The divorce between Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder is complete, but now the team has to consider what it wants to do with the last holdout in Russell Westbrook. There's no way GM Sam Presti lets Westbrook walk on his own next year after losing Durant this summer.
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There have been serious talks about moving Westbrook before the trade deadline in February so as not to lose him for nothing. The Thunder would want to get some nice assets in return and could do that if they make a trade with a select few teams that have those kinds of assets, whether that means young talent or draft picks.
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According to a report from Howard Beck of Bleacher Report, that might very well be the Boston Celtics. Here's what Beck has on the situation:
"What I'm hearing here in Las Vegas from some GMs: Not only do they think Westbrook will get traded, but that it'll be sooner rather than later, probably before the season starts, and that the most likely destination right now would be the Boston Celtics. That's not surprising. Anybody following the NBA the last couple of years, we know Boston has been loading up on assets. They have a ton of picks, including great picks from Brooklyn Nets, and a bunch of young players. They have the ability to create a package that could get Westbrook there without giving up key pieces. They could still have Isaiah Thomas, Al Horford who they just signed, they could hold on to Jae Crowder presumably, and add Westbrook to that. That's the concern or the challenge for any team trying to trade for Westbrook: Not only do you have to be concerned about his free agency next summer, and you're going to want some assurance that he'll want to stay, but you have to be able to trade for him and still have enough players for him to play with when he arrives."
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The recent addition of Al Horford should make the Celtics quite enticing and Westbrook could lead the C's back to Eastern Conference prominence with with the help of the aforementioned Thomas, Horford and Crowder. The Celtics also have Jaylen Brown who they drafted No. 3 overall in June's draft.
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Brown could be used as a trade chip or as their small forward of the future depending on what Westbrook might want should the Celtics be able to convince him to stay and re-sign with them once the last year of his contract runs up. The Celtics also have the Nets' first round picks the next two years so that should be some nice trade bait as well.
[h/t MassLive]
