Westbrook rumored to sign his extension soon

[naabzor]

1. The money is insane, hard to say no to that
2. OKC showed real iniative when they traded for PG
3. If Westbrook left now after Durant, he would come out worse than Durant. Would be disastrous PR

Lol too little too late. Should we need to forget now the Harden fiasco? Or even the Ibaka one.

[BadWolf]

If this gets done, and I've believed it will, all it takes is a nice solid run into the playoffs and they might just have kept PG13 for the longhaul.

Russ - Roberson - PG13 - Patterson - Adams

a damned good starting 5 with guys like Kanter, Abrines, Felton, and McBuckets all coming off the bench is a pretty deep and balanced team, with some seriously good instant offense off the bench.

That bench is really bad, they really need Abrines and Ferguson/Grant to develop into something.

[FNQ]

If this gets done, and I've believed it will, all it takes is a nice solid run into the playoffs and they might just have kept PG13 for the longhaul.

Russ - Roberson - PG13 - Patterson - Adams

a damned good starting 5 with guys like Kanter, Abrines, Felton, and McBuckets all coming off the bench is a pretty deep and balanced team, with some seriously good instant offense off the bench.

That bench is really bad, they really need Abrines and Ferguson/Grant to develop into something.

I dont think Abrines is bad at all.. as a rookie he showed the ability to stripe it from 3. Coming over from Europe I expected his defense to be lacking, but his wingspan gives me hope that he'll be at least a capable defender at the 2. Worst case, he plateaus as a quality 3pt threat off the bench, but I can easily see him being a Bogdonovic or Korver type player going forward.

The bench's defense is bad though, really bad. Offensively.. they can score, and in a hurry. The one odd piece, to me, is McBuckets. I think he'd actually do well if he played significant time with Russ/George, because the more you turn him into a spot-shooter, the better he'll be. Like move George to SG, slide Buckets in at SF against a primo defender and see what he can do off the ball.

[Pillendreher]

If this gets done, and I've believed it will, all it takes is a nice solid run into the playoffs and they might just have kept PG13 for the longhaul.

Russ - Roberson - PG13 - Patterson - Adams

a damned good starting 5 with guys like Kanter, Abrines, Felton, and McBuckets all coming off the bench is a pretty deep and balanced team, with some seriously good instant offense off the bench.

That bench is really bad, they really need Abrines and Ferguson/Grant to develop into something.

I dont think Abrines is bad at all.. as a rookie he showed the ability to stripe it from 3. Coming over from Europe I expected his defense to be lacking, but his wingspan gives me hope that he'll be at least a capable defender at the 2. Worst case, he plateaus as a quality 3pt threat off the bench, but I can easily see him being a Bogdonovic or Korver type player going forward.

The bench's defense is bad though, really bad. Offensively.. they can score, and in a hurry. The one odd piece, to me, is McBuckets. I think he'd actually do well if he played significant time with Russ/George, because the more you turn him into a spot-shooter, the better he'll be. Like move George to SG, slide Buckets in at SF against a primo defender and see what he can do off the ball.

I've been advocating this for a couple of months now. I think the way to get the most out of those 'specialists' is to give them minutes with the starters. Russ+Kanter worked overall; Kanter without Russ was a disaster. It might give us less minutes with our starting 5 (which could very well be +15 pp100p lineup), but it would go a long way stabilizing the team without Russ. I wouldn't shy away from giving Roberson and Adams more minutes with the bench.

We cannont keep alternating between our best and our worst lineup. In Playoff games, that's gonna kill us (and it did vs the Rockets).

[MartinToVaught]

Westbrook deserves props from the fans and the media for staying loyal to his team. Blake does, too.

[ThunderBolt]

There seem to be a lot of conflicting rumors about whether or not this is happening. Sometimes I wish Woj was the only person with a twitter account.

[NaturalThunder]

1. The money is insane, hard to say no to that
2. OKC showed real iniative when they traded for PG
3. If Westbrook left now after Durant, he would come out worse than Durant. Would be disastrous PR

Lol too little too late. Should we need to forget now the Harden fiasco? Or even the Ibaka one.

Ibaka's trade was a fiasco? That seems to be what you're implying.

How, exactly, was that trade a fiasco?

[Thundestruck]

I live in OKC and follow the Thunder hardcore and I've yet to recognize any of the "reporters" tweeting out that it is a done deal or isn't going to happen. Doesn't mean any of them are wrong. I want to get excited but I need someone more known to start saying stuff.

[LofJ]

1. The money is insane, hard to say no to that
2. OKC showed real iniative when they traded for PG
3. If Westbrook left now after Durant, he would come out worse than Durant. Would be disastrous PR

Lol too little too late. Should we need to forget now the Harden fiasco? Or even the Ibaka one.

Ibaka's trade was a fiasco? That seems to be what you're implying.

How, exactly, was that trade a fiasco?

They traded the exact same pieces they received for Ibaka to get Paul George. So essentially they traded Ibaka for Paul George, not bad...not bad at all.

