Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka reportedly will undergo minor knee surgery. With no timetable yet for his return, would it be worth it for the Thunder to look at free agent Andray Blatche?
Ibaka has already missed two games because of his knee and will likely miss more, according to ESPN's Royce Young.
"(Ibaka) will under a knee procedure to address some persistent soreness, sources told ESPN.com. It is not clear how long Ibaka will be sidelined following the surgery," Young wrote Monday. "Ibaka has missed the Thunder's past two games with what the team has called knee soreness. He will see a specialist for further evaluation, with the expectation for him to have a clean-out procedure in order to be ready for the postseason."
Although Oklahoma City has yet to confirm the surgery, ESPN's report indicates Ibaka is expected to be available in time for the playoffs.
Prefacing the following as purely speculative, unlikely to happen and just-for-fun, would Blatche be worth looking at if Ibaka's injury is more serious than it seems? Blatche is fresh off his season in China and would be available to play, if a team needed a big man. He has size at 6-foot-11, and he at times has an outside shot that would give the Thunder a poor-man's Ibaka, one far more inconsistent from the field and far less athletic.
Veteran free agent Rashard Lewis is the only other note-worthy name on the market, if Oklahoma City were ever to consider bringing in more depth.
The problem for the Thunder, though, is they already have a full roster and have limited money to offer. Even if Ibaka's recovery time did turn out to be longer than expected, the Thunder would likely promote one of their in-house guys for added frontcourt depth behind Nick Collison, Enes Kanter and Steve Adams, rather than bring in a veteran who'd need to learn a new playbook from scratch with the playoffs about a month away.
