As the NBA domino effect goes, the Thunder trading Paul George might very well lead to them also trading Russell Westbrook — a scenario they will consider as soon as a this summer, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Thunder got a massive haul of future draft picks from the Clippers in return for George. They also got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is surely their future plan at point guard. This is no longer a team anywhere near a championship window, and as such, having almost $125 million committed to Westbrook over the next three seasons, plus a $47 million player option in 2022 for a fourth season, doesn’t make a ton of sense.
The question is: How many teams would be interested in adding Westbrook at that price? And of those teams, how many have a package to offer that would even pique OKC’s interest? Here are three deals that could make sense at first glance.
1. Miami Heat
The Heat could offer the Thunder Bam Adebayo, Justise Winslow, this year’s No. 13 overall pick Tyler Herro and either Goran Dragic or Ryan Anderson’s expiring deal to make the money work. That is three really good young players to add to the trove of draft picks the Thunder just acquired, and from Miami’s standpoint, you pair up Westbrook and Jimmy Butler in a suddenly wide-open Eastern Conference with Kawhi gone to the West.
The Heat have been lingering in no-man’s land for years. They finally just got off the Hassan Whiteside contract, and either Anderson or Dragic (whichever one they didn’t move in this hypothetical deal) comes off the books next summer. James Johnson and Kelly Olynyk have player options, and at least with Olynyk there’s a real chance he declines that to pursue a longer-term deal. Johnson would at least be tradeable on an expiring deal.
The point is, the Heat would have some flexibility to add a third star to Butler and Westbrook in 2020 and really make a statement in the East. The Heat are just coming out of salary-cap hell, and adding Westbrook is certainly risky. But he and Butler together would seem to fit Pat Riley’s star-player desires and Miami’s hard-nosed culture.
2. Minnesota Timberwolves
The Wolves could send OKC a package centered on Andrew Wiggins, with perhaps Jeff Teague on an expiring deal as the salary filler. Minnesota would probably be hesitant to include Josh Okogie, but they could do it and move forward with a core of Karl Anthony-Towns, Westbrook, Robert Covington and this year’s first-round pick, Jarrett Culver. You can talk yourself into that being a playoff team, and perhaps more than that if Towns and Westbrook click and Culver pops the way many people think he can. You can also say Minnesota would be better off waiting for D’Angelo Russell potentially coming available, or perhaps Kyle Lowry now that Kawhi has left Toronto.
For OKC, yes, Wiggins is a huge overpay at this point, and if you’re getting off Westbrook’s deal, you’re probably not looking to add another, perhaps even worse salary anchor. But you’re still selling yourself on Wiggins’ upside to perhaps pop late in something of a Victor Oladipo fashion (thought Oladipo was better in his early years than Wiggins has been). You have two years at least for Wiggins to figure it out, as the timeline is slowed down and the future draft picks gained in the George trade are something of a five-year plan.
This isn’t a terribly attractive deal for OKC on paper, but again, the market for Westbrook probably isn’t going to be red hot.
3. Orlando Magic
There are a couple ways Orlando, which remains in need of an impact point guard, could go about this. The first package would include Aaron Gordon, along with Markelle Fultz and D.J. Augustin. The Thunder get Gordon, who is locked up for the next three years on a pretty team-friendly deal at an average annual salary of about $19 million, and take a shot on Fultz. If he somehow comes out of his funk and rediscovers his game, the Thunder win huge. If not, the Thunder have added Gordon and cleared their books of Fultz and Augustin by next summer.
The other avenue would be for Orlando to hang onto Gordon and put Evan Fournier in the deal to make the money work. To entice OKC to accept a package without Gordon, the Magic add Mo Bamba to the deal and perhaps a future draft pick. Now the Thunder are taking a shot on Fultz, and they get Bamba on a rookie deal with the inside track to re-signing him long-term on a schedule that fits with all those future draft picks they just got for George.
Keeping Gordon is probably the more attractive offer for Orlando, which would move forward with Westbrook, Gordon, freshly re-signed Nikola Vucevic, Terrence Ross, and Jonathan Issac, who has a ton of potential and makes losing Bamba — a somewhat redundant player — plenty palatable. That’s a pretty darn good team in the East, and they’re all locked up for at least three more years.
