While Oklahoma City fans and all of the NBA have been blind-sided by the recent transaction in which the Thunder sent Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for a haul — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, three unprotected first-round picks from the Clippers (2022, 2024 and 2026), two more which initially belonged to Miami (2021 unprotected and 2023 protected 1 through 14) and the right to swap picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025 (picks breakdown per Marc Stein of The New York-Times) — it appears the Thunder were caught off-guard in a similar capacity, though sooner than everyone else.
When NBA free agency kicked off, the Thunder worked out deals with three players: Nerlens Noel, Alec Burks and Mike Muscala. Noel had been the team’s back-up big man in 2018-19, while the other two addressed some of the Thunder’s bench needs. Though now, these moves to seem to be of much help, with the Thunder quickly turning going from Western Conference contenders to a team with an absurd amount of assets.
But, according to Brett Dawson of The Athletic, the plan up until recently was to, in fact, continue building around Westbrook and George. But Thunder GM Sam Presti was forced to think on his feet and adjust in a short period of time.
Former Thunder center Kendrick Perkins added some additional information.
