NBA Trade Deadline Show: Gordon Hayward to OKC and More
Clearly defined right now being part of this and also OKC seems to be involved in a trade with Dallas and Washington where rwn Holmes would go from Dallas to Washington Daniel Gafford would go back to the Mavericks and the Mavericks are getting the least favorable of OKC’s
Picks in 2024 which is going to be theirs or the Clippers picks OKC is clearly getting something out of that trade we just haven’t got the details of that yet and there’s a lot more going on Brett let’s start and talk about the Hayward deal how you’ve written a story
About it already you’ve already got a piece up on sellout crowd where you you talk with someone who had some very good Insight um how does Gordon Hayward address the some of the needs that Thunder had the rest of the season heading into the playoffs well first of
All uh glad to be here and thanks to everybody who is watching and everybody who joins on along the way yeah it’s going to be interesting what we what we’ve seen right now what we know of what the Thunder’s done is it’s added a player I think it expects to be a
Significant rotation player in Gordon Hayward if he’s healthy he’s missed a lot of time this year I don’t know the status of his health he’s had some hamstring stuff some calf stuff and Gordon Hayward has missed a lot of games we’ll talk about that in a minute um
He’s missed a lot of games in his career um but I think what you’ve seen here is a guy who you know I talked to Brian Ginger who covers the Hornets does a great job if you go to my story at sell.com you’ll see a lot of video breakdowns embedded there stuff that
Done um so Gordon is a guy who obviously I think people know him he’s a known commodity in the league he’s been in the league for 14 years he’s a pretty good shooter he’s not a great shooter but he’s a good shooter he’s a good spot up
Shooter he’s a guy who can create just a little bit off the dribble he’s actually averag in the second most assists he’s ever had ever averaged in his career this year 4.4 he’s a good pick and roll guy he’s a good pick and pop guy he can
Post up a little bit he’s really physically strong if you’ve ever seen Hayward he kind of looks it but he is like a guy who can use some of his strength defensively to kind of you know he’s not a quick-footed Defender but he’s not a bad Team Defender so he
Doesn’t just crater your defense and he just creates a bunch of stuff offensively and so I think they’ve added some size on the perimeter which is a a good addition for them a guy who hasn’t played a lot of power forward in Charlotte but can play a little power
Forward if you want him to um and is really super versatile and a guy who I think will be one I think a little more engaged playing in a place where game are mattering again which hasn’t been the case for him in a little while and
Two is a guy who really plays off the guys that they have really well he’s a guy who doesn’t have to have the ball who can let Shay gildas Alexander and Jaylen Williams set him up and we did a round table yesterday that posted on sellout crowd where you
Know there was a few questions that we asked specifically about OKC by the way my prediction was that they were just going to trim up kind of the edges of the roster so much for that idea but um you know one of the things that when we
Talked about sort of a you know what is your dream trade um you know I talked about the possibility of getting another player that just gives Mark dagal another option if you get into a playoff series and giddy is not effective or kendri Williams they they start fouling
Him to put him at the free throw line or just some of those shenanigans that you’ve got another guy and so so far I still think you know we’ll see what the final details of this turn out to be but um you know this gives them that guy in
Gordon Hayward and when I think of like the type of guys that OKC has acquired has been targeting over time I mean Hayward checked so many into those boxes like you said and you know how do you feel about just having another tool on the toolbox right just in case you get
To the playoffs and you run into a problem yeah I think like for example I was looking at some numbers Hayward posts up like about about a little more than half a possession per game right s possession possessions times per game he’s going to post up that’s actually
More than the thunder it’s it’s only slightly less than the Thunder posts up they post up 1.9 times a game so he if he just does what he normally does he’s almost half their post-ups he just gives you that option it’s just another option they didn’t really have a guy who Chad
Holgren can post Shay can post um but they don’t have a guy who’s really an Adept post scorer it’s not what he does but he’s effective at it when he does it and it’s just an option um so yeah he just gives you some optionality the other thing is going to be interesting
You know they trade vasil meic in this trade and he’s not getting a ton of minutes but he’s a backup ball handler and now there’s one fewer so how does that change your rotations I think having Jay dub kind of run the second unit has been really effective and so
Maybe he’s just got the ball in his hands a little more maybe Gordon Hayward gets more time with the starters and Josh Getty’s role shifts a little bit more to uh in addition to starting the game which I assume he’ll continue to do he takes some of those meich second unit
Point guard uh minutes and and Gordon Hayward gets some of those minutes with the starters there’s a world where I could see Gordon Hayward starting for this team just because of the fit the kind of natural fit that slides everybody down makes it makes the team
Just a little bit bigger um but I do think he just makes your your bench he’s gonna make your bench different and I think he’s gonna ultimately make it a little more versatile even if what you’re doing is losing a guy and meu was coming into his own a little but maybe
Was gonna have a hard time getting playoff minutes we do have a question in the chat from Nick Kyer and I’m I’m G to CAU that you know there’s still another hour to go here so Nick’s question is if OKC has two roster spots what would they do
Again that could change there could be no open roster spots by the time we close up this show Brett um and even if there are open roster spots we should caution people that trades aren’t the only way to fill your roster spots there will be players traded today and players
Who are just on existing rosters who are bought out I thought Gordon Hayward might reach the buyout Market I think the TR trade for him as an indicator that you didn’t want to let him get they wanted Gordon Hayward they didn’t want to let him get to a situation of picking
His team that would be my guess is that they had really prioritized him um but there will be guys who are bought out and those guys are options you’ve also got you got a couple of two-way guys you can convert those guys to full contracts you have options in terms of how you
Fill out a roster and one thing about the thunder you know people hear there’s all sorts of new cap rules going in restrictions going into place and some teams are restricted from signing guys in the buyout Market if they make more than the full mid level exception but it’s the
High spending teams like Boston Golden State Phoenix um I think Milwaukee’s also in that group Oklahoma City would not be restricted from that so if there was a player released today that was making say you know 15 18 million or whatever they could sign that guy as a
Buyout player one caveat uh if that player is Davis btown cannot bring him back right so that that would be the one exception but otherwise OKC does have flexibility in the buyout market like you said Brett but we’ve also seen the thunder in the past try to reward the
Two-way guys and you know either get them on longterm deals or sort of like last year with Lindy Waters sort of like hey here’s a contract thank you for for your service and and here’s a few extra bucks right yeah and that’s something I could see happening here they and you
Know that also that creates believe I’m right about this that that creates another two-way slot if you do that and so you can take one of your other guys and give them a two-way contract if you choose to do that and that’s just another you know option for sort of a
Reward for one of the guys on the blue who you could convert to a two-way for the rest of the year so um they do have a lot of loyalty to the guys who kind of come through the program we’ve seen that for a long time that they like to at
Least give those guys the opportunity to be on the big club either via 2-a or regular you go back to like K Johnson and you look at you know like a lot of guys they’ve had who they’ve tried to just give them the opportunity Olivier
SAR is one of those guys now who’s just kind of guy who’s been in the program that’s a guy they could convert konay Johnson is a guy who they’ve they’ve sort of had with the Thunder a little bit more lately after he’s had a pretty
Good run in the G so like there’s a lot of different options there um and yeah that I think the Loyalty piece is important if there’s a guy out there you know again they traded metic who’s who his minutes were limited and his playoff minutes were probably going to be
Limited but maybe a guy hits the buyout Market who you think could just come in and be that extra ball handler that you might need to pinch you know like maybe you just want an emergency point guard we do have a question from Cole and his question or it’s not really a
Question just you know he says he’s not a fan of giving up meic and two picks for a guy with big health concerns on an expiring deal um so we touched upon it a little bit you know meich was a guy that it was a will he or won’t he for a
Couple years in Oklahoma City he comes over uh I’m gonna miss the passes the passes were spectacular um but you know we saw some flashes from him here and there but we also saw some concerns about his foot speed on defense for example uh the pace of the NBA game was
