Should the Oklahoma City Thunder trade Steven Adams?

With an arms race developing in the NBA’s Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder need to consider trading franchise center and fan favorite Steven Adams if they wish to capitalize on their stars’ prime years.

Just like any other NBA offseason, rumors are starting to swirl leading into free agency.

Unlike previous years, the Oklahoma City Thunder are involved.

Leading up to last week’s draft, word began to spread that the Thunder were possibly looking at trading their draft pick, plus a player, to trim their luxury tax bill and modernize their team.

While Oklahoma City did make a draft-night trade — a measly “trade back” with the Memphis Grizzlies to go from the 21st pick to 23rd and acquire a second round selection in a draft five years from now — it didn’t achieve either of those goals.

The team currently has $146 million in salary on the books next season for only 11 players. The NBA’s projected luxury tax line is at $132 million. After filling out the rest of the roster, presumably with veteran minimum contracts, Oklahoma City would be looking at roughly $155 million in salary and around $100 million in tax.

After three straight first round exits in the playoffs, it is easy to understand why ownership would like to trim that bill down. At the same time, the team has both Russell Westbrook and Paul George — two All-NBA performers last season — under contract for at least two more seasons (George has a player option for his contract three seasons from now).

So the Thunder are in a precarious spot: They want to pay less luxury tax, while also making a championship push in the two-year window that their stars will be around. Their best chance at doing so is trading a large salary player currently on the roster for a player who makes less money yet still fits with the Thunder’s on-court product.

Although it’s difficult, it isn’t impossible.

General manager Sam Presti has pulled off this type of trade twice in the past three years. First, back in November of 2016, he traded Ersan Ilyasova and a conditional first round pick to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Jerami Grant. That move saved Oklahoma City nearly $8 million and allowed them to get a young, athletic frontcourt player to pair with Westbrook and Victor Oladipo.

Last summer, in another attempt to shed salary, Presti traded Carmelo Anthony and a conditional first round pick to the Atlanta Hawks to acquire Dennis Schroder, this time trimming nearly $10 million in salary while getting the team a much-needed additional playmaker.

This summer appears to have the same task in store for the Thunder’s front office.

While there are no reports confirming it, it seems pretty safe to say that Westbrook and George — the two highest-paid players on the team — will not be traded. The third-most compensated Thunder player is Steven Adams, who will be earning $27.5 million next season. If the team wants to get off money, that very well be the contract it will have to look at.

An Adams trade starts to make even more sense when you look at the on-court production he provides and how it fits with the modern NBA.

Make no mistake: Adams is a fantastic player. When compared to other centers in the league who played at least half of the regular season games last season, Adams ranked:

• 4th in plus/minus
• 7th in net rating
• 8th in offensive rating
• 5th in shots contested
• 2nd in loose balls recovered

However, when Oklahoma City faced elimination in the playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers, who played a traditional center in Enes Kanter, Adams found himself on the bench rather than in the game.

The reason is pretty simple: When the team needed to be at its best, head coach Billy Donovan elected to go with perimeter shooting and defensive versatility over size and strength.

That problem for Adams compounded itself with the fact that Westbrook is also a non-3-point shooter, allowing teams to drop back and guard the basket during a Westbrook-Adams pick-and-roll.

With his large contract, questionable fit with the way the Thunder want to play and an urgency to take advantage of Westbrook’s and George’s prime years, trading Adams may be the best move forward for the franchise.

Multiple teams are entering free agency looking for a starting center, and reports seem to indicate that Oklahoma City may already be looking at possible deals, specifically with the Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics.

(Note: Matt George hosts Locked On: Kings and is on a local Sacramento sports radio show. “Bogi” is in reference to Kings guard/forward Bogdan Bogdanovic.)

The question then is: What can Oklahoma City get back in a trade for its New Zealander big man?

That remains to be seen. If the report from Matt George is accurate, the Thunder seem to have interest in Bogdan Bogdanovic from the Kings, a career 37.5 percent 3-point shooter.

While not reported, the Oklahoma City front office would almost assuredly be targeting Marcus Smart or Jaylen Brown in a potential Boston trade, two players that Danny Ainge and his organization admire.

Other possibilities may also exist.

With the Cleveland Cavaliers in the midst of a youth movement, their front office may look to trade an older player like Kevin Love in order to get young, prospective talent in that matches their timeline better.

While an “Adams for Love” trade alone doesn’t save Oklahoma City any money, a larger deal including J.R. Smith and his non-guaranteed contract, along with young Thunder players like Hamidou Diallo or Darius Bazley, may be palatable for both teams.

Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder front office generally move in silence. It’s rare that their trade talks leak to the media. The reports indicating that the team may trade Adams could very well be inaccurate, or small nuggets of a very brief conversation between two general managers. But when there is smoke, sometimes there is fire. For the Thunder, those signs of smoke seem to make a quite a bit of sense.