Oklahoma City Thunder extend contracts of Eric Maynor, Serge Ibaka and James Harden – NBA Update
The Oklahoma City Thunder have picked up their team options on a number of young talented players. The Thunder’s roster if full of young talent and they have secured a trio of future stars for at least another year by exercising
the team option on their contracts.
Point guard Eric Maynor, shooting guard James Harden and centre/forward Serge Ibaka are the young trio in question. The Thunder also extended the contracts of Byron Mullens and Cole Aldrich.
Maynor, Harden and Ibaka all played a big part in the Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder’s progression to the Western Conference Finals last season and the team must be delighted to have secured them for another year. Serge “i-block-a”
Ibaka is a starter on the OKC side and has grown famous for his terrific defence, especially his demoralizing blocks. He formed a solid frontcourt partnership with centre Kendrick Perkins, who was traded in from the Boston Celtics in midseason, which set the
foundations for the more offensive minded players to dominate the opposition.
Perkins was also perhaps the only player who could not be classified as young in the current OKC roster. Maynor and Harden are both guards and they come off the bench for the Thunder to regularly swing the momentum in their team’s
favour.
Harden’s performances in the playoffs were particularly eye catching as time and again he came off the bench to make big shots and provide offensive impetus to his team. The OKC management view him as a player who could develop
into a permanent fixture in the side’s starting line-up.
Eric Maynor was also hugely impressive in the post season. The player showed that he could go toe-to-toe with most point guards he faced. In fact Maynor was so good coming that the Thunder coach Scott Brooks benched all star point
guard Russell Westbrook in the final quarter of a pivotal game against the Dallas Mavericks so that Maynor could run the show. The young guard did not disappoint and led his side to a rare victory over the eventual NBA World Champions.
The contract extensions therefore were expected and the OKC front office did not disappoint. They have also put themselves in a very good position because when, as expected, they negotiate with the player’s on a new contract next
year, it would fall under the new CBA.
With the new CBA expected to roll back player salaries substantially and introduce a harder salary cap, the franchise would be able to secure the player’s signatures for considerably lesser amount of money than what it would have
cost them to negotiate a new contract now.
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