Westbrook, Durant lead Thunder past Mavs (AP)
Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant provided the offense for Oklahoma City, and Serge Ibaka’s defense put the Thunder over the top. Westbrook scored 33 points and Kevin Durant added 23 points and 13 rebounds as the Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks 95-86 on Wednesday night. Ibaka had a career-high 10 blocked shots, helping Oklahoma City limit Dallas to 8-for-38 shooting from the field in the…
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Westbrook, Durant lead Thunder past Mavericks
Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for 56 points as the West-leading Thunder rebounded to beat the Mavericks 95-86.
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Westbrook content staying with Thunder (AP)
Russell Westbrook hopes his decision to make a long-term commitment to stay with the Oklahoma City Thunder will do away with the rumors of a rift between him and fellow All-Star Kevin Durant. “I wish it would have never started,” Westbrook said Sunday at a news conference to formally announce his five-year, $80 million contract extension.
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Westbrook content staying with Thunder long term
Russell Westbrook never considered waiting for what options he might have had other than returning to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The All-Star point guard, who helped the Thunder to the Western Conference finals last season, was more than happy with the only place he’s called home in the NBA.
Westbrook signed a five-year, $80 million contract extension and returned to Oklahoma City for the first time Sunday for a news conference.
Westbrook says he wanted to be somewhere he felt wanted, and Oklahoma City has supported him since general manager Sam Presti made him a surprising No. 4 pick in the 2008 draft.
Since then, Westbrook has developed into one of the league’s most dynamic point guards while making his team a title contender.
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Westbrook content staying with Thunder long term
Russell Westbrook never considered waiting for what options he might have had other than returning to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The All-Star point guard, who helped the Thunder to the Western Conference finals last season, was more than happy with the only place he’s called home in the NBA.
Westbrook signed a five-year, $80 million contract extension and returned to Oklahoma City for the first time Sunday for a news conference.
Westbrook says he wanted to be somewhere he felt wanted, and Oklahoma City has supported him since general manager Sam Presti made him a surprising No. 4 pick in the 2008 draft.
Since then, Westbrook has developed into one of the league’s most dynamic point guards while making his team a title contender.
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Westbrook, Harden lightening the load for KD
NEWARK, N.J. — If it seems like Kevin Durant is a little bit less active in the Oklahoma City Thunder offense this season, it’s because he is. But if it also seems like he doesn’t really seem to mind, it’s because he doesn’t.
Durant, the league’s two-time defending scoring champion, has seen his numbers dip slightly in the first month of the season after falling off some last year, as well. But the Thunder are off to the hottest start in the NBA, and many around the league have them penciled in as a favorite to win the competitive Western Conference.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with Durant. He’s young, healthy and one of the hottest stars in the league today.
Instead, most of Durant’s decreased productivity — if you want to call it that — stems from the emergence of Russell Westbrook and James Harden as leaders on the team, maturation that Thunder head coach Scott Brooks is thrilled to see.
“Russell and James have developed a lot the last few years, and it’s great seeing that growth and that development,” Brooks said. “They work hard, and they deserve all the credit. They put the time into it, they spend quality time with our coaches and find ways to get better, and very rarely do they take days off. We have to force them to take days off.”
Durant role hasn’t exactly been transformed with the emergence of Westbrook and Harden as viable No. 2 and No. 3 options. He’s still an elite scorer and one of the game’s best players. Rather, the fifth-year forward out of Texas has learned to share the spotlight while Westbrook and Harden have grown more accustomed to taking it away.
“They took a lot of pressure off of me,” Durant said. “Those guys are producing, and I’m just playing alongside them. Sometimes you’ve got to let those guys go and do what they do best and kind of play off them a little bit.”
Durant’s evolution, while subtle, has been significant.
During the 2009-10 season, Durant averaged a career high when he attempted 20.3 shots per game — tops in the NBA — and his point totals reflected it. He averaged 30.1 points per game that year, edging out then-Cleveland Cavs forward LeBron James for his first career scoring title, and at 21 years old, Durant became the youngest scoring champion in NBA history.
Durant also led the league in a number of other offensive categories, including field goals, field goal attempts, free throws and free throw attempts, and he was the league leader in total minutes played with 3,239. However, despite those gaudy statistics, the Thunder were eliminated by the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs after finishing the regular season 50-32.
