Trade rumors ESCALATING | Thunder trade targets revealed...

The early season trade market is solidifying and the Thunder and their unique situation are right at the front lines. We've got some major reports that link the Thunder to at least one All-Star level talent and as Oklahoma City tries to navigate from now until at least Christmas when Chet Holmgren comes back, it's looking more and more likely like the Oklahoma City Thunder will make a move in the near future. So we're going to talk about here today exactly what we can expect from Sam Presti, who Obviously is backed into a corner that no general manager ever wants to be in. You think you have the perfect formula, but then the outside variables, one of those being injuries, takes control over a season where you feel like you are in win-now mode. And so the Thunder have been seen eyeing trade options, and the New Orleans Pelicans are right at the top of that list, and we're going to tell you exactly what players that is right now. The Thunder. ...were in New Orleans. They had several scouts that were at the Pelicans games last week, eyeing specifically Trey Murphy and Herb Jones. The Thunder, the Lakers, the Warriors, and the Spurs were teams that were listed as having personnel at these Pelicans games. And so obviously this is far from just unsubstantiated rumors. This comes straight from the top and straight from these scouts themselves. Being at these games, so the Thunder starting to escalate their search when they are kind of trying to figure out how they can help SGA and this season get back on the right track. As you get an update back on October 29th, a couple days ago, predicting at least one Oklahoma City trade with the events of this season, the Pelicans get listed as a team the Thunder have been sending scouts to, and in that same weekend as well. Ochai Agbaji and the plan for signing him gets reversed. The Thunder decide they're going to keep that open roster spot and save any money they were going to commit to Ochai instead and look at their options. And it's been a dejecting last week for the Thunders. We're now seven days since the catastrophic injury of J-Dub and Kaysen. And then obviously ever since then, you found out that Chet's going to be out for eight to 10 weeks. Alex Caruso is missing time. You still have Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber who continue to be out as well, and we have new updates on those guys in regards to their team options. One of them was accepted, one of them was declined, and Gabriel's going to make a video on that for later, so get yourself on the lookout for that. But the Thunder have had back-to-back ugly losses since their... Win against Phoenix, they started 4-0, they lose by 24 to the Mavericks a couple nights ago, they lose by 21 last night, and SGA was the only one who really had any bit of a semblance of offense out there. It was a rough night for Jared McCain yet again. He's missed his last 11 three-pointers. It was a rough night for A.J. Mitchell, and he had essentially no help. You look at the line that he had there, and a stat that is just absolutely baffling. SGA is averaging 13 potential assists per game this year, which means that he is setting up his team to shoot 13.6 shot attempts this year, and they're only making 3.2. of those shot attempts. So this dude is literally dying out there on his own. And the Thunder obviously are looking to scout to see what they can do to potentially give an offer on Trey Murphy or on Herb Jones. Several teams that are playoff caliber. For different levels and for different reasons, are looking at these guys. And Trey Murphy, he had better numbers last year than several All-NBA players. You look at his scoring, which was in the top 15 percentile across the league. His true shooting was very good. He's a much better distance shooter than he is a mid-range shooter. His mid-range game only makes up 3% of his shot profile, so it's just not what he does. And then he is also with his wingspan of seven foot with his height and with his athleticism. He is a fantastic transition player, and then Herb Jones is kind of a Lou Dort dollar store type of player. Not a great scorer, and honestly an even worse scorer than Lou Dort was even last year, but he is an incredible, incredible defender, and that's kind of the baseline for what the Thunder could potentially run with here. You've got two very different players that Oklahoma City could... Could try to bring in and you look at a comparison immediately between these two guys Trey Murphy much more consistent from the three-point line obviously much more of a bulk score the steals Herb Jones has been a much better overall defender and I'll show you his numbers here in a second you see some of the impact estimates and things like that I mean it's not really that close in terms of offensive impact which player would be better. There is no question that the better offensive player would be Trey Murphy III, and he has been linked to Oklahoma City for over a year now. The Thunder wanted him as a potential trade candidate last season at the deadline. Obviously, you go and get Jared McCain. The biggest thing that's going to hold you back on Trey Murphy is the financial situation. You look at how much he is... Going