Getty Thunder trade candidate Josh GIddey (right)
Ask around among other NBA front offices, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an executive who would not like to swap situations with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team won a West-high 57 games and made a push to the conference semifinals, has a bona fide Top 10 talent in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and will enter the 2024 offseason with about $30 million to use in free agency.
They’ve got a pair of secondary stars on hand, too, with Jalen Williams and center Chet Holmgren.
Oh, and there’s this: The Thunder have 13 first-round picks they can trade in the next eight drafts. Again, it’s an enviable situation.
While they very well could make an aggressive move in free agency this offseason, or a big-time trade, the folks at Bleacher Report are foreseeing a more conservative approach ahead. Assuming the team wants to upgrade Josh Giddey’s forward spot, they could take a low-risk gamble on a player who may finally be on the upswing after a stop-and-start early run in his career Wizards star Deni Avdija.
Thunder Trade Would Dump Josh Giddey
B/R’s Grant Hughes put forth, in an article titled, “1 Trade Idea for Every Team Not in the 2024 NBA Finals,” a Thunder trade that makes the targeted swap of Giddey and Avdija, who had been the No. 9 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft. The full deal also sends two future picks to the Wizards:
Oklahoma City Thunder Receive: Deni Avdija
Washington Wizards Receive: Josh Giddey, the No. 12 pick in the 2024 draft and a 2025 first-round pick (via MIA; top-14 protected)
Here’s the rationale for the deal, beginning with the premise that Giddey is the weak link in the Thunder lineup:
“Avdija is two years older than Giddey at 23, which suggests he has slightly less room for growth, and much of his play prior to last season featured some of the same shortcomings that have dogged Giddey—namely errant outside shooting and minimal self-created offense.
“Last season saw Avdija change in key ways, as he upped his three-point hit rate to a tantalizing 37.4 percent while assuming a larger share of playmaking duties. His averages of 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists were all career highs, and the burly 6-foot-9 forward was even better than that after the All-Star break.”
Deni Avdija Is a Bargain After Big Improvement
Indeed, Avdija’s numbers last year came in the nick of time, after three uninspiring seasons in which he averaged 8.1 points and 5.5 rebounds, shooting 31.0% on 3-pointers. Avdija established himself as a willing and competent defender, but without much offense to offer, he appeared to be on his way toward landing in the NBA bust bin.
Still, the Wizards locked him up on a bargain deal, at four years and $55 million before the start of the 2023-24 season.
That was before he showed some life as a shooter and scorer last year, making 50.6% of his shots and 37.4% of his 3-pointers on his way to averaging 14.7 points and 7.2 rebounds. He was sixth in the NBA’s Most Improved voting and would have been higher if he had not been playing for the lowly Wizards.
Giddey, of course, still has talent and upside. But his fit with the Thunder, who will want to run their offense through SGA and Holmgren, is tenuous. He might be better served landing in a place where he could hone a point-forward role, and Washington fits that bill.
It might be a stretch to say that Avdija is two first-round picks better than Giddey, though. Yes, the Thunder have more picks than they can use, but they will not be giving them away simply because they can. A deal sending Giddey and one pick to Washington ought to be enough.