Oklahoma City Thunder Lock Up Serge Ibaka With Four-Year Extension And What It Might Mean For James Harden

According to Yahoo! Sports, among other sources, the Oklahoma City Thunder have locked up the third member of the team's four-headed monster of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, and James Harden when the team agreed to a four-year, $48 million deal with Ibaka to remain with the Thunder.

Ibaka's new extension leaves Harden as the only member of the Thunder's core group that isn't locked in for the foreseeable future with Oklahoma City.

With Harden emerging last season as the best bench player in the NBA, averaging 16.8 points per game en route to earning NBA Sixth Man of the Year honors, most people thought Thunder GM Sam Presti would have a deal worked out with Harden before moving on to Ibaka's.

However, for reasons that remain unknown at this time, Presti decided to lock in Ibaka first, who is one of the league's best defensive players and only beginning to scratch the surface of his potential ceiling.

At 6'10", and with freakishly long arms, Ibaka has led the league in total blocks in each of the past two seasons, averaging a whopping 3.7 blocks per game while playing and starting all 66 games this past season for OKC.

Ibaka also led the league in total postseason blocks in each of the past two seasons, including a 2.68 average this past postseason to go along with his 9.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game as he helped lead the Thunder to the 2012 NBA Finals.

He was also named to the All-NBA first Defensive Team this past season, and finished second to Tyson Chandler of the New York Knicks in voting for Defensive Player of the Year.

You can't really make an argument that efficiency played much of a role in the team opting to deal with Ibaka's extension before Harden's considering they had very similar PERs this past season, with Harden narrowly edging Ibaka 21.1 to 19.0 in that category.

Both players have had extremely good luck staying healthy and on the court during their first three seasons in the league, as Harden has only missed 10 out of 230 regular season games, while Ibaka has missed only 9 out of 230 games (all nine of his missed games came during his rookie season).

It wasn't because Harden was busy with the Olympics, playing alongside Durant and Westbrook for Team USA on their way to a gold medal because Ibaka played just as deep in the tournament with Spain, settling with a silver medal after Team USA's 107-100 victory over the Spanish team.

Harden was reportedly being shopped around the league at the time of the 2012 NBA Draft, with the Charlotte Bobcats being one team reportedly very interested in making a move for him (they supposedly considered sending their number two overall pick to OKC in exchange for Harden.

I can't say with any certainty that Presti hasn't shopped Ibaka at some point over the past three seasons, although I'd venture to say it's likely Presti has shopped everyone on the roster except for KD at some point just to gauge interest in his players from around the league.

The reason Presti decided to lock up Ibaka for the next four years before dealing with Harden's extension could be as simple as he realized just how bad the Thunder will need Ibaka when they inevitably get matched up against the Los Angeles Lakers and their newest incarnation of twin towers, Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol, in the postseason.

For instance, remove Ibaka from the Thunder's squad and replace him with Dante Cunningham of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who had a PER of 14.94 last season (15.0 is the standardized league average and Cunningham was closet to the mark at the power forward position last season).

I don't think Oklahoma City would win more than two games against the 2012-13 Lakers in a seven game series with that swap, and that's assuming Durant AND Westbrook each have at least one out of this world performance during that series.

Now, let's remove Harden from the equation and replace him with Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, who posted a 14.97 PER during the 2011-12 season (again, the closest player at shooting guard to a 15.0 PER).

I still don't think the Thunder would be able to pull out four wins against that same Lakers squad (maybe once in every five seven game series between the two), but I do know that it would be a much, much closer fight with Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins down low battling Howard and Gasol with Durant and Westbrook still handling their business.

Basically, what this proves is that Oklahoma City will need all four pieces of their four-headed monster if they want to get past a Lakers squad being led by an insanely determined Kobe Bryant (Do you honestly think the Black Mamba is going to show any sign of mercy or focus on anything beyond the hardwood in his pursuit of his Jordan-tying sixth ring?) and an almost equally determined Steve Nash (still chasing his first ring while holding the fairly embarrassing title of having played more playoff games than anyone in NBA history without even reaching the NBA Finals at an astounding total of 118 games.. and counting).

