[KingslayerParticipant]

A trio of big contract extensions were announced today:

Rudy Gobert – 4 years, 102 million

Victor Oladipo – 4 years, 84 million

Steven Adams – 4 years, 100 million

That’s a lot of coin, but these guys would all likely be more expensive as free agents next offseason. I particularly like the value for Gobert and Oladipo. Thoughts from Thunder and Jazz fans?

 

 

 

 

 

[KingslayerParticipant]

Dieng is reportedly nearing an extension with the Wolves for 4 years, 64 million. 

That’s my favorite of all these deals today. I think Dieng is one of the most underrated players in the NBA, and will be a perfect fit with KAT for years to come.

 

[HitsterParticipant]

 The Thunder have committed serious money to the Westbrook supporting cast. Size does matter it seems as the big man gets the best deal there. But Steve is a regular NBA starter and was very good in the play off run last season. Also his overall stats are better than Gobert who seems to get a lot of love on here. Good deals for all 3 and their teams.

I’ll be interesting to see what Phoenix do with Alex Len as he can be extended now given they Chandler and drafted Chriss and Bender.

 

[r377Participant]

Dieng’s contract looks like a bargain compared to Adams.

OKC have $180 mill tied up for a 7th or 8th seed in the West.

With this current small ball fad chucking up 3 pointers every second time down the floor, I am surprised big men have much value anymore at all…. oh I guess they need someone to set screens and rebound all the missed 3’s

[jerb2011Participant]

I don’t love or hate the deals. I’m glad they were resigned now, before they ended up being more expensive. OKC is really missing a consistent wing shooter that can play enough defense to get playing time (why Anthony Morrow doesn’t play often). Hopefully they saved enough money on these deals to go out and find one in FA next year or the draft.

[Robb_CParticipant]

 Wtf is Sam Presti doing giving Steven Adams 100 mil? Mozzys contract has set the gold standard for agents to milk teams dry..  this is the BS major market fiscally irresponsible teams create for teams like OKC.. Mozzy gets a loaded contract and now agents throw it in teams faces forcing them to play ball

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

 Just a question do you watch OKC games? If not I will explain why Adams is now worth 100 million.

Firstly his deal is better value than Tristan thompson,Gobert,Mozzy,D.J and maybe even Drummonds(Except Drummond is there franchise player but play style is similar to D.J’s but with more touches)

Here is why he is worth 100 mill in comparrison to other players:

His offensive game is improving: He has added to his moves: Dunks,Floaters,working in the block the odd jumper,His passing game is expanding,you can run an offense through him,He can hit a respectable rate of F/T which seems to be hard for Centers bar maybe a handfull.Meaning you can keep him on the floor during crunch time.

He is our main Defensive piece: He can switch from bigs to guards without much drop off. He is also the main reason we let Ibaka go..

He generates some revenue for the Team due to popularity in the States and N.Z.

He has Chemistry with Russ(The main guy we need to keep happy) for easy offense and Kanter and Adams took are a big reason for why we bet the spurs last year..

 

He is the 2nd/3rd option on our team 

and finally 

I guarantee some other team would have offered him that money without even hesitating..Teams like Dallas,Phoenix,Washington,N.O,Hornets,Boston or maybe if teams move on from players like the Kings/Nets if the Trade Boogie or Brook lopez for assets and had cap room left over for a center or the 76ers if they want to move noel and pair Adams with Embiid and bring Okafor of the bench sort of move.. 

The Centers that have better value that Adams right now though:

Towns,Cousins,A.D and maybe Embiid (but only if they can stay healthy)and maybe Miles turner(not sure if hes a pf though) .

 The rest are either injury prone(brook lopez,Al horford,Marc gasol also falls i here,Bogut), have greater limitations(D.J,T.T,Gobert,Drummond,Hassan,Mozzy) or are declining(Pau,Dwight,Zaza)..

So that is why he is now worth 100 million. Hopefully that helps explain why presti went all in on Adams.

