Thunder's reported interest in Evan Mobley has Cavaliers fans sweating

The Oklahoma City Thunder's title defense ended on Sunday night with a Game 7 loss at home to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, and it didn't take long for the NBA media machine to produce a gigantic trade idea for the Thunder in response to Wemby's dominance.

After suggesting that Oklahoma City's stellar GM, Sam Presti, might renew a push for Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer, Sam Amick of The Athletic also reminded everyone that the Thunder have long had their eye on Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley. Did you hear that, Cavs fans?

Are the Thunder already planning to trade for Evan Mobley?

"Nothing should be off the table when the end goal wasn’t reached," Amick wrote of Presti and the Thunder's front office. "There has long been chatter about the Thunder having interest in Cleveland big man Evan Mobley ... but Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman insisted in an end-of-season news conference that Mobley wasn't going anywhere."

Indeed, Altman did talk glowingly of Mobley on Friday during his exit interview and gave every indication that the Cavaliers plan to continue building the franchise around Mobley in the years to come. Mobley has four years and about $220 million left on his deal with the Cavs. He turns 25 in June. Cleveland has so many reasons to consider Mobley untouchable, starting with the fact that the Cavs view themselves as Finals contenders and wouldn't want to give up the type of Wemby defender in Mobley that the Thunder are likely now coveting with extra intensity.

Cavaliers aren't about to sacrifice their future to help OKC ... are they?

There's a widespread belief about the Cavs organization that they learned a tough lesson after LeBron James left (the first time around) pertaining to sustained competitive success, and how if you put all of your eggs into the basket of one player, you're setting yourself up for a period of irrelevance. This has convinced the Cavs that keeping Mobley as insurance for Donovan Mitchell's eventual departure is a non-negotiable necessity. Once Mitchell moves on, the torch will be passed to Mobley (if not before then).

On the other hand, we've seen the type of front-office wizardry that Presti is capable of. There are definitely some Cavs fans out there terrified that Presti could ring up Altman this summer and get the better of Cleveland.

There's also the question of what sort of return the Cavs would end up with in a Mobley trade. Would it be Giannis? Would it be Chet Holmgren? (No, thank you). Would it be some ridiculous bundle of future first-rounders, in addition to one of the above two names? Would Jalen Williams be involved? Presti is capable of anything. It's going to be a wild summer in the NBA.

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