Matt Harpring

Matt Harpring - Harpring does TV work for both the Jazz and NBA TV.

- Matt Harpring

Harpring was a member of the Thunder's roster until just after the trade deadline, when the Thunder quietly waived him. Before that time, Harpring was doing TV work for the Utah Jazz; after that time, he still is.

Dallas' deadline deal for Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood was proof, to an extent, of what I said at the time about the deal that first brought Harpring and Eric Maynor to Oklahoma City. Had OKC held on to that cap space longer, I believe they could have gotten more for it; by offering some long term salary relief (which OKC could do), as well as short term salary relief (which OKC could do even better than Dallas), OKC could have received the package that Dallas did instead. The Thunder are already very good, but put Brendan Haywood on this team, and they become amongst the West's very best. This was doable. And so while Maynor is a nice player for them, I still think it was premature, and a misappropriation of their unrivalled resources. (Of course, this can never be proven. But the Dallas deal suggests it was the case.)

Oklahoma City were able to make this trade because they had roughly $9 million's worth of cap room. As documented here, Oklahoma City had about as much cap room as anyone this summer, and could have bid on a number of quality players that filled a need (including Utah's very own Paul Millsap, whose new contract is ironically the reason for the need to salary dump in the first place.) They didn't do this, though, instead choosing to sign two of the worst players to have ever had ten or more year careers; Kevin Ollie and Ryan Bowen. Reasons like this are partly why; they maintain their cap flexibility for next summer, while using their untouched space to acquire talent during the season. Just like Memphis did in 2008/09. But more on that later.

It's interesting that they moved so early, too. With so many teams destined to be tax payers this year (14, at last count), you would think it'd be inevitable that, come trade deadline time, teams would be bending over in front of the Thunder, offering up penetration or whatever Sam Presti wanted if it meant that they could use some of the Thunder's cap space to save some of their excess salary. Yet instead of waiting for the deadline, Presti has acted two months early, and used it up on a projected backup. Maybe that was the best deal they can get. Maybe they have further plans for Harpring's expiring, and needed to get it while they still could. But it seems unlikely that Maynor and Harpring would have been the best available assets had they waited it out.

I guess they just really like Maynor. Perhaps a little too much so. We'll see how this works out come deadline day.