 

 

 

 

[Robb_CParticipant]

Run an offense through him? Three Games in, and He’s a center shooting 44% and has a career high in TOs.. not exactly the player you run an offense through.. 

[Robb_CParticipant]

 But Andy I see your point.

[Robb_CParticipant]

 But Andy I see your point.

[Robb_CParticipant]

 But Andy I see your point.

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

 He is usually the drop off guy who drops the ball off to Russ then sets screen for him or if that option is not there Adams can hit a cutter/kick out to a shooter(look for Steven adams passing highlights). The only major thing he may need to work on is being able to dribble a little in case all options are dead and you need to move from the spot to get a better shot or get someone open.

As for the turnovers that is probably because he is doing one of the following: Losing the ball off a crazy Russell pass(last second pass and Adams is covered) or If Adams just can’t get hold of a Russell pass.

The shooting percentage has decreased from 60+% last year but that is probably because of increased usage(There will be issues initially) and more post moves/floater/shot attempts. But when all Adams does is dunk the guy is 50%+ easy or gets used to being used more the shooting % should come right..To put this in perspective D.J can be a 60%+ shooter but all he does is Dunk so shooting % is all down to what shots they can or are allowed to take..

Hope that clarifys things a little better for you.

 

 

 

[Robb_CParticipant]

 Now your aimlessly defending Adams, blaming his TO’s on bad Westbrook passes.. and blame his unefficient offensive play on Usage?? Yes obviously the more you use/see something the better average evaluation you will get, three games in were looking at a guy so far who’s a liability taking care of the ball..

 

 

 

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

 I’m an OKC fan.

From what I can tell so far:

The general consensus amongest most Thunder fans is that the Adams deal is a no brainer: There would have been a few teams that would have thrown this money at him or close to it, The Guy has improved every year,He is now becoming our 2nd maybe 3 consistent option on offense,He is liked both in the states and N.Z which= revenue generation for the Thunder,He is one of our key defensive pieces,he can hit f/t’s(See how many bigs can’t) and you can run parts of an offense through him which only a handfull of Centers can do these days. 

Just for comparison: D.J got 90 mill from the Clipper  for being a 3rd option and does less and can’t hit f/t to save himself.

Tristan thompson gets 80+ million for being an energy guy that gets you rebounds and hardly any points..

As for Oladipo that is a mixed review it depends who you ask:

Some are like he took a discount(apparently he wanted 100million)  and who else were we going to get to come here that was better than him. But the main reason he is paid that is the dreaded potential word. In that we hope he becomes the backcourt running mate to play with Russ and turn into our 2nd/3rd option for scoring..

Others are like that is a major overpay for someone who we only have limited sample of and he does similar things to Dion Waiters. Who we just let go to Miami(see what he got paid this year). Which means maybe we could have gotten him for way less if the market was smaller than anticipated…

But most fans wanted to keep him but if only was a lower sort of price range 55-65 million as that is a more realistic price range for him  due to his inconsistencies in play to this point in his career..

Me personally I would have done the following

Paid Adams now as we have enough information/data on him.

Then with Oladipo I would have said ”We will talk contract maters in the offseason you will get paid” Like Kawhi and Andre drummond did with their teams  as 1) We need more information on how you suit our team(your price is set at 65-85 million as worst and best case scenario barring injury) and 2) We can get the team the more help before we resign you which equals: more chance to be contenders sooner for you.

As now by resiging everyone before the offseason the hard part is unless they lodge the paper work for after they have gotten some free agents(not sure if the can do this) or have back loaded the contracts. We wont be getting much help this coming offseason unless its via trade or lucking onto a really good pick that is NBA ready somehow…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr. HookShotParticipant]

Obviously, OKC believe they can win with a core of Adams, Westbrook and Oladipo. If you truly believe that, you should sign these guys sooner rather than later. Although I doubt whether Adams and Oladipo will improve enough to make OKC a contender down the line, I do like the idea of going for it. If OKC hadn’t signed these guys now OKCA would’ve paid more, or they would’ve walked (at least one of them) and OKC wouldn’t have gotten anything in return. That way you would’ve wasted Westbrook’s current contract, and probably dwell around in the cellar for years to come. So while I don’t necessarily love these deals, I do like the fact that OKC has decide to go for it with these three guys.

