Monday Bolts – 8.1.16
Guy Fieri is the one to blame: “You can ask his agent, I said it to him during the Playoffs. I
even have the text. I said, “It’s coming up, I want him, you gotta bring him.” And he was laughing—yeah, yeah, yeah—and he blew me off. [Then later on] I was away from my cell phone, out on the boat, and I was able to get a signal. In came a note from my buddy: “KD GS,” and I went arghhhhhh! I went and woke up the kids.”
Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders: “There are clearly plenty of appealing options for Westbrook to choose from. His ultimate decision will have a massive impact on multiple franchises. However, Westbrook has yet to even publicly address his feelings regarding Durant’s departure, let alone his own foreseeable future. Thus, the Oklahoma City Thunder will remain stuck at a fork in the road until Russell Westbrook decides which direction he wants to head in.”
Dave King of Bright Side of the Suns: “Price’s camp might still be pushing for as much money as possible. Not only might the Thunder have to trade Westbrook if he doesn’t sign that extension, just so they don’t get left holding the bag, there is some turmoil around Westbrook’s backup too. Second year guard Cameron Payne is the Thunder’s primary backup point guard, but he just had surgery to repair a Jones fracture and might be hobbled at the beginning of the year. Price might be looking for real backup money. Other backups have gotten $6-8 million per year this summer, including Ish Smith, Jerryd Bayless and Matthew Dellavedova. Most likely, Price’s camp and the Thunder have just agreed to let some other things sort themselves out before agreeing on terms.”
Russ speaks about Kevin Durant.
Adam Silver of the 1+1 deals: “One of the unintended consequences (of doing contracts like James) I feel on behalf of the players is the fact that they end up putting themselves in this position where they’re taking enormous financial risk,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told cleveland.com. “The system is designed for guys to enter into long term contracts, so, and you can only get so much insurance. So one of the unintended consequences is they take risk beyond what we would like to see them take. The other thing is, the system is designed and incentivizes players to stay with the same teams,” Silver said. “At the same time I respect free agency so if they make those decisions to leave, that’s fine too. But as I said, I’d like to talk to the union about maybe modifying the system so there’s a little bit more of an incentive to stay with your existing team.”
Monty Williams will join the Spurs.
Erik Horne: “As stated, the market is thin, which is why an in-season trade is something to keep an eye on. With currently around $14 million in cap space entering the season, the Thunder can absorb a larger salary should it decide to make a deal. Yet, making a short-sighted move won’t get the Thunder closer to a championship this season, so the idea may be just to stand pat, at least until some games are played and the Thunder has a better idea of what kind of chances it has in the Western Conference. There’s always the trade deadline.”