Thunder beat writer Anthony Slater says, from an organizational standpoint, Oklahoma City needs to figure out if Westbrook can and wants to be the top banana on a title team.
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The Thunder’s focus now has to be primarily on one of the most electrifying players in the National Basketball Association who they still have on the roster — at least for now. He also owns a popular restaurant in downtown Oklahoma City.
“There’s a new beginning here for the Thunder”, Presti added. The Thunder could trade him before the season or perhaps take a wait-and-see approach, trading a motivated Westbrook to a contender for a huge package. Can he phis team to win all the way with Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams?
But NBA reporter David Aldridge tweeted there’s “no chance” Westbrook will be open to that right now.
Durant has elevated Oklahomas profile so much that he was inducted into the states Hall of Fame late past year. The 6-foot-3, 200 pound point guard has become one of the best players in the league, and averaged 23.5 points, 10.4 assists and 7.8 rebounds last season.For the Sixers, the decision on whether or not to jump into the Westbrook sweepstakes isn’t a simple one.Sixers Sign SimmonsTo start, the Sixers would have to decide if they were willing to bring Westbrook in without a commitment he would stay.The good news is that unlike Oklahoma, Philadelphia is a major media market, which could be appealing to Westbrook. “They should not _ I can’t tell them not to be disappointed, but the one thing I would also say is the city should be incredibly proud of what they’ve helped create for the Thunder”.
“The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player – as that has always steered me in the right direction”, he said. At first blush, the Lakers have a bunch of young assets like D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle, and after their marquee signing this offseason was Timofey Mozgov, they would need to make moves if they are going to even be in playoff contention next year. The 2017 free agency class is a much deeper class than this one with stars like Curry, Griffin, possibly Durant, Westbrook, and Chris Paul headlining the class. “I think that’s the next step for us all thinking of how we can all be better”. The 2014 MVP led the Thunder to the NBA Finals in 2012, and to the Western Conference Finals in four of the past six years – and he’s only 27. “We don’t want to limit ourselves”. He has helped establish the standards that we work by, as have Kevin and the other players that have come before us.
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Within roughly 0.3 seconds of the announcement going public, Durant’s #35 Thunder jersey felt the wrath of flames from fans wanting to shed their closets of all Durant-related Thunder gear tout bloody suite.
