Are the Oklahoma City Thunder ready for a rebuild?

The Draft Night trade between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Orlando Magic that shipped out veteran big man Serge Ibaka — a core member of the bonkers young core that the Thunder bet on a mere six seasons ago — would have already been enough to start asking questions about the future of the team. There were legitimate and warranted (and annual) fears about the shooting and depth on a roster that was on its n-th cycle of supporting players around the trio that the Oklahoma City decision makers bet on four seasons ago when they shipped sixth man James Harden to Houston in a trade that rocked the foundation of the league.

Now, with James Harden four All-Star appearances and two contracts into a superstar’s career in Houston and Kevin Durant on his way to form the latest NBA superteam in NorCal, the Thunder are staring straight down the barrel of an old-fashioned rebuild. News broke Wednesday that the Russell Westbrook rumors have legs; his trade appears imminent, with the Celtics (supposedly) the front-runners to land him. Even assuming a Russ trade brings back 75 cents on the dollar, OKC is suddenly looking at a young core of Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, Steven Adams and whatever they’d nab in return for Westbrook.

There are bit players that could grow, sure. Cameron Payne never quite got the run he deserved last year, and he wowed on offense in limited minutes. Mitch McGary looked good two seasons ago, but even that performance was viewed through the awkward kaleidoscope of rookie-dom. Andre Roberson became a whole other thing during the playoffs this year, but has occasionally been nearly unplayable through parts of two seasons. Enes Kanter is a vacuum on the glass and stayed on the floor against a 67-win juggernaut of a San Antonio team in the playoffs this year, but can get played out of the arena in bad matchups and appears cemented into bad defensive habits.

Nevertheless, those guys are all young, versatile havoc wreckers at their best — Thunder Buddies ™, through and through.

If Russ were to land in Boston, there would be a wonderful plethora of assets waiting for Sam Presti to wrestle them away, arcade game crane-style. The long-term status of this roster looks a lot nicer with, say, Marcus Smart and Jae Crowder aboard. But guessing on guys from other teams is a losing game, and none of them can be the game-changing athletic and competitive presence that Westbrook has worked to become in Oklahoma since his career began.

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Remember, though, that Presti dangled Harden around the league and the Warriors reportedly had Klay on the table at one point, the request for Bradley Beal was denied by the Wizards, and ultimately the ended up with Jeremy Lamb . That decision in and of itself should be enough to dissuade Presti from floating down the trade river full bore. It’s very difficult to nail so many decisions in the entangled web of team-building transactions.

Also important to remember is that for all OKC did to ready themselves for the departure of James Harden, they now basically have only McGary and Adams to show for it. In being proactive and avoiding the restricted free agency fight with Reggie Jackson last season, they earned the right to pay Enes Kanter a similar amount of money at a more-populated position on their roster (and bench Kyle Singler). Looking even further back, the situation with combo forward Jeff Green reached a similar point in early 2011; perhaps the Thunder were encouraged by their loot in that deal. Kendrick Perkins was the main haul, and he was a starter in Oklahoma City for years.

The question begging to be asked here is if it was all a success? With the benefit of hindsight, we can see these deals cumulatively as tangled, tangential and only rarely outright successes. However, the NBA rarely gives you time to ask those questions. All Sam Presti can do is roll on.

He now faces an NBA landscape in which the point guard position is oversaturated and extremely talented. Utah was an obvious candidate before nabbing George Hill in a draft week deal, but their style is a poor fit for Russ. Perhaps Atlanta would move on from the ‘Schroder Project’ to pair Westbrook with Dwight Howard. The Kings are starting fresh yet again, and could still use a point guard and an Omega next to their Alpha, DeMarcus Cousins, but have little to offer. Packages will form and rumors will leak if OKC does more legitimate shopping. For now, we wait.

Rather than maligning or praising prior decisions, it instead bares asking if this iteration of the roster can succeed. The front office has done a good job of stocking the cupboard with young, enticing players even as it makes deep playoff run after deep playoff run. Presti and his team nailed the selection of Steven Adams, and made good moves further down; Payne, McGary, and Roberson are ready to play now, and Josh Huestis’s talent remains unrealized after a year in the D-League and another at the end of the bench. The team is not ready to take on buckets of draft picks and start from scratch.

