Thunder Send Ilyasova To Sixers For Jerami Grant

By Randy Renner, Senior Writer

Ersan Ilyasova already had his bags packed but as it turns out he probably placed the wrong type clothes in there.

Before Ilyasova left the Thunder practice facility to board the team charter for sunny southern California he’d been traded to Philadelphia.

The deal was first reported by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Thunder are also sending the Sixers a highly protected future first round draft in return for small forward Jerami Grant, the son of former OU and Chicago Bulls star Harvey Grant.

The Thunder will save a big chunk of change. Ilyasova is in the last year of a contract that’s paying him $8.4 million while Grant is being paid just $980,000 but his contract is not guaranteed. According to The Vertical’s Bobby Marks, the Thunder will go $7.1 million under the salary cap with this move.

Grant is 6-8, 210, a long and athletic wing player. He’s in his third NBA season and is averaging 8.2 points on 39.4 percent shooting overall but just 27.6 percent on threes.

Last season was his best when he started 52 of 77 games and averaged 9.7 points on 41.9 percent shooting while pulling down 4.7 rebounds a game and blocking 1.6 shots per game.

Wojnarowski is also reporting the Thunder and Sixers have been talking about a deal for Grant off and on over the last couple of months.

OKC has been looking for another small forward and Grant’s acquisition, coming less than a day after the Thunder and Andre Roberson couldn’t reach a deal on a contract extension might mean the team is looking at options to either replace Roberson if if he signs an offer sheet Oklahoma City doesn’t want to match next summer or Grant could possibly take minutes away from Kyle Singler who again is struggling with his shooting.