Thunder Build on Draft Stockpile With Oladipo Trade

Oklahoma City continues to take on veteran contracts in order to build onto their draft stockpile.

Oklahoma City didn’t sign a free agent on the first day of NBA free agency, but they did add pieces for the future.

Through a trade with the Heat the Thunder acquired Victor Oladipo, again, along with two future second round picks.

The Thunder will take the cap hit from Oladipo who is owed $9.5 million next season on his expiring contract. Oklahoma City, namely Sam Presti, has made it a common occurrence for the team to take on contracts to fill cap space and also add draft capital.

The two second round picks don’t immediately change the outlook for the Thunder, but does add to an already loaded draft stockpile.

Presti has focused the rebuild efforts through stockpiling a cache of draft picks. In doing so he’s continued to take on expiring contracts while trading for more draft picks. The strategy has paid off as the draft picks continue to work out for OKC in their rebuild. OKC has been able to limit signing free agents to multi-year deals and have used those contracts they do acquire in trades for more assets down the road.

This off-season the Thunder have acquired the contracts of Davis Bertans and now Oladipo along with the No. 10 pick (Cason Wallace) and two second round draft picks.

The team continue to build around their young core and not jump the gun on a big name free agent. Instead, patience and the draft cache have been used to build OKC from the ground up.

The Thunder have the opportunity to continue to build draft picks with players who could be on the short end of the impending roster cut. OKC hasn’t shied away from making deals that benefit both the players they are trading and the draft pile they’ve accumulated.

Oladipo could contribute if he’s healthy, but the deal will still have a positive impact on OKC with the reported two second round picks they received.

---

Want to join the discussion? Like Inside the Thunder 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.