Luke Ridnour just joined his fourth team (and counting) in a 24-hour span
Luke Ridnour entered the 2015 NBA offseason having played for five teams in his 12-year NBA career. One of those teams, the Milwaukee Bucks, featured him twice. That novelty was kind of canceled out by the fact that one of the other teams, the much-missed Seattle SuperSonics, doesn’t exist anymore.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
He’s the very definition of a “journeyman;” until this week, at least. Because we’re going to have to find a new word for the guy.
In a span of 24 hours, the former Orlando Magic guard was dealt three times. On Wednesday, the former Minnesota Timberwolves guard was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies for the rights to Jannis Timma, a 22-year old Latvian small forward. On Thursday morning, the former Charlotte Bobcats guard was sent from the Grizzlies to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Matt Barnes.
Later on Thursday the Bobcats then sent Ridnour (a former Seattle SuperSonics guard) to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Jeremy Lamb.
If you’re counting, Ridnour has been an employee of four NBA teams (Orlando, Memphis, Charlotte and Oklahoma City) in a day-long span.
If you really like counting, you can point out that Ridnour has now been an employee of the SuperSonics, Bucks, Timberwolves, Bucks (again!), Charlotte Bobcats, Orlando Magic, Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Hornets and now the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were once the Seattle SuperSonics. Ridnour was also both a Charlotte Hornet and Charlotte Bobcat in the span of 14 months.
What’s strangest for Ridnour is that he’ll more than likely get to add a ninth credit (not counting those two stints with Milwaukee) to his résumé this summer, as the Thunder are just about assured of cutting Ridnour before July 10, when his $2.75 million team option for 2015-16 becomes fully guaranteed. Ridnour, who averaged four points and two assists in 14 minutes a game last season, is well worth that money even at age 34 – but OKC is looking to shy away from the luxury tax, while opening up a roster spot to facilitate trades and/or signings.
This means Luke Ridnour will be a free agent in July, set to join his fifth team in a month’s time.
(There’s also this bit of bad news for Thunder fans:
… and yet the team will still enter 2015-16, health-willing, is a championship contender. The NBA is so strange.)
We say this in all sincerity: Luke Ridnour’s non-guaranteed contract for next season can help facilitate heaps of trades on the NBA’s draft night. It’s more than possible that he’s not done being bounced around yet, and that also goes for the NBA’s free-agent trading period that starts on July 1.
This post will be updated.
– – – – – – –
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
