Trade Review: Thunder Trade Four Players Ahead of Season
Ahead of the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder had a roster crunch, and moves were destined to be made. To everyone’s surprise, the Thunder pulled off an eight player trade, which saw four Thunder players being sent to the Houston Rockets.
The Thunder shipped Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, Moe Harkless and Derrick Favors in this trade, which brought in David Nwaba, Sterling Brown, Marquese Chriss and Trey Burke.
The Rockets waived all four of the players that they brought in, but they received a conditional 2026 second-round pick.
The Thunder also waived all four of the guys that they brought in, but they were able to avoid any cap space issues and cleared more space with the trade.
Ultimately, this trade didn’t do much except give the Rockets a conditional second rounder and the Thunder avoided any salary cap issues.
With each of the players being waived from the team that they were traded to, only a few found new landing spots. Ty Jerome was brought onto the Golden State Warriors on a two-way deal, and he was ineligible to play in the playoffs, where he had to watch his squad get bounced in the second round.
The Rockets didn’t get much in return either. Their squad lacked culture and authority from any level, which they could use to help their young core develop. Favors could have been a good player to help with that, but was ultimately waived.
For the Thunder, Chriss would have been an interesting player to let hang around since they eventually had a shortage at the big man position.
Both ways, not much came out of this eight player trade, but both teams, in hindsight, could have benefited more from the trades than they did.
The waiving of the acquired players allowed the Thunder to bring in Isaiah Joe, which was a huge addition on the season.
Theo Maledon was another player to land in a new spot with the Charlotte Hornets, where he was able to fill in for the injury-riddled squad.
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