The 2016 NBA Draft saw a major trade that could affect the course of free agency.
The Oklahoma City Thunder has traded defensive cornerstone Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic.
The details of the trade were first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
Before that, Marc Spears of The Undefeated via ESPN mentioned that the Thunder made Ibaka available.
"The Thunder is shopping big man Serge Ibaka on this draft day, a source said."
With this trade, the Thunder gained some depth at the backcourt with Victor Oladipo. Ersan Ilyasova gives them a replacement and Domantas Sabonis can become a similar player like Ibaka (a rim protector) but they may have to be patient with his development.
This is not the typical move of a team that was points away from making the NBA Finals, but Ibaka did regress and it was noticeable in the playoffs. His role was taken over by Steven Adams and coach Billy Donovan has experimented with lineups featuring Adams and their other center, Enes Kanter at the same time with much success.
The big picture view in this transaction is how it will affect Kevin Durant's free agency decision, if at all. This was mentioned by Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.
"The Thunder might take a small step back in the short term - which is an awful signal to send Kevin Durant ahead of free agency," Helin wrote, but he also considered that "Durant works well as a small-ball power forward, which cuts the minutes of traditional bigs."
Having Adams and Kanter is a luxury considering they don't play them together all that much. They were only employed to counter the Warriors' small ball lineup and it seems like it's not a strategy that coach Billy Donovan wants to use extensively. The Thunder doesn't need to pay three good big men if they are likely to use just one of them most of the game.
This trade gives the Thunder flexibility on their decision with Dion Waiters. With Oladipo, the Thunder improves their perimeter defense with two uber-athletic guards.
It's difficult to gauge how this affects Durant, but the Thunder made this decision independently, probably confident KD will stay no matter what.
One factor that should be considered here is that the Orlando Magic is also a possible suitor for Durant. Now, they have Ibaka. It's still a very long shot for them to say the least, though.