Something he was he was having some difficulty with and that goes into what you said about he might have been limited minutes wise in the playoffs and let’s go into the Gordon Hayward injury history of it all it’s a lengthy list no doubt and that is I think Oklahoma city
Is in position to acquire him today yeah I mean I think most people will remember the worst of his injuries which is that he he signed with Boston as a free agent he signed as a free agent right I he was a free agent that might have been a sign
In trade I don’t remember but he went to Boston in free agency from Utah his first night in Boston I was watching I know a lot of people were because it was opening night in the NBA I think it might have been the first game of the
Year and uh he he dislocates his ankle and he fractured a bone uh in his leg as well is a gruesome injury he missed that entire season and whether or not any of these things are connected he’s just had a hard time staying on the court consistently since then if you just look
At his past four years he’s missed 25 games this year that’s calf hamstring and an illness thrown in there 32 last year that was a thumb injury hamstring again um some some some shoulder stuff the year before that he missed 29 that was ankle foot and back uh back injuries
The year before too in 2020 21 foot uh hand back and hip he’s had like a bunch it’s it’s there’s you could write a song all the all the connected bones um so he’s had a lot of different stuff some bone stuff some some muscle stuff um and
It’s just you know some guys just sort of have bad injury luck I don’t know that his body you know he’s he’s physically in great shape that doesn’t mean he’s not susceptible to getting hurt and he just has been hurt a lot um that’s those numbers are just the past
Four years including this one and looking at what the injuries actually are sport Tech shows you that stuff you got to go you got to have a subscription that I don’t have to go further back than that but he he played 72 games a few years ago and since then he’s really
Struggled to just be on the floor yeah and a couple of things you know one he’s not likely to have the kind of minutes workload that he had in Charlotte in recent years um but let’s let’s go ahead and just say that let’s let’s play out the possibility what if he isn’t
Able to participate on the floor it’s really in the end not that big of a risk for OKC I mean it’s it’s a nice addition to have I think but um you know if if it doesn’t pan out this is sort sort of a bonus I think for OKC would that be kind
Of a a rational way to kind of look at it yeah I mean I understand what people are saying about meic I get it because you’re giving up a guy who’s in your rotation but he’s a guy who’s been in the rotation for about half the season
He wasn’t at the beginning he doesn’t play a lot lot of minutes when he does play and often even in some of the games he’s gotten in we’ve seen some matchup troubles you alluded to some of the defensive stuff where his minutes are really limited he gets a look it doesn’t
Work he gets pulled I really like meich as a player I think he’s really fun and I understand why people would be hesitant to give him up especially for an injury-prone guy but the reason I’m making all these points about me is this the only guy you’re giving up who plays
Trey man is not in your rotation Davis bton is not in your rotation those are guys you throw in and spot Duty you know after a you know at the end of a four five or on the second night of a back toback or on the first night of a back
Toback to preserve some other guys those guys don’t play consistent minutes so you’re adding a player who if he’s healthy is going to play consistent minutes and if he’s not you’ve really given up one rotation player who I think you can kind of make up for like we
Talked about you use Josh giddy a little differently you use Jaylen Williams a little differently and maybe you have case and Wallace run some point guard in ways that he has not yet and in ways I think ultimately he will need to in the NBA at his size
Yeah I’m I’m not concerned about you know the ball handlers at this point I mean OKC had uh had more than enough to spare I think so they’re gonna be fine there uh case Wallace has shown a lot in his time so far and um you know again
We’ll see what else kind of shakes out here with OKC uh if you’re just joining in the Stream we have been talking about the reports of Gordon Hayward being acquired by Oklahoma City we’ve got some questions in the chat as well asking for you know more details on Oklahoma City’s
Involvement between Dallas and Washington and uh I don’t know Brett if you’ve if you’ve got any intel you know uh fire in but so far it’s we we’ve got it from Mark Stein that they’re involved but really know more than that at this point the only thing I can tell you
Based on the reporting I’ve done today and people I’ve talked to today I don’t think they’re in play for something major I don’t think this is going to be a thing where like a a rotation altering player comes back I can’t say that for sure because it’s the Thunder and what’s
True at 1 you know uh 1240 when I had this conversation might be different at 119 might be different again at 139 you know like these things change and everything is changing so rapidly meic wasn’t in the initial reports of this trade and so as soon as he got thrown in
It made people think oh maybe another player is coming back and we know that they were engaged on some other players like Gordon hayward’s not the only guy they targeted and talk to teams about I don’t think there’s a big thing coming but as you talked about they’ve got
Those two roster spots there could be another player who comes back in in this mix some way or another who takes one of those spots and and renders some of that discussion moot but right now I think that trade is still really vague it’s maybe the vaguest one on the board right
Now in terms of what we what people definitively know about who’s going where and you know if you want to go back and look I mean Oklahoma City last year took a pick at the bottom of the draft and punted it many years down the road for one that was lightly protected
It’s entirely possible possible that that is the end result this time around um we’ve talked a lot about the 2024 draft um and it being you know kind of dicey uh there’s not a lot of excitement about a lot of the talent in the draft and that maybe you know other teams were
Also not really thrilled about trying to jump in and and and get picks in this draft um but if this turns out you know the way it’s shaping up we could talk about Utah here in just a moment they they made a couple of Trades that it seems like that they might be
Decelerating a little bit they may keep their pick in 2024 it’s top 10 protected otherwise it conveys to Oklahoma City uh we know OKC already traded one of those 2024 picks in the James Harden trade the one that they did not trade out James Harden just for
Clarity um they traded out that one there’s another pick going out today they may at the end of the day only have that pick coming from Houston which you know could be somewhere late Lottery uh early out of the lottery um so that’s that’s sort of how it’s
Shaping up right now for OKC pickwise and I wouldn’t be surprised at all Brett if you in the end they just don’t try to position one of those you know sort of meh picks right now into something better down the road yeah and like the thing I would caution about the draft um
Is that when we talk about the weakness of a draft they’re going to draft 60 basketball players some of them are going to turn out to be really good and so like while yes I think people are a little less enthused they’re mostly less enthus about the top of this draft it’s
Like if I spend the number one pick on Alex SAR or Cody Williams or a guy who is not related to anybody on the Thunder am I getting number one pick value out of that pick and I think as you get further down the draft there will be
More guys who people like but yes there’s always a possibility that this is just some simple draft positioning I don’t know that a player will come back to them in that deal it seems almost unlikely but who knows because again it’s just a trade that there’s some some
Vagaries in that we just don’t know anything about what’s coming back to OKC yep and around the league there have been a lot of deals reported today so far um and they started yesterday uh some of the interesting deals going back to yesterday Minnesota winds up getting
Monty Morris again we did a round table yesterday you had you know pointed out that Minnesota could really use a backup point guard and as soon as they announced Monty Morris to Minnesota I went of course uh because I forgot about who ran the Denver Nuggets whenever
Monty Morris was there um that feels like a really good you know pickup for them uh when you’re looking at some of the you know some of the fighting for position there in the Western Conference you’ve got Minnesota doing that uh who else did we have uh we had a lot of
Stuff moving out east yeah Phoenix made a move to get Royce O’Neal yep which Phoenix and David Rody for whatever that’s worth I mean Phoenix is really lied in what they can do um Dallas is obviously trying to make some upgrades sorry you real quickly on on
Phoenix you talked about teams who are limited in what they can do on the bout Market they’re one of those teams right in terms of what they can spend um not not even what they can spend what the guy was making before he was waved will impact whether Phoenix can sign him and
It will limit their pool yeah absolutely so uh you know again there’s there’s going to be some guys you know I don’t know Kevin could get released I mean that’s a guy that Phoenix could pick up at Phoenix uh they wouldn’t be able to pick up like a Kyle
Lowry for example if he’s bought out um you have Phoenix could sign Killian Hayes who was surprisingly released but you know you only have so many roster spots and the Pistons made so many trades today um I don’t know who’s on I want to Pivot to the east here for just
A moment New York is really interesting New York makes a trade today with Detroit to get buen bonovich to get Alec Burks and there’s a there’s a little bit of uncertainty with ogn and Obi and an elbow issue right now um but I really like what uh what New York was able to
