In the aftermath of their first-round exit at the hands of the Houston Rockets, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a bunch of questions to answer.
Chief among them: What to do with restricted free agent Andre Roberson?
That question, to some extent, has already been answered. The Thunder want to keep him, per ESPN.com’s Royce Young:
The Thunder have only one clear unknown about the existing roster: Roberson, a restricted free agent this summer. After the team inked extensions with Adams and Oladipo last October, Roberson and the Thunder couldn’t find common ground. Roberson has his limitations, but he is one of the elite defenders in the league, and with some development and better understanding of his role as the season went along — the Thunder preached less shooting, more cutting and driving — the Thunder are intent on keeping him.
Keeping Roberson won’t come cheap. He shot under 26 percent on wide-open threes this past season, according to NBA.com, but he is an All-NBA-level defender, someone whom the Thunder entrust to check not only premier wings, but point guards as well.
With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Otto Porter each fated to get max offer sheets that will be matched by their incumbent teams, Roberson becomes a prime candidate to be overpaid by their slighted suitors. He isn’t in the max-contract discussion, so he’ll be seen as poachable. Plus, he shot better 41 percent on threes in the playoffs amid career-high volume. Teams can use that to spin him as a three-and-D contributor.
That doesn’t mean his jumper is fixed; it’s not. And he’s a liability at the free-throw line. But will that stop buyers with cap space and talent deficits, like the Brooklyn Nets or Philadelphia 76ers, from dropping an offer sheet worth between $18 and $22 million (or more) per year?
The Thunder are about to find out. And given their cap situation, they’ll have to hope the answer to this particular question is no.
