Wednesday Bolts: 01.29.20

Chris Paul, who missed Monday’s game mourning the death of Kobe Bryant, penned a moving message to Bryant on his Instagram:

The Oklahoma City Thunder honored the memory of Bryant with a video tribute:

Shaq shared his emotions on the loss of his “brother.”

Elle Duncan, an ESPN anchor, told a beautiful story about how much Kobe loved being a dad, a girl dad:

Maddie Lee (The Oklahoman) shared the thoughts of Michael Cage and Derek Harper, the Maverick’s TV analyst, regarding the death of Bryant.  “Harper, the Mavericks television analyst, and Cage, the Thunder television analyst, learned along with the rest of the world Sunday that Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna, 13, had died along with seven others in a helicopter crash.  Cage and Harper came from the NBA generation just before Bryant’s. The first few years of Bryant’s 20-year career overlapped with the last few of theirs. Cage played against Bryant but knew him better as neighbor. Harper knew Bryant as a former teammate.  “Knowing Kobe the way I know him,” Harper said when asked about the players who had to take the court in the wake of tragedy, “he would have wanted them to carry on.”  So, Harper and Cage also carried on.

In case you were wondering, Isaiah Roby’s salary is not eligible to be aggregated in a trade because he was acquired using a cap exception, per Hoop Rumors.

Nader has been upgraded to questionable, but Terrance Ferguson will remain out for personal reasons tonight, per Erike Horne (The Athletic):

Paul is far and away the team’s leader in Total Points Added, but Nerlens Noel, Steven Adams, and Danilo Gallinari have also performed above the curve:

Shameless plug: I wrote a thing with the thoughts of some fans on the upcoming trade deadline.  What do you think the Thunder should do at the deadline, and how would you feel if the Thunder moved a key contributor?