It’s been oddly quiet on the trade front.
The common thought was that Oklahoma City was going to be (or at least look to be) one of the big sellers this season, trying to move some of their more valuable pieces and go full rebuild with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and their stockpile of draft picks.
Though there is still no word about potential deals including Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari or Steven Adams, there is an OKC player that could be on the move in the coming days.
According to John Hollinger of The Athletic, the Thunder are likely to trade Justin Patton sometime in the coming week.
With the Thunder a mere $750,250 into the tax and Patton’s deal non-guaranteed, the stars are not aligned in the young center’s favor. By emulating the Houston move enumerated above and paying another team to take Patton and waive him, the Thunder could promote 2-way player Luguentz Dort to get the roster back to 14 and then sign another 2-way, and stay under the tax. As with Gary Clark above, Patton could only be acquired by one of the nine teams with workable trade exceptions, or by the Hawks via cap room.
Patton is in his third year in the league, his first in Oklahoma City. He’s played in two games for the Thunder, averaging 1.0 points and 1.0 rebounds in 4.5 minutes of game time.
He has spent most of his season with the Thunder’s G-League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue. Patton has played in 19 games for the Blue, starting in 18. He’s averaging 10.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 27.1 minutes per game.
Oklahoma City signed the former 2017 Chicago Bulls draft pick on August 13, after he was waived by the Philadelphia 76ers back in April 2019.