Official Off-Season Thread

[CKRT]

I think it's important to realize how far we came this year. Most didn't even have us making it out of the first or second round, and yet here we made it to the WCF. Time to look forward to Presti making moves and everyone improving for next year, something that didn't get to happen much with the Olympics last summer.


Here's what needs to happen this off-season

-Harden NEEDS to start.

-Thabo needs to be restricted to only playing back up minutes to Durant unless we are playing a team with a slashing guard. If Brooks stays then I think Thabo just has to go, similar to his infatuation with Green, he's not going to reduce Thabo's minutes regardless of the better talent that deserves more beneath him.

-Resign Cook to a cheap contract, it's important we do not overpay for him.

-Either sign someone like Courtney Lee or draft a SG that can create for the bench. If those aren't viable options then the rotations HAVE to be staggered so 1-2 of Durant/Westbrook/Harden is on the floor at all times.

-Westbrook needs to work on not turning the ball over so much. This kills us in games. Needs to watch lots of game film this summer and figure out how to work on his shot selection. I expect to see most of his flaws being shown now will be mostly corrected with Harden starting and Ibaka developing his offensive game more. I expect Westbrook to make another jump this off season.

-Harden needs to work on being more consistent, which I believe will come with getting more minutes. Needs to work on finishing with his right hand. In the game tonight he was forced to go right and tried to finish with his left and turned the ball over. That's unacceptable and teams will exploit that. Harden has shown he's great at decision making and is our best playmaker as well as best player with the PnR. I want to see him get doubled next season and see how he responds under that pressure. Needs to focus more on finishing at the rim instead of trying to flop and get the call.

-Durant needs to work on being more aggressive and not sitting at the 3 point line waiting for the ball. Move! Same goes for entire team, when you don't have the ball you need to be moving. Our offensive should not go stagnant for long periods of time like it currently does.

-Ibaka and Durant need to develop a post game. This is absolutely essential if we want to get to go deep again. Send them to work with Hakeem. Worked wonders with Dwight.

-If Brooks isn't fired then he better have one hell of an off season learning how to run an offensive and defense beyond saying redundant things like "ALL 5 GUYS NEED TO REBOUND". He also needs to learn to make adjustments and stop being so damned stubborn.

-Lock Perkins in a gym and force him to work on his FTs. He also needs to do something with his stone hands, I'm not asking him to suddenly become Webber here, I'm just asking for a little better handling and not traveling so much every time he gets the ball.

That's all I have off the top of my head. Thoughts?

[HeartSouloma]

And send Perkins down with Durant/ Ibaka to work with Hakeem, and I want to see some more foot with Perkins. He's only 26 thats still pretty young, and he needs to go to the gym more and get faster.

As for coaching if Scott stays we need to hire a good offensive coach. And bring in Lawrence Frank to work with our bigs. And we need to sign a guy who can score for us off the bench...

[fallacy]

- Harden needs to start

- Let Nazr go, no need to really resign him unless its a Collison-level contract

- Let Cook go. Sign a better backup free agent that can play the 2/3 and shoot threes since Harden will now be starting

- Let Perkins get fully healthy

- Let Westbrook, Durant, Ibaka, Harden all improve their games, they'll all be 23 and under next year

- Easily the biggest one; Fix the coaching. Either get new assistants, a new head coach, or have brooks change his philosophy. Just fix it

[slick_watts]

No mention of probably the biggest task of the offseason: extend Russell Westbrook.

[CKRT]

No mention of probably the biggest task of the offseason: extend Russell Westbrook.

Doh'! Felt like I was forgetting something. For some reason I thought he had one more year. I have faith Presti won't give him a max and instead go for something a little smaller. He deserves one for sure, but Presti will want to keep Harden and Ibaka I think. Going to be weird to see how this works out between Harden and Ibaka.

[Earl Sweatshirt]

hings that need to be dome before next season...

1. Durant needs a mentor, or a real coach. He has all world potential, but he'll never reach it if he doesn't learn the nuances of the game. He needs to put on weight and become stronger, and more importantly, learn to use his height and reach to his advantage. He also needs to develop a post game, and use his unreal length to become an elite defender. He has a long ways to go. I just hope he see's his potential, and and works hard to reach it.

2. Ibaka needs to be sent to work with Hakeem over the summer, the same way Dwight was last summer. He, like Durant, has unreal potential. He just needs guidance.

3. I'm not too worried about Westbrook. He could use an attitude adjustment, but he's young and maturing. He definitely needs to work on his court vision and basketball iq, if that's at all possible, but all I see is improvement in his future. We need to make sure we extend him though. Hopefully, for less than the max.

4. James Harden needs to keep being James Harden. That's about it. Work on the defensive end, and he's golden.

5. Perkins needs to get healthy. That's pretty much all I can ask of him.

6. Scott Brooks needs to be replaced. He isn't a good coach. It's that simple. This team is on the cusp of creating something special, they just need someone to mold the clay. He isn't it.

