Thunder To Waive Mo Sene
After making two deadline-day trades that bumped its roster to 16 players, the Thunder is expected to waive seldom-used reserve center Mo Sene, according to a league source with knowledge of the team’s plans.
NBA teams are allowed to carry only 15 players, and the acquisition of Thabo Sefolosha and Malik Rose pushed the Thunder’s roster over the limit.
Sene is in the final year of a deal that pays him $2.2 million this season. The Thunder will be responsible for the remaining portion of Sene’s contract. Sene will be placed on waivers for 48 hours, but it’s unlikely a team will claim him off waivers. After 48 hours, Sene will become an unrestricted free agent and can sign with any team. Sene is averaging 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds in five games this season.
In other news, the Thunder has announced the deal with New York for Rose but have yet to announce the trade with Chicago for Sefolosha. But I have confirmed the Sefolosha trade and just got off the phone with Sefolosha. He said he is excited to join the Thunder and looks forward to starting a new chapter in his career in Oklahoma. I’ll post more of his reaction here soon.
-DM-
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
We didn’t get to see you play much, but best of luck in the future Mo! Hope you enjoyed your stay here in OKC!
Waive Sene even though Joe Smith wants a buy out to head to the Celtics? i thought the team and Joe had an agreement if he didnt get traded
Why not get rid of Sene and Rose and keep Smith? Especially since it looks like the Celtics are interested in Miki Moore.
They had to wave Sene now to get down to 15 players. They can spend more time negotiating a buyout of Smith with less pressure to settle. I say offer him 25% of what he is still owed and if he doesn’t take it, keep him until the end of the season and let him mentor the young players.
These aren’t draft day trades…a draft day trade happens on draft day…it’s complicated I know.
(DAK, what can I say? Long day. Thanks for the correction. -DM-)
These 2 trades look bad. I’d rather have the 1st round pick than a SG who can’t score. Rose is too old and can’t get any playing time on an injuy devistated Knicks team, plus we are strong already at the forward position.
Now that’s a thought that’s going to fester — why not waive Joe Smith instead of Sene? I hadn’t thought about that
It does seem odd that the club needing to free up a roster spot wouldn’t choose to waive a player they intend to waive over the next few days. Is Sam Presti thinking of keeping Joe Smith?
They wouldn’t waive Joe Smith because of the 48 hour waiver period mentioned above. There would be several teams that would be willing to claim him off waivers, and not necessiarly one he would like to go to, so I would think the team wouldn’t do that to him. Plus, his salary is twice the size of Sene’s so the team would have to pay him out more.
The Rose trade was done for money. It also lets Wilcox have a chance to play himself into a better contract with someone next year.
Presti has the payroll heading in the right direction for his cheap owner from $68 to $42+ million next season, a huge “improvement” in Bennett’s eyes.
Chandler would have seriously messed up that thinking with his $12.75 million player option in 2010/11. So taking on cheap, young, unproven players like the Chicago non-shooting guard (or C.J. Miles) will continue to be the vision in a small market.
Other than Earl Watson, OKC will be loaded with value contracts next season, all of whom produce for their money. Which other NBA team can say that?
They’re probably trying to give themselves more time to negotiate a better buyout from Joe Smith, to save more money.
Still, it’s a little weird they choose to waive Sene if they were going to waive someone else in a day or three anyway.
[...] Note: The Thunder have waived Mo Sene After making two draft-day trades that bumped its roster to 16 players, the Thunder is expected to [...]