NBA news.

Kemba Walker was bought out of his Thunder contract and is going to the Knicks.

From Woj:

Let me translate for Woj:

The Thunder are shamelessly tanking. They are doing exactly what Sam Hinkie did in Philadelphia, but you’re not hearing a peep from the likes of Ric Bucher and other national pearl clutchers who crushed the Sixers for “embarrassing” the NBA and casting aside the “integrity of the game.”

What Oklahoma City is doing is nothing different. They are stockpiling draft picks. They are putting out teams that have zero chance of winning. They even iced a healthy Al Horford and benched him for the remainder of the season in order to give playing time to their younger guys, which is code word for losing on purpose.

The best part about that Woj thread is when he talks about the Thunder’s “transition into rebuild.” There’s no transition. They already began this tank. They suffered four-straight first round playoff exits, fired Billy Donovan, then traded Steven Adams, Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and Danilo Gallinari. They moved guys like George Hill and absorbed bad contracts and then flipped those players to other teams. Sam Presti is doing exactly what Sam Hinkie is doing, and it’s a smart shift by him because he knows his team hit a wall and wasn’t going any further.

So what’s the difference between Presti and Hinkie? I guess the national media and league office give the former the benefit of the doubt because he’s been running that franchise since 2007, when they were still the Sonics. He put together a title contender and has gone through the contend/rebuild/contend grinder before. In Hinkie’s case, the NBA (and others) seemed to be bothered by the fact that a first-time GM showed zero inhibition in blowing the entire thing up and pushing the rebuild into year three. If Presti cashes in with all of those draft picks during tanking season two, then he gets credit for completing the rebuild on a shorter timeline than Hinkie.

But let’s not beat around the bush here. The Thunder are not trying to “distribute minutes” to younger players. They aren’t in a “transition” to rebuild. They are already there. They are in the thick of it; they’re just better at controlling the narrative. The Sixers were panned by national media and had the NBA interfere with their rebuild, but OKC gets a free pass because… why? Because they’re a small market team? Because people like Presti and didn’t like Hinkie? What OKC is doing is just as obvious and just as drastic as what the Sixers did. It’s really not that different.

Call it what you will; just call it fairly.