to be making over the next three years, and that is as much money, if not a little bit more, than Isaiah Hartenstein is making, and that would make some very tough situations for you in terms of salary situation. And then you obviously also have... What he has done so far this year, which is take a bit of a hit offensively. His three-point percentage has been down from last year. His bulk scoring has been down. He's had a bit of a sluggish start to this season. The Pelicans obviously still in another spot where they're not really going to contend. I think that it's inarguable why Oklahoma City and Thunder fans like Trey Murphy's game. I mean, the dude can vastly help Shea in terms of his shot. Ability? Not really a shot creator with the ball in his hands. He's more of a volume shooter that with his height can create you mismatches and knock down looks on a catch and shoot threes from behind the arc. He's dangerous in transition. That can fit the Thunder's needs there. He'll create turnovers and he's athletic in space. And obviously he's got some talent. And if there's anything, anything that the Thunder need right now, it is to get some help for their MVP. Who, I mean, he was just... So sad on the bench last night in Houston. And how can you not be? I mean, this dude had everything that he thought was going to be with this season thrown away less than two weeks into the year. So, I mean, he's trying to kind of battle his own internal struggles. And I think that that's shown through with his game. I think it's shown through with the rest of the team in this two-game losing streak as well. And the Thunder have some questions to address into how much you're going to go all in this season. And if you're going to go all in per se, then Trey Murphy would probably be the way to go. Some of the weaknesses, he's not a very good on-ball defender. He struggles against physical players, gets bumped off of his line, not really a big self creator, as I mentioned, doesn't fill that J-Dub offensive void. And that expensive contract is going to create some insane hurdles to go through. But Trey Murphy is seen as one of the most likely players to get moved before the deadline on Kalshi in this early trade market. There's two potential Pelicans that are there, DeJounte Murray and Trey Murphy. The Thunder don't really need DeJounte Murray at this point in time, but Trey Murphy with the fourth best odds to get traded here this coming season. According to Kalshi, they're sponsoring today's video. What you can do down below, if you're interested, is go click that link, put in this code right here, DigestNBA, and when you do so, you'll get $55 in bonus funds when you do one $25 trade. So to give you some extra to go look at some of these NBA markets, go look at some other markets around the sports world, around pop culture, around music, around the weather. Anything you can think of, you'll find it on Kalshi. And of course, you're trading against other users, not against a house like with the traditional sports books. That's kind of the difference there. Kalshi being an official prediction market of the NBA. So go check them out down below. So Trey Murphy, he's one side of the coin. And then a completely other side of the coin is Herbert Jones, a different fix for Oklahoma City. The defense is obvious for Trey, or for Herb Jones. This dude is seen as one of the most prolific on-ball defenders that you can get on the perimeter of any player in the league. He is a guy that would perfectly slot in and give you the defense that you get from Lou Dort, give you the defense that you get from J-Dub. Give you a little bit bigger of a body, but the same type of defensive presence that you have gotten from Cason Wallace. So you're getting the defense, but you're getting a waning shot profile that has been really, really bad in the last two and a half years. Basically, you're getting a three and D player without the D, which is what the Thunder had with Lou Dort all of last season. And honestly, his defense wasn't even great a lot of the times either. This is what Trey Murphy, or sorry, Herb Jones. This is what Herb Jones is making salary-wise each of the next couple of years. It's still quite a bit of money, He would be a long-term investment unless you were to trade him and then flip him next year. He would be a guy that you could fulfill by trading away one contract, but even then, it'd have to be a substantial player like Alex Caruso, like Isaiah Hartenstein, somebody along those lines, and that's the thing that I think would make this really, really hard to pull the trigger on with a pretty pedestrian offensive game, and this year, it's been even worse for Herbert Jones. I mean, this dude has... Absolutely zero ball skills whatsoever other than his defense and he has had no role essentially whatsoever with New Orleans this year. Uh, Jamal Mosley has said that they need to find more time for Herb Jones. It's going to be a key priority for this team. Yeah, basically just tell me that you're looking to make some more trade bait and butter it up for somebody around the league. And then, of course, the last development with this whole thing being the Thunder canceling Ochai Agbaji's signing. We made a video on this as soon as it went live and then