Exactly one year ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder general manager, Sam Presti, agreed to trade Russell Westbrook with the Houston Rockets.
It was a move that, for lack of a better term, shocked the world.
Since joining the franchise in 2008, Westbrook has gone from being a player that many doubted had moved to the NBA to the most valuable player in the league. When Kevin Durant chose to take his talents elsewhere in search of his elusive league, Westbrook doubled his desire to stay in Oklahoma City.
This is something that Thunder fans, and NBA fans in general, have respected and appreciated. In an interesting way, it fascinated even those who didn’t like him.
With courage, he tried, but in the end he failed to achieve the same level of success that he managed to achieve with Durant at his side.
In 2019, Westbrook’s last game at the Chesapeake Energy Arena was a bit of a clunker. In Game 4 of the best-of-seven playoff series from Thunder’s first round against the Portland Trail Blazers, the former MVP managed to score just 14 points in 5-for-21 shots from the field. Although he also had nine rebounds and seven assists, the Thunder lost the game against Damian Lillard and his company and fell behind in the series, 3-1.
The last game Westbrook would play in a Thunder uniform was game 5 of the series, which was contested in Portland on April 23, 2019.
Westbrook rebounded nicely with an effort of 29 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists, but Lillard linked one of the most famous shots in modern history to end the Thunder season simultaneously and, although we did not know it at the moment, Westbrook’s career at Oklahoma City.
Just two years earlier, with the arrival of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony in July 2017, the Thunders were thought to have had a triumvirate capable of challenging the Warriors for supremacy in the Western Conference.
Nobody could have imagined it two years later – and perhaps thanks in large part to Lillard’s shooting – none of the three would still be in Oklahoma City.
Anthony’s negotiation in 2018 paid off for Dennis Schroder, who filled a big gap for the club. And with George playing MVP-caliber basketball in the 2018-19 season, the team seemed to be one or two more pieces from being a legitimate contender.
So, Lillard’s hit happened.
Halfway between that dagger and July 10, George decided that returning to his hometown to team up with Kawhi Leonard was the move he wanted to make, and Presti obliged.
This left the team in a difficult situation with its pillars.
Instead of trying to rebuild around Westbrook again – which was approaching its 31st birthday at the time of George’s trade – the organization opted to be proactive and use it as a commercial trip to start what everyone assumed would have been a long reconstruction.
In a way, he remembered what the Boston Celtics accomplished by swapping Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013.
The Celtics enriched themselves with that trade.
Although they would eventually lose Kyrie Irving because of a free agency, its acquisition, as well as both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, were among the moves that altered the franchise from the choices acquired by the networks.
This was probably Presti’s thought when he decided to part ways with his two superstars.
From the Clippers, the Thunder managed to extract Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and five choices in the first round draft: the choices of the Clippers first round project in 2022, 2024 and 2026 and the first round project of 2021 and 2023 Miami Heat’s picks.
In addition, the Thunder also received the right to exchange first-round choices with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025. It was nothing short of a massive catastrophe.
But that transaction left the franchise in a peculiar position with Westbrook. After the age of 30, the main guard was solidly at its peak and would not necessarily have benefited from the promise of those future choices, so Presti made the difficult decision to move him.
Obviously, in return, among other pieces received by Houston, the Thunder returned Chris Paul.
Paul, although still able to play at a high level, was considered to be above the hill. His inclusion in the trade and Thunder assuming his contract at the time seemed more like punishment than pleasure.
Having just turned 34 at the time of trading, assuming that the three years and more than $ 120 million left on Paul’s contract didn’t seem wise, but in the end, Presti ended up looking the smartest in the room once again.
Together with Paul – which was a real revelation for Thunder – the team received the Rocket’s first round choices in 2024 and 2026 and the rights to exchange choices with Houston in 2021 and 2025.
Within 24 hours, the franchise’s fortunes were changed; the makeover was complete.
Seven choices in the first round and the right to exchange four other choices in the first round in the next six years would give Presti and his staff – who have traditionally fired well – all the ammunition they would need to rebuild.
We didn’t know, however, that the team would actually improve its short-term fortunes.
Exactly a year later, Billy Donovan’s team is much younger, more promising is provided with draft currency. The future potential of the team is fairly obvious, but given that the club enters Orlando to play exactly one year after exchanging its most valuable player, the present is still quite promising.
Across 64 games, the 2019-20 Thunder, at 40-24, has a better record than the 2018-19 team in the same spot. They will enter the scene in Orlando with the fifth suit of the Western Conference and a legitimate blow to make some noise.
Exactly one year ago, Thunder decided to trade his best player at Russell Westbrook.
So, we all knew it was a move that would bode well for the future.
Nobody ironically knew that Thunder would improve his present.
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