[Hobes]

If we sign RW to the max, how badly would that affect our team in the future? Can we still retain Harden and Ibaka with such a high payroll? I'm worried.

[slick_watts]

If we sign RW to the max, how badly would that affect our team in the future? Can we still retain Harden and Ibaka with such a high payroll? I'm worried.

Depends on how much the team is willing to spend. If we're contending for titles at the time I would hope they'd spend the $$$ to keep the four of them together. Westbrook is more important than either Ibaka or Harden though so you give him what you need to give him for him to stick around.

[Earl Sweatshirt]

If we sign RW to the max, how badly would that affect our team in the future? Can we still retain Harden and Ibaka with such a high payroll? I'm worried.

Depends on how much the team is willing to spend. If we're contending for titles at the time I would hope they'd spend the $$$ to keep the four of them together. Westbrook is more important than either Ibaka or Harden though so you give him what you need to give him for him to stick around.

Why do you feel Westbrook is more valuable than Harden?

[slick_watts]

If we sign RW to the max, how badly would that affect our team in the future? Can we still retain Harden and Ibaka with such a high payroll? I'm worried.

Depends on how much the team is willing to spend. If we're contending for titles at the time I would hope they'd spend the $$$ to keep the four of them together. Westbrook is more important than either Ibaka or Harden though so you give him what you need to give him for him to stick around.

Why do you feel Westbrook is more valuable than Harden?

Higher ceiling. Westbrook's game is still raw, Harden's really isn't. I think Harden is closer to his peak than Westbrook is. Westbrook has athleticism that you can't teach, and his floor game instincts are coming along.

Westbrook had a rough playoffs. I think the team asked too much from him, and the criticism got to him a little bit. But he had an immensely productive season and his development range is still fairly wide IMO, despite him going into his fourth season. Harden's development range is a bit tighter.

[dream_catcher_9]

what do you guys think about possibly signing Grant Hill or Tayshaun Prince for a bench role? Tayshaun might not want to as he is still only 30 and will want quite a bit of money.

[Hobes]

Depends on how much the team is willing to spend. If we're contending for titles at the time I would hope they'd spend the $$$ to keep the four of them together. Westbrook is more important than either Ibaka or Harden though so you give him what you need to give him for him to stick around.

If we have those 4 guys under wraps, I imagine we'll always be in contention. The thing is though, how strong of a contender will we be if Russ is on the Max, KD is on the Max, Ibaka's asking 10+ a season and harden's asking 10+ a season? I mean those are the sort of salaries that I'm predicting for these guys. I guess the new CBA will really dictate how things play out, particularly with the call for a hard cap.

what do you guys think about possibly signing Grant Hill or Tayshaun Prince for a bench role? Tayshaun might not want to as he is still only 30 and will want quite a bit of money.

Would love Hill here, but I highly doubt he leaves Phoenix. He'd provide the perfect spark off the bench for us with Harden starting. He could share the 2/3 with Thabo which would be perfect, and we wouldn't have to worry about the offense when KD goes to the bench. His good nature and mature presence would be very welcome here. I doubt Tayshaun comes here though, his price tag would be too high.

[wiff]

Welcome home son...

[slick_watts]

It's tough to predict salaries that Harden and Ibaka will earn since their third seasons will dictate that (as Westbrook's did for him).

Grant Hill probably won't leave Phoenix and Tayshaun Prince will be too pricey, although he'd be a great Thabo Sefolosha replacement for sure.

Thunder might have some cap space so it would make some sense possibly to trade Nate Robinson to a team looking to clear some room. Mehmet Okur could be a target. Antawn Jamison. Carlos Delfino. Vince Carter. All those guys expire in 2012 so they wouldn't impact our ability to re-sign Westbrook, Harden, etc.

[BIG EDDIE]

Yepp, we'll have to fix a few things this summer.
Coaching is the most obvious to me, and then we also have to sign 1 or 2 role players, escepially 3pt shooters.
I personally would absolutely love to see Prince in a Thunder uniform.
He can defend, pass and shoot 3s.

I see our roster to look something like this (if no major trades):

PF - Ibaka / Collison
SF - Durant / Prince or another aquisition
C - Perk / (Nazr, Collison, Cole Aldrich...depends)
SG - Harden / Prince or another...
PG - Westbrook / Maynor

Yepp, that means Thabo needs to go. I quite like him, he is very professional, brings always good effort and energy, very solid defender, but absolutely useless on offense (at least under Brooks).
We cant really afford playing him more than 10 mins a game with this team, just need more offense from guys like Harden.

