The Thunder have locked up Kevin Durant (left) and Russell Westbrook with well-timed contract extensions.
Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images
With the team finally built, now comes the hard part for OKC
Posted Jan 23 2012 9:17AM
The Plan culminated in a community center that had once been an incubator for their dreams, when they were 3-29 and nobody thought the Oklahoma City Thunder was anything but an interloper, a franchise whose ownership had stolen the dreams of fans in one of the NBA's most loyal cities.
But Sunday, in what used to be the Thunder's practice facility, on the outskirts of town, Russell Westbrook officially signed his five-year, $80 million extension, cementing the Thunder's status as its own franchise, with its own future.
"We're not up here taking bows," he said Sunday, sounding exactly like the former Spurs executive that he is.
In San Antonio, they say it all happened because of Tim Duncan, and that's true -- but only to a point. The OKC Corrolary is Kevin Durant, of course, and his single-mindedness to stay in a small market instead of looking to a big city to validate his sense of self-worth. Now he will spend the bulk of his career playing alongside Westbrook, their supposed fussin' and feudin' apparently not enough to make either demand a separation.
The Thunder now have their franchise bookends, 23 and 24 years old, surrounded by role players who also want to be in Oklahoma City and see things through. Everything that Presti has tried to plan for since he took over in 2007 is in place.
"They really committed themselves to being part of the organization," Presti said of Durant and Westbrook. "Russell was here before there was a logo, before there was a team name. They took a lot of ownership of the situation. Kevin is uncommon. He's not someone who looks past the things that matter to him. I think he thought this was the place he wanted to play and continue his career."
Now, though, comes the hard part.
The Thunder are no longer an up-and-coming team. They are here. This is the team. There is no more cap room to save. Presti has put his cards on the table; the Thunder have gone from one of the five lowest payrolls to a team that will now be over the salary cap for years to come. A championship is the only expectation left to fulfill.
"Right now, I think we're good as is," Westbrook said last week. "We do a good job of everybody knowing their role. We can get better, always, but I think we're in a good position now, especially the way we play defensively. Hopefully we can keep that going."
Of course, OKC's rise starts with Durant, taken second in the 2007 Draft. Nobody knew he'd be this good, just like nobody knew Westbrook could make the transition to NBA point guard so seamlessly.
"I had faith," Durant said. "I had faith in everything I did, all the hard work I did. I had faith in Sam, I had faith in Troy Weaver (Oklahoma City's assistant general manager), everybody. I might have some bad games, but I knew that if I come in to work every single day, we was going to get through it. And I knew it was a phase. Talking to guys in this league, you knew it was a phase that you can overcome ... you've got to have faith in the organization and the players around you."
Faith is not often found in someone so young, especially one whose teams go 43-121 in his first two seasons, and whose new general manager was a then 30-year-old with no track record, no background as an NBA player and a statistics guy way before such things became popular. It is even less often found when that new GM gets behind a man with no prior coaching experience, who was not a superstar as a player. But Presti sold Durant that a turnaround was possible. Even while enduring the understandable anger of fans in Seattle who were about to lose the team they had faithfully supported for four decades. Even as the Thunder were in the midst of firing P.J. Carlesimo in their inaugural season in Oklahoma after a 1-12 start to the 2008-09 season, replacing him with Scott Brooks.
"He just looks like a smart guy," Durant said of Presti, with a laugh, as if he was trying to explain why one might like chocolate ice cream. "He just looks like he knows the game of basketball. Since we traded Ray Allen to get Jeff Green, and they brought in myself, I knew that was a bold move. I knew he saw something. And ever since then, I've been a Sam Presti fan. Every person he's brought through here has been a class guy, and basketball-wise, a hard worker. He knows his stuff ...
There were no shortcuts those first two years. Brooks had been a finalist for the coaching job in Sacramento before the Kings hired Reggie Theus before the 2007-08 season. When Brooks didn't get that job, he went north to be Carlesimo's top assistant in Seattle. Brooks emphasized defense when he came in, but again, everybody emphasizes defense when they come in.
