CoolBreeze44 wrote:Lots of media outlets are making a huge deal about this and I think it's a little overblown. I AM surprised by the move, but really all he did is guarantee he stays 2 more years instead of one. This isn't a lifetime contract he signed. He will soon get to decide again where he wants to continue his career. In fact the speculation will start after next years' finals.
Yes, aware of that. And he gains an extra $8mill this year (I wasn't even aware you could renegotiate an existing year of a contract) that he wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else plus a max year again next year while still retaining the ability to explore the market and sing new max-max deals (if the cap goes up further) in two years. So perhaps it's purely a financial decision and it's a reasonable tradeoff to add $8mill this year in exchange for committing a further one year.
But it's still a significant move from "the Thunder have to trade him for something because he's outta here". And as noted above, I think the most interesting part is the perception of personalities behind it all.
If I was an OKC fan this would be a pretty big deal. It's a pretty big win for a franchise that was on the verge of having to basically start all over even if they had some nice pieces.
Also how many times have people said they kinda want to see Westbrook do his thing and see what happens? Yeah sure the 2 years thing is a bit overblown but also a bunch of people assumed he was leaving BEFORE Durant left and now he is sticking around for 2 years? That really is sort of a big deal. I'm not shocked because so thought sticking around wasn't the dumbest idea because there is talent there and Presti has been really good. Also there is next to nothing to talk about so yay Westbrook staying OKC woohooo!!! Big story.
The two year aspect is overblown. While it will certainly allow him to leave should no progress be made, the flip side, and key point IMO is it will allow him to sign a supermax deal as a 10 year vet. If Russ wanted out there is, near as I can tell, zero reason to not just tell OKC now. They would deal him for the best package available, that he stayed and extended says a lot.
Great article. Interesting that most thought Durant would be the loyal one of the two. But we now see the folly in inferring someone's character from their outward demeanor. Then again, it always seems to be the ones with fierce competitive demeanor a that turn out to be the most loyal. So maybe outward demeanor is a window into someone's character, but it's not the outwardly "nice" guys who say all the right things to turn out to be the loyal ones or the ones you can count on. Rather, it's the fighters, the fierce competitors that you can count on to stay with and stand by you. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, Allen Iverson, etc. I'd add KG to that list. He never wanted out in spite of all those difficult years and screw ups by the front office. Those are are the sort of players you want to build your team around.
I am going to say this and see how people react, but Towns/Rubio seems to be closer to Durant then Westbrook to me. Hard for me do read Wiggins. LaVine seems to have a little fierceness in him. I sense Dunn has some of the leadership qualities this team lacked.
It's fun to make comparisons and predictions based on examples we have with Durant and Westbrook and others as Lip brought up but I think there is only so much we can take from this. Every situation has so many factors.
Part of why Durant left was he was tired of being the man. Maybe a factor in Westbrook staying was he wanted to be the man finally now that Durant was gone. I've read Durant is very impulsive. Are other guys impulsive therefore easily swayed?
Let's be real here about Westbrook staying even though I think it should be lauded. It's a pretty good situation in OKC. He gets a nice chunk of guaranteed money to stay and guess what they actually have good young talent. OKC is probably more ready to win now than the Lakers would be and OKC will be able to sign a max contract guy next summer. So what if OKC makes the playoffs and looks like they are one terrific player away from being a contender and get a Blake Griffin or someone else really good? Suddenly Westbrook is in a great spot competitively and he will get a ton of praise for being the guy. There are some real benefits to his loyalty. Plenty of guys stay in their situation because it's a good one. I don't want to completely downplay the loyalty thing but staying in OKC does actually make sense for a bunch of reasons.
As for our own guys we will see about loyalty etc. Let's not forget it's a 2 way street.
I saw where Westbrook could sign a 5 year/$204M contract next time... if he stays in OKC.
Wow.
[Note: the other part about the two players is their hangers-on. There are rumblings that Durant has gone through a fair share of people in his pro career with varying degrees of influence. Westbrook is notorious for not making friends with guys from other teams. He sticks to his wife, parents and brother. And his agent, obviously. That's it. He's a bit of an anomaly... on and off the court.]
I'm not a huge Westbrook fan, but I see the guy being the MVP this year and the Thunder finishing 4th or 5th in the conference. If Durant would have stayed I think they would have been the favorites to win it all.
TRKO wrote:I'm not a huge Westbrook fan, but I see the guy being the MVP this year and the Thunder finishing 4th or 5th in the conference. If Durant would have stayed I think they would have been the favorites to win it all.
I was thinking Westbrook has a shot at that MVP also. Last year with Durant he went for around 23/10/8. I expect those scoring numbers to jump up. I was thinking the last couple days how last year's season compared to a season MJ had and then I saw this.
