{"id":749463,"date":"2026-06-01T07:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/749463\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T07:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T07:15:16","slug":"giannis-antetokounmpo-trade-would-be-foolish-for-okc-thunder-after-game-7-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/749463\/","title":{"rendered":"Giannis Antetokounmpo trade would be foolish for OKC Thunder after Game 7 failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a hard-fought Game 7<\/a>, the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> came up short on their quest for repeat NBA<\/a> titles, and now there will be an eighth different NBA Champion in as many years.<\/p>\n

In 2025, after the Thunder won their championship, it felt like their window to win in the Western Conference was endless, that there wasn\u2019t anything stopping their path to two or three consecutive NBA Finals<\/a> appearances. That changed this season. The San Antonio Spurs<\/a> rose quicker than anyone would\u2019ve thought, and Victor Wembanyama<\/a> presented massive problems for OKC.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Kendrick Perkins rips Thunder star Chet Holmgren after Game 7 failure<\/a><\/p>\n

A question coming out of Game 7 is what happens next for OKC, what moves do they make to combat the seemingly insurmountable puzzle that is Victor Wembanyama?<\/p>\n

There is one giant swing move Oklahoma City<\/a> has the resources to make, and that\u2019s trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. This has been a growing theory that many think would be the right move for the Thunder, and that couldn\u2019t be more wrong.<\/p>\n

What a trade for Giannis would cost<\/p>\n

If the Thunder were to drop everything and trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, it\u2019d cost a heavy price. The package would be centered around Chet Holmgren, who just had an awful Game 7 but remains one of the best two-way players in the sport and is only 24 years old.<\/p>\n

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A role player would also have to be involved, likely Cason Wallace<\/a>, who\u2019s already one of the best perimeter-defense guards in the NBA. Lastly, one of the rookies on OKC, likely Thomas Sorber<\/a>, who was selected 15th\u00a0overall in the 2025 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Not only those players, but probably 3-4 first-round picks would have to be involved as well. It\u2019s simply too much to give up, especially with the risk factor of Giannis at this stage of his career.<\/p>\n

MORE: Victor Wembanyama sends strong message after Spurs reach NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

Trading for Giannis only creates more risk<\/p>\n

When healthy, Giannis Antetokounmpo is probably one of the five best players on the planet. The only issue is that the \u201cwhen healthy\u201d part has been an issue for years now. In both 2023 and 2024, Giannis missed significant playoff time due to calf and back injuries.<\/p>\n

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Injuries have especially plagued Giannis this season, resulting in a career-low 36 games played. Both injuries were lower body, with a left knee hyperextension and a right calf strain that was especially aggravating for Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City already had a star with injury issues in Jalen Williams<\/a>; there\u2019s no need to sell a core piece of their championship in Chet Holmgren and one of their valuable role players for an injury-prone star who will turn 32 next season.<\/p>\n

The other issue with Giannis on OKC is that he can\u2019t space the floor, and even though Chet Holmgren struggled in this Western Conference Finals, he at least has the potential and skill set to be a floor spacer against the Spurs in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a hard-fought Game 7, the Oklahoma City Thunder came up short on their quest for repeat NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[7,205,366,123,364,2058,6,1220,378,310,475,179,3966,3965,474,954,312,693,574],"class_list":["post-749463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-basketball","tag-cason-wallace","tag-chet-holmgren","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jalen-williams","tag-kendrick-perkins","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-okc","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-oklahomacity","tag-oklahomacitythunder","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-thomas-sorber","tag-thunder","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116673624377996553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}