Also, IF we decide to go for a trade, right now I think we could go after a low post presence ala Dwight Howard, Nene Hilario, Marc Gasol, etc., which means we would have to trade Perkins.
Either that OR Ibaka develops his offensive skills to an extend where he can give us 15 points any night, where we can feed him inside and he either scores or passes out to the shooters...well, I dont really see that happening in the next 2-3 years, but who knows.

[Edug27]

1. Get Westbrook signed long term. The kid has ALOT to work on, but all the skills are there. Most of it is just mental, which will come with experience. This years playoff run (and criticism) will only make him that much better next season.

2. Westbrook needs a 'classic PG' backup. Someone who can come in and run the offense, and hit a big shot or 2, without necessarily looking to score. Someone who will MAKE SURE that Durant gets the ball in spots where he wants it.

3. Here is the deal with Perk. He needs a defensive minded PF to play alongside him. And apparently Ibaka HAS to be that guy. Ibaka is good, but needs to get that much better. He has to have that KG aggressiveness on defense, or atleast work at it. If it were up to me, i'd do away with Ibaka and bring in a PF who can play the post, and defend well. But I dont see that happening. So the next best thing would be to bring in a veteran PF for him to share minutes with.

4. Start Harden. Simple enough.

5. Durant needs a quality backup. G.Hill or T.Prince ARE NOT coming to play backup for OKC with all those studs in the lineup. With Sefolosha here, Durants backup needs to be offensive minded. The bench needs a shooter.

Heres the best I can come up with:

PG: Westbrook / R.Sessions
SG: Harden / T.Sefolosha
SF: Durant / M.Piertrus
PF: Ibaka / K.Martin / L.Powe
C: Perkins / N.Mohammed

[fallacy]

No mention of probably the biggest task of the offseason: extend Russell Westbrook.

We might not be able to. If I remember correctly we aren't allowed to extend him during the actual season or something like that. I just remember with Jeff Green we were only allowed to extend his contract during the offseason and we didn't, so we had to wait til next offseason or something.


But back to my point, we won't be able to sign Westbrook until the new CBA comes out, and it might not be completed until the end of the offseason. Therefore we might have to wait all the way until after next year to sign Westbrook

[slick_watts]

If a lockout lasts that long there will probably be a small grace period for transactions.

[slick_watts]

For what it's worth here is what I would do this offseason:

- Extend Westbrook:

Should be priority number one. If it takes the max you do it.

- Fill out roster:

Looking at the team I think there will be holes in the front court for scoring, and on the wing especially if Daequan Cook is not retained. There are three realistic options for filling those holes. Low end free agent signings (say, sub $4M/y) that protect the team's ability to extend Ibaka and Harden; trades into cap space using Nate Robinson's expiring (and possibly Thabo) to acquire a more expensive 2012 expiring (again, not impacting team's long term salary structure); draft selection.

Low End Free Agents to consider:

Reggie Williams (3PT specialist, can play SG/SF), Delonte West (PG/SG good defensively), Anthony Parker (vet 3PT specialist), Peja Stojakovic (vet 3PT specialist), Vladimir Radmanovic (vet 3PT specialist), Mike Dunleavy (3PT specialist), Michael Redd (comeback potential?), Shawne Williams (3PT specialist, defense)

2012 Expirings:

Mehmet Okur (replace Nazr, offensive potential, great rebounder, replace Harden's shooting in second unit)
Vince Carter (LOL)
Antawn Jamison (scoring in the second unit)
Marcus Camby (replace Nazr?)

I think the Thunder should avoid more expensive free agents like Tayshaun Prince.

- Start Harden, increase his minutes to at least 35/g no matter how he's playing, he's earned it.

So let's say we trade Nate Robinson and a 2nd round pick to Utah for Mehmet Okur. Then sign someone like Shawne Williams to a three year, $12M deal or something like that.

Perkins (30) / Okur (18)
Ibaka (32) / Collison (16)
Durant (38) / S. Williams (10)
Harden (35) / Sefolosha (13)
Westbrook (36) / Maynor (12)

You can cut Sefolosha or Williams minutes to stagger rotations and get a starter into the second unit for matchups i.e. Okur / Collison / Williams / Harden / Maynor. Or Okur / Collison / Durant / Sefolosha / Maynor. With Okur on the bench every bench iteration has at least two shooters in the game plus a playmaker (Maynor).

Then you have Aldrich on deep bench and injury insurance, and you spend a draft pick on a PG to replace Maynor when he leaves (Nolan Smith, Reggie Jackson).

That's my offseason.

[dream_catcher_9]

I dunno if Presti would take on Shawne Williams. Looking at his history he has been arrested a couple of times for drug use. What about CJ Miles? Presti tried to get him a couple years back.

I am intrigued with Reggie Jackson as a possible PG/SG in the draft. I also like Chris Singleton and Chandler Parsons as 3's but can also play some 4 and stretch the floor.