Brooks’ contract is up at the end of June and the two sides are reportedly “not close” to a new deal, according to a source.

The crux of the problem is that Brooks, based on the team’s accomplishments, has been vastly underpaid the last two seasons, making $1.9 million and $2.1 million. The Thunder originally offered him a three-year extension worth between $11 million and $12 million before the season and, in light of this year’s success, increased the offer to roughly four years for $16 million.

Those figures are in line with the NBA’s new economic model, where championship-winning Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made $3 million this year, according to sources, and last year’s championship-winning coach, Rick Carlisle of the Mavericks, signed an extension that only netted him a $100,000 raise — from $4.5 million to $4.6 million — in the first year of his new deal.

via ESPN’s Ric Bucher

Brooks is a huge part of this Thunder team going forward. The Thunder organization wants to keep him.

The Portland Trailblazers plan to go after Brooks if he is available so the Thunder would like to get this deal done before that. Perhaps Brooks is waiting on the kind of offer he could receive from Portland.

It is still most likely that Brooks will be back with the Thunder. He wants a 4-year deal and if the Thunder have to bump it up slightly from $16 million they probably will.

It’s not as if there are coaches waiting in line this offseason to come coach the Thunder. The rumors of Phil Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy are not true and Thunder GM Sam Presti called them “rubbish.”

Brooks would really want to go for him to not be back next season. That’s not the case so expect this deal to get done in the next few days.

The two sides have yet to come to an agreement. The lack of a decision a week or so ago was said to be because the Thunder would not offer Brooks a 4-year deal but now they have.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have added a fourth year to a contract extension offer to coach Scott Brooks, but the two sides still have significant differences on salary, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Brooks’ contract expires on Saturday, and he could immediately become a candidate for the Portland Trail Blazers , sources said. Thunder GM Sam Presti and Brooks’ agent, Warren LeGarie, have had conversations this week, but there is still a gap between the sides.

via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports

Presti dismissed any rumors about the Thunder targeting any coach besides Brooks when names like Phil Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy were rumored last week.

Presti spoke very highly of Brooks during the team exit interviews saying how Brooks was just as important to the culture they are trying to create in Oklahoma City as anyone.

Brooks and the Thunder will likely come to an agreement soon. The delay in getting a deal done is largely in part to the Thunder’s deep run in the playoffs this year.

“As we’ve said before, Scotty is an integral part of our organization and critical to our success,” Presti said. “And we value him greatly. We’re looking forward to having those conversations, as he said, in the coming days. But he’s been integral to our success. We wouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in without him and his commitment to the organization and to our players.”

Presit was asked about the rumors from earlier this week that the Thunder would pursue Phil Jackson or Jeff Van Gundy if they couldn’t work it out with Brooks.

“To me, it’s rubbish,” Presti said.

Brooks will more than likely get an extension in the next few days. Sources said that Brooks wanted a deal with four years guaranteed and the Thunder would rather give him just two or three.

Presti and the Thunder organization are committed to what they have right now from the players to the coaching staff. They came close this year to winning the title and they feel no need to shake things up too much to improve their chances of getting back to the Finals.

The NBA Draft is this Thursday and the Thunder hold the 28th pick. It has been thought that they would rather move the pick then draft a player they’d have to pay for the next few seasons, especially when priority No. 1 is to do everything possible to keep James Harden and Serge Ibaka.

“We have the 28th pick, and we’re going to look to see what’s there that we might be able to add to our team, whether it’s now or in the future,” Presti said. “I wouldn’t say that we’re looking to move our draft pick. I’ve read that some places. If there’s a player on the board that we feel like fits our organization, fits our identity, we’ll draft him. If we feel like there’s a better way to use the draft pick, then we’ll look at that.”

The Thunder are unlikely to draft a player that late in the first round that is able to contribute significantly by next season.

There is some potential with a few players that will be available around those rounds, mostly players who stayed in college for three or four seasons.

The Thunder organization has been compared to San Antonio who became a dynasty largely due to their savvy draft choices late in the first round and in the second round. That is one of the next steps for this Thunder franchise to become a dynasty.

Presti isn’t calling the Thunder a dynasty yet, they surely need to win one title before they can be crowned that, but Harden used the word a few times during his exit interview.

“I didn’t realize James was such an aficionado of 80s television,” Presti said of Harden.

Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

James Harden is eligible for a contract extension this summer with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Harden fully expects to get one during the summer.

“They’ll do a pretty good job of working it out,” Harden said. “I’m focused on several other things right now. But when the time is (right), they’ll figure it out and it’ll be done.”

Harden loves it in OKC and calls the team a “family” and his teammates “brothers.” That is what this team is but Harden would likely be taking a little less money to stay in OKC.

Harden won the Sixth Man of the Year award this season and had a breakout season averaging 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assist per game. Harden was integral in the Thunder’s playoff run until he starting slumping in the NBA Finals.

But Harden’s poor play in the Finals represented just how important he is to this team. If he even played a little bit better, the Thunder may very well have won the NBA title this season.

The Thunder organization has created something special and Harden knows that as well as anyone.

His personality by all accounts also lends to the fact that he’s be willing to sacrifice some cash to be a part of something special. Harden already understands the idea of sacrifice as he has come off the bench for the past two seasons despite being talented enough to start.

When the Thunder made all of their great draft picks beginning with Kevin Durant in 2007, it wasn’t all based on talent. They found high character guys that would fit together and improve over time.

Sam Presti and the entire Thunder organization have continued to sell that to their players, coaching staff and fans. It will work.

That’s why even though Harden’s future technically is unclear with the Thunder as well as head coach Scott Brooks’, they aren’t going anywhere.

The Oklahoma City Thunder showed nothing but class as they exited the NBA Finals Thursday night, losing Game 5 in Miami 121-106.

It was an embarrassing defeat for a team that worked so hard all season and just didn’t have it when it mattered most.

Head coach Scott Brooks with time still on the clock gave his team one last speech that summed up what this team and franchise is all about.

You can argue that Brooks should have saved the speech until later, when the game was actually over and not shown the white flag to his players before time had run out even though OKC was not coming back.

But what he said cannot be questioned. It was perfect. He told his players to treat the Heat like champions when the game ended. A real class act.

There has been some news surrounding Brooks and the situation with his contract which is up at the end of June. He and the Thunder still have not reached an agreement on a possible extension.

After seeing this and really even without seeing this speech, it is so clear that Brooks is everything this franchise is about and needs to stay. He may have been outcoached in these Finals but he is so important to what the Thunder organization is trying to build.