"I knew his basketball background and I knew how much he knew about the game," Durant said. "But to be honest, once they got rid of P.J., I didn't know he would be the interim coach. I didn't know they'd bring him in as a coach. But once they did, the concepts and the identity that he tried to bring to this organization was something I believed in, and I knew it was going to be good for our organzation. I always, since Day One, I believed in Sam Presti and the guys in our organization."
Young coaches who play young players usually get fired. Things didn't turn around immediately after the Thunder took Westbrook fourth overall in the '08 Draft. But Brooks wasn't fired, even after OKC started 2008-09 at 3-29 -- including separate losing streaks of 14 (although 11 of those losses occured under Carlesimo), eight and five games -- because Presti had his back, and because Durant trusted Presti. And thus, he trusted Brooks.
"It's funny he says that," Brooks says now. "I think it's ... the other way around. I trusted the guys. Because when we were 3-29, if you came to our practices, you saw how hard they worked. And that always kept me going. Because I know that if you work that hard, and you have a good talent base, it's going to improve. So I trusted Kevin and Russell and Nick (Collison), and the guys we had back then. And they came in every day.
"Some guys weren't in and weren't believing, and we knew who they were, and they're no longer here. It was tough on some guys, because the young guys were playing. But the young guys were better. They weren't given playing time. They were better than the veterans. And that's the difference."
So there was no deviation from the spine of the plan -- keep cap room, at all costs. No big expenditures for free agents; the Thunder's big ticket signings during Presti's tenure have been center Nenad Krstic -- signed to a three-year, $15 million deal in 2008 -- and backup guards Kevin Ollie and Royal Ivey, both of whom were signed because they seemed, according to Presti, like good guys (see below). He hoarded first-round picks, getting two firsts from Phoenix along with Kurt Thomas in 2007, then trading Thomas seven months later to the Spurs for another first. With those extra firsts, Presti was able to get Thabo Sefolosha in a trade from Chicago and take Serge Ibaka in the 2008 Draft, knowing he'd play overseas for a year.
But that cap room was sacred. It was earmarked from the time it became available --save it for the core group, the guys they'd drafted and nurtured and knew best, the guys whose character they trusted. That meant Durant and Westbrook, just as it surely now means James Harden and Ibaka. (At least OKC hopes that's the case; it will be difficult to stagger four big contracts, and the Thunder will have to negotiate parallel deals with Harden and Ibaka in the offseason to keep them from becoming restricted free agents in 2013.) Presti did use some of it to sign Collison and Kendrick Perkins to long-term deals, with a twist -- by giving each signing bonuses with some of the room, he was able to negotiate contracts that actually go down in future years, when the extensions for Durant and Westbrook kick in.
And there was never any doubt that Westbrook would get the deal. Like Durant, the Thunder don't think Westbrook -- with two Final Fours, a gold medal at the World Championships last year with Durant and their joint playoff appearances -- is anywhere close to his full potential. The contract is for future performance, not for his current resume.
The Thunder will never be a luxury-tax payer under primary owner Clay Bennett, but they could be among the recipients of the league's enhanced revenue sharing plan down the road. At the least, corporate dollars are plentiful in Oklahoma City, home of several Fortune 500 companies. The playoffs the last two years have provided incredible experiences -- seeing the Lakers bully them in 2010, seeing the Mavericks dissect them last season. They had to play smart against Denver and they had to slug it out with the Grizzlies. They are young, but seasoned. There are no excuses. The Thunder's time is now.
It was always just a matter of trust.
And Kevin Durant's faith.
"We've always tried to be straight with the players," Presti said. "We've always tried to be clear what we felt was important fo us to establish in our program, one that was capable of winning consistently. I think going through a lot of the ups and downs that you go through as you try to build an organization and sustain it, a big part of it is sticking together and continuing to support people and put them in positions to be successful."
But Sunday, in what used to be the Thunder's practice facility, on the outskirts of town, Russell Westbrook officially signed his five-year, $80 million extension, cementing the Thunder's status as its own franchise, with its own future.