Last year, during Durant’s fourth NBA season, his numbers fell off for the first time in his young career, but they certainly didn’t fall far — just far enough to earn his team a few extra wins.
His 27.7 points per game average was still enough to win him his second straight scoring title — however, it was still the lowest scoring average for a scoring champion since the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, when Allen Iverson led the league with 26.8 points per contest.
(To find another scoring champion who averaged fewer than 27.7 points per game over a full 82-game season, you’d have to go all the way back to the 1977-78 season, when George Gervin led the league at 27.2 points per night.)
Still, though, the Thunder fell short of their grand goal.
Oklahoma City won 55 regular-season games — which, amazingly, only earned then the No. 4 seed in the West — but they followed it up with a memorable run to the conference finals, where they lost 4-1 to the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks.
This year, Durant’s numbers have taken yet another dip — albeit another small one. Through 16 games, Durant has averaged 26.1 points per game, and his 18.7 shots and 7.4 free throws per game are also three-year lows
But at 13-3 after Saturday’s 84-74 win over New Jersey, they’re playing some of the best basketball in franchise history.
And as Durant’s scoring average was making its gradual descent to its current level over the last two years, Harden and Westbrook were busy becoming household names — not just in Oklahoma City, but around the country, and to some degree, around the world.
Two years ago, while Durant was securing his first scoring title, Harden was a 20-year-old rookie taking just 7.6 shots — and making only 40.3 percent of them — in just under 23 minutes per game. Last year, particularly after the team traded Jeff Green to Boston for Kendrick Perkins, Harden saw his minutes per game increase to 26.7, and with them went his shots (8.3), field goal percentage (43.6) and scoring (12.2).
This year, Harden is riding high, and his efforts thus far have some discussing him as a legitimate sixth man of the year candidate.
He’s playing nearly 30 minutes per game off the bench, and he’s scoring a career-high 16.3 points per game — largely a result of career highs in shooting percentage, 3-point percentage and free throw percentage.
“(It’s taken) hard work and time, just being consistent with my effort and putting in the hard work each and every day,” Harden said. “Finally I got a chance after the trade just to be more aggressive. Teammates and coaches are telling me to be more aggressive with the basketball, and that’s what I’ve tried to do at the end of last year and coming into this year.”
For his own part, Westbrook has seen his role change from that of a trusted sidekick to Durant to one of a legitimate NBA superstar. After averaging 15.3 and 16.1 points per game in his first two seasons, respectively, he saw his scoring skyrocket to 21.9 points per game on the way to his first-ever all-star bid last year.
This year, he’s taking a career-high 17.5 shots per game, just one shot less than Durant, and while his assist numbers have taken a significant dive, he’s still a 20-point scorer who provides a safety net for the Thunder should Durant ever struggle. (And he rarely does.)
“He’s turned into a top-5 point guard in this league and a top-10 player in this league,” Durant said. “You look at the stuff he’s doing, and it’s kind of unreal. You look at the games he’s played, some of his best games are like video game numbers.”
As if he needed the confirmation that he has finally arrived, Westbrook was named earlier this week as one of the 20 finalists for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, which will compete in London this summer — a huge statement for a tweener who some doubted would ever live up to his billing as a No. 4 overall pick.
“Russell came in as a guy that was real questionable in terms of whether he was going to be a point guard,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said before Saturday’s game. “People talked about him being a two-guard in a point guard’s body. Whatever he is, he’s a talented player. And I guess now he’s a little bit richer.”
Oh yeah, the contract.
Earlier this week, the Thunder inked Westbrook to a five-year contract extension reportedly worth 80 million. The deal will keep Westbrook in a Thunder uniform until summer 2017. In addition, Durant’s contract runs through the end of the 2016 season.
Harden is still on his rookie contract, and last summer, the team exercised its fourth-year option on the guard, keeping him in Oklahoma City at least through the end of next season — but one would presume they’ll try to keep him around much, much longer.
Furthermore, Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison are signed with the team through summer 2015, and Thabo Sefolosha is under contract until summer 2014.
That continuity in the Thunder locker room — and the increasing familiarity among the team’s developing star players — lends itself to the kind of invaluable growth that most teams can only dream of, and in the past, it has been a recipe for success.
