THUNDER LEGACY
Tyson Chandler might have meant an NBA title for Thunder
What if the trade for Tyson Chandler had not been rescinded?
On Feb. 24, 2011, the Thunder traded for Kendrick Perkins and got the center it needed for its young core. A tough, defensive-minded leader who knew how to win, even at 26 years old.
It cost the Thunder Jeff Green, the old man of Thunder U., a 23-yearold matrix who could play inside or outside and was called Uncle Jeff in a culture with the young brigade of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka, the Baby Boomers who threatened to one day take over the NBA.
Two years earlier, the Thunder had traded for a tough, defensive-minded, 26-year-old center who didn't have championship pedigree but had elite athletic ability. And it didn't cost the Thunder anything close to Jeff Green.
The Thunder sent forwards Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox, plus the draft rights to Devon Hardin, to the New Orleans Hornets for Tyson Chandler, a 7-foot marvel who ran fast, jumped high, defended ferociously and was one of the best rebounders of the 21st century.
Chandler seemed the perfect fit for OKC. Harden and Ibaka were six months from joining the Thunder, but Durant, Westbrook and Green were budding stars with limitless potential. A defensive anchor in the middle figured to accelerate the franchise's transformation.
Chandler was with the Thunder for only a day. On Feb. 18, 2009, Dr. Carlan Yates, the team physician, recommended the Thunder rescind the trade, believing that Chandler's left big toe might not hold up to the rigors of the NBA. Thunder general manager
Sam Presti took Yates' advice, and Chandler was returned to New Orleans.
That rescinded trade has faded from Thunder storylines. Too many epic moments have shoved it the shore. The Perkins trade. The 2012 NBA Finals. The James Harden trade. Game 6. Kevin Durant's exodus. Paul George trades to and from OKC.
An 11-year-old non-deal, by a 13-40 team, seems minor by comparison. But it was not. If Chandler had remained with the Thunder, it seems quite likely that a decade of OKC success would have been even more glorious.
The Thunder won 10 playoff series in the `10s, all of them from 2011 through 2016. The Thunder was always relevant, almost always a contender and always fascinating. But the Thunder never was the champion.
Chandler could have made the difference.
This is not to discredit Yates. Medical people, then as now, know more than us civilians about medical matters. We should listen to them, and Presti did. The concerns over Chandler's health were legitimate — at the time of the trade, he had missed 12 straight games with a sprained ankle but quickly returned to the Hornets that season and played 12 games, only to miss 15 straight games before returning for the regular-season finale and the playoffs.
And over the subsequent seasons, Chandler only twice played more than 66 games. But the years stacked up. Chandler, 37, plays still. He's with the Houston Rockets in this suspended season, and what a career.
In the 11 seasons since that rescinded trade, Chandler has played 623 games, started 522, averaged 26.6 minutes, 8.2 points, 9.0 rebounds and shot 63.8% from the field.
Chandler was a 2013 all-star, the 2012 NBA Defensive Player of the Year and one of the lynchpins to the Dallas Mavericks' 2011 NBA championship.
Chandler must be viewed as opportunity lost for the Thunder. Starting with this: he cost virtually nothing.
Smith and Wilcox were down-the-line players; they ranked 11th and 12th, respectively in minutes per game for a team that was in its maiden Oklahoma City season.
Presti was beginning to make his mark as a vulture, lifting quality players off teams that had payroll problems. The Hornets were losing money in their second season back in New Orleans full time; Chandler was due to make $12.3 million in 2009-10 and had a player option for $13.2 million in 2010-11.
Smith was in the last year of a contract that paid him $4.8 million; Wilcox was in the last year of a contract that paid him $6.75 million. Within a week or two of the rescinded trade, the Thunder bought out Smith's contract and traded Wilcox to the Knickerbockers for Malik Rose, who played 20 games down the stretch and never played another NBA game.
Getting an allstar-caliber center for Smith and Wilcox was a master move.
The next year, when Harden and Ibaka were rookies, the Thunder blossomed, won 50 games and took the defending and eventual NBA champion Lakers to six games in a first-round playoff series. That's with Nenad Krstic, a serviceable but limited center.
Put Chandler on that 2009-10 team, with all those young guns, and the Thunder would have won more than 50 and not been playing the Lakers in the first round.
Put Chandler on the 2010-11 team, when Harden and Ibaka were no longer rookies, and the Thunder might have been the best team in the Western Conference.
Put Chandler on the 2011-12 team, which made the NBA Finals anyway, and, well, sometimes you want to cry.
This is no knock on Perkins, who was a valuable foundation for those Thunders. He helped get OKC over the playoff hump. A young Perkins was quite the player. He remains a Boston icon to this day, for his many contributions to the Celtics' 2008 NBA championship. But by the time the `10s arrived, Chandler was a far better player.
Chandler cost more, too, and that has to be considered. He was a $13 million-a-year player in the early part of the decade, about $4 million more than Perk cost.
But that 2012 NBA Finals team would have been more than just a Chander-for-Perkins swap. Presti and Scotty Brooks also would have had Green and Krstic at their disposal — or whatever could have been gleaned in a trade.
Trading Green seems best, rescinsion or not. Green was a favorite of Foreman Scotty, and you can't blame him. Green often was overmatched as an undersized power forward who fought hard and could score a variety of ways. But Presti's trade for Perkins forced Brooks to start Ibaka at power forward, which is what needed to happen. Ibaka, as you well know, has been a heck of a player for a long time.
Maybe instead of trading Green and Krstic for Perkins, Presti could have swung a deal for another shooter. Presti already had obtained Thabo Sefolosha for elite defense. Or maybe Brooks would have realized Ibaka's potential and brought Green off the bench. If a 25-year-old Jeff Green is your seventh man — Harden was sixth man, remember — you've got a heck of a team.
You probably have an NBA champion. Instead, the Thunder still seeks its first parade.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-7608080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. You can also view his personality page at oklahoman.com/berrytramel.