11:45pm: Presti acknowledged that the sides broke off negotiations in a statement to reporters, including Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (Twitter link).
“We are looking forward to re-opening the conversations this coming July and expect Reggie to continue as a core member of the Thunder for many years to come,” Presti said. “At this time, we have to put all of our focus on our team and the season in front of us and Reggie is a big part of that.”
10:06pm: The Thunder and Reggie Jackson have emerged from extension negotiations without a deal, and the fourth-year guard intends to hunt for a starting job in restricted free agency next summer, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Some teams around the league believe there’s a decent chance the 24th overall pick from the 2011 draft will receive offers for between $13MM and $14MM a year, according to Wojnarowski. That’s in part because of Oklahoma City’s high-dollar commitments to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka that would make it difficult for the Thunder to match such offers without going into luxury tax territory, as Wojnarowski explains. Skepticism surrounds Thunder GM Sam Presti‘s assertion that the Thunder would match any offer sheet, Wojnarowski writes.
News that discussions have broken off is no surprise, since a report Thursday indicated an extension was unlikely. Jackson said in September that he hoped to reach a deal on an extension before tonight’s 11:00pm Central deadline to do so, though the Aaron Mintz client also made it clear he was prepared for that not to happen. He’s made no secret of his desire to start, but Westbrook blocks his path to the starting point guard job, and pairing them, both 6’3″, in the backcourt would make Oklahoma City especially small.
The Thunder have nearly $63.6MM already committed to 10 players for 2015/16 against a projected $66.5MM salary cap. Matching a $14MM offer to Jackson would place the team over the $76.829MM line where the tax sits for this season, and though that figure is expected to rise for next season, it’s unclear by just how much.
Jackson constantly talks about his thought process on wanting to be a starter in the last 2 years, and it is slightly annoying to me. I dont understand why its such a big deal to be the “starter.†You could start a game, and literally play a couple of minutes a night. Its stupid. He’ll play a lot of minutes, run the offense on the 2nd unit, and finish the game a lot of the time. What’s his deal? With that said, I figured they would have come to a deal to pay him. I think he is a high salary player, but I would have a very hard time saying he should get the max. The Rubio deal makes it a little difficult, as if he is somehow worth close to $14 million a year, then Jackson is definitely worth something in the $15.5-16 million range. With that being said though, both Eric Bledsoe and Klay Thompson somehow make less than that, and they are both better than Reggie Jackson. It should be interesting to see how Reggie plays this season, heading into that RFA. With the injuries, he should get the opportunity to show the stuff he has been speaking about. Even with that said, I would think they can come to an agreement next summer, but based on everything he has said in the last couple off years, I’m not sure of his thoughts on staying with OKC. With that being the case, this becomes a very important season for OKC
Also, they cant seriously be considering playing Perkins again this year, can they? At least from what I’ve seen, they finally took him out of the starting lineup, but he is playing too many minutes off the bench. He has his spots that he will be useful for, but that is against specific teams. I’m interested to see what happens when everyone is finally healthy at some point in December. The lineup should be Westbrook, Roberson, Jones, Durant, Ibaka, with Jackson, Adams, Lamb, Collison, and Morrow coming off the bench, in that order. They already missed the boat with Sefolosha last year, and I would say they’ve downgraded a little defensively from that, but that lineup should still be able to use its length and athleticism to disrupt on the defensive end, and then get out and run. Hopefully, Brooks doesnt hold this team back again, and then in the playoffs, KD needs to catch the ball closer to the basket than he does (near half court for some reason). He has to know that he cant go 1 on 5 every time in that environment. Get on the elbow and do your work early, and stop letting little dudes guard you…At this point, I dont see the injuries being to debilitating b/c they wont be long term, so I’ll be interested to see what ends up happening with them at the end of the season b/c they should still be an elite team by that point
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