immediately get rug pulled about eight to nine hours later. Shams saying the Thunder no longer signing Ochai Agbaji. Taking a step back to reevaluate that 15th roster spot after losing Chet Holmgren for two plus months along with everything else. So the timeline on this, I mean, he gets signed and then the same day the signing gets canceled. So yeah, dude didn't even get a chance to book his plane ticket and head to Oklahoma City before he gets told, yeah, sorry, bud, we're not gonna get a look at you. But I mean, just look at this injury report for the Thunder. It's just absolutely horrific at this point in time. And people thought. Thunder were cursed last year and say, hey, let's hope for better injury luck this year. How about let's double it, right? Let's make it twice as bad as what it was before. But the canceling of that Ochai Abasi deal tells us a couple of things here as we wrap up today's video. That open spot's being reevaluated and the Thunder are heavily considering other options at this point in time. Obviously, you've got a lot of different needs. But I see this as some concrete evidence that we should expect a Thunder trade at some point before the new year. And Brett Siegel expects that himself, one of the NBA's insiders, who has been pretty spot on with a lot of his stuff that he has reported in the last handful of years. He says the Thunder are going to make at least one trade. That is a given. Well, the biggest obstacle is that you currently, as of right now, have $7.4 million to work with in the second apron. The Thunder and their canceling of Nikola Topić's team option for next year could free up another $7 million if you were to trade him right now. That would be $14 million, and then if you could finagle a couple of extra million bucks, there are some players near the end of the bench that... Maybe. I mean, I don't know how you could potentially absorb Trey Murphy's contract without trading away Caruso or Hartenstein, but there may be paths to absorbing the Herb Jones contract for $14.9 million this year without getting into the second apron, and so that could make that one more appealing than the Trey Murphy situation. The Thunder? They just have to get Shai some help. I mean, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This dude is dying out there, and he is the best player in the world in his prime. You can't waste a year. You don't want this to be a throwaway season at all. It ultimately comes down to the wise man himself, Sam Presti, who I would imagine has gotten a lot of sleepless nights over the last week. You send scouts to an NBA team, that is a clear sign of interest and of gauging your options. A move of any size, I think, is possible. Cap would be the hurdle. Sam Presti, he's going to be the last general manager to make any rash decisions for any current fits or any current needs. I wouldn't worry about Sam doing anything stupid. He's going to think out everything that he does. So let me know down below in the comments what you think Oklahoma City should prioritize. Would you go bundle some extra stuff together and get Trey Murphy? Would you go get a smaller impact player in Herb Jones? Or would you wait and try to get a smaller front court type of player? Would you go for another guard? What would you look for here? Or would you just completely stay put and not make any moves and just wait for Caruso and Chet to get healthy and hope you can make the playoffs and get Kaysen and J-Dub back or one or the other by the time the postseason begins? A couple of comments that I want to shout out here today in this video. This one comes from Ty. I'm low-key sick of Thunder fans wanting Herb Jones or Trey Murphy. Listen, the rumors have gotten really annoying. And I completely agree with you on that. It's very interesting, the Thunder are sending scouts there, because obviously that means that they are interested. So we're going to watch this with great, great interest going forward. And then the last comment of the day coming from FemJay. I don't want to hear any more trade J-Dub comments. That's complete BS. Totally agree. Totally agree. J-Dub's not going anywhere. This dude is the heart and soul of this team. They committed all this money to him for a reason. J-Dub is OKC. Don't expect him to get sent anywhere. There's no reason that he should. I forgot to show you this as well here, if you make it to the end of this video. This is Herb Jones' percentile profile, and all these blue ones are defense. I don't know why I didn't save the labels. All these blue ones are defense, and all those light, light, light blue ones are offense. So it tells you this dude does not have an offensive game, but whatever. Let me know what you guys think down below of any of these options for trade players. Let me know if there's any players out there that you'd be interested in that we haven't talked about in any of our recent videos, but it seems pretty legit that the trade rumors are heating up for Oklahoma City. And more than just talk, this is action sending scouts to New Orleans. Appreciate you guys for watching. We'll have more content. Again, a couple of player option updates the Thunder gave us here late on Sunday night. So that'll be coming out. Stay on the lookout for that here on the channel.