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Will Kendrick Perkins fill the Thunder’s one available roster spot?
As he left the Thunder locker room on Feb. 15, Kendrick Perkins, the former Oklahoma City center who had attended that night’s game against the Knicks, said his goodbyes to a small group gathered outside.
“See y’all next Wednesday,” Perkins said.
It wasn’t clear if that hinted at a return to the roster. But if the Thunder wants to bring back Perkins — who has been out of the NBA all season — it now has a roster spot for him. Oklahoma City’s tradedeadline deal on Thursday sent Cameron Payne, Anthony
Morrow and Joffrey Lauvergne to the Bulls in exchange for
Taj Gibson, Doug McDermott and a 2018 second-round pick, a three-for-two trade that freed up one roster spot.
At his news conference Thursday night to discuss the trade, Thunder general manager Sam Presti said the team hopes to fill its 15th roster spot but declined to talk specifics, including about Perkins.
“Perk’s been here,” Presti said. “The door is always open to our former players, and so he’s part of the family. Him being here, I understand that, but I don’t want to speculate on who might be the 15th.”
It was clear last week that Perkins would like to be.
The 6-foot-10 center played in Oklahoma City from 2010-15, providing a defensive enforcer in the developing days of the Russell Westbrook-Kevin Durant duo. Perkins played for the Thunder in the 2012 NBA finals and has said repeatedly that being traded away in 2015 was an emotional experience.
As he works toward a comeback, a noticeably slimmer Perkins has circled Oklahoma City as a possible landing spot. He said last week he didn’t know if anything was in the works, but made it clear at the time he hoped to play again for the Thunder.
“I feel like I fit here,” Perkins told The Oklahoman last week. “From me walking in the facility earlier today, all the love and stuff that I got and then coming here tonight, and then after talking with Sam and Mr. (Clay) Bennett, you just know that it’s genuine. It ain’t like I got that many options that I can just pick and choose, but I feel like this would be a good place.”
Open options
The Thunder has other positions to explore as it looks to fill a roster spot.
Since returning from a foot injury that cost him the first 37 games of the season, Payne had been Oklahoma City’s primary backup point guard, a role that now shifts back to Semaj Christon, who held it while Payne was out. The Thunder also has used starting shooting guard Victor Oladipo in that position. “We feel pretty comfortable” with Christon and Oladipo, Presti said, though he didn’t rule out the possibility of exploring a backup point guard to fill the open roster spot. The Thunder will “take some time to actually make that decision,” Presti said.
OKC could look to the waiver wire as players are bought out by their current teams. Players waived on or before March 1 are playoff eligible with a new team.
Kanter practices
Enes Kanter went through a full practice on Thursday with contact, a protective wrap over the right forearm that’s kept him sidelined the past 10 games.
The Thunder wasn’t ready to declare Kanter ready for Friday’s game against the Lakers, and when asked if he’d play, the center was noncommittal.
“It’s a secret,” Kanter said. “I can’t tell you. It’s a surprise.”
Kanter felt “pretty good,” he said, in his first full-contact practice since he broke the ulna bone in his right forearm on Jan. 26, when he punched a bench chair in frustration.
Kanter was “scared” at first, he said, to put his forearm in an offensive player’s back to play post defense on Wednesday, but he tried to get over those fears. The Thunder will evaluate Kanter on Friday to see how he responds to a physical practice. And there’s a chance he could play, ahead of his original timetable.
“People said eight weeks,” Kanter said. “I’m back in four weeks. The (training) staff’s doing an unbelievable job.”
Cap stats
Thursday’s trade puts the Thunder about $1.9 million over the salary cap. Gibson’s $8.9 million salary eats up the space previously occupied by Morrow, Payne and Lauvergne, and then some.
The Thunder acquired a $7.4 million trade exception in a November deal that sent Ersan Ilyasova to Philadelphia in exchange for Jerami Grant. McDermott’s $2.48 million salary fit into that exception, leaving $4.9 million OKC can use if it makes a deal at the NBA Draft in June or anytime before Nov. 1.
Fond farewell
Morrow on Thursday took to Twitter to say his goodbye to Oklahoma City. The shooting guard signed with the Thunder as a free agent in 2014 and played 182 games for OKC.
“Oklahoma, thank you for all you’ve done my family and I,” Morrow tweeted. “I can’t express what this last 2.5 years have been like. It’s been a blessing.”