Exactly one year ago, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti shocked the world when the team agreed to trade Russell Westbrook to the Houston Rockets.
Since being drafted by the franchise in 2008, Westbrook went from being a player who many doubted would pan out in the NBA to the league’s Most Valuable Player. When Kevin Durant opted to take his talents elsewhere in search of his elusive championship, Westbrook doubled-down on his desire to remain in Oklahoma City.
That’s something that Thunder fans, and NBA fans in general, won’t ever forget.
Westbrook’s final game at Chesapeake Energy Arena was a bit of a clunker — In Game 4 of the Thunder’s best-of-seven first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers, the former MVP managed just 14 points on 5-for-21 shooting from the field. Although he did also have nine rebounds and seven assists, the Thunder lost the game to Damian Lillard and company and fell behind in the series, 3-1.
The last game Westbrook would play in a Thunder uniform was Game 5 of the series, which was contested in Portland. Westbrook rebounded nicely with a 29-point, 11-rebound, 14-assist effort, but Lillard connected on one of the most famous shots in modern history to simultaneously end the Thunder’s season and Westbrook’s career in Oklahoma City.
With the arrivals of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony in July 2017, the Thunder were thought to have a triumvirate capable of challenging the Warriors for supremacy in the Western Conference.
Nobody could have imagined that two years later, none of the three would still be in Oklahoma City.
The trading of Anthony the following year yielded Dennis Schroder, who filled a void for the Thunder. And with George playing MVP-caliber basketball in the 2018-19 season, the team seemed to be one or two more pieces away from being a legitimate contender.
Then, somewhere between Lillard’s dagger and July 10, George decided that returning to his hometown to team up with Kawhi Leonard was the move he wanted to make, and Presti obliged.
Rather than attempting again to rebuild around Westbrook — who was closing in on his 31st birthday at the time of the trade — the organization opted to be proactive and use him as a trade trip to jumpstart what everyone assumed would be a rebuild.
In a way, it was reminiscent of what the Boston Celtics accomplished by trading Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets.
The Celtics got rich from that trade. Although they lost Kyrie Irving to free agency, his acquisition, as well as both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were founded on the trade the Celtics made with the Nets.
That was probably Presti’s thinking when he opted to part with his two superstars.
From the Clippers, the Thunder managed to extract Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and five first-round draft picks — the Clippers’ own first round draft picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026 and the Miami Heat’s 2021 and 2023 first-round draft picks.
In addition, the Thunder also received the right to swap first-round picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025. It was a massive haul, to say the least.
But that transaction left the franchise in a peculiar position with Westbrook. Past the age of 30, the lead guard was solidly in his prime and wouldn’t necessarily benefit from the promise of those future picks, so Presti made the difficult decision to move him along, as well.
Obviously, in return, the Thunder received Chris Paul. Paul, although still capable of playing at a high level, was regarded as being over the hill. His inclusion in the trade and the Thunder assuming his contract, at the time, seemed more like punishment than pleasure.
With Paul, the Thunder received two more first-round picks and two more pick swaps. The picks received were the Rockets’ own picks in 2024 and 2026 and rights to swap picks in 2021 and 2025.
The makeover was complete. Seven first-round picks and the right to swap four additional first-round picks over the next six years would give the Thunder all they needed to rebuild.
Little did we know, though, that the team had no plans on failing to remain competitive.
Exactly one year later, the Thunder are much younger, more promising and stocked with draft currency. The future potential the team has is quite obvious, but the present is still pretty promising.
Through 64 games, remarkably, the 2019-20 Thunder have a better record than the 2018-19 team. At 40-24, Oklahoma City will resume play in Orlando with the Western Conference’s fifth seed, while Westbrook’s team arrived at their 65th game at 39-25.
Exactly one year ago, ironically, the Thunder got better — both in the future and the present — by trading away their best player.