There is also the matter of being the standard all other rebuilding franchises emulate. Which Sam Presti, the Thunder's GM, hates.
"We're not up here taking bows," he said Sunday, sounding exactly like the former Spurs executive that he is.
In San Antonio, they say it all happened because of Tim Duncan, and that's true -- but only to a point. The OKC Corrolary is Kevin Durant, of course, and his single-mindedness to stay in a small market instead of looking to a big city to validate his sense of self-worth. Now he will spend the bulk of his career playing alongside Westbrook, their supposed fussin' and feudin' apparently not enough to make either demand a separation.
The Thunder now have their franchise bookends, 23 and 24 years old, surrounded by role players who also want to be in Oklahoma City and see things through. Everything that Presti has tried to plan for since he took over in 2007 is in place.
"They really committed themselves to being part of the organization," Presti said of Durant and Westbrook. "Russell was here before there was a logo, before there was a team name. They took a lot of ownership of the situation. Kevin is uncommon. He's not someone who looks past the things that matter to him. I think he thought this was the place he wanted to play and continue his career."
Everybody has a plan. Most never can get it done. There is so much working against teams in the NBA: injuries, bad picks, inflexible agents, Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. Most teams fail to reach the top. And the Thunder aren't there yet, either. But they're much closer than most, with the league's best record, the league's top young combo and a fan base that sells out what is now called Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Now, though, comes the hard part.
The Thunder are no longer an up-and-coming team. They are here. This is the team. There is no more cap room to save. Presti has put his cards on the table; the Thunder have gone from one of the five lowest payrolls to a team that will now be over the salary cap for years to come. A championship is the only expectation left to fulfill.
"Right now, I think we're good as is," Westbrook said last week. "We do a good job of everybody knowing their role. We can get better, always, but I think we're in a good position now, especially the way we play defensively. Hopefully we can keep that going."
Of course, OKC's rise starts with Durant, taken second in the 2007 Draft. Nobody knew he'd be this good, just like nobody knew Westbrook could make the transition to NBA point guard so seamlessly.
"I had faith," Durant said. "I had faith in everything I did, all the hard work I did. I had faith in Sam, I had faith in Troy Weaver (Oklahoma City's assistant general manager), everybody. I might have some bad games, but I knew that if I come in to work every single day, we was going to get through it. And I knew it was a phase. Talking to guys in this league, you knew it was a phase that you can overcome ... you've got to have faith in the organization and the players around you."
Faith is not often found in someone so young, especially one whose teams go 43-121 in his first two seasons, and whose new general manager was a then 30-year-old with no track record, no background as an NBA player and a statistics guy way before such things became popular. It is even less often found when that new GM gets behind a man with no prior coaching experience, who was not a superstar as a player. But Presti sold Durant that a turnaround was possible. Even while enduring the understandable anger of fans in Seattle who were about to lose the team they had faithfully supported for four decades. Even as the Thunder were in the midst of firing P.J. Carlesimo in their inaugural season in Oklahoma after a 1-12 start to the 2008-09 season, replacing him with Scott Brooks.
"He just looks like a smart guy," Durant said of Presti, with a laugh, as if he was trying to explain why one might like chocolate ice cream. "He just looks like he knows the game of basketball. Since we traded Ray Allen to get Jeff Green, and they brought in myself, I knew that was a bold move. I knew he saw something. And ever since then, I've been a Sam Presti fan. Every person he's brought through here has been a class guy, and basketball-wise, a hard worker. He knows his stuff ...
"One thing I tried to do is try to be a leader and carry everybody with me. If I went to work out every single day, before and after practice, I wanted guys to come work out with me. It's more than just working hard for yourself. You've got to bring guys in. And I think that's what leaders do. And that's something I learned. It took me some time, but I learned that. Keep faith, man, and come to work every single day ... you work every single day, and things are gonna change."
