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News - Oklahoma City Thunder - James
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What A Ride
Like with most teams, the drawing board for OKC looked like they hoped to end up with a couple of all-stars. That vision took a big hit when their GM decided to attend a wedding reception instead of the free agency preceedings. Realizing that they'd have to be more conservative due to the lack of... all of the decision makers, they focused on retaining the "old guys".
The Thunder certainly realized early on that the Walker/Aldridge paycuts were not inline with their rebuilding team, but were hoping that the old-timers wanted to stick around for the emergence of their numerous prospects. They made it known early on that Kemba as the focus and veteran presence of the team. There were a number of other veteran players that expressed interest in playing with Randle, Wood, and Edwards - but ultimately Kemba was the best player at the most needed position who most wanted to be here... for the least money.
Due to the veteran cap holds, the Thunder were really hamstrung and couldn't pursue any top free agents. Lucklily they did seem to make wondeful use of their cap space after the conclusion of free agency. Their first need - since the evil 76ers stole their main backup big - was to have a main backup to Christian Wood and Julius Randle. Daniel Theis gives them that and does it at a reasonable rate for the next 3-4 years. Theis was initially pursued by the Magic, but due to some math issues, slipped through the cracks to the Thunder.
Having their roster "set" and a pile of cap space left - they were very happy to talk to a few teams about their cap issues for the coming season. Trading Isaiah Jackson was not really one of the end results they were projecting - after being very happy to secure him in the recent draft. But due to the team's cap flexibility and the fact that all of the core was secured for the next 2 seasons - they were happy to take a risk on the injured scorer... realizing that it may be a guy that doesn't play much for them and leaves in free agency. On the upside, he fills in as an amazing option next to Wood, Randle, Walker and Edwards - striking fear into opponents after his return. Regardless, it is a risk that the team felt like they needed to take in order to avoid a repeat of last seasons's playoff miss.
After ending the formal free agency period with only Kemba and a pile of spending money, Theis and Warren provide the team some very high upside - even if they've tapped the teams spending money beyond this current rebuilding period.
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