Four years ago, the Oklahoma City Thunder had just lost the NBA finals to the Miami Heat. When all the dust had settled, a decision had to be made. The Thunder ultimately would end up trading James Harden to the Houston Rockets. At the time, Harden was only a sixth man and was a good offensive player, but the Thunder were a small market team and couldn’t afford to keep him with the money he wanted. So they traded him away because they thought that their other young player, Serge Ibaka would be able to fill the gap. Well, Harden went on to become a superstar in Houston, and to be fair Ibaka did play pretty well the last few years.

Fast forward to 2016, and just the other day, Serge Ibaka has been traded away. Once again this team is making a bet on its future by trading away one of its established players. However, this year is so much different from 2012. This year, their all-star player Kevin Durant is a free agent, meaning there is a chance that he will not be back with the team. So why trade one of your better players away when you’re not even sure if your best player is coming back?

Well, here is the reason. Ibaka had become a big part of the Thunder in his first few years. He emerged as a great shot blocker and his jump shot was getting better every year. However, this past year, his shooting had regressed, as did his defense. The ball was in his hands a lot less and he had grown frustrated with the whole thing. Also, he is set to be a free agent next year and the Thunder have shown that rather than deal with that they would prefer to trade the player before that happens.

What they got back for Ibaka though could prove to be very helpful. They picked up Victor Oladipo, a shooting guard from Orlando - a position they were very weak in. Oladipo is a legitimate scoring threat and can get a lot of easy shot opportunities with Durant and Westbrook having all the attention on them. They also got Ersan Ilyasova, a player who can add depth to the bench, which was the Thunder’s main issue last year. They had no one on their bench who could consistently help them out, meaning Durant had to play a lot of minutes.

Despite the fact that they have now gotten rid of one of Durant’s oldest teammates, the hope is that this will get him to stay. Durant wants to win a championship like everyone else. As of right now there is no clue where he is going, but with these additions if Durant stays, this could be what takes them from the conference finals where they were last year, to a championship. But that is all up to Durant. If he leaves no one can fill his shoes, but at least they picked up a few more scoring options to keep them afloat for a while.