[jjscap]

Dude deserves bigger $ than anyone else. He brings his A game every game, every minute.

[Thundestruck]

Lol too little too late. Should we need to forget now the Harden fiasco? Or even the Ibaka one.

Ibaka's trade was a fiasco? That seems to be what you're implying.

How, exactly, was that trade a fiasco?

They traded the exact same pieces they received for Ibaka to get Paul George. So essentially they traded Ibaka for Paul George, not bad...not bad at all.

Exactly, they basically traded Ibaka for Paul George and Grant. Not sure how anyone can kill the Thunder for that move.

[ISayshowmee]

I think this would be great for OKC, then George can't talk Russell into coming to LA. The recruitment would only be one way with Russell trying to convince George to stay in OKC. It also would allow the Thunder much more flexibility in terms of future trades if they have Russell locked up. It also would signal to George how much Russell believes in the franchise.

Only way PG13 stays with OKC is to at least reach WCF....doable.

As a Lakers fan, the big fish is Lebron. Actually prefer Cousins over PG13 but will take them both anytime, anyday !!

[spicy6]

Read on Twitter

?s=09

Read on Twitter

Im actually surprised. He might actually be a lifer. Great for OKC and their fans, and I think Westbrook definitely deserves praise for this move if it comes to fruition

This is the supermax extension that OKC offered which could add up to 5 years 200 million to his current contract, but it can also vary based on the cap. Info was taken from here

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/news/nba-trade-free-agency-rumors-russell-westbrook-james-harden-contract-extension-details-analysis/zbvmhcto5n6a1etq4b5zg3r45

What anime is this your gif from btw

[Synciere]

So he deserves props for staying loyal to a team, but if the team decides to trade him, would they get the same hate as him leaving?

He's taking the money, and staying because he wants to. Maybe he loves OKC the city, but yall need to kill all this noise about loyalty. Most of you have advocated trading an under performing player at least once in your life. Where was your loyalty then? This isn't about family; this is business, and Russ staying in OKC is a business decision.

[Patches Perry]

So he deserves props for staying loyal to a team, but if the team decides to trade him, would they get the same hate as him leaving?

In the Thunder's case, yes.

[Patches Perry]

Not overly excited yet, but I do think he'll sign before the start of the season. I think Westbrook is loyal to the team that reached for him in the draft and kept him on the court when everybody had nothing but criticism for him in his first few years. He is also a creature of habit, keeps a small circle and Oklahoma fits him and provides him with a "big fish in a small pond" situation that allows him to be the biggest show in sports while also staying relatively low profile.

All that said, I can't say with any kind of confidence that I believe he'd stay if the money situation wasn't so advantageous.

[mtcan]

So he deserves props for staying loyal to a team, but if the team decides to trade him, would they get the same hate as him leaving?

He's taking the money, and staying because he wants to. Maybe he loves OKC the city, but yall need to kill all this noise about loyalty. Most of you have advocated trading an under performing player at least once in your life. Where was your loyalty then? This isn't about family; this is business, and Russ staying in OKC is a business decision.

Money is good, no doubt...but until you hear a player say that legitimately doesn't want to be in a city...you won't appreciate what resigning for any money means. Listen to a recent ESPN podcast with Stephon Marbury and his decision to leave Minnesota. He absolutely did not want to be in Minnesota...and his decision to leave was 100% that he did not see himself living in Minnesota. So that is the other side of an athlete's decision making process.

[whatisacenter]

Don't get this move at all, he should have waited until he was a free agent and joined whichever team he lost to in the playoffs.

[Synciere]

So he deserves props for staying loyal to a team, but if the team decides to trade him, would they get the same hate as him leaving?

In the Thunder's case, yes.

Only because it would run counter to the team winning. The team would be acting in its own best interests, but if a player does the same.........

It's still a hypocritical stance no matter how it's sliced.

[Synciere]

So he deserves props for staying loyal to a team, but if the team decides to trade him, would they get the same hate as him leaving?

He's taking the money, and staying because he wants to. Maybe he loves OKC the city, but yall need to kill all this noise about loyalty. Most of you have advocated trading an under performing player at least once in your life. Where was your loyalty then? This isn't about family; this is business, and Russ staying in OKC is a business decision.

Money is good, no doubt...but until you hear a player say that legitimately doesn't want to be in a city...you won't appreciate what resigning for any money means. Listen to a recent ESPN podcast with Stephon Marbury and his decision to leave Minnesota. He absolutely did not want to be in Minnesota...and his decision to leave was 100% that he did not see himself living in Minnesota. So that is the other side of an athlete's decision making process.

My point still stands: teams act in their best interests all the time, and trade players to locations they don't want to be in all the time. They keep players in cities they don't want to be in, and the system makes it so players have to give up millions to leave in many/most cases. When teams decide to trade players though, no one complains about loyalty. It never comes up. Fans want players to be beholden to franchises while franchises have carte blanche to treat players any way they deem fit.

This whole loyalty rhetoric is played out.