1. On rebuilding
How long did the Oklahoma City Thunder rebuild take?
It depends how you count it, but somewhere between two and four seasons.
In the summer of 2019, they traded away Paul George and Russell Westbrook for picks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Chris Paul. It turned out that they were accidentally good in 2019-20, thanks to the play of those two players, so they traded away Paul the next season. Then, they were in the lottery for two seasons, before re-emerging last season in the play-in game and this year as the West’s No. 1 seed.
It’s gone extremely well. Probably no team is more well-positioned for current and future NBA success than the Thunder.
So what decisions did they make to get here? Can we compare or contrast their approach to the Jazz’s approach?
For one, when they were surprisingly good in the immediate aftermath of their superstar trades, they embraced it for a full season before shutting it down — perhaps earning valuable experience for the likes of Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort.
Then, they traded all of the pieces that contributed to that run except for those who were under 22. Chris Paul, yes, but also Dennis Schroder, Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams for picks and pieces. You couldn’t go a month without hearing a new “OKC is trading X for a pick” tweet from Woj.
And in the end, they used their draft picks reasonably well. There are clear big hits — Holmgren, Jalen Williams — but also some meh-to-bad picks, too: Darius Bazley, Theo Maledon, Aleksej Pokusevski, Tre Mann, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Josh Giddey, Ousmane Dieng.
I think the thing that stands out most to me is how much they committed to their path. They traded their old players for teenagers and picks. When they occasionally received elder salary ballast in those deals, they traded those veterans for picks, too. They were relentless.
To be sure, the Jazz have traded a lot of their veterans — Mike Conley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Simone Fontecchio, and Kelly Olynyk. But even having those guys for the short time they did gave them dozens of wins, pushing them towards the middle. Then, the Jazz have struggled to find takers for the likes of Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, and John Collins. While Lauri Markkanen is great, he’s just older now than SGA is during the rebuild.
The Thunder went full fire sale, while the Jazz have held a sort of meek “open for business” sign on their door, even acquiring veterans at times. In the end, the fire sale approach has worked really well, where the Jazz look a little stuck.
Am I full-on advocating for a Jazz fire sale? I’m not sure. But this has been largely a wasted season from a directional point of view, and in my view, another season in the middle would be a disaster. Something needs to budge this offseason, in either direction.
2. On Talen Horton-Tucker
It’s been called the most overused cliche of all time: “the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” But I don’t know what else to write about Talen Horton-Tucker at this point.
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