Well, it appears Sam Presti wasted no time in firing up the trade machine. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Thunder are sending Al Horford, Moses Brown and a 2023 second-round pick to Boston in exchange for guard Kemba Walker, the 16th overall pick in the NBA Draft and a 2025 second-round pick.
Last season Walker averaged 19.3 points, 4.9 assists, and 3.6 rebounds in 43 appearances. The former Connecticut star missed some time to start the season with a knee injury that lingered throughout the season.
For OKC, this is just another instance of flipping a player with a hefty contract and productivity questions into a tradable asset that can net them future picks for another player with a large contract that a team wants to dump. We’ve seen revivals in Chris Paul, Al Horford and now Kemba Walker arrives in OKC in tow with a 73.6 million owed to him over the next two seasons.
While Walker is about a 10m per year increase on the books over Horford, he is still an electric playmaker that can come up big for a contender. Besides that, gaining a near Lottery Pick for a more expensive player that is just as movable is another absolute masterclass move from Sam Presti. Even if OKC doesn’t use the 16th pick, it becomes a potentially huge bargaining chip for moving up in the draft if the Lottery goes bust.
All in all, this is textbook Presti. We will see if Walker plays a season in OKC like Paul and Horford before him, but the four-time All-Star will attract attention for another flip. Buckle up, the summer of Presti has just begun.