Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz recently published an article this past Monday that highlighted trade hypotheticals for some of the worst teams in the league could make to make their situation from hopeless to hopeful.
This included the Oklahoma City Thunder landing New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Zion Williamson in a package of mostly draft picks. The full trade details would be the Thunder receiving the 2019 first overall pick in exchange for Darius Bazley, the 2022 first-round pick from the LA Clippers, the 2023 lottery-protected first-round pick from the Washington Wizards and the 2024 top-four-protected first-round pick from the Houston Rockets:
“As much as the Pelicans may not want to give up on Williamson just yet, the Thunder could certainly entice David Griffin by finally cashing in their treasure trove of draft picks.
Adding Williamson to a core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey and Lu Dort suddenly makes OKC one of the best young teams in the NBA. It would be a risky move to be sure given his injury history, but no team is more suited to roll the dice than the Thunder.
OKC owns multiple first-round picks in the next five drafts, so even parting with one first each year gives the Thunder at least one to still utilize.”
Obviously, the Thunder would make this trade in a heartbeat. Getting a generational talent and only having to give up three first-round picks that don’t even include their own and a role player is an easy give up in this situation, even with Williamson’s health concerns.
If the Thunder can land Williamson while keeping their own 2022 first-round pick, then that means next season could have a starting lineup that includes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort, Zion Williamson and whichever top pick the team drafts. This sounds way too good to be true, which makes this trade proposal much more pie in the sky than in the realms of reality.
