His extension was 4 years/$11 million and became effective this year. They gave him a balloon payment of $13 million last year. Total comes to 5 years $24 million but the up-front payment made the whole thing very cap friendly to the Thunder, who knew they had to pay the big guns in the future. Collison does a whole lot more than set picks. You need to watch OKC more often.
Where's the "Keep Harden and Ibaka, but trade Westbrook" option? The Thunder don't miss a step if they do that.
i would rather keep harden, but with durant and westbrook already on the perimeter and not as many options for harden to really explode into his own..im sure he will pursue a max deal somewhere else.
Ding ding ding ding. We have a winner. Or trade Westbrook with an under-the-cap team for a Lowry-type contract. Some sort of deal where they get a really good PG (not one of ours, of course: Lowry, Dragic, Llull) and free up some cap space. Not an easy thing.
Gotta be Harden. I love Ibaka, but he will not be a superstar, just a fantastic role type player and elite level defender. Harden on the other hand could become a true star in his own right.
Ibaka. Athetlic big men who play defense are harder to come by than shooting guards, that's no knock on Harden, but it's easier to find a Jason Terry or Manu than it is to find a Garnett.
Right now it's Harden. He is best 22yo player in the world. The second most efficent scorer(1.65 Points per shot) in the NBA. He is best passer and playmaker in OKC. But, we can't know how will Ibaka develop. Big mans needs at least four to six year to find who they are and improve. He is already making 18 foot jumpers pretty constantly. If he develop post game and extend his range to 3 pointers(he is actually 100% from downtown this year, 50% career) then it's really tough call. But I think OKC will keep both, if they would want to stay. Sam Presti already said that going over salary cap is something what can happen, if they will be legit championship conteder, which they already are.
everytime i think one player, my brain starts saying no, it should be the other guy. typically i would keep Harden. But his position does seem to be a little duplicative, in the sense that he, Durant and then Westbrook would all be very similar. whereas Ibaka provides something completely different, and extremely valuable. I think I still go with Harden, because as someone else noted, Ibaka seems like his upside is a bit limited - still great upside, but he's not going to become KG or anything.
Westbrook is a top 10 player in the NBA this year. So the Thunder have 3 top 10 players in the NBA? And people b**** that Lebron has too much help...
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Guess I worded wrong, Harden is not better then Westbrook right now but if the chance presents itself he has the ability to be better. & I do see the difference between Ibaka & Wallace, that's why I said Ibaka is Wallace 2.0, as in, a better version. Wallace was one of the best defensive players to play the game in his day & he won a championship, even if I was comparing him to Ibaka that might not be too shabby for Serg.