Pull off today and you know it also sets them up well for the summer they were they’re sort of where they were from a cap standpoint but they’re better off on the floor I feel like yeah we should talk in a minute about the thunder in
The summer as well you know I know there’s still some moving parts for the Thunder but I like the Knicks a lot I Ian Begley I think reported that some of what did today was influenced by anobi uh and the fact that he has been injured and they don’t know exactly what his
Situation is going to be and they changed the status of his injury I think it’s now a bone spur inflammation as opposed to whatever it was before um so what they did is they added some pieces who can kind of be stop Gap guys while he and Julius Randall are both out you
Know bonovich can play power forward and you can do some different stuff with him the other thing is if the Knicks go into the playoffs healthy they have everybody they’ve got a really deep team and they’ve got a bunch of those guys and they acquired two of them today I think
Both bonovich um uh I think both guys are guys who think I just I just drew a complete blank on on uh on the other guy’s name for a brief moment there this is what being live uh matters who else did they they got from Detroit they got
Um former Thunder Legend name God I just was drawing a blank on Alec Burks my bad both those guys are guys who like they can come in and hit four threes in a playoff game both of those guys are those guys who can like the other things
Aren’t going get this secondary guy in there and he goes and and makes some shots and he bails you out and you win a playoff game because of it I think the Knicks just have a really nice deep roster and you know the the team that
They have before this had won nine in a row before they lost to the Lakers uh it’s a really good team and I think they did a really nice job here I think they bolstered themselves as much as anybody in the East I like I like what Boston
Did just getting an extra front Court Defender um but like I think the Knicks probably help themselves as much as anybody in the East I also I like that Milwaukee Googled uh NBA guards who defend and ended up with Patrick Bry that was interesting um Philly helping out I mean to some degree
Helping out at least a competitor in the East now you know uh Philly gets back Cameron Payne who has moved around quite a bit they also get a second round pick but still uh just kind of curious I mean maybe Philly needed a Philly Phil like they needed another shooter to go with
Buddy hee who they also picked up today uh but again just sort of a curious TR amongst teams that are at the near the top of the Eastern Conference yeah a couple of weird trades uh the Kelly oen trade was very odd to me that one was
The one that was just like he’s going to Toronto and I guess Toronto is collecting Canadians I guess is sort of the thing so um they’ve gotten RJ Barrett and and Kelly oen this month so okay I guess um that just felt weird unless oen were to get rerouted or
Something because it just felt like oen was a guy he’s a guy I I put in my uh Thunder that Thunder round table that we talked about yesterday I just think as a as a backup big he’s a pretty good fit a good connector a good shooter and a a
Sort of surprisingly good rebounder I think if you if you don’t know a lot about his numbers he’s a pretty good rebounder and so like I could have seen him here um him going to Toronto was just a little odd but Toronto’s been known to make some odd
Trades they have they gave up a first round pick last year for yakob purle uh gave up a first round pick this year for Kelly o lenck um while also rerouting guys Dennis former Thunder Dennis shuder on his way to the Nets uh momentarily W momentarily gave Dennis Smith a heart
Attack thinking he had been traded to the Toronto Raptors um but uh yeah it’s it’s I don’t know it’s a Fool’s Aon to try to figure out exactly what all they’re trying to do there in Toronto but um uh one comment uh here in the chat uh from Daniel how the Pistons make
That deal and not get their first round pick back that is that’s a Puzzler because you know again the Pistons sent a couple of good players to New York um Detroit has this pick that’s flying out there that used to belong to Oklahoma City it went to New York uh it really
Hampers what they can trade as far as future picks and they didn’t get it back in this deal so uh that one is definitely a heads scratcher uh as far as as far as I can see the Pistons have not made a lot of sense almost since the beginning of the
Season it you know for one they don’t make a lot of sense when you watch them play basketball um the en Court product has been so bad I guess their seventh win last night and kind of a shocking upset that they got that one they’ve acquired a few more competent players
They’re moving out some stuff Killian Hayes really has been just has wildly underperformed and I think they’ve they’ve played him a lot and given him minutes and given him every opportunity and now they’re kind of punting on that it is it’s just everything about the Pistons and a guy running that show who
I really like and Troy Weaver just almost everything they’ve done for the past several years has been pretty odd I mean I think when you go back to there was a period of time when they just amassed every Center they could get at a time when nobody wanted any um you know
The the throwing money at Jeremy Grant when you were in the stage you were in as a franchise was odd just the Pistons are weird definitely weird and uh you know uh they’re and they’re scrambling right now I think they desperately would like to get to 10 win
So beginning or if you just jumped in uh really appreciate you jumping in on this live trade deadline show here at sellout crowd to recap John Ham Brett Dawson taking you through the trade deadline here and again to recap 2 o’clock the deadline um no deals after that point
They all have to be submitted to the league and uh you know we’ve got news Breakers across the league that are keeping us notified especially if you have notifications turned on for various Twitter accounts you can stay pretty well informed um and Brett to kind of circle back to Oklahoma City as you
Mentioned there reports out there I still don’t think we have a fully formed trade yet but the reports are Gordon Hayward to Oklahoma City Davis Bron Trey man VI meic draft compensation are going out in the we assumed to Charlotte that is probably TBD um and that Oklahoma
City is involved in a deal with Washington and Dallas where uh their least second least favorable second uh first round pick that is a lot of numbers to throw in at once uh would go to Dallas in that deal um let’s go back and talk about Hayward a little bit more
And talk about the off season because one thing that this trade does um it keeps OKC really flexible heading into the summer and you know they could still resign Gordon Hayward if he’s a if he’s a good fit and if he’s you know minimal to coming back um OKC could pivot and
You know see about trying to get some of their current guys locked up specifically Isaiah Joe or Aaron Wiggins they could do some combination I feel like Oklahoma City in in making this trade what we know of it so far they are adding to the team now but also maintaining a lot of
Flexibility over the summer so very Sam presty kind of move right um prey is a guy who who often uh the franchise has operated on double on on Dual tracks is the way we talk about it a lot of the time so they’re trying to be as
Competitive as they can the past few years have been the exception to this rule but they’ve always been trying other than that to be as competitive as they can to compete for championships but also they don’t want to put themselves in a position where they pushing in for a championship ruins
Something down the road they’ve always kind of worked and when I say two tracks I mean they’ve always worked on development of young players that’s always been something they’ve really highlighted and they always like to have their flexibility moving forward there’s you can there’s a lot of examples of
Where prey likes to keep his flexibility he often doesn’t let guys get to restricted free agency for example because that throws some variables into the mix that they don’t necessarily want there they have a lot of options as you said this summer Hayward is an interesting guy makes a lot of money now
Won’t make a lot of money on his next deal and so you’ll be able to get him at a at a deep discount compared to what he makes currently uh on the deal that he signed to go to Charlotte um so that’s that’s one place where got flexibility
You’re going to have some options with Josh giddy in terms of you know like you’re going to get there and have to make a decision and you know I think going into this to this season I think there was a lot of thought about the expense of all the guys they were going
To have and how much all this was going to cost them I think you’re coming off a season now where if you decide to sign Josh gidy to an extension you maybe get him at a cheaper rate and so that increases your flexibility as well that becomes a very tradable contract and a
Contract that hampers you less moving forward if you get gide at certainly going to be less than the max Daniel in the chat uh he says that he that he’s heard that it’s two second round picks for Hayward without any specifics um that tracks we’ve seen several trades today where multiple
Second round picks are involved uh that could be again uh we’ll see what the entire scope of the trade turns out to be but Oklahoma City has a lot of second round picks to throw into trades I was gonna say what will they do with only 19
If they’ve thrown two in for Gordon Hayward how will they get by yeah yeah uh they could absolutely come in and and that’s sort of been the been a card that they’ve had that you know they could throw down at the end I think you mentioned it earlier Brett your kind of
A motivation was let’s let’s put together a deal for Gordon Hayward now rather than cross our fingers and hope if he hits the buyout Market that we can convince him to come here and that is you know that is some of the value of accumulating all of this draft capital
