NBA Free Agency 2017: 5 potential destinations for Taj Gibson
By John Buhler
Oklahoma City Thunder
West, Northwest
A big reason that the Oklahoma City Thunder traded for Gibson was that general manager Sam Presti liked his re-signability. Gibson had been a team player for years with the Chicago Bulls, but had honestly grown tired of the dysfunctional front office. Could you really blame him?
Though the Thunder have lost three of their core-four from their peak years, they still have Russell Westbrook at point guard playing at an MVP level. He is high energy all the time as a ball-dominant scoring guard. Not every player in the NBA would thrive playing next to a player like Westbrook.
Gibson happens to be one of those players that doesn’t crave the basketball to be an effective player. He was a high-end role player for the Bulls with other ball-dominant guards like Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade last season. If Gibson is down to bang down low, play great defense and get some rebounds, Oklahoma City wouldn’t be a bad spot for him to re-sign.
The only issues are that Oklahoma City isn’t winning a title next year or the year after that. They’ll have to rebuild a championship contender around Westbrook, which will be harder than it sounds given his style of play. Add in that Oklahoma City already has two big guys down low in the ‘Stache Brothers Steven Adams and Enes Kanter and spacing could continue to be clunky for the Thunder.