokounmpo to either pick up his $51.9 million player option for the 2025-26 season or sign a new extension.
If they fail to do so, an anonymous NBA executive told Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveny the Thunder could be a prime trade partner candidate for the Bucks as they likely would succumb to a rebuild.
“No one would be in better position to go after him than OKC,” the executive said. “Not to say they would, but they’d have to be a starting point. They have the young talent, they have, I think it is nine (first-round) picks in the next three years. If Milwaukee decides, OK, we’ve got to move on here, that is the first team you call. There aren’t many guys who are going to make the Thunder think about a big move, packaging the assets. But Giannis is one, if he’d want to go there.”
While it’s too far in the future to make an educated prediction on how the Antetokounmpo situation plays out in Milwaukee, the Thunder would ideally be a perfect trade partner with their deep bag of future draft picks and intriguing young players.
If the Thunder are at a point where they feel like trading for arguably the best player in the league would skyrocket their title odds, then that is worth what will likely be a hefty haul they have to concede.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]