The Oklahoma City Thunder have had trouble finding depth at guard for the last few years and it’s only gotten worse with the injury to Andre Roberson. They’ve tried Dion Waiters and Anthony Morrow at shooting guard and used Cameron Payne and D.J. Augustin at point guard to back up Russell Westbrook. Unfortunately, they haven’t found a formula that’s worked.
As a result, general manager Sam Presti was forced to scour the trade market for some help in the backcourt, and he found the perfect solution in Denver Nuggets guard Randy Foye. Foye can not only run the point to give Westbrook breathers, but he could very easily play alongside him and send Waiters to the bench, making the Thunder even more dynamic.
Oklahoma City will DJ Augustin, Steve Novak and two second-round picks to Denver for Randy Foye, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) February 18, 2016
Foye is only averaging 6.0 points, 2.1 assists and 1.9 rebounds per game this season, but he’s been playing a career-low 19.8 minutes in Denver while Emmanuel Mudiay, Will Barton and Jameer Nelson have been receiving most of the time in the backcourt. With the added role and responsibility in Oklahoma City, those numbers will only go up.
According to The Vertical, the Nuggets plan on moving Novak’s contract elsewhere but will keep Augustin. The deal doesn’t really do a whole lot for them, as Foye was obviously not getting many minutes and Augustin is likely to take on his role unless Nelson’s injury is season-ending or Barton is surprisingly dealt, which is unlikely to happen.
This is a nice, under-the-radar move for the Thunder who are now the biggest threats to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference.