While the Thunder NEED that four-headed monster intact to secure their best odds at a title, it's a different story entirely whether or not they can actually make it happen.

Assuming Ibaka will be earning about $12 million a season under his new extension, Oklahoma City would have around $47 million committed to Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka alone starting with the 2013-14 season.

Tack on another $15 million (approximately) for Kendrick Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha and Nick Collison, and those six players alone eating up about $63 million in cap space in 2013-14.

While Harden's qualifying offer is only $7.64 million, it's almost a certainty he will be offered somewhere between $12 million per season and a maximum contract by a team that's chasing him next summer as a restricted free agent.

Even if he draws the short straw out of those numbers, still $12 million per year, that means the Thunder would be committed to $75 million in salary in 2013-14 for Durant, Westbrook, Harden, Ibaka, Perkins, Collison, and Sefolosha if they matched his offer sheet.

With the salary cap expected to be somewhere in the range of $58 million and the tax threshold at around $70 million (and reportedly getting more punitive in 2013-14, hitting teams harder that are over the line), that puts the Thunder almost $17 million over the cap and paying at least $10 million in luxury taxes with a minimum of six more spots to fill on their roster.

While Clay Bennett, owner of the Thunder, has never been one to shy away from spending, I'm not sure he is going to want to spend that kind of money when it can't even guarantee a championship with the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers on equal or higher ground than the Thunder.

In the end, although it may be tough for Bennett to swallow financially, I don't think he has a choice but to pay James Harden whatever he commands as they easily have the youngest core of the three super teams right now (Thunder, Heat, Lakers. Sorry everyone else, they're just on a separate level at this point) and would almost certainly win at least one championship over the next four or five seasons.

If for some reason Oklahoma City decides they can't afford to keep Harden around and they allow him to leave town, they may be regretting it over the next decade if they fail to win multiple titles without him, because as long as OKC has their four-headed monster of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, and Harden in tact, they will remain a threat to win the Larry O'Brien championship trophy almost every season for the next five to ten years.

The Five Best Moves Of The NBA Offseason

In no particular order, here at the five best moves that have been made so far this offseason by front offices across the league:

- The Los Angeles Lakers adding Steve Nash and Dwight Howard AND keeping Pau Gasol: The basketball gods must heavily favor the purple and gold because it seems they ALWAYS come out of trades looking like thieves.

Most recently, prior to this summer, it was the Pau Gasol robbery from Memphis (although that deal looks much better now with Marc Gasol's emergence with the Grizzlies than it did when it actually went down back in 2008).

This summer, they somehow made off like bandits not once, but twice, in separate trades that could alter the championship picture for years to come.

First, they were able to land Steve Nash from their division rival, the Phoenix Suns, for a total of four draft picks (two in each round) that will almost certainly be near the bottom of each round. Two of those picks (their first and second rounders for 2013) are coming in one of the weakest drafts since 2000 and will likely fall at the tail end of each round, making them virtually useless.

While the offer was absolutely horrendous from Phoenix's end, they did the right thing for Steve Nash after everything he gave the franchise, which is something of a rarity for teams in today's sports landscape. Nash, even as he approaches the end of his career, instantly becomes the best point guard Kobe Bryant has played with in the NBA.

Then, for some ridiculous reason that will never make sense to me, the Orlando Magic finally caved in and decided to part with Dwight Howard, only somehow they managed to fail to even get Pau Gasol out of the deal. Other than Andrew Bynum, Josh McRoberts and Christian Eyenga were the only other players Los Angeles had to part with to ADD THE BEST CENTER IN THE NBA.

Instead of potentially landing Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, while shedding most, if not all, of their horrendous contracts in the inevitable trade of Dwight Howard, the Magic decided to take back a package that didn't include either player and left the Lakers with a starting five of Nash-Bryant-World Peace-Gasol-Howard.

I'll never know how Los Angeles Laker's GM Mitch Kupchak managed to swing those deals, but I'm going out on a limb here and declaring him the NBA Executive of the Year. Heck, the NBA might as well go ahead and give him the real award now, it's not like anyone is topping his moves this offseason.

- The Denver Nuggets acquiring Andre Iguodala in the Dwight Howard mega-deal: The Nuggets found a way to sneak themselves into the Dwight Howard mega-deal as one of the two teams that helped facilitate D-12's move to the City of Angels and they made out quite well for their troubles.

