Jeremy Lamb became a productive player after being traded from the Thunder. Sam Presti hopes former first-round picks Justin Jackson and T.J. Leaf can develop similarly.
In 2015, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded away Jeremy Lamb. One of the key pieces of the James Harden trade, Lamb was never able to pan out in OKC, averaging seven points in 148 games over three seasons before being shipped to the Charlotte Hornets.
Since, Lamb’s career has taken a turn. He has developed into a productive role player and averaged 13.7 points per game over the last three seasons, which earned him a three-year, $31.5 million deal from the Indiana Pacers last offseason.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti brought Lamb up when discussing two new Oklahoma City players, Justin Jackson and T.J. Leaf.
“Opportunity, fit, circumstance plays a huge role in people’s development. A player can really thrive here that maybe didn’t in another situation. And that doesn’t mean anything about the other situation other than it just might’ve not been the right time on the timeline for that particular player,” Presti said.
“Jeremy Lamb is a great example of that, he didn’t really get off the ground here. As talented as we felt he was, he just never really got off the ground, but when he got to Charlotte, things changed a little bit for him.”
Jackson was the No. 15 pick in the 2017 draft and his rights were traded to the Sacramento Kings. He played there for a year and a half before being traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
Leaf was selected by the Indiana Pacers three picks after Jackson went off the board.
Presti said the team has followed both players “for some time” but haven’t scouted them closely over the past several months for the obvious coronavirus-related reasons.
“They’re talented. I don’t think they’d be selected in spots that they were if they weren’t,” Presti said.
The Kings didn’t necessarily give up on Jackson the way Oklahoma City did Lamb. Jackson was part of the Harrison Barnes trade, which gave Sacramento an experienced forward and allowed Dallas to get off Barnes’ contract.
In Jackson’s first full season in Dallas, he played in 65 of 75 games but only averaged 5.5 points and shot below 30% from 3.
Leaf had a bit of bad luck immediately, in part thanks to the Thunder. Indiana traded for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo that same offseason, and Sabonis earned the starting power forward spot next to Myles Turner in the front court. With that said, Leaf had three seasons to carve out a role for himself and never could, so it’s not the trade that relegated him to the bench.
Last season, Leaf only appeared in 28 games.
Presti hopes that with a fresh start, these players can develop similarly to Lamb.
“We’ve never judged people on the way in. We’ve always let people declare themselves within our walls. Because of that approach, we’ve been able to see people for who they can be and not just who they are on arrival,” Presti said.
“How do they fit here, how can we help them grow, how can we invest in them, do they fit? We’ll go through that process with both guys those.”
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