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Melo traded to OKC for Enes and McDermott

Cappy_Smurf said:
Yeah, there was a ton of luck involved there. If they had been drafting first the year they drafted Durant, they most likely come away with Oden. He drafted Harden and also traded him away.

Also, with the instability of the cap, you can't count on taking back bad contracts for picks. This offseason was the first in 3 years where that was possible, and those opportunities dried up pretty quickly. Contracts are shorter than they used to be, and most teams are choosing to wait out bad contracts rather than give away picks to get rid of them.

Anyway, even if you believe he is a drafting genius, starting a rebuild with nothing but your own picks is a long term rebuild, and the odds of striking gold 3 years in a row are not good, no matter who you are.
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Pure luck to have the greatest run drafting players in history? Okay.

And you think putting Harden on the market was his call? OKC simply didn't want to pay for a championship team, so they didn't amnesty Kendrick Perkins and they didn't want to pay Harden the max. That's what happened by every single account of the situation.

Presti is working circles around every GM in the league.
 
NAOS said:
I understand Presti's decision to go ALL IN. And, when I look at the assets he moved in order to go all in, I feel a profound "meh". In other words, I think the decision to go all in was good, and it cost him nothing but treadmill players. Presti doing good work.
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No question.

He turned two late first rounders acquired in salary dumps* into Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. But he's just lucky, right?

*1 - Serge Ibaka, whose EXPIRING contract yielded the pieces to obtain Paul George, and done right before a very visible decline. Played that chip better than you could fantasize about.
*2 - Reggie Jackson, acquired in a rather-poor draft in the 20's became a nice player that wanted out, got Enes Kanter who improved his play but OKC was forced to match a pretty absurd offer for. Were able to turn a bad contract into a net-positive asset by a lot (if Anthony sucks, they still open up cap space).
 
NAOS said:
Kanter and McD are mostly trash (in terms of winning-styles of basketball), so it's hard not to see OKC winning big on this trade.
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And Crymello is not trash (in terms of winning-style of basketball)? He's a me first player going to a team of me first players. I can't see this making OKC that much better on the court. They just added 1 more no defense ball stopper that doesn't run a system.
 
NUMBERICA said:
No question.

He turned two late first rounders acquired in salary dumps* into Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. But he's just lucky, right?

*1 - Serge Ibaka, whose EXPIRING contract yielded the pieces to obtain Paul George, and done right before a very visible decline. Played that chip better than you could fantasize about.
*2 - Reggie Jackson, acquired in a rather-poor draft in the 20's became a nice player that wanted out, got Enes Kanter who improved his play but OKC was forced to match a pretty absurd offer for. Were able to turn a bad contract into a net-positive asset by a lot (if Anthony sucks, they still open up cap space).
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Well, yeah. Every draft is not created equal. It doesn't just matter THAT you get high picks, it also matters WHEN you get high picks. The Kanter and Exum drafts were pretty sorry. There wasn't a whole lot of gold to be struck there. Even the Sixers have had some misses due to the quality of players available. There is no guarantee that a flat rebuild will get you anything. It will be interesting to see if OKC can sustain a decade of losing in that market.
 
And, as much as I don't like Kanter, Placing him next to Porz in the Eastern conference is pretty much the best case scenario for him. Him and the other pieces were a much better value than the Knicks would have received from Houston.
 
gregbroncs said:
And Crymello is not trash (in terms of winning-style of basketball)? He's a me first player going to a team of me first players. I can't see this making OKC that much better on the court. They just added 1 more no defense ball stopper that doesn't run a system.
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Look, Carmelo might be my least favorite player of his generation. But if you don't think he brings more to OKC than Kanter and McD, then I suggest you look again.
 
st-mediaday-170925.jpg

The Oklahoman (09-26-17) unveils the new look Thunder starters on media day: L/R 21 Andre Roberson, 13 Paul George, 0 Russell Westbrook, center Billy Donovan, 7 Carmello Anthony & 12 Stephen Adams.​
 
NUMBERICA said:
BTW, how does Presti make these moves? They gave up nothing of value and ended up with two superstars, arguably. Making the rest of the NBA look crappy. It's too bad for OKC that Clay Bennett is such a ****ing dumb sack of **** and pushed Harden out because he didn't want to amnesty Kendrick Perkins lol.
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Laughable comment. First off, it's possible Kanter is the better player moved in this deal. Melo is in steep decline and is on a massive contract. He also sucks.

Second, Presti just put OKC well into the LT. Why didn't he do that with 3 MVP candidates? Lesson learned?
 
Melo is terrible offensively and defensively. Naturally he's hurts any team he's on and helps any team he leaves. He's a name, nothing more. Lol@ OKC.

And I've been the rare Melo apologist as a Jazz fan for most of his career. But he sucks and has been getting worse consistently for at least the last 4 years.
 
franklin said:
Laughable comment. First off, it's possible Kanter is the better player moved in this deal. Melo is in steep decline and is on a massive contract. He also sucks.

Second, Presti just put OKC well into the LT. Why didn't he do that with 3 MVP candidates? Lesson learned?
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Lesson learned? The devil is in the details.

South Beach treats... ...OKC pimp wanna be
rsz_x2_27ac584.jpg

James Harden & Eric Maynor hit the town (Miami) partying well into the morning throughout the playoffs. That's when the playoffs were a 2 - 3 - 2 finals to accommodate the media. Harden & Maynor partied in OKC were the bars close at 2 a.m., on nights the Thunder hosted the Heat in the playoffs.

When Thunder GM Sam Presti became aware of this; he quickly acted on Serge Ibaka's contact and basically let Harden walk (trade to Houston).

Durant was furious about Presti's decision to pass on J.H., that was when he got an attitude with the Thunder organization.

Harden's performance was crucial to the Thunder winning its 1st NBA championship.

2010: Oklahoma City bar manager cited for allowing underage Thunder player James Harden inside: http://newsok.com/article/3459318
 
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