Maybe a Russell Westbrook trade is more likely than we thought.
It instantly became a possibility after Kevin Durant decided to join the Golden State Warriors. The Oklahoma City Thunder cannot afford to lose the last of their two top-seven superstars for nothing, and Westbrook will be a free agent in 2017. If they aren’t sure whether he’ll bask in the opportunity to make Oklahoma City his own, they have to deal him. That’s the dilemma in which Durant’s decision put them.
Or perhaps not.
According to the Boston Herald‘s Steve Bulpett, Westbrook’s future in Oklahoma City was always going to be an issue, regardless of what Durant decided:
There is also to consider what the future would have been in Oklahoma City beyond this coming season if Durant had chosen to sign a one-and-one (a two-year contract with an option to leave next summer). With Westbrook set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2017, the long-term prospects for continuity did not appear great.
“He’s gone after this year,” said one league executive. “A hundred percent. I think that’s the case no matter what (Durant had decided). I guess people can always change their mind, but I think this season was going to be it for him there no matter what.”
More than Durant’s purportedly iffy relationship with his superstar running mate on the court, maybe this is what factored into his decision.
What if he knew Westbrook was a goner in 2017? Why would he stay in Oklahoma City? The Thunder would still be a borderline contender with him, but resetting on the fly to that extent is next to impossible. Staying in Oklahoma City as the only remaining superstar would have been a real setback.
Sure, Durant could have still gone the one-plus-one route, signing a two-year deal with a player option for 2017 that allowed him to explore free agency with Westbrook. But, barring a title, that would have only prolonged the inevitable. And it would have been much tougher for Oklahoma City to recover from a summer in which both of their superstars left for nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. Bupkis.
At least now the Thunder have the option of getting out in front of Westbrook’s situation. They won’t necessarily trade him, but they can. If they don’t, and he still leaves, at least it was their decision.
Durant leaving, in a way, offered the Thunder certainty—by allowing them to properly deal with known uncertainty.
