All signs continue to point to the Oklahoma City Thunder trading guard Reggie Jackson before the upcoming deadline. The question, though, is how much Jackson is worth and what the Thunder would be willing to trade him for.
Thunder guard Dion Waiters has gradually taken over the sixth man duties since Oklahoma City traded for him in January. All signs now point to Jackson being finished in Oklahoma City: Waiters is usually the first guard off the bench, he's averaging more minutes than Jackson and he's a cheaper option because of the two seasons remaining on his inexpensive rookie-scale contract.
Acquiring Waiters to fill the sixth man role means Thunder general manager Sam Presti no longer needs to tie up future cap space by re-signing Jackson, who'll become a restricted free agent in July, to a huge contract in the offseason.
Assuming Oklahoma City is shopping Jackson, they may not get the kind of assets they want in return. Teams are likely unwilling to give up anything worthwhile for Jackson if they can acquire him for free in the offseason. Moreover, teams are even less likely to trade a valuable asset for a reserve player who's expected to seek a max contract, something Basketball Insiders' Nate Duncan believes Jackson isn't worth.
Per Duncan:
"As for Reggie Jackson, I agree with you that I wouldn't pay him (an eight-digit salary). Jackson would probably be at best the 20th best starting point guard in the league. To me, his inability to help the Thunder to any sort of offensive efficiency while Durant and Westbrook were out makes it hard to give him high-level starter money.
"He does have a lot of physical potential, but his 3-point shooting has really regressed this year. A lot of the hope for his improvement was that he jumped to a respectable 33% last year after being in the 20s his whole career, but now he's back to 29%. He'll be 25 in April, so there is not a whole ton of upside left to explore here. What's more, not a lot of teams are desperate for a point guard. Maybe he'll get a big contract, but I wouldn't give it to him."
It could come down to Presti trading Jackson for cents on the dollar, just to avoid letting Jackson walk for nothing in the offseason. Teams reported as interested in Jackson are the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Knicks and the Sacramento Kings. Out of the three aforementioned teams, Sacramento is the most likely to actually land Jackson in a trade.
The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 19.