Denver added one of the most well-rounded players in the league in Iguodala and all it cost them was Aaron Afflalo, Al Harrington, and the lower of their 2014 first round draft picks.

Afflalo is a great young talent at point guard, however, the Nuggets will be just fine with Ty Lawson and Andre Miller still manning the back court. Lawson is also two years younger than Afflalo, and his 19.4 PER (Player Efficiency Rating) crushed Afflalo's 14.7 PER this past season, so I think it's safe to say Denver kept the better of the two.

Iguodala is still on the right side of 30, at only 28 years old, and is coming off a pretty solid run with the USA's Olympic squad that earned their second consecutive gold medal. Through his first eight seasons in the league, all with the 76ers, Iguodala averaged 15.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.9 assists, and 1.7  steals per game.

His critics have always hammered him for not being able to be "that guy" who carries a team on his back. However, Denver doesn't need him to fill that type of role, making him the perfect fit for their system.

Iggy's addition could push Denver from a borderline playoff squad all the way up the ladder in the West to the upper rungs, just below the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, but as good or better than anyone else in their conference.

-  The Brooklyn Nets walking away from negotiations for Dwight Howard with the Orlando Magic: The Nets and Howard had their eyes set on each other for nearly a year, dreaming of a pairing they felt would be perfect both for the franchise and the player.

However, in mid-July, after months and months of negotiations that had gone no where, Nets GM Billy King gave the Orlando Magic a deadline to get something done or Brooklyn was walking away from the table for good.

I'm not sure if the Magic and/or their new GM Rob Henenigan thought King was bluffing when he told them of the deadline, however, we are sure of how it turned out now.

King wasn't bluffing, as the Nets walked away from negotiations for Howard and almost immediately swung a deal with the Atlanta Hawks to bring Joe Johnson to Brooklyn to pair with Deron Williams in the backcourt.

They re-signed Williams and Gerald Wallace to long-term deals, signed Brook Lopez to an extension, kept Kris Humphries on a two-year deal, and added several other complementary pieces as well.

While the pairing of Williams and Howard might have been nice for Nets fans, their supporting cast would have been somewhere between pretty bad and "Seriously, THIS is why we wanted to team up in Brooklyn?" bad for the duo.

Think about it. They would have had to part with Lopez, Humphries, MarShon Brooks, and several decent draft picks just to land Howard and bring back some of Orlando's collection of horrible contracts, which in turn, would have kept them from signing role players like C.J. Watson, Jerry Stackhouse, and Mirza Teletovic.

I'd much rather have Williams-Johnson-Wallace-Humphries-Lopez and a decent bench instead of Williams-Jason Richardson-Hedo Turkoglu-Earl Clark-Howard and a bunch of nobodies (with no draft picks) any day, all day, and twice on Saturday's.

- The Atlanta Hawks moving their two worst contracts (Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams) in less than 24 hours AND arguably improving in the process: New Atlanta Hawks' general manager Danny Ferry would almost certainly be the front-runner for NBA Executive of the Year if not for Mitch Kupchak's two armed robberies.

First, he traded Johnson, and the league's most expensive contract, to the Brooklyn Nets for Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar (since waived), Jordan Williams, DeShawn Stevenson and Johan Petro, as well as a 2017 second round pick.

Later in the day, he then shipped Marvin Williams (the team's constant reminder that the Hawks could've drafted Chris Paul to his hometown Hawks and blew it) to the Utah Jazz for Devin Harris.

On paper, the moves don't look like much of an upgrade. However, once you realize that Ferry turned Johnson's 2012-13 salary of $19.8 (and the near $70 million beyond this season) and Williams into a top ten three point shooter (Morrow, career 42.6%), a solid back-up point guard (Harris), and $20.5 million in expiring contracts (all six players they acquired have contracts expiring after this season, including Farmar, who was already waived),

After their other signings and moves, including the additions of Kyle Korver and Lou Williams, the Hawks are right back at the level they were at prior to the trade, only with approximately ten times the potential when you factor in all the new faces and the franchise-altering amount of cap space they will have next summer.

