Should OKC Thunder strike while the iron is hot and trade superstar Russell Westbrook?
By Aidan E
Westbrooks Contract – dollars and sense:
One of the pro’s of trading Westbrook would be to get off of his super max deal that he signed before the 2017-2018 season.
Westbrooks Salary until Age 33
- 2019-2020: $38,506,482
- 2020-2021: $41,358,814
- 2021-2022: $44,211,146
- 2022-2023: $47,063,478
Yikes. The supermax contract was intended for teams to keep their star players at the cost of offering them significantly more money than they could have received from another team. However, this contract has already blown up in the Wizards face as John Wall‘s contract looks like the worst in the league ($171 million over the next four seasons, $42 million average).
And it’s looking like a bad investment for OKC. With Russ declining athletically and his jump shot only getting worse, it might not be a bad time to get off his contract while he has value on the trade market. Trading Russ this offseason would be a good time if OKC was considering doing it because the 2020 free agent class is very lackluster.