NBA Trade Grades: Oklahoma City Thunder pick up rookie Isaiah Roby

It’s not a blockbuster, but the Oklahoma City Thunder got some financial relief on Friday when they reportedly acquired Isaiah Roby from the Dallas Mavericks.

The Dallas Mavericks, in what is a precursor for another move, traded rookie forward Isaiah Roby to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for center Justin Patton.

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Roby was taken by the Detroit Pistons with the 45th overall pick last June and was sent to the Mavericks in a trade six days later along with the Utah Jazz 2020 second-round pick and the Portland Trail Blazers 2021 second-round pick in exchange for the rights to Lithuanian wing Deividas Sirvydis, who was chosen 37th overall by Dallas.

Patton is in his third NBA season and Dallas will be his fifth organization since he was selected 16th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 2017 NBA Draft. Slowed by a troublesome left foot that cost him most of his first two years in the NBA, Patton has spent most of this season with the Thunder’s G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue.

Shams Charania of The Athletic was first to report the deal.

Tim Cato, who covers the Mavericks for The Athletic, reported Dallas doesn’t plan on retaining Patton. Instead the club is clearing roster space, either to sign a free agent to provide frontcourt depth after Dwight Powell went down with a ruptured Achilles on Tuesday or to make a trade in which the Mavericks will be taking in more players than they are sending out.

Based on what was reported later Friday evening by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, this will indeed be the case. Wojnarowski is reporting the Mavericks are finalizing a deal to get center Willie Cauley-Stein from the Golden State Warriors.

It’s the second trade in the NBA this week, after the Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings swapped role players Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver for Trevor Ariza and a couple of deep roster big men in Wenyen Gabriel and Caleb Swanigan.

The trade was the fourth since the regular season opened in October, with the Feb. 6 trade deadline now less than two weeks away.

Here’s how the trade grades out.