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Boban for Apples

Rolling Thunder: 05/02/2016

Boban Marjanovic is not a household name and unless you’d made a point of looking for him, you might not have even heard of him before! But the Thunder this week at least made his existence known a little further when they sent out German rookie Tibor Pleiss and a future 1^st round pick in exchange for the 27 year old Serbian rookie. Yes, a 1^st round pick. Those things that everyone (Nenjabin as much as anyone) covets, for a little known, 27 year old rookie. This left some GMs scratching their heads, and arguably, well it should.

“It doesn’t look like your typical Thunder move from the past few seasons”, GM Nenjabin said at the press conference. “We’ve been fairly hell bent it would seem on bringing in youth, acquiring picks, acquiring assets and patiently waiting on player development rather than making any sort of consolidating type move, with the Rubio deal a clear exception. Of course, this is far from a big splash!”

He’s right, there’s little splash to be had here, despite the size of the rock thrown. Boban is a 7’3, 290lbs big man who has suited up in 37 games as a rookie averaging 7.7 minutes for 2.6 points and 2.6 rebounds a game on 67% shooting.

“We feel our situation in Oklahoma is clearly on the change and the improve, and as such, if we hope to make it to the post season this year then twiddling our fingers and hoping our reserve big guys are available from the DLeague is simply not an option. We’ve had one mainstay on our bench in Nikola, and Joffrey will play most weeks but has had niggling injuries popping up. Tibor and Walter were week to week prospects as to their availability and this was hurting us. So we went on the hunt for a big man. Unfortunately the way our roster has been put together, we had salary constraints in the size of contract we could send back. We enquired around a lot of circles looking for an active big that we could accommodate financially, and we’d been declined at each avenue. We’d even been declined on Boban himself! So, we went searching for a 3^rd trade partner to help facilitate the deal by getting Boston what he needed also to allow him to move Boban. He’s not your flashy player, but he knows the game well, both ends, and can simply play the game of basketball.”

Boban’s upside is obviously limited being a 27 year old already, but he comes from a history of playing at high levels internationally including averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds a game last season in 27 minutes. Similarly his feeder league stats in the DLeague (25 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in 26 minutes a game) and NBA (5.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 8 minutes a game) show the same trend, Boban knows the game, knows his role and is more than capable of putting up numbers. In fact, his NBA averages are good for 25 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks on 60% shooting Per 36 minutes! Of course, he’s unlikely to ever see 36 minutes in a single game let alone consistently.

For now though, the Thunder see Boban as the bench big upgrade they require, simply to be active let alone have an impact, but he should also have quite the impact compared to what Tibor would have done at least this season, and that is key for a team aiming high.

Welcome Boban-ator to the Oklahoma City Thunder, our latest BFG.

- OKC News