Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 players most likely to be traded in 2018-19

2. Alex Abrines

At this moment, the Thunder have a logjam in the backcourt. Unfortunately, the majority of their surplus of guards belongs at shooting guard. As a result, we should see OKC move on from one or more of their 2-guards in the coming months.

The first (and second most likely) is Alex Abrines.

There are a couple of reasons why Abrines makes sense as one of the Thunder’s top trade candidates. For one, the club has a huge amount of talent at the shooting guard spot. With Andre Roberson set to return, he’ll take over as the starter and lockdown defender. Then, Terrence Ferguson figures to be the first man off the bench.

That leaves Abrines in a shooting specialist role, which could severely limit his minutes this season. Sure, the Thunder will find a way to get him on the floor, but I wouldn’t expect the 15.1 minutes per game he enjoyed last year. There are just too many mouths to feed at the position.

When you factor in that the Thunder may also look to grant Hamidou Diallo occasional minutes like Ferguson got a season ago, it leaves nothing but scraps for Abrines. Instead of letting his talents waste away on the bench, why not try to capitalize on his value?