In the wake of losing All-NBA defender Andre Roberson to a ruptured left patellar tendon for the remainder of the 2017/18 season, the Thunder are interested in trading for newly-acquired Clippers guard Avery Bradley, reports Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
Bradley, who is in the final year of his contract, likely doesn’t fit into the Clippers’ long-term plans, and Oklahoma City appears interested in taking advantage of a potential deal as a result.
Long considered an elite man-to-man defender in this league, Bradley would be able to step in for Roberson admirably, while at the same time giving the Thunder an upgrade on the offensive side of the ball, where Bradley is a career 36.8 percent shooter from long range (Roberson’s career three-point percentage is 25.7%).
Despite the Thunder’s interest, however, it’s difficult to envision a plausible scenario in which a potential trade would occur. The Clippers are building for the future and the Thunder don’t have a first-round pick to trade until 2022 at the earliest.
Also, Bradley is making $8.8MM this season and the Thunder’s best pieces for salary-matching purposes include some combination of Alex Abrines, Patrick Patterson, and Kyle Singler, none of whom are on an expiring deal or overly productive.
The Thunder would likely have to throw promising rookie Terrance Ferguson into any plausible deal in order to realistically pique the Clippers’ interest, and the Thunder are thus far unwilling to do so, per Bontemps.
LAC can surly do better than anything OKC can offer them, right?
For sure. A lot of people should be interested in Bradley.
Not for sure.
Bradley is definitely a rental for this season only. He’s going to want huge, huge money next year and the buying team this year is a playoff team with not much cap room…. so thus the rental.
How much will you give up for a rental? I think OKC is a definite possibility when thinking of teams who could pull the trigger.
Bradley is good and should not be traded for trash players
What’s OKC going to offer? Singler Huestis and a 2022 1st round pick? OKC doesn’t have anything to give up.
The question is, how do you compare what another team would give up to what OKC would give up for a rental?
But you know what, I agree OKC has not much left in the bank to offer in a trade.
But I don’t think another team would give up a first-round pick for a rental? Would you if you were the Celtics or the Cavs or anyone else contending?
It’s probably going to have to be a mix of desirable contracts or expiring contracts or whatever. Who knows.
“…huge, huge money…”
Sounds like someone we all know.
Yes it does.
The Clippers should be interested in him since they are still a playoff team. Either that or the NBA seriously needs to think about removing half the teams from the playoffs altogether since they are still going to tank too.
It would be the biggest surprise trade if Bradley & DJ end up in Cleveland. Not improbable coz it’s an open secret now that the Cavs & the Clips are negotiating a trade.
yet they can’t even get him because he is on restriction
I’d be willing to dump turd ferg if we can include singler.