On July 14, the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired a trade exception and a protected second-round draft pick in 2018 for bench player Perry Jones. This win-win move by both teams gave the Boston Celtics yet another prospect to work with, while at the same time gave OKC exactly what they needed.

By now it should be no mystery that the Thunder are competing for a championship this year, and by acquiring yet another trade exception, it only opens up the door further for smaller personal changes down the road. Oklahoma City might be one small addition away from officially competing for that ring, and this Perry Jones trade only proves that the Thunder are indeed going all-in this year.

The loss of Jones really makes no difference to OKC, so it’s much better that they continue adding pieces for that championship run this year. The second-round draft pick is pretty pointless right now too, but what isn’t is that all important trade exception. The amount of money that exception covers is still undisclosed at the moment, but it does tell us that more moves are on the way.

Remember, the Cleveland Cavaliers had to add the likes of Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Timofey Mozgov before they officially competed for the championship last year. Now, OKC doesn’t need that much help, but an extra talented body wouldn’t hurt during the middle of the season.

 

Samuel Martell is Oklahoma City’s beat writer at www.RantSports.com. To stay connected, ‘follow’ him on Twitter, ‘like’ him on Facebook, or ‘add’ him to your network on Google.