Even in the worst case scenarios signing these guys for relatively ‘cheap’ contracts (both would’ve receive more on the open market) allows OKC to potentially flip one of them in a couple of years. 

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

 Neither could walk we could match any offer but would have had to pay less or more thats all.

 

[Mr. HookShotParticipant]

That’s why I said OKC would have to let them walk or … would have to pay more, as I believe both players would get offered the max 😉

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 If you would have told me a year ago that Adams would get 100 mil over 4 yrs I would have said you were crazy. His stats definitely don’t seem to indicate he is worth that much, but he is a guy that would really be devastating for OKC to lose and extremely difficult to replace. Plus he is a great teammate and has a great chemistry with Westbrook on the floor, and keeping Westbrook happy is absolutely paramount for them.

The oladipo deal I’m not quite as big a fan of. I agree he has all the physical tools to be a fantastic player but he is still largely unproven at this point. I have been waiting for him to really break out since he came into the league but it hasnt happened yet and I’m not sure it will in okc either. I don’t think his game necessarily compliments Westbrook all that well. They have a huge amount of money tied up into a westbrook-adams-oladipo-kanter nucleus over the next 3 seasons and it could make it difficult to find the cap space to lure impact free agents. I’m not sure if that core is good enough to really make noise in the west.

Gobert is a huge guy that makes it almost impossible to score at the rim. Ideally you’d like to see a little more growth in his game (especially on offense) but at worst he could likely have a deandre jordan level impact and that is probably good enough to justify this deal. The jazz need to make sure they retain the necessary cap space to resign Gordon Hayward though.

 

 

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

There shouldn’t be a issue with cap room for the Jazz I think the Jazz are at like 85 mill after signing gobert..So if he wants to stay it should get done easily..

But the bigger question does Hayward want to stay there as he can opt out and be a UFA… If the Jazz are smart they should say”If you won’t resign with us in the off season please let us get some assets for you” and we will try trade you to one of the teams you choose(make sure you get at least 3 options): For Example if he is dead set on Boston he could help Utah maybe get some young players(Like Jaylen brown and Marcus smart or one other reasonable player) and maybe a pick or two(the Brooklyn Picks) to help make the trade go down.. As that way he wouldn’t look like a K.D by leaving(saying you want to be here and then leaving)…

As for the Adams,Oladipo,Russ and Kanter core: Think of it as a 3 season trial run to see how they work together as Adams and Dipo are locked in for the next 4 years(through to the 2020/21 season) and Kanter and Russ could pontetiall leave at the end of the 2018 season. So if things don’t work out or Kanter/Russ want to move on at the end of their contracts we at least still have some pieces for either trade assets or to rebuild around. As for who we get to come to OKC these are our options:

Hope our 2017 pick is NBA ready or couple it with something to get another reasonable player.

That we can convince someone reasonable to come at a slightly discounted price that fills some of our needs  such as player that just wants a change of scenery: A Rudy gay or Danillo G or wants to play on a contender(if they think they are the missing piece) Mo speights or a role player of that nature..

other than that all we can really do is hope our pieces/core keep developing the right way that is all.

 

[HitsterParticipant]

 Hayward is likely to opt out next summer and I agree with A1W above about if he is possibly leaning towards moving on then to tell the Jazz and they try to trade him to a team he’ll re-sign with. The Jazz get something back and Gordon can get the best possible 5 year deal. He’ll be due a hefty raise regardless and $100 million over 4 years is likely starting point, considering what Parsons, Harrison Barnes, DeRozan etc got this summer.

Also Hayward will be 27 next year so his next contract will be one he’ll want to get right as it’s likely to be his biggest and should be for his peak years.

 

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