With the trade deadline closing in at 3 PM ET on Thursday, we've seen all kinds of deals in the past couple of days; some bigger than others. The one between the Hornets and Thunder seemed to fall under the "bigger" category, simply because it sent New Orleans' best defensive player out of town, albeit in a move widely condemned by the players as purely financial instead of one meant to improve the team.Well, the players can relax now and pretend that this deal never happened. Because it didn't -- the Thunder have rescinded the trade, and Tyson Chandler has returned to the Hornets. The best alley-oop in the game has been resurrected.
Basically, Chandler wasn't cleared by Oklahoma City's medical staff, and as such, their shrewd GM Sam Presti called the whole thing off.
"During the course of the physical examination and outside consultations some questions arose that gave us cause for concern. We felt that this course of action was best for our organization."Presti and the Thunder are building for the future, and actually care about the players coming their way in any trade. If the physical was failed by Chandler, it makes sense that they'd pull the plug and look to deal elsewhere before Thursday's deadline.
As for the Hornets, their GM Jeff Bower did his best to put a positive spin on the situation.
"We welcome Tyson back with open arms," said Hornets General Manager Jeff Bower. "We went into this trade to garner more frontcourt depth to add to our team as we continue our push towards the playoffs. We expect Tyson and the rest of our big guys to step up to the challenge."There isn't much truth there, except the part about expecting Chandler and the rest of the team's bigs to step up. I mean, when the players themselves are grumbling to the media that the trade isn't an improvement and is simply a cost-cutting move, you can be assured that's exactly what was going on.
Just like there's time left for the Thunder to legitimately try to get better before the deadline, there's time left for the Hornets' ownership to try to cut costs. They'll just have to do it by unloading somebody else, because no team is going to trade for someone that can't pass a physical -- except maybe the Knicks.
