Oklahoma City Thunder general Manager Sam Presti finally pulled the trade trigger again today shedding two expiring contracts in Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox (Packaged with the rights to 2008 #50 overall pick DeVon Hardin). In return the Thunder get an accomplished center in the midst of a down year. Despite the stats though, the Hornets are 10 games over .500 with him in the lineup, and right at .500 when he's not. The real win here for Thunder fans is getting some value out of expiring contracts without having to give up any of those stockpiled first round picks.
These two teams will be squaring off tonight in the Ford Center, but don't expect to see any of the players involved on the court.
For the Hornets, this was a simple case of dumping salary. For the Thunder this was a simple case of getting value out of expiring contracts. Tyson Chandler is a guy who really started to come into his own while playing in Oklahoma City for the Hornets, and its nice to have one of those guys back with the team. He's a defensive minded guy on the inside that is averaging 8 ppg, 1.4 bpg, and 8rpg this season. Both the ppg and rpg totals are significantly lower than his totals in the previous two seasons. He played 71 games in Oklahoma City for the displaced Hornets.