NBA Mock Trade: Could Thunder Land Brooklyn Nets Star Forward?

Things are going to get busy before the NBA world finally gets a break as All-Star weekend draws near. In the realm of professional sports, teams can undergo significant transformations within a day, making the trade deadline an intense finale. This hasn’t exactly been a regular occurrence for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their fifteen years of

existence. The buyout market, which is usually a fallout after the trade deadline

when teams acquire players they have no future intentions with, has been the

one area of the trade deadline where they have made changes. But now that

they have a stash of draft picks to go along with their acquisition, the Thunder

are involved in almost every trade rumor and mock trade. very youthful core.

Naturally, The Ringer had a good time teasing a transaction that is entertaining

in theory but unlikely to happen, before to the trade deadline.

Zach Kram of The Ringer speculated that the Thunder might make a big trade acquisition by acquiring Mikal Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets. Not only would landing Bridges be an NBA blockbuster deal, but it would completely upend the Thunder organization. Bridges would appear to go from being the team’s main scorer and star to essentially being a second- to fourth-option player. The Thunder would need to rearrange their starting lineup. This is Kram and The Ringer’s suggested exchange.

To Thunder: Mikal Bridges To Nets: Davis Bertans, Ousmane Dieng, five future first-round picks

Naturally, this wouldn’t have a significant effect on the Thunder’s depth, but they would have to let go of Dieng, a project player the team selected in the 2022 draft. It takes patience to work with a project player, and things aren’t always clear-cut. However, if Dieng can secure a larger role on a team that is rebuilding, he may be able to accelerate part of his development.

Bridges is someone the Nets supposedly want to keep and develop around, so it

would take a large price for a competitor to get him away. Fortunately for the

Thunder, all of Sam Presti’s transactions have equipped them with the ability to

make such an offer; they may still have extra in the upcoming years by trading five firsts for Bridges. The Thunder can

afford to let go of the first-round picks even if they would invest them right away to become a strong contender.

Their first-round selections are more valuable now than they probably will be when they are scheduled to be utilized,

and they are unlikely to use them all. This trade would seem to be out of the ordinary as one of Josh Giddey or Lu

Dort would probably be involved. come off the bench and take over as the new

sixth player; that would make sense and benefit both teams.