Utah Jazz: 3 contenders that should trade for Rodney Hood
3. Oklahoma City Thunder
So far this season, we’ve all been waiting for the moment that the Oklahoma City Thunder kind of put it all together.
The Thunder enter Tuesday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets as the fifth seed in the Western Conference standings with a record of 26-20.
The current position for Oklahoma City isn’t bad by any means; it’s actually a position many expected them to be in at this point of the season. But it seems like the Thunder could provide more as the regular season concludes, and the acquisition of Rodney Hood could potentially help propel that.
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Hood could play a few roles within the Thunder rotation, including starting at the shooting guard spot to round out a potent lineup of Russell Westbrook, Hood, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and Steven Adams.
Hood could also come off the bench to bolster the Thunder’s second unit, one that is the third-lowest in the league in scoring.
The only thing that could hold this trade back is a lack of assets that Oklahoma City could provide Utah in exchange for Hood. The Thunder are without a first round draft pick this year (Minnesota currently holds the rights to that pick), but could potentially offer a future pick of some sort if the Jazz were interested.
Oklahoma City, however, could possibly provide a replacement for Hood in Utah, possibly shipping away the likes of Alex Abrines to the Jazz (though more salary would have to be attached to make the money work). The thing that could be appealing to Utah regarding Abrines is he is young, he has the ability to be a deep ball threat and he’s locked up through next season, making about $5.5 million this season and next.
Hood in Oklahoma City is interesting – if the Thunder could somehow pull it off – and would definitely help them heading into the end of the regular season and the start of the postseason.