Eric Maynor Dealt to Blazers for Trade Exception

Via Darnell Mayberry:

The Thunder is not receiving a draft pick from the Blazers in exchange for Eric Maynor. Only a trade exception.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski:

Blazers will send the draft rights of Giorgio [sic] Printezis to the Thunder as part of the Eric Maynor deal, source tells Y!

According to several "sources", the Thunder have dealt guard Eric Maynor to the Portland Trail Blazers for a trade exception. With Eric Maynor having officially fallen out of the rotation and refusing to go down to the D-League, the trade was a foregone conclusion.

The Thunder were reportedly asking for a high price for Maynor, knowing well that he's an upper tier backup point guard in the eyes of most, and can provide nice stability and distribution for a backup unit that already has scoring power. But the market wasn't there, and the Thunder didn't want to make a larger scale deal. So they caved at the last minute and dealt him to the benchless Blazers for a Trade Exception.

What is a trade exception? It allows the Thunder to make a deal that's unequal while they're over the cap. In other words, they'll be able to take X Million more in a trade than they normally would be able to take.

Otherwise, the Thunder will also be getting the rights to Georgios Printezis. Considering he was a late 2nd round pick in 2007 and is only a role player for a Euroleague team, it's very unlikely that he'll ever come to Oklahoma City. He's just a name thrown in for technicality.

Update, via Mike Prada:

This deal helps provide even more wiggle room for Oklahoma City under the luxury tax. The Thunder were slated to be right up at the $70 million threshold prior to this trade, and now they can rest easy. Reggie Jackson has proven to be a much better option than Maynor behind Russell Westbrook, so this is no big loss for Scott Brooks.

It's unfortunate that Maynor's Thunder career flat-lined after last year's torn ACL, but they were right to cut bait.

GRADE: B+