Green drawing interest

The Thunder decided against a contract extension for Jeff Green before this season's deadline. Instead, they'll let him become a restricted free agent this summer and perhaps let the market set his value -- a value that may be less under a possibly more restrictive new collective bargaining agreement.

And as ESPN's Chad Ford wrote in his Wednesday chat, teams are also interested in the power forward as the Feb. 24 trade deadline approaches.

"He's got a lot of value," Ford wrote. "A number of teams are interested. The Thunder are going to need a big man though ... that's what they're hunting for. There aren't a lot of them available right now."

The likes of Anderson Varejao and Samuel Dalembert are rumored to be available, but it's sounding like neither might not be enough to part with Green, a player who's young, talented and has upside.

ESPN.com reports that Jeff Green might be available before the trade deadline.  This looks, to me anyway, a great way to use though expiring contracts to shore up our PF spot.  I know there has been a variety of thoughts on Green around here, but there is no doubting that he would be an upgrade (sorry McBobs and Hans) at the 4. 

With Jeff Foster and Solo Jones, with the Thunder reportedly needing big men, and our other expiring contracts I think we could put together a nice package to entice OKC.  They could certainly use Mike Dunleavy off the bench, although I'm not sure what kind of contracts they have that would match up. Not to mention Green would be a RFA come end of the season, giving us first dibs on re-signing the big fellah.

Thoughts?  Ideas?  To the Trade Machine...