Is that in a situation like this that they can move in and they’ve you know positioned contracts and lined everything up uh to put them in position for a moment like this so you know we’re going to be talking about a trade that happened today but we can rewind and go
Back to trading up to get case and Wallace and taking on Davis Bran’s contract uh we can talk about the way that they you structured U structured their transactions and then signed Vier meich to the deal that they got him on uh all of those little things sort of
Build up to this moment and you know it that is how that’s how these teams are structuring things it’s it’s lining up one move to do the next move hopefully and it sounds like OKC is gonna be able to pull that off yeah I mean I think that’s one thing with
Hayward I think is interesting he would have had there would have been quite a bit of interest in him for the reasons that we talked about at the top of the show he is like a he’s just a good connecting piece he’s not a guy who
Demands the ball a whole lot um he’s you know in terms of just his I don’t know Gordon Hayward but in terms of his onc court fit he’s a pretty low maintenance player his usage rate is about 20 it’ll probably be a little lower here he shoots about two catch and shoot threes
Per game in Charlotte it’ll probably go up a little here and that would be a thing I think a lot of teams would be looking at could we use a six7 uh physical guy who could take three or four catch and shoot three pointers a game and shoot 40% on those like which
Is what he’s shooting on his his two a game yes a lot of teams would have liked to have seen that especially at a pretty lowrisk situ so the Thunder’s giving up more than anybody would have on the buyout but like you said you do that because one or at least theoretically
You do it because the number of suitors in the number of intriguing markets might have been high and so you take the the the option out of Gordon hayward’s hands you go ahead and grab him because you have the pieces to do it and like we said you know they’ll move into this
Summer with just a whole lot of flexibility and if he doesn’t work I think that’s the other thing one if he doesn’t work they just don’t have to play him a ton of minutes again in terms of the rotation he’s replacing a guy rotationally not positionally he’s
Replacing a guy one guy in meets it you played who doesn’t play a lot so if he’s not if it’s a bad fit or if he’s hurt if it just doesn’t work out they don’t have to play him it hasn’t significantly impacted the rotation of their team and
Then you can just move on in the summer but if he does work out again like we said you’ve got a chance to sign him probably at a much better number and I I can Envision a world where he fits very well I think the key is going to be his
Health one of the questions from sellout crowd earlier was whose minutes might be the most affected by this trade and again based on kind of what we know right now you know you mentioned meic was playing what a dozen minutes give or take but not consistently um and you
Know there’s other guys that are going to lose out a little bit as a result Josh giddy has seen his minutes come down except for the Toronto game where he was playing very well and he played a lot of minutes that night but yeah how do you see Mark dull trying to square
That with you know if OKC does wind up moving guys that we’re not playing consistently with a guy who probably needs to some consistent playing time yeah I mean I think for one thing you know I would be surprised if he’s not playing more minutes than meic was
Playing so they have to come from somewhere and and the meich minutes you know this isn’t a onetoone equation so you can’t just play him exactly where you were playing meich you have to change your personnel a little bit what that might mean again there could be a
Chance that you see a little bit more uh Jaylen Williams kind of running the show I don’t think his minutes will change a lot um giddy’s at 25 uh and I I do think some of this probably comes out of that 25 is my guess just because if you look at how
Many games uh you know there was a game recently was that maybe the Toronto game where he played very well he didn’t start the second half he’s come out in some meaningful times when they wanted to have maybe case Wallace out there for defensive reasons um you know Hayward is
Not a great defender uh but he’s a good enough Defender that you can play him in games late in games and so I think he’ll be out there um maybe it eats a little bit into the 15 for kenrich Williams that’s a possibility because he is a guy
Who can play effectively like a big it’s not really what he does but because he’s 67 and because he’s a pretty strong guy and while he’s not quick you know one of the things Brian gisinger who who follows that team and again I would uh for people who are just joining in I
Would I would advise you to go read the story at cow.com about this trade because Brian has a lot of insight into how Gordon plays and how he might fit um but one of the things he talked about while he’s not a super Fleet footed defender or anything he moves pretty
Well at his size so he’s comfortable switching and so you can play him a little bit in kind of a big spot and so maybe that’s some of the kenrich Williams minutes maybe it’s some of the Jaylen Williams minutes um you know it probably eats into whatever minutes
Maybe evaporates whatever minutes us man Jang was getting in spot Duty like those are probably Gordon Hayward minutes because that actually is like a positional plug like minutes you’re playing Usman Jang Gordon haard fits right into those so those probably aren’t going to happen a whole lot
Moving forward so I just think it’s probably I don’t know that there’s one guy who’s affected the most but if in the long term it affected one guy’s minutes and one guy’s playing style the most I think it could be giddy just because of the way Hayward really fits
Naturally with the rest of that starting five one other thing to kind of talk about here I mean I was watching ESPN a little bit earlier um and sort of the takeaways there was yeah you know haywards as a nice pickup but they didn’t get what they needed and Brett
The one uh the one position that people have been trying to fill pretty much all season uh some in the local fan base but especially in the National media is the thought of a backup big man um and one thing that I you know I know we kind of
We write about it we talk about it here and there but just to kind of hammer home um let’s let’s dive into it why is OKC not going to get a non-shooting big that is a a a paint clogger on offense well I would say this if you
Play one of those guys as an opponent of the Thunder you are making them ecstatic they love when Andre like forget about the fact that Andre Drummond can shove Chad hren out of the way or Yousef nurkic can shove Chad hren out of the way yes absolutely they can watch the
Other stuff less so with Drummond the first time more so the second time watch the Phoenix game go back and watch How nurkic was handling uh having Chad hren out on the floor look at how Jonas Valen chunis handled having Chad hren on the floor a couple of weeks ago when they
Went down to New Orleans he can bang him he got some points and rebounds early but over the Long Haul having to guard Chad is a non-starter for guys like that the Thunder doesn’t really want a guy like that on their roster who is advantageous to those more versatile big
Guys because those are the guys there are a lot of guys on teams that you’re going to have to compete with who have those sorts of players um but also it’s just like fundamentally the Thunder just don’t like those kinds of guys I think that’s pretty clear they don’t want a
Big space eating rebounder um it would it would help the rebounding problem but I think the thing we’ve stressed all year with this rebounding issue and it is an issue there are some games where it really really hurts them it did the other night there’s no question Utah
Hurt them with the second chance points hurt them on the glass dominated them on the glass but that Utah game was way less about the rebounding than it was the way Utah just protected the paint and the Thunder couldn’t get anything going in there and the way you you know
Sort of counter that is with more guys who can shoot and score and do versal things on the perimeter the thing you don’t want to do is solve your rebounding problem at the expense of having a guy who stretches the floor and creates space at the five having a guy
Who connects your offense and moves the ball like they just don’t want any more than they want a guard who’s gonna pound the ball into the floor you know 15 times before he makes a decision that guy might help some of your second unit scoring or whatever but there’s tra
Tradeoffs everything is a trade-off in this league and sometimes finding ways to get those rebounds the trade-off is you just become less versatile defensively un L versal offensively and they’re not willing to make that trade-off we had a comment here from Kenny Moore who said that he disagrees
With the backup big man need I don’t see them playing much in the playoffs I would like to see Jay will in those situations before we try to go get someone and I think that is sort of the I that’s probably a shared opinion uh in in some circles around the Thunder that
When you get into the playoffs and some of the minutes for key guys go up it’s going to result in less minutes for other players as well and if you have someone like Jaylen Williams Jay will the Arkansas version um playing those minutes he can come in and give you spot
Duty here and there and you know again we’re still 20 well 17 minutes until the deadline we’ll see if something else comes up but you know it sure seems like OKC is is a lot more interested in trying to bring Jay will along you know then replacing him with someone else
Yeah I mean I think that’s why a guy like oen was intriguing because he does do some of the backup center stuff without a bunch of the detrimental stuff that a big plotting backup center does the thing is I think to the to that point there I don’t know how many
