OKC Thunder need a sixth man
The OKC Thunder have suffered another loss, this time to the Sacramento Kings. With the team struggling, maybe a sixth man will be the answer for the ailing Thunder team.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have lost three games straight and are currently 12th in the Western Conference. Their most recent lost was Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings, by a score of 94-84. The OKC Thunder finally recorded their first loss when they hold their opponent under 100 points, and the offense is clearly an issue.
It takes a while for a Big Three to jell and OKC still has time to get things under control, but there is an option to help the Thunder get this ship back on the right course. That would be trading for a sixth man.
The Thunder’s depth is a big question mark. After the core of Steven Adams, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George and Russell Westbrook, the only other players that provide any notable scoring for OKC are Raymond Felton with 7.7 points a game and Jerami Grant with 8.5 points a game.
The Big Three are all scoring exactly 20.1 points a game, while Adams is averaging 12.6 a game. Patrick Patterson has not been the player that OKC hoped he would be when they signed him. The season is still early, but the Thunder need to boost their scoring production.
Head coach Billy Donovan said after the loss on Tuesday that the shots are just not falling. Via NBA.com:
"”At times we had some possessions that were not great but I also thought we had a lot of really good looks at times that didn’t go down,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. ”We just didn’t make enough shots or play well enough on offense.”"
What’s the resolution for the Thunder you ask? Insert forward Will Barton of the Denver Nuggets. Barton is shooting 44 percent from the field and 41 percent from the 3-point line. He is also averaging 14.3 points a game with 5.4 rebounds.
Barton has the ability to take the ball of the dribble for highflying dunks and pull up and shoot the three. His plus/minus is a +4.0. Efficient offensive scoring is what the Thunder need and they would benefit from having Barton coming off the bench, which is a role he is used to.
What would it take to get him in a trade? Something like Josh Huestis and Jerami Grant would be good enough to bring Barton to OKC salary-wise, but to make the deal worth the Nuggets’ while, the Thunder could throw in their 2018 second round pick (and possibly another future second-rounder).
The Nuggets would be getting a player in Jerami Grant that is on the rise. He is the Thunder’s leading bench scorer this year, is shooting 46.9 percent from the floor and has the ability to play defense at a high level.
Huestis would be a player for the Nuggets to develop in the future and there would be security for later years with the second round pick that the Thunder would give them. If that’s not good enough for Denver, perhaps swapping in the team’s first round pick, Terrance Ferguson, would get it done:
OKC needs to do something as they are 0-5 against the Western Conference this year. With Paul George being a free agent this summer, the time for making all-in moves is now. Sacrificing a promising young player like Ferguson might be worth it for a bench scorer like Barton, especially if OKC could somehow hang on to Grant as well.
A sixth man would provide scoring off the bench that the Thunder need. The team will be able to get somebody that can man the second unit and provide scoring other than the Big Three.
Next: 5 potential Greg Monroe trades
Barton is one potential solution for a team that thought the Big Three was enough, but the depth just isn’t there yet.