“That’s what good teams are about,” Westbrook said. “Back in the day, Detroit had a team like that, and the Lakers had a group of guys that played with each other for a while, and I think we have a chance to do some of the same things because of the group we have. It should be a good ride for us.”
It also doesn’t hurt that at the end of the day, Kevin Durant is still Kevin Durant, a player who can always take over for Oklahoma City when the occasion calls for it.
“If he has to score a lot of points on a particular night, he can do that,” Brooks said. “He’s a terrific scorer and he can score in many areas. He’s a great shooter and he loves to get to the free throw line. He led the league in scoring the last two years. I don’t know what’s going to happen this year, but that’s not a concern for him.
“He just wants to keep moving this team forward, and when you have better players, the scoring will probably go down. He’s not going to average 13 (points per game).”
And if there’s one thing we know about Durant, it’s that he’ll trade points for wins any day.
“No doubt, no doubt,” Durant said. “It’s all about winning. Winning cures all. It really does.”
The Thunder are doing a lot of winning these days, and no one is questioning their methods regarding who scores what and when.
Durant, Westbrook and Harden have given the Thunder a bona fide three-headed monster — a Big 3 that many around the league would love to see meet up with that other Big 3 in the NBA Finals in June.
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NBA Trade Rumors: Westbrook for Rondo Would Benefit Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder (12-3) stand atop the Western Conference and should easily win four of their next five games. After having the misfortune of meeting a red-hot Dallas Mavericks team in the conference finals last year, the Thunder have come out looking like a focused veteran team hell-bent on a championship. However, as the story of the Thunder goes, Russell Westbrook is still causing drama in the locker room that readily gets hyperbolized by the media. Westbrook seems to continually clash with head coach Scott Brooks and subsequently apologize or state that there was not a problem in the first place after the next day’s practice. If it has to be addressed at all, there is a definite problem. It may sound crazy, but there is certainly a more pass-first point guard to compliment the shoot-first Durant. Enter Mr. Rondo. Rondo has always been the one who has to defer Pierce, Allen, and Garnett. This has been the first season where Rondo has clearly had to step it up on the offe…
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OKC Thunder: Future Roster Predictions After Westbrook Extension
The Russell Westbrook contract situation is quickly off the table after he agreed to an $80 million, five-year contract extension representing the maximum deal.
You could make a pretty good argument that the Thunder might have overpaid at this point in Westbrook’s career, but the 23-year old All-Star is still brimming with potential and could easily make this contract look like a bargain in a few years.
GM Sam Presti is a smart guy and likely knew the repercussions of trying to low-ball Russell and his agent up front. Things could have gotten ugly fast with high-paying teams like the Lakers in need of a point guard of the future.
But whether you believe this was the right move or not, the move is done and it is time to look forward to Presti’s next big dilemma: How to keep James Harden and Serge Ibaka while still being able to field a respectable team. The Thunder’s success is attributed in large part to the wildly efficient play of their second group, so gutting the roster to keep those two isn’t ideal.
Luckily this isn’t a problem that needs to be addressed any time soon. Serge and James don’t become free agents until after the 2013-2014 season, giving the Thunder plenty of time to wait this out and see how things go.
But while we’re on the subject, let’s discuss how this is all going to go down.
First of all, it’s not like Presti hasn’t seen this coming. Nick Collison’s extremely front-loaded contract signed in 2010 was designed for this very purpose. Collison received over $13 million in salary and signing bonuses two seasons ago but his salary decreases annually to only $2.5 million in its final year, the 2013-2014 season.
Nazr Mohammed, occupying the vital “Veteran With a Ring” role is on a one-year deal this season, which will pay him $3.75 million. Nazr will stick around until Cole Aldrich finally develops into his role as backup center. I could see Nazr getting one more deal from the Thunder, but if Cole shows big improvement this season we could see the 13-year veteran hit the road, taking his cap space with him.
Another intriguing storyline is the Eric Maynor/Reggie Jackson situation, made even more interesting since Maynor went down with a torn ACL earlier this season. Jackson is not near the point guard Maynor is today, but the rookie has played surprisingly well after being thrust into action.
Reggie still has a lot of learning to do, but has proven to be a great dribbler as well as an able, confident shooter and slasher. He has a fairly solid grasp of the offense which, when he is on the floor, is usually just pass the ball to James Harden.