Minutes there are for a guy like that even if it’s oen who’s a really good player just because you want Chad homr to play a lot of minutes and in the playoff you’re going to want him to play more now I do think the the advantage of
Having that extra big having a guy like that is just for that situ it’s a playoff situation where we’ve seen nights where Chad just physically has a hard time competing or he looks a little worn out or just whatever there’s there’s things he’s a rookie he’s not
Been through the playoffs so the idea of an option to plug in there I think is is the reason you do it but like I don’t know that you expend a lot of capital to go get a guy even in that situation when it’s such a small role you know I think
About think about the Russell Westbrook backup point guards this is a good way to frame that those guys had such small roles and often they weren’t content with those roles and and you sort of either had to move on from them once they got tired of being in that small
Role or in the case of a guy like campaign you move on before he gets tired of playing that role and before he comes to you and says I want out um because you know it’s going to happen I think the backup center here would be
Much the same way there just aren’t a ton of minutes unless you get a guy who can play with jet and I think that’s part of the reason Mark dnal has talked lately about wanting to try to get a few more of those Jay will chat minutes um
Just to get a look at it before the playoffs um you know they clearly don’t love it because they don’t play it a lot but I do think he’s interested in trying it because who knows in a playoff situation there might be a game where that works it’s been about 30 minutes since
We had any notifications come across but we just saw the Spurs are trading Doug mcder to Indiana uh they’re going with a cheaper version of Buddy heeld uh a much lighter version of Buddy heeld it seems so again we’re 15 minutes until the trade deadline uh when everything has to
Be in so we might start getting more of these notifications as we come into this uh last 15 minute stretch here uh again John Ham and Brett Dawson here going over the NBA trade deadline talking about the trades that are in progress some of them that have already happened
We’ve seen a lot of smaller deals happen across the league Brett CED a lot of the you know some of the mundane ones and we’ve talked a lot about Oklahoma City and you know just again to coming in um I still don’t think the trade is fully finalized yet to acquire Gordon Hayward
There’s still some stuff up in the air I can sit down with a spreadsheet and come up with multiple scenarios and how they could expand this trade uh into multiple teams we’ve talked about they’ve got potentially a couple of roster spots uh so that could mean that there’s some
More activity that still has not been firmed up yet or yet to be announced and there’s their involvement potentially in a trade between Washington and Dallas uh that would swap rwn Holmes and Daniel Gafford that deal is kind of interesting to me talking about Dallas um Derek
Gelyy II has been great for them uh that’s a player that you know Dallas gave up at the end of last season to retain their pick they make a trade with Oklahoma City that benefited the Thunder and we saw that today with dealing Braton as part of this deal to get
Gordon Hayward uh they get Derek Lively and now they’re bringing in Daniel Gafford who is not the same type of player but you know ran Holmes wasn’t getting much time in Dallas uh Dallas is really sort of like doubling down on having a legitimate big man on the floor
In addition to some other Shooters and L and Luca donic as well so um kind of an interesting deal and and uh you know curious what else Dallas is trying to pull together here uh yeah that’s interesting so the most recent notification we got is that dejonte Murray is staying put in Atlanta
So there won’t be a trade for him seems like over the past 24 hours or so there was some movement there with New Orleans but nothing that got to the point of kind of getting the deal done and it did seem like the Lakers had kind of eased
Out of that sweep stakes and so seems like the market on him might have just dried up Atlanta probably wasn’t seeing a trade uh worth making that move um to just to for the sake like you you don’t deant M’s a pretty good guy to trade for
The sake of trading uh and so probably just didn’t get a deal uh there to get that done so that’s that’s one I do want to just point out a quick thing about notifications just because it’s pretty funny I have the NBA Communications notifications turned on as well as like
All the trade Breakers so just I just have to say just gotta salute the NBA for tweeting things like Jeremy soan will replace Shaden sharp on team jayen in the rising stars game like during all this it’s perfect timing no notes Kudos NBA that’s exactly what we wanted
We wanted the allstar Saturday night participants released yes right in the heat of trade deadline season thank you yeah and this this is a good day for the NBA to dump any other news which might cause a stir um correct not not saying that they would do a thing like that but
If they wanted to that would be the way to do it um so what I find interesting uh this is just again interesting to me the Pacers are rerouting Marcus Morris to Antonio in this trade uh for Doug McDermot rewind a few years ago the Spurs traded Davis bons to Washington
With the intention of signing Marcus Morris who reneged on them signed with the Knicks instead wound up going with Trey ly and and maybe a couple other guys but now they get him back and they’re just going to release him so the NBA is just uh is
Funny sometimes yep you know the other thing is as we were as this was happening in real time sometimes your brain like forgetting Alec Burks your brain is doing things and I was like Doug mcder Indiana that makes a lot of sense and it occurred to me like that’s
Because he’s been there before like he has actually played for the Pacers before this is second tour yes former former Indiana Pacer former New York Nick Dallas Maverick Oklahoma City Thunder Chicago Bowl uh Doug McDermot so um never forget I did a great story with Doug mcder he was really Cooperative um
Just talking about the whole thing about getting traded in season and you know ESPN did a big story a more involved story with a lot of players just this week about this about just kind of what you go through when you’re traded in season and I talked to to Doug mcdermid
About it at the time and Taj Gibson who was in that trade as well and just like learned a lot of stuff the league puts you up in a hotel for something like 41 days and um you know just like some of the stuff you go through there’s
Somebody with the Thunder who shows you around and shows you where your kids would go to school if your kids are moving and things of that nature um and then like followed up with Doug in the summer and did this like nice story about how settled in he was getting and
I always remember that Doug liked to drive around the city and um use Devon Tower to get home because he lived downtown so rather than use his phone he would try to he wanted to learn his way around the city so he would just wherever he was he could see Devon Tower
And he would drive toward it because he knew that was close to his house and then like weeks after that story he was traded that that is the landmark just yeah second star on the right just drive towards that and it’ll always get you home we uh one comment in the chat here
Uh where did it go yeah from Cole line zero Lakers move so far is hilarious um sometimes you box yourself in over time I mean and again there’s nine minutes till the trade deadline maybe the maybe the Lakers pull something out at the very end here but you know they got them
They wiggled out of a straight jacket last offseason Brett uh at the trade deadline and you know that did help propel them to the Western Conference Finals that magic has not sustained so far this season for various reasons but you know the Lakers try really hard they they try they’re not always successful
But it feels like that they probably might have ran out of tricks I will say I have faith we got like nine minutes left I have faith that the Lakers can find a way to get somebody on the buyout market and convince themselves that it is really going to
Matter you know I I can see Laker fans buying into to a buyout guy and telling us how important he is going to be to a significant playoff run forgetting the fact that that essentially never happens yes uh they will talk themselves into Joe Harris that is a name that also came
Up in the chat as a potential uh you know OKC Target I I don’t see that if OKC has an open roster spot I wouldn’t see them pursuing a guy like that we talked earlier that you know maybe promoting from within might be a better
Option and um we’re going to see a lot of smaller trades here here we’ll see if someone else turns up you know that’s kind of interesting but you touched upon it these buyout players rarely make a significant impact you know it’s it’s the thought of it is kind of cool but
The reality of it really never turns out to be what people think yeah I mean typically it’s often like the situation when you get really excited about a former five-star Prospect who transfers to your school and it’s the third school he’s been at and a lot of times the more
Cautious on the fan base will say maybe there’s a reason this guy’s bounced around from school to school typically on the buyout Market there’s like if this guy is incredibly valuable to a team now there are exceptions sometimes it’s just this team has no goal or hope
Of winning and so they’re going to let him go to go find a place where he can go win but often when these bigger name bigger contract guys get released like sometimes you have to ask yourself if this guy is so good why wasn’t this team
Winning any games wh why is this team willing to part with him um and I think that’s reasonable in a lot of cases every now and then you find a guy who really is valuable but there have not been many there haven’t been a lot that have just really changed the complexion
