The NBA offseason has slowed to a crawl with the majority of stars signing deals with new teams. For the OKC Thunder, most of Sam Presti’s offseason moves occurred during the NBA draft because the team is intent on tanking not competing for the postseason.
With the season set to begin on October 19th national writers are already turning their attention to the upcoming season. The current focus is on how each team stacks up heading into the new campaign.
Specifically, where the gaps in the roster are, how competitive the teams will be, and what their salary situation is.
Bleacher Report suggests Favors is the worst contract on OKC Thunder
In terms of the latter situation, Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report dove into each team to analyze individual contracts. Buckley selected the worst contract on each club.
In certain cases the contract is obvious. Kevin Love of the Cavaliers for example is an obvious choice as is John Wall of the Rockets.
A trio of former OKC Thunder players was selected including Russell Westbrook of the Los Angeles Lakers, recently departed Al Horford now of the Boston Celtics, and Steven Adams who was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies this offseason.
As for the Thunder, the selection is sort of a reach. Buckley pegged Derrick Favors as the worst contract. The following is a portion of Buckley’s excerpt…
"Sincere apologies to the Favors family, as the veteran big man wouldn’t stand out on virtually any other cap sheet. It’s just that his offseason trade to OKC sent him to a place where almost everyone is making minimum money, and the only major expense is an upcoming max extension to the perpetually ascending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.So, yeah, Derrick Favors mostly lands here by default. But his interior game isn’t tremendously valued in the modern NBA, so he’s probably getting a little more than he would on the open market."
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Buckley notes Favors’ skill set isn’t a great fit in the new NBA given his penchant for being more of a paint positional player than a big man who spreads the court. He also notes it’s entirely possible the Thunder could jettison his contract in a trade at the deadline.
Favors is an economical deal for the Thunder and he’s the type of player who’ll be great at mentoring youngsters. A position he embraced in a decade of service with the Utah Jazz and replicated in a short one-year term with the New Orleans Pelicans.
What makes the Buckley choice a reach is Favors is earning an economical $19.9 million over the next two seasons. This season he’ll earn $9,720,900 while the final year of his contract is for $10,183,800 but has a player option attached. Typically, teams aren’t excited about player options but it’s not like $10 million is going to tie teams in knots.
Last season Favors appeared in 68 of the 72 games averaging 5.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and shot 63.8 percent from the field in 15.3 minutes.
His 11 years of experience and being only 30 years old making him an attractive contract. Not to say the OKC Thunder will be anxious to move him but teams who want to vie for a title could show interest at the trade deadline. And, if those clubs come correct with young useful assets or more draft picks Presti could flip him.
Suffice to say, Favors deal is far from an albatross and for a team intent on tanking it’s not surprising Buckley had a hard time finding a bad deal.