OKC Thunder Trade for Tyson Chandler

[3960HOOD]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3913301

OKC Gets - Tyson Chandler

NO Gets - Joseph Smith & Chris Wilcox

[Ming Kong!]

Haha, thanks for upping our playoff seed!

[El Turco]

in a way i am happy hornets are out of the way but otoh, divisional "rival" okc starting to look scary good.

[erudite23]

Yeah, this is only a short term boon for us. Durant is going to be a great player, but without a solid core of role players around him that can do the other stuff, he would be nothing more than another KG in Minny or C-Webb in Washington. Now all the Thunder need is an inside scoring threat and another shooter/distributor to take the load off of Westbrook and they will be a championship contender within two years.


On the other hand, its a sad day for NO fans. They basically just consigned Chris Paul to another 2 or 3 years of one-and-dones or lottery balls. That team was terribly thin, and their strong foursome of Chandler, Paul, West and Peja was the only thing that was keeping them from being just another mediocre team. Now that they took one of them away (and the youngest one, aside from CP), that team is screwed. I can't help but be a little happy.

[carrottop12]

This is actually a huge trade for the Jazz for two reasons.

1) The Hornets are garbage.

2) OKC was the biggest contender to sign Paul Milsap in the offseason because they had gobs of money to throw at him that no one else could offer with the expiring deals of Chris Wilcox and Joe Smith. Now they just took on 12 million dollars, so their cap is alreading going to have $51 million, leaving 8-9 million dollars to sign new players. Now, they are going to have a top 5 pick that will lock up at least another 4 million dollars, meaning they are at $55 in guaranteed money, and that's with only 10 players on the roster. Meaning they will have about 5-6 million dollars to sign at least two, and up to 5 players with.

Sorry OKC, Millsap isn't leaving down for 2-3 million dollars.

[CAE15]

Chandler is not that great, add a shooter and distributor to the thunder and they are title contenders? wtf are you serious? Chandler is abig guy who provides almost nothing on offense unless its a ally oop. he grabs boards blocks some shots, but thats about it. He makes the thunder better yes, but he doesnt propel them to actually make the playoffs next year and certainly does not make them a title contender ina few years.

[carrottop12]

If OKC lucked out and got Blake Griffin in the draft though they'd be sick.

Westbrook/Durant/Griffin/Chandler is a sick, super athletic, huge upside line up. Real nasty.

[edfmx86]

Doesnt make them contender for a title at all, but now we're going to the the jazz, nuggets, blazers and thunder fighting for playoff off spots in the future, which is not a good thing for the Jazz

[erudite23]

You guys have no idea how good Kevin Durant is going to be in two years. By himself, he will make them a playoff team. Add an improved, uber athletic Westbrook, a nice all around player like Green and then a potentially dominant rebounder, interior defender, and shotblocker like Chandler, and they will almost certainly have contender type nucleus. All they have to do is not take on horrible contracts and continue to add quality players and reasonable prices. IF they do that (a big if), along with getting another really good player in this years draft, they will almost certainly be contenders in a few years. Book it.

Durant will be a top 5 player by that time.

[El Turco]

it is not chandler that will make them good, it is the development of durant and westbrook. every good team needs its role players and chandler is a good one at that, especially with his post defense.

[carrottop12]

Agree with Erudite. They won't be a playoff team next year, but Durant is better then advertised. That kid is the real deal, and if he had been draft in the LeBron class I think he'd be the second best in that group. I really think he'll be better then D-Wade, his size and length is disgusting. He's going to be a freak.

[sendai91]

You know what is ironic about this is that NO might have the cap space if they hadn't signed Morris Peterson when the Jazz were interested in him a couple of offseasons ago. That guy has completely disappeared on a team that really needed him ever since he signed that deal and now it's crippling their ability to be competitive. I remember being really disappointed when that happened, and couldn't be happier about it now..

[Racer X]

Did the Hornets not understand how critical Chandler was to CP3/their success? The Chandler lob made the Hornets extremely difficult to guard because you either gave up a CP layup, Chandler lob, or open 3. Teams are not afraid of Chris Wilcox.

This was a good trade for the Jazz, atleast for the next couple years until OKC gets really good.

[DelaneyRudd]

OKC getting better in a few years is no big deal. One team will go up, another will go down.

[Pai Gow]

Don't forget Green, guy can be a monster too. Maybe their will be a division re-alignment?

[carrottop12]

So Chandler failed the Physical and is going BACK to New Orleans.

Good and bad for New Orleans. 1, they get back a better player, 2, they are in salary cap hell now come the offseason unless they can trade him again, or someone else for peanuts.

[gonzo]

Why did he fail???

That's even bigger news.

[carrottop12]

Turf toe. Honestly.

[seejaydeja]

**** that. I'm pissed.

[Racer X]

Thats some bs. I smell a conspiracy. I think Chandler told the Thunder he was going to be a complete @**HoLe his entire time there so they faked his physical.