Report: Serge Ibaka to join the Thunder for 2009-10 season
I’ve been working to get this as confirmed as possible, but according to this site, Serge Ibaka has signed a four-year deal to play with Oklahoma City, starting with next season:
“The young player from Congo Serge Ibaka will leave for the NBA next season. The 18-year-old, who spent this season in Spain with Manresa, is to sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder, which will have to pay the Catalan club 400 thousand Euros, as Ibaka has still two seasons left in his contract. The Thunder will have the 2.08m centre for the next four seasons for a total earning of around 4.5 million euros. Ibaka won the Spanish league’s dunk contest last year and averaged 7.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1 block in 31 games.”
The report comes from this article which appears to be much more credible, though I can’t read a word of it. But it appears that Ibaka will be on the roster for next year. Even more reason to believe the Thunder won’t do anything major in the free agent market this summer.
UPDATE: Thanks to reader Jacob, here is the second article translated.
Here is the 2nd article listed thats translated to english.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.regio7.cat%2Fsecciones%2Fnoticia.jsp%3FpRef%3D2009070500_19_35849__Esports-LNBA-semporta-pivot-Serge-Ibaka
@Jacob
Awesome I knew someone would know how to do that.
Awesome! Looks like Presti is high on Serge. I didn’t know he won the dunk contest in Spain. Looks like OKC will have some dunkers in this years Summer League.
I’ll personally be watching Hardin’s outside shooting, RW Asst/turn ratio, DJ White’s emergence as a shooter/rebounder, and if Serge is “ready” for the NBA’s 4′s and 5′s.
Who’s gonna be the scoring leader today for our beloved Thunder.
I say Hardin!
How do y’all think signing Serge will affect our pursuit of Millsap? I think if Ibaka shows well at the summer leage then there will be no need for Millsap, we will have a decent sized bench, although Ibaka could always go to the d-league.
Signing Chewie doesn’t necessarily signal an end to Millsap…mainly because I think that sign had already been posted.
It’s only $1 million a year-ish, so that would necessarily alter the cap space enough to make signing anyone else impossible. It just doesn’t seem likely for Presti to go after anyone at this point though.
“would not alter the cap space enough” – edit
YES!!! For all those fans who said Ibaka would be D league or in Spain I guess he’s a lil mo ready than u guys thought.
I’m excited. There’s nothing more fun than watching someone that athletic do what they do.
On the other hand, it’s also frustrating to watch them fumble away missed opportunities and make bad basketball decisions.
But nothing is more satisfying than watching a guy improve from month to month over the course of his first year or two in the league.
Welcome Serge, and good luck sir.