NBA Mock Trade: Thunder Acquire Raptors’ Forward Pascal Siakam

There’s plenty of big names on the NBA trade market right now: Damian Lillard, James Harden and more. But one flying under the radar — who coincidentally fits Oklahoma City’s recent mold of lengthy, do-it-all, two-way players — is Toronto forward Pascal Siakam.

Some have deemed Siakam’s departure from Toronto as “inevitable,” meaning there’s a high likelihood OKC has already done its due diligence in seeing what it would take to land the 29-year-old's talents.

So we’ll do the same.

In reality, Oklahoma City won’t be looking to part with its “Core Four” of Shai Gigleous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren in order to get a deal done for Siakam. But the team does have a leg up on some of its competition in the form of its cache of first round draft picks.

Essentially the NBA’s currency, picks can be used by team’s looking for a fresh start to add talent, be it on the trade market or via the NBA Draft. And OKC’s bevy of picks is nearly unmatched league wide.

If Toronto was more keen on picks than win-now talent, a deal could be struck between the two.

Here’s what a deal between Toronto and OKC could look like:

Oklahoma City gets: Pascal Siakam

Toronto gets: Luguentz Dort, Davis Bertans, Ousmane Dieng, 2024 Rockets First Round Pick, 2026 Thunder First Round Pick

In order to land Siakam, OKC would first have to offload Dort and Bertans just to make the financials work. Which works just fine for Toronto, who gains a valuable Canada native in Dort and a future expiring contract in Bertans.

Also included is the up-and-coming suave forward Dieng, who in a few years could be looked at as a premier asset. He’s likely regarded as valuable within the Thunder organization, and wouldn’t be easy to part with in regards to this deal.

Lastly are the draft picks, both of which could be extremely valuable. The Rockets selection projects to land a top ten pick in next year’s upcoming 2024 NBA Draft. And the Thunder pick, should things not fall their way in the next few seasons, could see similar results.

In the end, there’s likely no deal to be done between the two teams.

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