Of a team yeah Kenny Moore is asking about a backup big man on the buyout Market or sign Olivier SAR as the third center for the playoffs and that would be the motivation the motivation for signing a two-way player to a standard contract is because two-way players are not eligible
To play in the playoffs and so I that to me I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s something like that and you’ve got keontay Johnson you’ve got Lindy Waters who Mark digal likes to play uh but yeah OKC could sit back and say you know what we’d like to have one
Extra big guy going into the playoffs and maybe they just you know sign s to a deal yeah that one makes a lot of sense because they’ve not been above using him it’s not like he plays a lot but they’ve not been above kind of throwing him into
The mix sometimes in just late game situations but occasionally when they just need an extra big body Bobby Howard reminds us all that uh one year uh the missing piece was Corey Brewer and another year the missing piece was Karan Butler exactly Marie Morris another time where uh you know we
Thought maybe that might be a missing piece there so um five almost five minutes until the trade deadline the notifications are a little quiet right now Brett but uh you know we’re still waiting to get you know some final Clarity we’ve we’ve gotten some of the
Details of this trade where OKC is gonna acquire Gordon Hayward um you know I I snarking tweeted earlier that it’s not a bad idea to wait to react until we get the whole picture and people were like what do you think we use Twitter for
Um so but uh but no I did see like the pendulum kind of Swing between wow nice pick up by prey to oh my goodness he gave up too much and it might swing back the other way by the time we know what all the final details are the meich
Thing certainly I mean that that certainly changed the way people viewed it and and again as I said earlier for people who are just joining us I understand that um and I think it’s important not to be too repetitive for the people who’ have been here the whole
Time but I think it’s important to note his role was pretty small um and by moving on from him and bringing in a guy who you think might play a significant role if he’s healthy you’ve done some some stuff for your flexibility moving forward uh and I think you’ve shored up
A couple of things you could use and given up just one guy who plays and so that’s I I I do understand people’s I like meich I had a a really good time sitting down talking to him this year I I’ve enjoyed watching him I think he’s a
Really fun guy um but I I think as fans this is It’s really normal to just get really attached to the guys that you have um but I do think they went out and got a thing that again as we said they gave up some stuff to get Gordon Hayward
It means they really wanted to get him rather than try to get into a fight for him in the buyout Market if he reached it so they clearly wanted to do this um and I I I think you you got to give up something to get something and giving up
One rotation player is not hugely significant speaking of not hugely significant uh Jaden Springer to the Celtics for a second round pick yeah Jaden Springer which that’s the guy I always reference every time Isaiah Joe comes out and hits like four three-pointers they kept Jaden Springer
Um and I know it was like more difficult and more costly to let him go than Isaiah Joe at the time and you know Joe landed in a great situation uh an ideal one for him to let him shine but uh yeah that’s my Jaden Springer connection is
The Sixers I technically kept him over Isaiah Joe and uh they’re moving him along now and I would expect that you’re gonna have Philly in the buyout Market presumably I mean typically your bigger Market you know Championship contending teams are the teams that are the most active in the buyout market for
Really obvious reasons like they have teams that guys want to play for because they say you know a guy a guy on the buyout Market is often he’s not he’s going to make a fraction of what he made before so it’s not typically a financial decision um he got the money already it
Came in the buyout now whether he got his whole money or got part of his money or whatever he got paid so he’s usually typically gonna make a decision there might be a situation where two teams are competing for a guy and one has more money but often guys are just going to
Say this team has a chance to win and or this team is in a place that I would like to play and that’s how you’re making your decisions and if that player is Kyle Lowry there’s connection to the Philadelphia area so um that is something to keep an eye on
As we head down here to the very end uh Toronto it looks like they are going to release Spencer Den witty uh to avoid getting a cap charge for games played there’s another exciting bit of news uh but speaking of exciting news we have Jenny Carlson joining us here on the
Live stream we just upgraded quite a lot yeah yeah see that seems unlikely been listening to you guys as I got settled back here after some meetings but you know this is the day when you’ve got alerts on your phone set for wo and Shams your phone is buzzing all day and
So it feels like it’s been a little hectic but I’m interested obviously in the Gordon Haywood news and um you know looking around the West too but uh yeah this it seems like this has been a fairly active trade deadline day it really has um you know Jenny I’d
Like to get your perspective on this uh with Gordon Hayward coming into Oklahoma City even with what we know so far and you know what OKC is is looking at in terms of a potential rotation what they gave up what they have to backfill now um how do you feel about Gordon Hayward
Coming in and filling a role on this Thunder team for the rest of the season the playoffs and maybe Beyond yeah I think it’s I think it’s a good uh I think it’s a good option you know I obviously when meic gets included the the third player piece which came a
Little bit bit later you know there’s a guy that has been getting some run seems to be getting comfortable and finding his role and you kind of hate to see that go away but as it relates to the three guys in total you know you aren’t
Losing a ton of minutes uh and you’re gaining a guy that has shown he can be a pretty good knockdown shooter and you know this is obviously a team that has seen great strides in the three-point shooting but I’m not sure you can have enough of those guys especially when
You’ve got you know your best player is a guy that loves to get to the rim you want that floor spacing and so the chance to have another floor spacer out there I think is really um it’s really you know it’s exciting to think how this
Is gonna look I don’t know that I you know see him I I think uh you know something in the maybe 15 to 20 minute range see how he fits where he fits um strikes me he’s a guy that you know you might see in closing situations in games
Sometimes but then maybe not in others it may be sort of who has the hot hand is it Isaiah Joe is it uh Hayward I mean like I could see it playing out that way but I definitely think he’s an interesting ad and considering the Thunder is giving up not a ton of
Playing time I know he’s on the older side but so was meic at least for this team um you know so you sort of take that into consideration but think as it relates to continuing to add um helper pieces for this current construction especially that core of players I think
He could be a really interesting addition to this team yeah let’s let’s all the three of us sit around and talk about how old 33y old Gordon Hayward is so old in NBA standards I get it he’s a very young man in the real world um
Yeah I I think that’s the shooting thing is a is a piece you know again we T we talked a little bit about this earlier Jenny he’s he’s a good shooter he’s a 36% three-point shooter in his career he’s not a 45% guy but he’s a good catch
And shoot shooter most of his ass most of his three-pointers are assisted and when you have a team that moves the ball this way uh I think just introducing an additional guy who not only is a good shooter but is a good screener and so
You’re gonna have a guy who can pick and Pop um but also gives you a little bit of a pick and roll option I I think to your point about closing games there are a bunch of lineups that look really good with him in it including just the really
Simple like take Josh giddy out of the starting lineup and put Gordon Hayward in it and use that five at the end of a game I think makes a ton of sense um you know situationally giddy’s gonna play sometimes uh he’s going to be in there
For sideline out of bounds plays when he can and things like that um but heward fits really well with the pieces that they have if if if he’s healthy and he plays yeah I I would agree with that and I think he’s that he’s the type of guy I
Don’t know how you guys um look at Acquisitions like this but when they when I saw his name pop up as coming to the Thunder I was like yeah he’s a thunder type of guy you know he just has that kind of uh mentality track record
You know just being a guy that I think will fit with this organization um again maybe not in terms of the youth movement that we’ve seen but you know I think it it will continue I think he’s the he does have some aspects to his game that
I think we’ll start to be able to see you know how does a guy like him pair with Shay pair with Jaylen Williams pair with you know some of these guys Chad um and then I think that can help direct potentially in the future I mean I think
It could have big benefits right away but I think it could also expand the Thunder book of understanding about their young guys I mean when they had Al Horford in here a few years ago they brought him in for a lot of reasons but one of the things they wanted to see was
What did a stretch big look like with Shay and you know they didn’t get him for very long but they got an idea that all right that that looks pretty good um so you know I think getting a chance to look at uh a player like Hayward what he
Brings to the table the skills that he has you know pair him up with with some of these guys and sort of see what that looks like I I think there’s I mean no trade is perfect and the health is obviously an issue that’s the biggest
