The Oklahoma City Thunder have made yet another trade, this time sending Jalen Lecque to the Indiana Pacers for former first-round pick, T.J. Leaf. As first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Indiana will also send a future second-round pick to Oklahoma City as part of the deal.
Lecque was obtained by the Thunder as part of the Chris Paul trade less than a week ago and is the now third player from that deal to already be flipped.
Oklahoma City will get a chance to work with Leaf to get his career back on the right track while also obtaining even more draft capital. While in a rebuilding pattern, taking a chance on a guy like Leaf is something worth trying. The Pacers get a very young, athletic guard who has barely scratched the surface of his potential.
Last season in Indiana, Leaf averaged just 3.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in very limited action. Lecque on the other hand spent most of his time in the G League, producing 13.4 points, 3.4 assists and 3.3 rebounds per contest for the Northern Arizona Suns. He was signed as an undrafted free agent prior to last season after skipping college to go straight to the NBA.
While this deal is small relative to some of the other moves around the league recently, it made sense for both parties.