3 massive trades Oklahoma City could make to guarantee NBA Finals run

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets on Saturday to advance to the NBA Cup title game in Las Vegas. Their opponent will be Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, pitting the NBA's brightest young team against an tried-and-true contender. It's as much a generational battle as it is a clash of styles.

This is a prime opportunity for OKC to announce its status as the Western Conference frontrunners. Frankly, the Thunder have already made a rather unambiguous announcement to that effect, but folks tend to ignore smaller markets, and the NBA isn't always great at promoting its best teams when those teams don't reside on a coastline.

The Thunder are the deepest team in the NBA and equipped with a fathomless collection of future draft picks due to the incessant backdoor dealings of Sam Presti, who has finally turned the corner from patient rebuild to outright domination. At 20-5, OKC is first place in a historically deep and talented West. That is despite a serious injury to Chet Holmgren, their second-best player and a DPOY candidate.

What makes OKC so dangerous is its flexibility for another major addition (or several) ahead of the trade deadline. This is a great team with the ammo to improve even further. Nobody is taking Boston's crown as the so-called favorites to win it all, but the Thunder profile as the biggest threat right now. OKC should have a long reign ahead of it.

Here are a few trade deadline possibilities to take the Thunder to another level altogether.

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3. OKC can stockpile more defensive expertise with Herb Jones trade

The last-place New Orleans Pelicans could hit the reset button this season as Zion Williamson continues to nurse his latest lower-leg malady. Among the rumored trade candidates is Herb Jones, who should appeal to the majority of NBA contenders due to his affordable contract and dynamite defense.

OKC has the best pound-for-pound defense in the NBA at full strength, so most trade targets should probably focus on elevating a good offense to greatness. Jones does not really help the offense, averaging 10.3 points and 2.3 assists on .485/.286/.667 splits. He would cramp spacing in certain lineups and provide mostly spot-up 3s and backdoor cuts, which OKC can source from elsewhere.

So, why bother? Because Jones is one of the five or so most impactful perimeter defenders in the NBA. Point blank. He's a frenetic defensive playmaker, currently averaging a career-high 1.8 steals per game. Jones can handle tough assignments at the point of attack, but he's also a ravenous roamer, sneaking into passing lanes and using his 7-foot wingspan to impact shot attempts from the weak side. Just imagine him empowered by OKC's elite defensive apparatus, which already includes two top-shelf anchors in Isaiah Hartenstein and Holmgren, along with a range of excellent on-ball perimeter stoppers.

Jones would take the NBA's best defense — already approaching historically good territory — and take it up a notch. You can't have too much of a good thing, right? Jones would see his minutes decrease in OKC, but the per-minute impact would skyrocket.

2. Cam Johnson would give OKC's starting lineup a major boost

The Brooklyn Nets just traded Dennis Schroder for an injured De'Anthony Melton and a few second-round picks, which feels like a stunning underpay. As such, it's hard to gauge exactly what the market price is for Cam Johnson, who feels worthy of at least a first-round pick, maybe more. Either way, this is a solid starting point for negotiations, with Brooklyn adding to its future stores and getting a couple rotation pieces in return.

Cam Johnson would step into OKC's starting five and thrive, upping their 3-point volume — a longstanding weakness — while feasting on open looks generated by the slashing gravity of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and others. The Thunder offense is predicated on constant downhill motion and wall-to-wall balance. Johnson is the elite shooter that is missing from the main lineup, while still offering plenty of straight-line driving and connective passing to fit the OKC scheme.

He's not an elite defender, but Johnson is 6-foot-8 with solid team instincts. OKC has what feels like bulletproof armor on that end, so Johnson shouldn't have a trouble finding his niche and contributing. Especially once Holmgren is back to empower the collective.

This has been a career year for Johnson as, more or less, Brooklyn's top option since the Cam Thomas injury. He's shooting the lights out (43.1 percent from deep on career-high volume) without sacrificing the ancillary aspects of his game. Lu Dort is a real piece of OKC's rotation, but Johnson is so far ahead offensively that it's worth the disruption to OKC's continuity.

1. OKC should earnestly consider a run at Jimmy Butler

This is one of the more unhinged trade machine concoctions you'll see all season, so bear with me (both Miami and Indiana would ask for draft compensation). Odds are this won't happen due to the sheer volume of variables at play, but there is a workable version of this trade that involves OKC and Miami working a straight-up trade for Jimmy Butler. That merits consideration on its own, even if it's as a rental.

Championship windows are often more fleeting than we expect. OKC, on paper, is set up for a long reign in the West, but so much can change year-to-year in the NBA. Jimmy Butler would give OKC a very useful veteran mentor — not to mention another bonafide star on the wing — and thus, a chance at the gold. Butler might not see a future in OKC, but the Thunder don't have to extend Holmgren and JDub for a couple more years, so this is workable as a short-term investment. It is also, straight up, Butler's best chance to win a ring.

As for the three-team behemoth you see above, my thinking here was simple. If OKC has to trade Isaiah Hartenstein to reach a workable financial figure, there needs to be another center coming back to carry this defense until Holmgren's return. Why not the expiring contract of Myles Turner, who has been popping up in trade rumors lately? This requires an uncomfortable volume of moving parts for OKC, but Turner is still a strong shot-blocker who can elevate OKC's perimeter stoppers (and be elevated by them in turn). Hartenstein, meanwhile, is a great fit for Indy on both ends.

A starting lineup of Turner-Holmgren-Williams-Butler-Shai, at full strength, is quite appealing to yours truly. OKC still has Isaiah Joe, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, and Kenrich Williams to fill out the second unit, among others. So it's not like the Thunder are left without depth. If nothing else, this trade is worth chewing on for a little bit.