Oklahoma City Thunder's Summer Part 1 (A Big Man)
After a surprisingly successful season for the Thunder, its time to try and improve the roster. It could be argued that they would be better served allowing the team to grow from the inside, which I'm all for, although there are few needs which need to be addressed before we can be considered contenders.
These needs are namely and inside low post presence and some outside scoring. For this summer to be considered a success, a contract should also be offered, and accepted, to Kevin Durant, not necessarily Jeff Green, unless he is willing to go below max.
Part 1: Low Post Presence
There are two main options of how to acquire a low post presence; the draft or free agency. There is a third option, although it seems unlikely, a trade. The only trade likely to happen this summer which would benefit the Thunder in a major way, would be a sign and trade, or moving up in the draft.
Drafting options - This years draft is filled with inside presences, both at the four and five. The best of these prospects are; DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, Patrick Patterson, Derrick Favors, Ed Davis, Cole Aldrich, Ekpe Udoh, Daniel Orton, Hassan Whiteside, Solomon Alabi, Kevin Seraphin and Jerome Jordan.
Of those mentioned players, the ones most likely to be available when the Thunder are on the clock at the 21st, 26th or 32nd (for this moment barring the possibility of trading up) include: Kevin Seraphin, Solomon Alabi and Jerome Jordan. There is an outside chance that Hassan Whiteside, a high risk/high reward player, falls to us, in which case I strongly recommend we pick him up, but otherwise lets breakdown the aforementioned players:
Solomon Alabi: Solomon Alabi, measured as the tallest player in this years draft, seems to be the consensus pick for the Thunder's 1st pick of the 2010 NBA Draft. He is considered a good defensive player with a limited offensive asrenal.
Kevin Seraphin: The french man, will similar athleticism to both Nicholas Batum and Rodrigue Beaubois, both of which passed up on by many teams, is finding his stock rising of late. At this point Seraphin is more useful on the defensive end of floor, but his offensive game seems to be growing by the day, with great potential.
Jerome Jordan: A very tall specimen, with a good defensive game, but is yet to master many of the fundamentals, as he was late to the game of basketball. He will already be 24 before the day he suits up for his first game, but promises that he is going to keep working at it.
All these prospects seem like good options, but none are ever going to be able to dominate a game, unlike many prospects likely to be gone much earlier in the draft, opening the question up of whether we should try to package up some of these picks in the hope of a player like Hassan Whiteside or Greg Monroe. A trade up of this kind would likely only take picks, but if someone like Cousins or Favor was the target, a player of Jeff Green would likely have to be included. The option of trading up shouldn't be taken lightly.
Free Agency - The Summer of 2010 is set to be a big one, with players such as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh being possible free agents. The targets for OKC should be one of the following these two players; Chris Bosh or David Lee
Chris Bosh: Chris Bosh will demand more money than we could offer, but a sign and trade is a possibility, if we include a player such as Jeff Green. Chris would be a great fit the team, but it is unlikely he would wish to come to such a small market, as seen by the list of five teams he would most like to be apart of.
David Lee: David Lee is more likely to be in the price range of how much cap space we have, as well as being more likely to be willing to come to the Thunder. David Lee is a vastly underrated player. His skill set seems as if it would be a perfect complimentary piece to the game the Thunder play.
Possible Lineups for next Year:
Ideal Rotation(Very Unlikely, but still possible)
PG - Russel Westbrook/Eric Maynor
SG - James Harden/ Thabo Selfolosha
SF - Kevin Durant
PF - Chris Bosh/Serge Ibaka
C - Hassan Whiteside/Nenad Krystic
More likely rotation, still improvements made
PG - Russel Westbrook/Eric Maynor
SG - James Harden/ Thabo Selfolosha
SF - Kevin Durant
PF - Jeff Green/Serge Ibaka
C - Hassan Whiteside/Nenad Krystic
As you can see this team is already improved over last year, before the second need of outside shooting has even been addressed...... Check in soon for Part 2: Outside Shooting
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