There were no shortcuts those first two years. Brooks had been a finalist for the coaching job in Sacramento before the Kings hired Reggie Theus before the 2007-08 season. When Brooks didn't get that job, he went north to be Carlesimo's top assistant in Seattle. Brooks emphasized defense when he came in, but again, everybody emphasizes defense when they come in.
"I knew his basketball background and I knew how much he knew about the game," Durant said. "But to be honest, once they got rid of P.J., I didn't know he would be the interim coach. I didn't know they'd bring him in as a coach. But once they did, the concepts and the identity that he tried to bring to this organization was something I believed in, and I knew it was going to be good for our organzation. I always, since Day One, I believed in Sam Presti and the guys in our organization."
Young coaches who play young players usually get fired. Things didn't turn around immediately after the Thunder took Westbrook fourth overall in the '08 Draft. But Brooks wasn't fired, even after OKC started 2008-09 at 3-29 -- including separate losing streaks of 14 (although 11 of those losses occured under Carlesimo), eight and five games -- because Presti had his back, and because Durant trusted Presti. And thus, he trusted Brooks.
"It's funny he says that," Brooks says now. "I think it's ... the other way around. I trusted the guys. Because when we were 3-29, if you came to our practices, you saw how hard they worked. And that always kept me going. Because I know that if you work that hard, and you have a good talent base, it's going to improve. So I trusted Kevin and Russell and Nick (Collison), and the guys we had back then. And they came in every day.
"Some guys weren't in and weren't believing, and we knew who they were, and they're no longer here. It was tough on some guys, because the young guys were playing. But the young guys were better. They weren't given playing time. They were better than the veterans. And that's the difference."
So there was no deviation from the spine of the plan -- keep cap room, at all costs. No big expenditures for free agents; the Thunder's big ticket signings during Presti's tenure have been center Nenad Krstic -- signed to a three-year, $15 million deal in 2008 -- and backup guards Kevin Ollie and Royal Ivey, both of whom were signed because they seemed, according to Presti, like good guys (see below). He hoarded first-round picks, getting two firsts from Phoenix along with Kurt Thomas in 2007, then trading Thomas seven months later to the Spurs for another first. With those extra firsts, Presti was able to get Thabo Sefolosha in a trade from Chicago and take Serge Ibaka in the 2008 Draft, knowing he'd play overseas for a year.
But that cap room was sacred. It was earmarked from the time it became available --save it for the core group, the guys they'd drafted and nurtured and knew best, the guys whose character they trusted. That meant Durant and Westbrook, just as it surely now means James Harden and Ibaka. (At least OKC hopes that's the case; it will be difficult to stagger four big contracts, and the Thunder will have to negotiate parallel deals with Harden and Ibaka in the offseason to keep them from becoming restricted free agents in 2013.) Presti did use some of it to sign Collison and Kendrick Perkins to long-term deals, with a twist -- by giving each signing bonuses with some of the room, he was able to negotiate contracts that actually go down in future years, when the extensions for Durant and Westbrook kick in.
And there was never any doubt that Westbrook would get the deal. Like Durant, the Thunder don't think Westbrook -- with two Final Fours, a gold medal at the World Championships last year with Durant and their joint playoff appearances -- is anywhere close to his full potential. The contract is for future performance, not for his current resume.
The Thunder will never be a luxury-tax payer under primary owner Clay Bennett, but they could be among the recipients of the league's enhanced revenue sharing plan down the road. At the least, corporate dollars are plentiful in Oklahoma City, home of several Fortune 500 companies. The playoffs the last two years have provided incredible experiences -- seeing the Lakers bully them in 2010, seeing the Mavericks dissect them last season. They had to play smart against Denver and they had to slug it out with the Grizzlies. They are young, but seasoned. There are no excuses. The Thunder's time is now.
It was always just a matter of trust.
And Kevin Durant's faith.
"We've always tried to be straight with the players," Presti said. "We've always tried to be clear what we felt was important fo us to establish in our program, one that was capable of winning consistently. I think going through a lot of the ups and downs that you go through as you try to build an organization and sustain it, a big part of it is sticking together and continuing to support people and put them in positions to be successful."
No comments:
Post a Comment