Report: Thunder trying to use trade exceptions to add a shooter

The stove, she's heating up.

On Thursday, a Yahoo Sports report revealed that it may be the Western Conference favorites jumping into the action first ahead of next Thursday's trade deadline.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, who sit atop the NBA with a 42-12 record with one game to play before the All-Star break, are said to be in the market for an additional shooter. They're reportedly willing to use their trade exceptions to acquire such a player - you can read about the machinations of trade exceptions here - and they have approximately $2.2 million in wiggle room beneath the luxury tax to add salary.

The Thunder have a $2.4-million trade exception from the Eric Maynor deal and a $6.5-million exception from the Kevin Martin deal, as well as a less significant $884,293 exception from a Ryan Gomes swap. In short, the Thunder have multiple ways to take back salary and save another team some money in doing so.

Adding a shooter appears a prudent move, as the team ranks 15th in the NBA with a 36 percent clip from long range and rank 17th in total 3-pointers made. Even those numbers are artificially high, however, inflated by Kevin Durant's incredible shooting prowess.

Outside of Durant, the Thunder can rely on Jeremy Lamb (36.3 percent) and occasionally lean on 39-year-old Derek Fisher (38.6 percent) and big man Serge Ibaka (15-for-40), but nobody else on the team is even an average long-range threat.

Among the West's elite, nobody hits fewer threes than Oklahoma City. It hasn't mattered much so far, but it's the one clear path to improving a team that already looks like a title contender.