The benefits of the T.J. Leaf trade for the OKC Thunder

The OKC Thunder have successfully completed yet another trade, this time sending Jalen Lecque to the Indiana Pacers for T.J. Leaf.

The OKC Thunder continued their roster readjustment this offseason by flipping Jalen Lecque to the Indiana Pacers. In return, the Thunder received the 6’10” power forward T.J. Leaf, and a future second-round draft pick per Woj of ESPN.

Of all the players the Thunder got back as part of the Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder trades, Lecque was the second last to be flipped. The Thunder only has Ty Jerome left from the original deals and it feels as though Sam Presti is going to see what he is capable of.

What the OKC Thunder have in T.J. leaf is a fourth-year player who had never been able to crack the Pacers rotation. He was the 18th pick in the 2017 NBA draft and is in the final year of his rookie-scale contract.

The hidden benefits of Leaf for the OKC Thunder.

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With Leaf being in the final year of his deal, he is going to be keen to show what he is capable of. Given that he has not been able to get on the court for any meaningful minutes, Leaf is going to be desperate to show that he is worthy of another NBA contract at the end of this year.

On top of that, if he can produce then there is the chance that Presti has moved the rebuild forward slightly by adding him. As well as this, Presti added another second-round pick into his collection, all for the cost of Lecque who appears to be a younger version of Hamidou Diallo, that the Thunder exercised the team option on just days ago.

Lecque was due $1.5 million next season, with two further years available, where Leaf is due $4.3 million in his final year. While most teams would like to have Lecque’s deal, the OKC Thunder are so far under the salary floor, they can afford to take on some of the more undesirable contracts.