Concern but I don’t see a ton of potential downside to this whole thing I mean um you know worst case scenario if he does get hurt you know you might be scrambling a little bit to figure out that second string line up but I think I think the Thunder’s got some pieces
Probably um that they could they could turn to if needed so I don’t see it as a really highrisk situation for the Thunder yeah I mean I think if you just look at you know look at their personnel they have Shay gildas Alexander and Jaylen Williams and Josh Giddy and so if
You need to just find a way to replace some minutes that vasil mittit was playing with a guy who handles the ball they got a lot of options and I think too I said this earlier I think ultimately you want case Wallace with the ball in his hands a little bit more
On some of these units and so maybe that’s a chance to do some of this I think the other thing and ham we didn’t really talk about this there’s the intangible benefit is like Gordon hayward’s played 29 playoff games that’s not a ton 29 but the Thunder the guys
Currently on the roster that he’s joining have played like 30 and so you know you’re getting a guy who’s at least been there and done some of this stuff and and you just have a GU I think it’s valuable to have a guy who’s played meaningful minutes in those
Games yeah definitely adding uh adding just more playoff experience that is something that the Thunder have done in the past you usually through the the buyout Market at this point in the season uh bringing in you know again like guys like Derek fiser we talked about Karan Butler earlier and you know
Corey Brewer and guys like that um so yeah that definitely does not hurt so uh to catch everyone up we’re five minutes past to o’ which means the trade deadline was so five minutes ago uh it is did we we have a deadline that the Bell has been wrong pencil’s down the
Deadline is done we’re starting to see some some deals trickle in some details come in and as a matter of fact we do have one bit of information that just hit my inbox right now um the Thunder acquires a 2028 pick Swap and I’m going to read verbatim from the from the email
That I just got the Oklahoma City Thunder has acquired a 2028 pick swap from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for a 2024 firstr draft pick it was announced today by Executive Vice President and general manager Sam pry so the second least favorable of OKC’s picks in 2024 goes to Dallas U it sounds
Like that pick may be part of the Daniel Gafford rwn Holmes trade and in exchange the Thunder get a pick swap in 2028 Brett that’s kind of interesting I would have to to look and see where Luca danes’s contract lands but you know Dallas is getting a a little dicey with
How they’re they’re dealing their draft Capital that far out they sure are and that’s my first thought about that is because you know if you listen to The Hoop collector Tim McMahon often brings up the fact that they they did a 2030 picks up with the Spurs which seems like
A pretty interesting thing for the Spurs potentially down the road that’s further out and even further a move from Luca you know as he is right now but this also is an interesting thing because it’s a it’s a potential flexibility move in 2028 and we’ve talked so much about
This a couple of the trades that the Thunders made think about Denver making some of the trades Denver’s made recently when you have expensive players down the road and you’re playing paying these guys a lot of money just having a little extra stuff to play with a couple
Different options down the road for you know now maybe you might be able to move up a couple spots to grab a player who’s going to be important to you on a rookie contract when you’re paying a lot of guys more money definitely and and yeah in 2028 uh
That would be one year past the end of Luca Don’s contract assuming he does not opt out of the last year of the deal um very interesting but uh but yeah Jenny we were you know we were talking early on in the show trying to figure out
Trying to put the details together we knew OKC was involved tangentially in that trade uh thanks to some reporting from Mark Stein and we’ve got some clarity there still seeking full clarity on the trade brings in Gordon Hayward to Oklahoma City we have a pretty good idea
On who is going out in that deal um but uh yeah I mean Jenny just adding another it’s draft positioning I think Sam prey and Company they’re just trying to place pieces on the board where they think they’re going to come in handy down the road and this is just another piece of
Taking something that you know a a pick at the end of the first round in 2024 and maybe making it better down the road when they might need some some young inexpensive Talent at that time yeah I mean I think that that’s it just goes to the philosophy that we’ve seen Sam prey
Employ again and again and again it’s just acquisition of options you know um obviously trying to find those young superstars um it’s at the top of the list but you know to do that we’ve seen that obviously the draft is so important for this team and so you know people
Have talked about too many draft picks well you know that that’s probably impossible because you can always use those draft picks for a variety of things and here we see you know s prey taking one and pushing it off a little bit um to make this deal work so I think
It’s just you know varied options that’s what all of these assets and if you can spread them out if you can you know have something in the short term something in the longer term you know sort of fill that in I think that’s been really successful um and I think it will
Continue to be really successful because like you say you’re going to have to start really paying some of these young Stars here at some point and you know you look around at a team like Denver you know they have done what the Thunder really aspires to do which is to have
Those established superstars that are in the prime or maybe even sort of that late Prime of their career and then you’ve got very capable younger pieces that you don’t have to pay a bunch for that are able to fill in and and be those extra extra parts so to me it’s
Just trying to follow uh that sort of standard and obviously so far it’s gone really well for the Thunder but again you just got to continue to look for ways to diversify so yeah that that doesn’t surprise me that prey would take you know something in the immediate and
Push it off a little bit like that draft swap yeah that’s right ham as you know picks and pick swaps aren’t just about the players you pick in the same way that that cap room is not just about going out and signing free agents everything everything comes back to to a point of
Flexibility absolutely and that is something that I mean ever since this rebuild fully started I mean yes in 2019 that’s when you saw the beginning of it but 2020 the offseason remember that November offseason in 2020 uh when the Thunder ripped everything down to the studs and everything you know was about
Trying to position things ideally to to build the team up in the near term and also make sure they had stuff down the road that they could tap into and whether they needed to fill a spot on the team whether they needed an asset to put into a trade um they’re
Doing their they’re doing a pretty good job on positioning these things and you know you go to a team like Dallas that’s like hey we want to make this trade but we don’t have a draft pick you got to go ask Oklahoma City and guess who’s in a
Position of power at this point oh you need a draft pick huh well we’ve got this crappy one how about we take one that might be better off down the road um it’s uh it’s been a strategy that that has been kind of interesting to see
And you know of course we won’t know the results for years um but yeah definitely definitely interesting so at least we have that particular trade nailed down uh still waiting on a formal announcement on on on the Hayward deal coming into uh coming into the Thunder
And uh there’s going to be a lot of deals that go through the league office um you know Brett I’m sure you remember in years past you know we we’ve heard other reporters talk about this you get your trade into the league office and you get in the queue and then correct it
Just takes a while because like doing even a minor trade takes a a good chunk of time to go over the contract terms and make sure it’s legal and make sure everyone understands and you know depending on where this trade is at in the stack it may be a while before we
Get another email press release from the Thunder yeah that’s the thing like you said it it is pencils down at 2:00 but then the test has to be graded essentially you know like it’s got to be reviewed uh there’s a lot of stuff before you get the grade back so uh it’s
It’ll be it could be a while this one and the other thing is too when a trade is reported isn’t necessarily when it’s submitted to the league because often as I think we saw some today the the trades are being reported in pieces so you know that something is going here and
Something else is going here often the reason the finalized deal isn’t reported is because the finalized deal isn’t final and so the Gordon Hayward trade for all we know hasn’t wasn’t submitted to the league until 15959 it could have been early this earlier this morning it could not have
Been so we don’t know where it is in the pecking order and of course there’s also the matter of like you know we T talk we’ve talked a lot about Gordon hayward’s injuries he’ll have to pass a physical that’s like a thing that’ll have to go through not before the trade
Gets approved but before it gets you know really officially finalized yep Jenny when you look at the rest of the Western Conference and it’s bunched up at the top the four teams that could get home court advantage they’re all in a virtual tie right now they’re jockeying for position and
That’s going to continue to unfold throughout the season but when you look at Oklahoma City Denver the Clippers Minnesota What teams do you think help themselves the most which teams are might kick themselves for not doing more here at the trade deadline yeah I I’ll be honest I’ve been