Maynor is cheap this year at $1.5 million but his salary increases to $3.4 million in 2013-2014 when Jackson is only due $1.3 million. By that time Reggie will likely have improved his game enough to make life without Maynor more than livable and, more importantly, a lot cheaper.
I have always thought Eric Maynor was a little too good to be a backup point guard and would eventually want to start somewhere else (Lakers? Mavs? Phoenix?).
Lastly, the sharp-shooting services of Daequan Cook, on the books until the end of the 2012- 2013 season for $3.1 million a year, could be replaced fairly easily (and much cheaper) with a draft pick. This would be a last-ditch effort in my eyes, but could be necessary in the coming years.
All-in-all, the Thunder still sit in a great position to hold onto their core (Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, Perkins, Sefolosha, Collison) despite 55% of their salary cap (60% if Westbrook goes All-NBA again this year) going to two players.
If worst comes to worst, the Thunder can just go over the cap a bit and pay the penalty. I keep hearing national pundits referring to this as an impossibility because OKC is a “small market” but they don’t seem to understand how much oil-soaked money is behind this team.
Due to their quick success and lovable roster, the Thunder have helped improve Oklahoma City to an immeasurable degree—something the ownership group is well aware of and willing to fork over mountains of cash to maintain.
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Westbrook signs five-year extension with Thunder
Oklahoma City inked the All-Star point guard, who could have been a restricted free agent, to a five-year deal worth a reported $80 million.
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NBA Trade Rumors: Trading Russell Westbrook Would Be Wrong Move for Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder entered Friday night with an NBA-best 10-2 record, but much of the attention early on has been displaced with Russell Westbrook’s sluggish start.
It seems the early season consensus is that the Thunder must trade Westbrook to win a title. That’s because he struggles at the point guard position and has clashed with star Kevin Durant.
The disagreements between the two stars shouldn’t be alarming. It isn’t rare for two competitive players to have disputes through the course of an 82- or 66-game season. For the Thunder to be a mainstay in the west, its future includes Westbrook.
Westbrook skeptics are quick to forget he was named to the All-NBA second team last year (in just his third season). At 23 years old, Westbrook averaged just under 22 points a game and eight assists per game last season.
Much of the hype at the point guard position is focused on Derrick Rose and Chris Paul in Los Angeles. But Westbrook posted a better player efficiency rating (PER) than Rose last year, according to ESPN’s John Hollinger.
His estimated wins added (17.9) trailed just Rose (19) and Paul (18.3). He added more than five wins than the next best, Deron Williams (12.5).
These stats are a much greater sample size to use than the 12 games played this season.
Yes, Scott Brooks would like his starting point guard to average more than five assists a game. But an overlooked aspect of Westbrook is that he’s still learning the position after playing shooting guard in high school and at UCLA.
Not to mention that Westbrook is already starting to turn his season around. He’s coming off two strong games this week against Memphis and New Orleans.
With talking heads on television and Twitterverse erupting with potential trades, here is a look at two potential trade rumors using ESPN’s Trade Machine. Both include Westbrook and neither one makes sense.
Celtics trade Rajon Rondo and Greg Stiemsma to Thunder for Westbrook, Cole Aldrich and Royal Ivey.
The Rondo-for-Westbrook deal is one that is heard the most often. Rondo seems like a perfect fit to give Durant the ball in positions to thrive while Westbrook becomes the next rebuilding piece as Boston’s “Big Three” continues to age.
However, Westbrook provides a scoring punch that Rondo simply cannot replace. Rondo has the luxury of playing with three future Hall of Famers and hasn’t been leaned on offensively the way Westbrook has.
Rondo frequently cannot finish games because he becomes a liability offensively and is a poor free-throw shooter.
Rondo’s scoring is up five points from his career average, but he is too inconsistent as a fourth scoring option to depend on for a large role.
A starting lineup featuring Rondo, Sefolosha, Durant, Ibaka and Perkins has just one true threat. Putting the ball in the basket has been a problem for the Thunder early in playoff games. This causes them to play catch-up much too often.
Warriors trade Stephen Curry to Thunder for Westbrook
ESPN’s J.A. Adande brings up this possibility in a recent column, bringing the sharp-shooting Curry into the backcourt feeding Durant.
While Curry is a much better shooter than Westbrook, Curry is not the defender that Westbrook is and has shown difficulties recently staying on the floor. He has reoccurring ankle injuries.
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