The Oklahoma City Thunder have been reeling for over a year since the James Harden trade and while the front office supported the move, the play on the court shows that it was a big failure and that could be one reason why another deal involving LaMarcus Aldridge and Serge Ibaka has come up.
Aldridge has been mentioned in trade rumors all summer, including one report that had the Blazers shopping him around the league for top talent. That report included proposed deals to the Hawks for Al Horford, the Wolves for Kevin Love, the Pelicans for Anthony Davis, the Bulls for one of their top players as well as the Clippers for Blake Griffin, but all were turned down. Aldridge is one of the top players at his position in the NBA, but all those teams were happy to sit tight. Now the trade for Aldridge and Ibaka has been brought up in a report from NewsOK.com from Oklahoma City and in that article writer Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman discusses the logic in the deal.
The report brings up the rumblings about a deal and Mayberry writes that while it sounds good overall since Aldridge is a prime player and Ibaka isn't, the logic still doesn't add up. He argues that Ibaka is more "battle tested" since he has played in the playoffs and while Aldridge is a better player, Ibaka has more postseason experience and he also made it to the finals once and the Western conference finals twice. He also argues that Ibaka is cheaper and younger, being 24-years-old when the season begins compared to 28 for Aldridge. Ibaka is also getting paid about $3 million less next season.
Mayberry relents that Aldridge is the better player, but the value for Ibaka is better. While that makes sense, it also sounds like the logic for the James Harden deal, that spending money there did not make the team better and could hold them back, but clearly Harden is developing into a superstar. The deal could fit for both sides here, as Aldridge has been a more consistent scorer with over 21 points in each of the last three years and playing alongside Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant could add even more to that.
The biggest issues would be that Aldridge still has $30 million and two years on his contract and after averaging 21.1 points and 9.1 rebounds last season, he could be even better this year. Aldridge is one of the best players at his position and while rumors have him fitting with the Chicago Bulls best, a trade to Oklahoma City could really shake up the west. He has career averages of 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.0 blocks per game and he could be that third star the Thunder now lack after the Harden deal.
Aldridge takes too many shots, but playing alongside Westbrook and Durant could help limit that and he would be another veteran presence down low that could be good for depth. The Thunder got Jeremy Lamb and not much else in the Harden deal and now that Kevin Martin jumped to the Timberwolves, that deal looks very one-sided. While the team did not want to pay Harden, they clearly made a mistake, as they had a chance to get to the finals last season, but it was thwarted by Westbrook's knee injury and without Harden in the fold, teams were able to jump on Durant.
