1 New Year’s resolution for every team in 2024: Northwest Division

Thunder Resolution: To commit to a playoff push by making a big trade.

Oklahoma City needs… to commit to a legitimate playoff push by making a big trade. Up to this point, the Oklahoma City Thunder have been this season’s version of the 2022-2023 Sacramento Kings. Very young and likely still a season away, but incredibly good in the regular season (so far).

In the last two weeks, they have also beaten the Minnesota Timberwolves once and the Denver Nuggets twice. With that being said, they are incredibly thin in the front court and are currently playing a mixture of Kenrich Williams and Jaylin Williams at backup center.

For a playoff run, OKC likely needs to add another PF/C to help reduce the burden put on Chet Holmgren and allow Jalen Williams to slide back into his natural position at small forward. Between the Davis Bertans ($17.0 million) and Kevin Porter ($15.9 million) contracts, as well as the slew of other smaller contracts, the Thunder can essentially trade for whoever they want thanks to all of their future first-round picks that they own.

This is the season to relinquish some of those picks and make a splash. Some interesting bigger trade targets for Oklahoma City could be Pascal Siakam, Jarrett Allen, or Lauri Markkanen. Any of these three would help increase the Thunder’s title odds while not disrupting their title window. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is simply too talented to not go all-in this season.