For the first time in almost two years, the Oklahoma City Thunder have some genuine concerns to grapple with. From Jalen Williams' nagging hamstring and ankle injuries to Chet Holmgren's disappearance in Game Seven, what looked like a storybook season was quickly shut down by a fiery revival of the OKC vs. San Antonio Spurs rivalry. Their Western Conference Finals defeat leaves basketball fans wondering whether the Thunder would entertain joining the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.
Even at 31, Giannis is ostensibly the single best counter to Victor Wembanyama in the NBA right now. Before Wemby, no one could match the combination of length, athleticism, power and finesse that Antetokounmpo boasts. The stats back up the eye test as Giannis outclassed a young Wembanyama in three of their four matchups since he entered the league.
If Wembanyama is the main roadblock in their pursuit of a dynastic run, general manager Sam Presti and the Thunder brass could decide to finally unload their warchest of draft assets and submit a league-altering trade offer to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee has the answer to OKC's problems, so how can they make an offer for Giannis that's worthwhile in the Bucks' eyes?
As established by Dalton Sell on Behind the Bucks Pass, no team has a better collection of draft capital than the Thunder. If they put their cards on the table and truly give their best offer, it'll be hard for the Milwaukee Bucks not to say yes unless Giannis himself decides that he's genuinely ready to put this saga behind him and rebuild a contender in Milwaukee.
The specifics will be interesting to figure out as both Williams' and Holmgren's contract extensions kick in next season. This will put Oklahoma City over the second apron, severely restricting the kinds of trades they can make and how they can aggregate salaries to execute them. However, since it appears Giannis and the Bucks will make their decisions before the NBA Draft next month, the two sides could find some leeway to make a deal work.
The framework of a deal would likely revolve around one of Williams or Holmgren and a plethora of future draft assets to make it worth Milwaukee's while. If they were serious about making a trade, the Bucks would likely try to negotiate the inclusion of some combination of Cason Wallace, Ajay Mitchell, Thomas Sorber and Nikola Topić, as well.
Given the outcome of these Western Conference Finals, the more likely candidate to be dealt is Chet Holmgren. He shrank under pressure in the biggest moment of a series where he never found his confidence, but that doesn't necessarily define him as a player. If Holmgren is as gritty and tenacious as we've known him to be since rising to the top of his high school recruiting class, he will take this experience and use it as motivation to reach new heights, and Milwaukee could be the perfect destination for him to do so.
This would be an incredibly buy-low opportunity for an organization that almost certainly feels it needs a proper blue-chip player to build with if it were to trade the face of the franchise. While all signs point toward Milwaukee not wanting to trade Giannis in the first place, they are facing the harsh reality that there's nowhere left to go at this point in the team's lifecycle. If Giannis walks in free agency next summer, it leaves the team back in no man's land without a star to build around or control of their future draft picks to pave the way.
There's no denying that it would be an incredibly difficult decision for all parties involved, but there's probably no better opportunity for everyone to get what they need than this. For Oklahoma City, it's a direct answer to their greatest opposition in pursuit of another NBA title. It puts Giannis and the Thunder in position to win championships for years to come, while giving Milwaukee something to be excited about with a fresh start after a tough go of it in the years since the 2021 championship.
But more than anything, it would send ripples through every stretch of the NBA world and send basketball fans into a frenzy like we've never seen before.
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