While their 2012-13 roster might not fare much better than Atlanta's recent string of first or second round playoff losses, they are primed to transform into legitimate, consistent contenders if they continue making all the right moves.

Keep an eye on the Hawks and their stockpile of expiring contracts at the trade deadline in February. With a core of Josh Smith, Al Horford, Jeff Teague, Lou Williams, Devin Harris, and Kyle Korver, Atlanta is only a player or two away from being a serious contender in the East (although they will almost certainly remain in the Miami Heat's massive shadow as they share the same division).

However, with Danny Ferry trading the most untradeable contract in the league within days of taking the Hawks' GM job, nothing he does will surprise me from now on.

- The Miami Heat stealing Ray Allen away from their biggest rival in the Eastern Conference while also adding Rashard Lewis: While many people who follow basketball thought Pat Riley would focus on adding some more size to the Heat's front court as his top priority this offseason, he went out and did almost the exact opposite.

However, when you have the opportunity to land the best three point shooter in NBA history AND one of your main rivals' best players in the same signing, you just can't pass that up, regardless of current needs.

While Miami could clearly use an upgrade at the center position, they have already shown they have what it takes to win an NBA title playing "small ball" and employing a rotation of semi-competent big men other than Chris Bosh.

While Allen lost his starting role with the Celtics last season to Avery Bradley amid lingering injuries, he won't have to play nearly as many regular season minutes for Miami and will almost certainly be used primarily as a spot up shooter lurking around the three-point line, meaning a lot less running around the floor on offense which means less wear and tear on his body.

With his ability to knock down open threes with such consistency, as well the Heat's plethora of other talented three point shooters (Mike Miller, Shane Battier, James Jones, etc.), Miami will almost certainly be one of the best three point shooting teams in the league next season.

With LeBron James and Dwayne Wade commanding double and triple teams every time they drive to the rim, I also expect more than a few of those threes will be wide-open looks.

Although Rashard Lewis might not be the legitimate big man Riley and the Heat have been searching for during the past two summers, at 6'9, he gives them another player like Chris Bosh that can shoot the ball well enough away from the basket that it forces the man covering him to leave the post and come out to guard him.

With a line-up of James-Allen-Wade-Lewis-Bosh on the court, for instance, head coach Erik Spoelstra would have an almost unlimited amount of options on the offensive side of the ball to work with.

Lewis and Bosh can either take the ball down low to the rim or spot up and shoot from 15 feet, causing nightmares for the large percentage of the league's power forwards and centers that have trouble playing defense away from the rim.

If either one of them draws their man away from the basket, it makes it all the easier for LeBron or Wade to take off and drive to the rim, scoring an easy dunk or lay-up and/or drawing a foul on someone moving off their defensive assignment to try and cover the guy with the ball.

By chance someone makes the defensive switch in time to stop whoever is driving to the rim, it will likely come at the expense of leaving Allen or another one of Miami's deadly three point shooters wide open on the perimeter.

Allen also knows Miami's chief rival in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics, quite well having spent the past five seasons with them prior to deciding to take less money and playing time to chase a second (and maybe even a third or fourth) ring with the Heat.

While the Lakers clearly made some earth-shaking moves by acquiring Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer, Miami's addition of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis keeps them in the pole position of the championship race as they look to repeat and build upon last season's success.

Honorable Mention:

- The Oklahoma City Thunder stealing Perry Jones with the 28th pick in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft: Normally, teams coming of an appearance in the NBA Finals don't find themselves in a position to land a player at the NBA Draft that will have any meaningful impact on the franchise in the immediate future.

However, that's exactly where Oklahoma City found themselves during this year's draft as they were the beneficiary of Jones' tumble down the draft board after last minute medical red flags went up regarding his potential knee problems.

Jones, who was once projected as high as a top five draft pick, fell into the Thunder's lap after many teams passed on him due to concerns about the meniscus in his knee dating back to before he played at Baylor.

Standing 6'11 and talented enough to play almost position on the floor, Jones will almost certainly find decent minutes starting out as a rookie, and if he begins to live up to his sizable potential early in the season, could even find himself playing a significant role with the team come postseason time.

