Thunder ‘Open-Minded’ About Eric Maynor Swap

Coming into the season, there figured to be a competition for the Thunder's backup point guard spot between second-year man Reggie Jackson and Eric Maynor, who returned from missing most of last year with a torn ACL. Jackson has gained the upper hand, and with Maynor's rookie deal set to expire at the end of the season, several other teams have asked the Thunder about Maynor's availability, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Still, Spears says GM Sam Presti and company are inclined to keep Maynor, even as they keep open minds about the possibility of trading him.

A report about a month ago indicated the Sixers had explored the possibility of acquiring Maynor, who hasn't seen as many as 10 minutes in a game since December 17th. He's putting up career-worst numbers almost across the board, and wasn't particularly efficient even before his injury. The VCU product's best per-36-minute averages for points (10.8) and assists (7.5) were set during his rookie season, when the Jazz traded him to Oklahoma City. His career PER is a below-average 11.1.

The Thunder passed on an extension for Maynor before the season. If they don't trade him, they'll have to decide whether to tender him a $3.351MM qualifying offer before July 1st that would allow the team to retain the right to match offers for him when he hits free agency in the offseason. Maynor, the 20th pick in the 2009 draft, makes $2.339MM this year.

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