NBA Mock Trade: OKC Thunder Add Nets' Two-Way Forward

The Oklahoma City Thunder have again jumped out to a hot starin the Western Conference, quickly grabbing the No. 1 seed just a months after finishing top in the conference.

Most simply, the Thunder roster is one of the better constructed in the league. They have a bonafide top-five talent in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, an essential two-way All-Star level talent in Jalen Williams, a plethora of defensive-minded guards in Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace, a highly-impactful 7-footer in Isaiah Hartenstein, and Chet Holmgren waiting in the injury wings at the moment.

Even accounting for Boston, there’s a chance they’re the deepest team in the league.

Even still, General Manager Sam Presti and the organization still have the assets to upgrade. They likely don’t need to to anything but ride out their current roster, but if they did want to upgrade on the wing, Nets’ Cameron Johnson fits the bill.

At 6-foot-9, he's scoring 18.8 points on 43% 3-point shooting this season, and while that would taper off some in OKC's system, he's still proven to be a highly impactful role player. Even better, he fits the Thunder's system well, even breaking an assist-to-turnover ratio record earlier in the season.

Let’s take a look at what a deal between OKC and Brooklyn might look like:

OKC Thunder get: Cameron Johnson

Brooklyn Nets get: Luguentz Dort, Nikola Topic

This mock trade highlights one of the primary things keeping OKC from further upgrading its roster.

In order to land Johnson, the Thunder need to salary match, meaning they have to send out nearly $24 million. With Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Hartenstein off the table, their prized starter in Dort is one of the only players able to get the deal close enough.

OKC assuredly doesn’t want to deal its prized defender anytime soon, but for our purposes here, we’ll include him. Additionally, the Nets get the No. 12 pick from last year’s draft in Nikola Topic, who despite being somewhat of a mystery box, offers the team a high-ceiling young point guard prospect.

In adding a quality starter in Dort and a recent first-rounder in Topic, Brooklyn likely doesn’t get any picks back, considering Johnson is generally valued at just one first.

All things considered, this deal isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, nor any one that involves OKC sending out any of its larger and longer contracts.

Want to join the discussion? Like Thunder on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.