I I’ve had an ear and eye to the to the trade deadline but I haven’t been as focused on it as I was hoping today I had a few other moving Parts but um I will say that for all of the movement that it seems like happened today the
Ones that sort of were eye openening to me when I said oh that’s interesting were mostly either you know sort of teams lower in the pecking order in the west or in the East were doing the deals that were the ones that I thought oh that’s interesting so I think that you
Know it’s not that it’s not that the teams in the west that are contending for those home court advantages and and playoff spots did nothing but I I do think there was probably um more uh interesting move interesting Parts moving in the East so I don’t know I I
Think that’s a good question and I I probably need to speaking of getting out pencil and paper and taking tests I probably need to do a little more cramming and studying before I answer that question but um I I do think that um it you know there were deals to be
Made even with teams that you know you thought hey they they they have to like their roster I mean um guys that I think were pretty important get moved around so it this has been a definitely interesting trade deadline day from my perspective and like I said give me give
Me a little while I’ll I’ll hone in and I’ll give you a better answer on the west yeah I think ham to me the one that jumps out at me in terms of a non move probably is like we’ve all talked about this everybody talked about it it seemed
Like the Clippers might just want one more big body maybe a more athletic guy on their front line than they have um so that that I think the fact that they didn’t do that is kind of a boost to the other teams competing up there um I
Don’t want to call that a weakness I do think that the the Clippers might be the most complete out of those teams when you consider their age and their personnel um but the Clippers had some stuff I think they would have liked to sh up that they didn’t get done um and
Then Denver unless I’m missing something didn’t do anything of any real significance right did Denver make a trade didn’t see anything come across for them so I think that’s right the Denver and the Clippers didn’t do anything now those two teams Again by virtue of their experience if you’re if
You were really handicapping this race I think you you might give the edge to those two teams given just the experience that those two teams have the the the nuggets are the defending Champions the other side is like the young hungry teams might be a little more driven down the stretch to chase
Those top seeds so that’ll be interesting to see but I think the fact that those two teams didn’t really bolster themselves um you know it can’t hurt the the Thunder and and wolves who did at least make a move that uh you know for a rotation
Piece so I think we’ll we’ll head into the home stretch here and uh I’ll throw this one to you Jenny because we just had a a comment in the chat that I think the Knicks did the best today and OKC is the biggest disappointment can’t go into
The playoffs with only one Center and zero behind him so you know let’s say that this the the movement is what it is there’s there’s no other sneaky uh moves coming in at the last moment here and you know the the primary deal is for Gordon Hayward and they backfill the
Roster spots with a couple other guys how should how do you think Thunder fans should feel right now coming out of this considering where a team that was already one of the best in the West after making these moves how do you think that they should they should feel
About the rest of the season well I definitely wouldn’t characterize it as the biggest disappointment and everybody can have their own opinion I mean obviously if they could have made some big deal for the right pieces I think they would have done it I mean I think we’ve seen Sam
Pry when he’s got good teams they make moves at the trade deadline so it’s not to say that this was all that they wanted to do um I think we’ve all heard Sam say at one time or other you know even if we want to do something we’ve
Got to have a partner you know or in some cases multiple partners to make things happen so it could be that the partners just weren’t there to do some other things that they might have wanted to do but to me I didn’t think that this this trade deadline day was ever about
Some big Earth shattering move um as good as this team has been this year this is still a team that is in a development stage is in a learning stage is in a growth stage and to be able to sort of see what these players become
You have to give them the runway to go out there and actually play so I didn’t think this would be a big Earth shattering day for the Thunder um I think if Hayward stays healthy I think the potential is there that they got better today and if you take a team
That’s already in a great position and playing really well sure you would love to have more bigs when you look at who they could potentially run up against in the Western Conference playoffs you know whether it’s the the the Twin Towers in Minnesota um there’s several teams with
Bigs that are much more imposing than what the Thunder throws out there but the Thunders managed to to to do pretty well against most of those teams it’ll be a slog in a best of seven Series against some of them but again I don’t think you want to give up the idea of
Figuring out just how good these young guys can be by bringing in you know a couple of veterans and taking minutes and taking you know that time away from them yeah it if you could make a huge deal yeah you you think about it but I
Again that goes back to the whole idea there has to be other people out there willing to make that deal and um you know it has to make sense now but it also has to make sense in the future and if you’ve got somebody who’s on an expiring contract and the Thunder’s not
Going to get anything back for them Sam prey’s shown zero desire to have those types of guys on the roster so I don’t necessarily think this was too far outside the realm of what I expected out of the Thunder to do today yeah I mean I certainly didn’t see Gordon Hayward
Coming although as we talked about earlier ham I thought if he got to the buyout Market they would probably be a team he just he makes a lot of sense and I just didn’t expect to trade for him but if you had told me oh Gordon Hayward
Hits the buyout market and the Thunder you know pick him up that I would have would have been really believable he makes a lot of sense I think to the point about the backup center I would say this one probably only one of them changed teams today probably only one
That the Thunder would have we can’t say if the Thunder was interested in Kelly lenck but one guy who fits what they would want as a backup center one guy changed teams and so you know there weren’t a lot of those guys out there I still think they’re most likely option
For getting bigger and more versatile is going to be in the draft I know a lot of people don’t want to hear that but they the draft gives them the option to look for the exact kind of player they want um and the exact kind of player they
Want again is not a guy who’s going to get nine rebounds and not do anything else it’s just not what they’re trying to find and so um this this team it’s going to go into the offseason still with picks and with a lot of flexibility and cap space uh theoretically to do a
Lot of things and so I think it’s going to have more options to choose what wants to do next year I understand some people think every chance you get push all in this is a pretty good team it’s probably not a team that’s going to compete with some of these more veteran
Teams for a championship but it’s a really good team and I think it is a team to Jenny’s point they’re going to learn a lot about what these guys look like together and then they’re going to make adjustments from there the last thing I want to say about this Jaylen
Williams made a point a couple weeks ago one of the great things about this team is they’re all the same age Gordon Hayward isn’t obviously we talked about that um but they’ve all grown together they’ve been through this learning process together and I think the the way
That they’re going to make most of their additions is by allowing additional guys to join that experience to be young and and kind of go through things with this guy it’s these guys it’s great to add a guy like Hayward I think there show value in that but I think when you’re
Gonna when you talk about getting pieces who aren’t just sort of you know um uh rotation guys who are going to be backups or whatever I I think the the way they’re going to do it is to get more guys like the guys they have that makes a lot of sense uh the
The chem istry of the Thunder is great and I know that is something that they are hesitant to Tinker with just like the chemistry here at sellout crowd is also great thanks to Brett thanks to Jenny thanks to Jacqueline thanks to Bobby Howard appreciate everyone behind the scenes helping to get this live
Stream up and going thanks to everyone that joined we hope you appreciate it uh we hope you enjoyed it hopefully you you took away a couple of things that went ah I didn’t realize that and uh but we definitely appreciate all of your support and your time spent with us
Today again look for all of our content on cellot crowd Brad has already got a story up uh I’m going to have some content as well you know Jenny and Barry whether they’re writing about the thunder or anything else uh on this Earth you want to check that out and all
Of the other great creators there as well so uh thanks everyone for joining us today go Trace down all the tweets you’ve been missing out on get caught up on those and
Sellout Crowd’s Jon Hamm and Brett Dawson break down the final stretch of the NBA Trade Deadline, as deals are completed and finalized. The dynamic duo will break down the Gordon Hayward trade, as well as any other massive trades from around the league.
1 Comment
Brett and Jon are so underrated. I'm looking forward to their inevitable breakthrough.