Is the Jerami Grant trade to Nuggets one Thunder won’t end up winning?

The Nuggets have gotten excellent play from Jerami Grant, a player the Thunder traded away for a first round draft pick.

For as long as we’ve known Sam Presti, he’s been one of the NBA’s more celebrated general managers. Since drafting Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden in consecutive drafts, the Thunder have mostly been contending in the Western Conference.

Aside from the obvious, on Presti’s watch, the Thunder have made some pretty good trades and have found value late in many drafts. The latest examples of which are the 2018 trade that saw the team send Carmelo Anthony to Atlanta in the deal that yielded Dennis Schroder.

Meanwhile, Reggie Jackson, Steven Adams and Terrannce Ferguson are examples of the team finding value in the draft.

For Presti, those names are just the tip of the iceberg — his resume is chock full of great acquisitions. For that reason, it makes perfect sense that the Thunder would place a higher value on netting draft picks in return for its veteran contributors.

Much has been said of the two trades last offseason that saw Russell Westbrook head to Houston and Paul George get dealt to the Clippers.

Much less has been said about the team sending Jerami Grant to the Denver Nuggets. Based on what we’ve seen from Grant, it could be a rare occasion in which Presti ends up on the losing side of a deal.

Now in his sixth season, at just 26 years old, Grant has grown appreciably as a pro. He’s become a major contributor for a Denver Nuggets team that is battling the Lakers for the opportunity to advance to the 2020 NBA Finals and has proven to be effective on both sides of the ball.

Interestingly enough, the Thunder originally acquired Grant from the Philadelphia 76ers in a package partially consisting of a first round pick that conveys this year. When sending him out to the Nuggets last offseason, the Thunder received a first-round pick in exchange. It also conveys this year.

In the end, the Thunder traded was became the 21st pick in the draft for Grant and received the 25th pick in the same draft when he was traded away.

Over the years, the Thunder have found value late in the draft, but with every impactful play Grant has made in the 2020 NBA Playoffs — and every contribution he makes moving forward — one can fairly wonder whether Oklahoma City will be able to find a better prospect in the latter stages of the first round of a draft that many consider fairly weak.

As the starting power forward for the Thunder last season, Grant averaged 13.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.3 block per game in 32.7 minutes. On a per-game basis, his numbers dipped for the Nuggets, but he played less minutes per game and came off the bench, so the reduction was easy to understand.

If nothing else, Grant’s productivity and continued growth — again, he’s just 26 years old — underscores an important lesson that teams including the Philadelphia 76ers have learned. Having draft picks is one thing, utilizing them wisely is another.

With Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder and Steven Adams among those many believe the Thunder will trade away, and with Danilo Gallinari and Andre Roberson set to hit free agency, one can fairly look at Jerami Grant, his contributions to the Nuggets and wonder whether the team would have been better off keeping him and allowing him to continue to develop in Oklahoma City.

Deep down inside, Presti probably feels some additional pressure to make wise use of the 25th pick in this year’s draft, and based on what Grant has become, it’d be easy to understand why.