OKC Thunder buyout Patrick Patterson potentially making room for Kevin Hervey

The OKC Thunder continues to make moves as the team is buying out power forward Patrick Patterson. Once Patterson clears waivers he’ll join the L.A. Clippers.

The next shoe dropped in the summer of trades and moves by the OKC Thunder. Reports are General Manager Sam Presti is moving on from power forward Patrick Patterson as the team is buying out the final year of his contract. Adrian  Wojnarowski broke the news today. Later updating it to confirm the expected destination for PPat is the L.A. Clippers.

While this move means Patterson becomes an unrestricted free agent and could join presumably a number of teams who would be interested it appears the rich will just get richer with LAC jumping on the opportunity. Although the Clippers won’t be able to confirm this news, once Patterson clears waivers expect a report confirming Woj’s mini bomb.

It’s been an unfortunate two season for the big man in Oklahoma City as he never fully recognized the same level of production with the Thunder he achieved with the Raptors. The thinking was when Patterson moved to OKC he would join the starting rotation but instead, the Carmelo Anthony experiment happened.

The big man also suffered knee issues which limited his offseason workout efforts. Moreover, Billy Donovan never fully committed to Patterson electing to go with Jerami Grant this past season as the starter and the coach also was inconsistent in the minutes the forward hit the hardwood.

In his two seasons with the OKC Thunder, Patterson posted the following stats.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/1/2019.

This move isn’t overly surprising given the new direction of the club coupled with the desire by Presti to lower the Thunder salary. The buyout will cost the Thunder $5.7 million assuming there were no agreed negotiations on price.

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Patterson was among the most popular Thunder players in OKC and became closely involved in the community especially with his Pat Presents Movie Screenings.

He should find minutes in LA given their lack of big man depth and hopefully regain the form he had from his Raptors days.

More importantly, this should clear the way for youngster Kevin Hervey to crack the varsity rotation. Hervey was the stand out for the squad in Vegas at Summer League and looks to be ready to take the next step.

With the team focused on the future this is the perfect time to get Hervey added into the mix and get him valuable minutes so he can build chemistry with the other youngsters expected to be part of the core moving forward.

Thunderous Intentions extend our thanks to Patrick Patterson for always leading by example in his brief tenure with the Thunder and the TI team wish Pat the very best in his new endeavors.