Thunder agree to terms with Serge Ibaka on four-year extension

Update 5:51 p.m. ET Saturday:  The Thunder have announced the signing as official. Sam Presti held a call to congratulate everyone… before he left to get married. Dude signed his power forward to a four-year extension on his wedding day. Those guys are machines

**********

Well, that didn’t take long.

Yahoo Sports reports that the Oklahoma City Thunder have reached an agreement with forward Serge Ibaka on a four-year extension. The deal is reportedly for four-years, $48 million. That puts it as the same value the Brooklyn Nets signed considerably older and less impressive at this stage Gerald Wallace to this summer.

The extension is relevant on multiple levels. First, it means that Ibaka will not hit the market as a restricted free agent next summer and that the core of Durant and Westbrook have a defense-first shot blocker who can finish at the rim and hit the mid-range is intact. Ibaka finished second in Defensive Player of the Year votes this season and took another step forward in his development on both ends. Locking him up to a long-term extension saves them the grief of having to deal with questions about it for the forseeable future.

But that’s ignoring the bearded, Hello-Kitty-backpack-wearing elephant in the room, isn’t it?

The obvious turn here will be in regards to how it affects James Harden. Harden is also scheduled for restricted free agency next summer and there’s been rampant speculation about whether Oklahoma City can afford to keep both Ibaka and Harden. So you’re going to get bombarded with talk of how the Thunder are going to shop James Harden. Don’t buy in, until you hear from reputable sources on the matter. Clay Bennett has spoken in the past about a willingness to spend into the luxury tax to keep a winning team together. The Thunder are the very model of a winning team. Harden has expressed a desire to stay in Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant strongly wants him back. The Thunder may simply elect to keep those four players, deal with the luxury tax implications, and figure out the rest as they go.

Or they could trade him.

There’s just no way to tell.

But Oklahoma City made a bold decision late Friday night to commit to a future with Ibaka, which doesn’t preclude a future with Harden, but it makes the road tougher. We’ll pass along an update with contract details when they get leaked/ are available.