They have movable veteran contracts in Kyle Singler and Ersan Ilyasova (and Nick Collison, who could be available now that his friends are gone) that can make trades work more smoothly, and a decision will have to be made on Enes Kanter’s future, regardless of Westbrook’s status. He is a Power Ranger figurine on top of a championship birthday cake, not the rhubarb in an unbaked pie. Building teams have no need for an expensive, flawed veteran whose fit is questionable.

Speaking of expensive, Adams has already earned a massive payday if his health remains solid. Teams spend millions looking for two-way bigs who can protect the rim, roll to the hoop, work the screen game, and switch onto smaller players. Guys who can consistently do even one of those things got seven figure deals this summer; the Thunder have one who can do all of that at a high level, and will have the right to pay him the massive salary that those skills merit next summer.

Oladipo is a combo guard who can smooth over the various bumps that a raw young roster invariably lends itself to. If he can maintain the hot shooting from late last season (and seemingly late in every season) and fulfill his Wadeian potential on defense, he instantly becomes OKC’s best player in a post-Russ world. But he too will require a payday soon — as soon as the Thunder face an unmolded roster, they face instantaneous decisions on the next wave of guys. Death, taxes and contract years.

Unfortunately, few other guys on the roster appear to be anything more than role players, but there is still reason for optimism hidden just behind the honest fact that many of these youngsters haven’t seen enough court time to be properly judged. Payne especially drips with potential; the kid can shoot lights out when he’s on and has a big body perfect for defending both guard spots. Huestis too has nice defensive potential, and can inject some three-and-D dynamite into the rotation if he earns time this year. Sabonis is largely an unknown piece, but will hustle around the basket and make intelligent plays on offense. Defensive will be a struggle for him, with short arms and sub-elite athleticism.

Perhaps, in the face of a potential dynasty in Golden State, the Thunder will benefit from being the first team with the opportunity to wait it out. Maybe their best path is to continue down the shrewd road less traveled — cut no corners — and breath for a while. Assess the youngsters, develop and lose, and wait until something breaks wrong for the Warriors. Steph is a free agent next summer, Draymond Green often finds himself on the wrong side of trouble, and Kevin Durant will have two more summers of choices facing him after this one.

The salary cap will likely fall into a relative stasis after next summer, and the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement will be different when stars signed to new deals in the past couple years (Draymond and Klay Thompson are included on this list) are eligible again. The Warriors and other superpowers (San Antonio, Cleveland, Los Angeles) will have to win in a different climate than the one in which they were built. Oklahoma City could have the benefit of starting from scratch with these economic changes in the foreground, and the franchise already has a history of being a step ahead of the curve.

Again, with Russ, this is both easier and more complex. A star in his prime with a nose for victory is unlikely to mope around during a rebuild, and his trajectory no longer fits with that of the rest of the roster. His ball dominance doesn’t fit within the Democracy of Youth; growing pains are expected of inexperienced ballplayers, but untenable from the star and leader.

And yet, his show-running talent and scoring ability would be ideal in bettering those around him who are unable to create for themselves. If you thought Andre Roberson was a difficult guy to make work next to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, watch what happens when you put Cameron Payne and Victor Oladipo in those spots and say “go”.

Though they lost Durant, they maintained the ability to put on the long-limbed, athletic-freak show that has tormented the West’s other superpower in San Antonio for years. That same versatility and length devastated Golden State for the better part of six games. The Clippers were an afterthought when KD was around. With him gone, though, everything we’ve grown to hate about the team bubbles a little closer to the surface.

Billy Donovan was supposed to make everything a little more fluid, work the rotation more efficiently, and change the culture. Things largely remained the same until the playoffs, when everything tightens organically and individual talent reigns supreme. The youngins showed up, Russ spazzed, and the team won games. It wasn’t enough. Now, the stakes are lower, whether the team wanted it that way or not. In its current form, this is not a championship contender.

As Durant belabored his decision, the front office was rumored to have been making space for a run at Al Horford, ready to re-arm around their Batmans A and B. Perhaps, even without KD, that is their best choice; go acquire a new, more obvious partner to slide into the Robin role, and trudge on. However, with Westbrook’s own free agency looming large in 2017, any decision must be made without the guarantee of him on the roster past this season.