The Into the Future series is now two-deep. Both times the votes shook out in favor of the Sixers future. 63 percent of you preferred the Sixers future over the Nuggets and 60 percent of you preferred them over the Wolves. If you didn't notice by the title, we're staying in the Northeast division for today's edition of ItF and comparing the Sixers future to the Oklahoma City Thunder. In ESPN's Future Power Rankings the Thunder ranked third while the Sixers brought up the rear at 25, so you may be asking yourself "why are we wasting our time with this absurd poll?" Because my friends, there's a twist, after the jump.
(Based on the extremely biased votes of Sixers fans)
Better future than Sixers
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Worse future than Sixers
Nuggets
T'Wolves
Here's the twist: Take both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook's talents away from OKC. Now who's future do you prefer? Would you rather have the Thunder's superhuman front office, a ton cap space and a core of Jeff Green, James Harden and Serge Ibaka or the Sixers future? The Thunder, right? Yeah, that's still too easy.
Twist #2: Transfer EB and his horrid contract from the Sixers cap to the Thunder. Now who would you rather have?
Front Office
Let me sum this up in a simple, yet complex analogy.
Valuable Assets (After both twists)
James Harden - A good all-around role player for a potential champion, on a rookie contract.
Serge Ibaka - A good defender, rebounder and energy-guy with an extremely high ceiling. 20 years old, still on rookie contract.
Nick Collison, Morris Peterson, Jeff Green + Daequan Cook expiring contracts - I feel like 22 million of expiring contracts, a solid young piece in Jeff Green, a flier on Cook, and a nice veteran/glue-guy like Collison could net you a pretty good player from a team looking to cut salary.
My take:
Although the myriad of cap space freed up by magically transferring Elton Brand's nasty contract to the Thunder, paired with the young talent of Jrue, Evan and Andre looks good on paper I still wouldn't trust Stefanski to make sound decisions. Imagine how many Tony Batties, Fransisco Elsons and Primoz Brezecs Stefanski would sign with his newly acquired cap space. In a not so difficult decision, I'm going with the Thunder in this ItF. Give me a brilliant front office over an incompetent one any day, regardless of roster.