Jeff Green wants to stay in OKC too

I’m sure you’ve all seen this story already, but in case you didn’t, Jeff Green has basically echoed Kevin Durant saying he prefers to stay right where he’s at.

“This is a great city to play in. The basketball atmosphere is great, and it’s a great place to raise a family. So I wouldn’t mind.”

Honestly, Green’s contract situation is probably the most underrated, underdiscussed thing about this summer. More than likely Durant’s extension will directly influence Green’s. I would assume, the more Durant gets, the less Green does.

Now obviously Uncle Jeff isn’t going to get paid like KD. The question is, what’s a fair extension for Green? In his third year, his numbers dipped some from last season, but his team is playing much, much better and he’s a large part of that. Especially as of late in February and March, where he’s picked up his game some. Some have asked what a proper extension would be is. I’m thinking in the area of $7-9M a year is acceptable, especially in the new NBA economy. If Green were up for an extension three years ago, he’d probably have gotten a bigger number. But the cap is set to drop and mid-level players are going to start making less.

Obviously you don’t want to lose him, but you also don’t want to get roped into overpaying and saddling yourself with a potentially bad contract (see: Aldridge, LaMarcus). Green is an extremely valuable piece to the Thunder with his glue guyness, his strong leadership and the chemistry he ties the team together with. You absolutely don’t want to lose him. He’s part of the long term plans for this franchise and part of what’s working right now. I think it would be wise to make a strong effort to keep him, and by the way it sounds, he wants to.