Berry Tramel with a look at OKC’s future: “Let’s say the Thunder signs Harden and Ibaka, keeps a good roster together and goes a little over the cap. In summer 2016, if the Thunder has been over the cap for three years, and is $13 million over for 2015-16, the Thunder would be taxed $36.75 million. Did you catch that? Not only would the Thunder be spending big on salaries, it would have to write a check to the NBA for $36.75 million. From where does that money come? And here’s the sobering part. Busting the cap by $13 million probably isn’t enough. ESPN’s Tom Penn, an expert on NBA economics, said most league champions in recent years have been around $20 million over the cap. Maybe that will change when Mark Cuban and the Buss family and Micky Arison study that escalating tax. But whatever the case, this is a sobering summer for the Thunder.”
Holly MacKenzie for NBA.com on Perry Jones: “Things will also be different for Terri Jones and her family. The Jones family will experience a much more substantial kind of different, though. Earlier this season, in an ESPN feature written by Jason King, we learned some of the struggles that Jones and his family had survived. His mother’s health issues, bouncing around from one $70-a-week hotel to another, and trying to be strong for his family while continuing to pursue his hoop dream despite the distractions, Jones has had a path more rocky than most. Helping to smooth it out is a mother who has only ever asked her son to seek out his own happiness.” Keep Reading…








Scott Brooks: ‘This is where I wanted to be’
Scotty Brooks has come a long way and so has his team. The matchup was just too good to give up on for either party and so today it was no wonder that both Brooks and his boss Thunder GM Sam Presti were all smiles.
“It’s an exciting day for our organization and for our team,” Presti told a room full of reporters and cameras, “We’re thrilled to have Scotty with us, he’s been an integral part of what’s happening here.”
In typical Brooks fashion he started with a joke, “yeah at the start of the season Sam told me, okay it’s NBA Finals or adios!”
Then he got serious, “I’m excited that we worked it out and I knew we would, this is where I wanted to be. This is the best situation for me, I couldn’t ask for a better place to coach and to live and I’m excited about the opportunity ahead of me.” Keep Reading…