[The following submission is from the Oklahoma City Thunder, run by students in the mock deadline practicum at the SBC Las Vegas Immersive.]

Assignment: Oklahoma City Thunder
Team Members: Elias Eldridge, Nabil Schwarzwalder, Kolin Kennebeck, Cameron Rucker, Neil Leslie

When considering our team’s direction, our initial thoughts were to try and add a superstar. We had the young pieces and draft capital to entice any team, but the only stars shopped at the deadline were Kevin Durant, Donovan Mitchell and DeAndre Ayton. We gauged interest for each and determined that the asking price was too high.

Once that decision was made, we could’ve gone in two different directions: either continue to be a high lottery team or make relatively minor moves to become more competitive. We believed that our roster, with a core of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, and Chet Holmgren, would be good enough to finish outside the top four in the next draft. With our abundance of draft picks each, we wouldn’t be able to sign four to five rookies each year through 2029 realistically. Instead, we decided to utilize some of our draft capital and expiring contracts to upgrade our young roster and become more competitive now.

Our team had two major categories that needed improvement: offense and rebounding. Through the 2021-2022 season, we ranked 24th in rebounding percentage and 30th in offensive rating. We targetted rebounding bigs, three-point shooting/defensive-minded wings, and bench scoring. Before the trading window, our primary targets included OG Anunoby, Clint Capela, Cole Anthony, Coby White, Mitchell Robinson, and Mikal Bridges.

Once the moratorium was lifted, most of our targets were too expensive for our liking. Because we had so many assets, we saw teams trying to take advantage of us–hoping we’d overpay. Rather than settling for trades we weren’t comfortable with, we decided to wait it out. The worst-case scenario was returning to being a higher lottery team with the potential to draft another young star while holding onto all of our picks for future dealings.

About an hour into the trade window, we were offered a deal by the Sacramento Kings centered around Domantas Sabonis for our 2023 first-rounder pick (unprotected). While we were hesitant to give it up without protection, we believed that acquiring Sabonis would propel our team and reduce the pick’s value. We would improve in both scoring and rebounding, our two aforementioned primary issues, and acquire a young two-time All-Star. The Sabonis trade was a steal compared to the other offers, including the recent real-world Utah Jazz/Minnesota Timberwolves Rudy Gobert trade that included four-to-five firsts.

Next, we decided to explore trades to add depth, acquiring Cole Anthony and Jonathan Isaac from the Orlando Magic in exchange for players we didn’t anticipate fitting into our rotation, along with two protected first-round picks. This trade gave us two established NBA players who can help us compete now but are also young and can build with our core. In Anthony, we got a sixth-man spark plug. Issac can be an elite defender when healthy.

We also traded for Damian Jones to be our backup center and signed our second-round rookie, Jaylin Williams, to a 4-year flat line contract that was more economical than the actual contract he signed in real life.

 We believe our off-season was a huge success. Throughout this exercise, we emphasized longevity. We want to compete for a playoff spot while heading towards contention in three to five years. We believe we exceeded our plan while giving up less than we had initially expected. Not only did we acquire multiple young, talented players, but we were able to do so while still retaining our core and our historic draft capital.

Trade 1

  • Oklahoma City received: Domantas Sabonis, Chimezie Metu, and Neemias Queta.
  • Sacramento received: Derrick Favors, Ty Jerome, Aleksej Pokusevski, 2023 unprotected first, 2026 top-8 protected, unprotected in 2027), and a 2028 second-rounder.

Trade 2

  • Oklahoma City received Cole Anthony and Jonathan Issac.
  • Orlando Magic received JaMychal Green, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Darius Bazley, Tre Mann, a 2024 first-rounder (top-10 protected, unprotected in 2025) and a 2025 first-rounder via the Philadelphia 76ers (top-6 protected, top-4 protected through 2027, else conveys as a 2027 second-rounder)

Trade 3

  • Oklahoma City received Damian Jones and a 2027 second-rounder
  • Los Angeles Lakers received Kenrich Williams.

Other

  • Renounced the rights to Raymond Felton, Deonte Burton, Nick Collison, Kevin Hervey, Norris Cole, Juwan Evans and Melvin Frazier Jr.
  • Waived Lindy Waters III and Vit Krejci.
  • Signed Jaylin Williams to a four-year $7 million contract.

Final Roster

PG: Josh Giddey, Cole Anthony, Theo Maledon
SG: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Eugene Omoruyi (two-way)
SF: Jonathan Issac, Jalen Williams, Ousmane Dieng
PF: Chet Holmgren, Chimezie Metu, Jaylin Williams
C: Domantas Sabonis, Damian Jones, Mike Muscala, Neemias Queta (two-way)

— Kolin Kennebeck and Elias Eldridge