Even if for some reason Jones doesn't work out in the long run and fails to live up to his once towering expectations, Sam Presti and the Thunder will have lost nothing other than a late first round pick. If he does work out, Presti once again looks like a genius grabbing the guy everyone else was scared to touch. It's a win-win situation for the Thunder and there is potential here for it to be an extremely big win if Jones pans out.

2012 NBA Draft Grades: Atlantic Division

Boston Celtics

Picks: #21 Jared Sullinger PF, #22 Fab Melo C, #51 Kris Joseph SF

Sullinger saw his draft stock fall due to a herniated disk that caused red flags from several team's medical staffs. However, Boston rolled the dice on him anyway, which was a great move as they need someone with his offensive talent to bolster their front court moving towards the post-KG era.

I think the Celtics reached a little bit taking Melo where they did, although they definitely needed help at the center position as they were forced into small line-ups for a majority of the second half of last season and the playoffs with Garnett at center. With their desperate need at the position taken into account, the big man's selection becomes less of a stretch as he has the potential to turn into a big time force with his size.

While it's unknown if Joseph will make the final roster, he had a pretty decent career at Syracuse and he would provide the Celtics with an excellent wing player to come off the bench behind Paul Pierce, so definitely don't write him off.

Final Grade: B+

Brooklyn Nets

Picks: #41 Tyshawn Taylor PG, #54 Tornike Shengalia SF, #57 Ilkan Karaman PF

The Nets landed an excellent point guard in Taylor and considering how far he fell in the draft, they got him at an absolute steal with the 41st pick. While the Nets are doing everything in their power to keep free agent point guard Deron Williams as they move to their new home, Taylor gives them a quality talent at point that will easily be able to come in off the bench for him or play extended minutes should he sign elsewhere.

Brooklyn's other two selections will likely never play a minute in the NBA and for that they aren't factored into their grade since they were basically filler picks. Taylor was just too good an option to pass up for the Nets.

Final Grade: B

New York Knicks

Picks: #48 Kosta Papanikolaou SF

This selection drew plenty of boos from the dozens of Knicks fans in attendance at the draft last night, as it was a sign that the team had no interest in actually using this selection as their is almost no chance Papanikolaou will ever play in the NBA. In fact, his name has probably been used more in this post (twice) than the Knicks will use it all season long.

Final Grade: Incomplete

Philadelphia 76ers

Picks: #15 Maurice Harkless SF, #27 Arnett Moultrie PF, #45 Justin Hamilton C

The Sixers made a curious selection by taking Harkless with their top draft pick considering they already have Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young on their roster. Unless they are planning to move Iggy, I'm not sure this pick makes much sense for them, although Harkless had an amazing freshman season this past year and should have a good NBA career if he is given enough playing time.

Moultrie was acquired in a move with the Miami Heat and adds some depth to their front court, something that they definitely needed heading into the draft. His best asset is his ability to crash the boards which is something the Sixers desperately need.

Hamilton is another solid front court player that could make it easier for the team to consider using their amnesty clause on Elton Brand. It's unknown if he will make their final roster for sure, but he would definitely provide them a much needed big man with the ability to shoot from a fairly decent range for his size should they decide to give him a contract.

Final Grade:B-

Toronto Raptors

Picks: #8 Terrence Ross SF, #37 Quincy Acy PF, #56 Tomislav Zubcic

The Raptors really wanted to move this selection heading into the draft, however, after failing to find any deals to their liking, they settled instead on making a huge reach and selecting Ross, someone they probably could have taken five picks later. While Toronto needed an upgrade at small forward and got a player that filled the need well, they are getting penalized here for jumping the gun on this one and not moving back to take him.

Acy is a pretty decent selection for Toronto where they took him, however, they took a big gamble leaving Tyshawn Taylor on the board with this selection as they gear up to make a huge run at Steve Nash at the beginning of free agency (and for Jeremy Lin if the pursuit of Nash doesn't work out). Taylor is the type of scoring point guard that the Raptors could really use and it's unlikely they can actually land either of their aforementioned targets, meaning missing out on Taylor could really haunt them down the road.

The selection of Zubcic is likely just another in the long list of international players Toronto has selected over the past few years that have never made it to the NBA.

Final Grade: C-