Since the departure of Kevin Durant to the Oklahoma City Thunder, eyes have turned to Russell Westbrook and his future. Westbrook will become a free agent next year and the Thunder are faced with the task of what to do. They don’t know if Westbrook wants to stay but can’t risk letting him walk away with nothing in return like they did with Durant. But there are murmurs that he does want to stay in OKC, at least for now.
via The Oklahoman:
Westbrook has given the Thunder no indication that he currently wants out. To the contrary, one source described him as ticked off about the Kevin Durant departure, determined for this new challenge and eager for the season to start: “He’s ready.”
Westbrook might’ve indeed been pissed off as Durant himself said their relationship probably won’t ever be the same.
Following Durant’s departure I immediately tweeted that Westbrook is a competitor and he’s going to have MVP numbers this upcoming season BUT that doesn’t necessarily mean OKC will go far and that he’ll want to stay.
OKC may play the waiting game a bit into the season and see how things are going, but even if they’re pressed to trade him to say LA for example, there’s plenty of interesting young players to get like DeAngelo Russell, Brandon Ingram etc, but those are guys Westbrook would want to play with. Nobody wants a Carmelo Anthony situation where the Knicks gutted their roster to trade for him rather than waiting a few months for him to sign in free agency. Sure Melo got his extra year & money out of that (Bird rights), but was it worth all this losing to him? Westbrook wants to win and surely he wouldn’t like that type of situation.
