OKC Thunder In the news: the super star edition

OKC Thunder in the news takes a super star focus featuring super max contracts, each NBA team’s most important player and 25 players Hall of Fame chances.

With the OKC Thunder releasing news super star Russell Westbrook underwent arthroscopic surgery Wednesday it has us focused on the value of a super star. More precisely how rare and elite the company Westbrook is among.

To that end, three exceptional articles find their way to In the news column today.

How the super max contract shifted from it’s original intention:

Writer Tom Ziller of SB Nation article examines how the super max contract affected individual max contracts for the majority of NBA players.

Looking back to the summer of 2017 four players were eligible for the super max contract: Stephen Curry, James Harden, John Wall and OKC Thunder super star Russell Westbrook. All four claimed the reward of their efforts and subsequently locked into their super max contract.

Conversely, other players like DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George and Jimmy Butler all ended up playing on new squads effectively removing the super max option.

In fact, this new contract type arose (many believe) in response to Kevin Durant‘s exit from the OKC Thunder. One of the key components of the super max was to afford smaller markets the ability to retain super stars with a contract generated by staying put.

"So in a few cases — and there will be more — the supermax has worked as intended. The Thunder’s use of the contract to retain Westbrook ahead of free agency created a virtuous cycle: it helped the team to retain Paul George in free agency after the team traded for him. But the Designated Veteran Contract has had another role: it has essentially ended the individual player maximum for all but a small cadre of elite players with less than 10 years of experience."

Ziller examines how the super max contract in theory worked, but had an unforeseen result as teams like the Bulls elected to rebuild instead of retaining a top 15 talent in Butler and pay him the big dollars. Moving forward the question is whether the super max deal has created a major divide between top 10 talents and the next tier of stars.

Each NBA teams most important player:

Speaking of super stars, The Step Back scribe Ti Windisch recent article determined who the most important player is on every NBA squad. Although, most will know who that player is for the OKC Thunder, I won’t spoil Windisch’s specific content on his choice. Suffice to say, his absence this preseason should offer specific insight as to precisely how important he is to the Thunder.

A great read by Windisch which offers excellent insight on every squad’s primary talent.

"An important player can be a star in his prime that will determine a franchise’s season. It could be a young player who will either justify a front office’s moves or doom that staff. In some situations, a team’s most important player could be an older icon who embodies an era in franchise history. That stuff matters!Since the definition of important is so vague, it leaves picking the most important player on each team up to interpretation. The NBA Most Valuable Player award is like this too — it’s purposefully not specific to leave flexibility in the hands of voters."

Examining the potential of 25 current NBA star Hall of Fame chances:

Sticking with the super star focus in today’s column, the next must read article comes courtesy Ben Golliver of SI The Crossover.