How injuries impact the NBA’s trade deadline
On Thursday, Enes Kanter walked toward the sideline in the second quarter, ripping the neck at the front of his Thunder jersey, seconds away from a team-altering moment.
When the Thunder center slammed his hand down on a chair and suffered a right forearm fracture, did the team lose more than just one of the elite offensive big men in the game?
As the Feb. 23 trade deadline nears, it’s a question worth asking.
As teams prepare to bolster their rosters at the deadline, injured players don’t destroy trades in the NBA. Rather, they alter the conversation.
There’s been no indication that the Thunder is openly shopping Kanter, but teams have interest in the skilled 6-foot-11 big. The same way Sacramento was interested in acquiring Cameron Payne in the preseason before his foot fracture, however, an injury can slow trade interest.
Even with the severity of the injury in mind, teams still pull the trigger on trades, sometimes even taking a chance on a player with a future injury risk.
In 2011, the Thunder acquired a powerful big man at the trade deadline, one who had “ACL surgery, right knee” on his resume from 2010.
The then-26-year-old Kendrick Perkins showed enough in his first 12 games back with Boston to warrant the deal that ultimately changed the Thunder forever. Even when the Thunder acquired him, Perkins missed his first nine games with a medial collateral ligament sprain in his left knee.
The Thunder was comfortable with the information on Perkins’ recovery, willing to accept injury risk for an opportunity to solidify its defense.
On the other hand, in 2009, the team rescinded a trade for Tyson Chandler, whose physical ultimately didn’t vibe with medical officials. Yet, the trade was initially agreed upon between the Thunder and Hornets even though Chandler missed the previous 14 games with a sprained ankle.
“We were excited to add Tyson, but at the same time, we have to make tough decisions,” Thunder general manager Sam Presti said in 2009. “There were some things in the medical process, and outside consultants, that gave us some concern.”
Similarly, at last season’s deadline, Houston agreed to trade injured big man Donatas Motiejunas to Detroit. The Pistons OK’ed the deal knowing Motiejunas had played just 14 games that season due to back issues, but vetoed the trade after further evaluation.
“It’s disappointing because we saw the possibilities,” Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said last year. “I would do it over again. We did our due diligence and thought there was too much risk.”
What suffers most when players get injured is the number of options. Some teams don’t want to take on risk. Some can’t afford to wait on a player’s return – in Kanter’s case projected at four to eight weeks, in extreme cases a player like Sacramento’s Rudy Gay, who’s out for the season with a torn Achilles. Some teams are willing but want more to sweeten the deal, be it an additional draft pick or players.
The Thunder couldn’t add a 2017 first-round draft pick to any deadline deal. League rules say teams are unable to trade first-round picks in consecutive drafts. The Thunder’s 2016 firstrounder went to Philadelphia as a part of the trade that acquired Dion Waiters from Cleveland.
Predictably so, the offensive spacing Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka provided with their perimeter shooting hasn’t been replaced overnight. The Thunder has played itself into the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference as the league’s second-worst 3-point shooting team (32.7 percent).
With Steven Adams and Victor Oladipo each agreeing to long-term extensions in October, the 2017-18 salaries of those two, Russell Westbrook and Kanter are projected to account for close to $90 million. Thus, Kanter has widely been viewed as the most likely trade asset, one who happens to be playing the most efficient basketball of his career with the deadline less than a month away.
Kanter is coming off a strong January in which he averaged 16.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in just 24 minutes a game.
“In NBA games, momentum swings back and forth, and in a lot of ways, Enes was a guy that broke momentum for the other team,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said Saturday. “I don’t know how other people feel or view him. I know for me as a coach, he’s been a really efficient player.”
Whether Kanter actually winds up on the market, trading for an injured player is a risky play for any organization. As history’s shown, though, an injury doesn’t stop a sidelined NBA player from changing addresses as the trade deadline nears.