Dallas Mavericks centre Tyson Chandler out there to prove a point: NBA Update
Dallas Mavericks centre Tyson Chandler, who is rocking the court with the current National Basketball Association finalist Dallas Mavericks, is still not sure on what grounds Oklahoma City Thunder decided not to take benefit from
his services.
More than two years ago, Oklahoma City were engaged in a trade with the New Orleans Hornets. In that trade the Hornets had to give up their big Tyson Chandler to OKC in exchange for Chris Wilcox, Joe Smith and the draft privileges
of DeVon Hardin.
However, the Thunder withdrew the deal barely 24 hours after the trade, due to fitness issues of Chandler. OKC’s medical staff was not satisfied with Chandler’s tricky toe and gave a negative report on his health. Chandler,
who has no explanation on OKC’s stand, said a day before that, “I honestly feel it had more to do with the salary. Because when I looked at it, it just didn’t make sense.”
Regarding the negative report on his toe Chandler said, “I just didn’t see that being that big of an issue. It all seemed fishy, to be honest with you.”
Chandler has performed extremely well for the Mavs in the playoffs and now Dallas is in the NBA finals with the series tied at 2-2. This must have made OKC realize that lost a great opportunity to drag Chandler in their squad.
After withdrawing the trade, Thunder general manager Sam Presti had said, “We have to listen to the people (conducting) our medicals. We feel the right decision for us was to move in another direction. We’re disappointed it did
not work out.”
Tyson on the other hand chipped in with 13 crucial points and clutched 16 rebounds to help the Mavs win a key game-4 against the Heat on Tuesday. This performance surely would have increased the regret of the OKC fans, who had
opposed the rescinding of the deal.
During the regular season, Chandler participated in 74 games in which he scored with an average of 10.1 points per game, grabbed 9. 4 rebounds in each game and blocked 1.1 shots. Tyson shot at a percentage of 0 .654 percent from
the field (this is his career high shooting) while from the free throw line he was 0.732 percent.
Not to forget his postseason performances, which provided him more minutes with every progressing series. In the quarter-finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, Tyson tallied 6.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in each game. The point’s
average increased to7.5 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Semi-Finals. Then, against the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, Chandler achieved new highs both in points and in rebounds (8.5 ppg and 10.6 rpg).
Against Miami Chandler is averaging 10 points per game and rebounded at an average of 9.5 in each game. This staggering performance by the 7 ft. 1 missile has definitely made many forget about the trade.
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