Iguodala Admits Thunder "Should've Won A Championship"
By Randy Renner, Senior Writer
“Now that we’ve got KD I can say it,” Warriors defensive stopper Andre Iguodala said Thursday during an interview on a New York City radio station, “They (the Thunder) were the best team last year in the playoffs. They were better than us, they were better than Cleveland, they were the best team in the playoffs. They should’ve won a championship.”
Ouch.
Of course most every Thunder fan already thought that and many NBA reporters and others who follow the league closely thought it too.
Still to hear Iguodala actually say it is sort of like pouring salt in a still open wound, especially now that Kevin Durant has joined the golden boys.
So how did Iguodala’s Warriors turn things around and come back from that 3-1 deficit?
“We just locked them down,” he said. I guess referring to Durant and Russell Westbrook all of a sudden going stone cold from the floor in the final six minutes of Game 6 and turning the ball over when they weren’t missing shots.
But still Iguodala maintained the Thunder “were better than us. They played us better than anyone. They played us better than Cleveland (even though the Cavs beat the Warriors in the NBA Finals) Some of the stuff they was doing it’s like...oh man we gotta play perfect.”
And Klay Thompson darn near did hitting 11 threes and taking advantage of the Thunder last minutes meltdown.
FOYE SIGNS DEAL WITH NETS
A couple of days ago we heard Thunder guard Dion Waiters was in talks with the Brooklyn Nets on an offer shoot and today came word that free agent guard Randy Foye, not Waiters, had signed a deal in Brooklyn.
Foye was an unrestricted free agent who came to OKC last season in a deal with the Denver Nuggets. He had indicated in his post-season exit interview he’d like to return to the Thunder but that was before Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka left and before Victor Oladipo arrived.
Foye is also from Newark, New Jersey and recently bought rock legend Bruce Springsteen’s mansion in Rumson, New Jersey, so going back to his old home area probably played a role too, especially since the Thunder, even if Russell Westbrook plays all next season, probably don’t have a realistic chance of winning the NBA title.
The move also frees up some more salary cap space for the Thunder removing a $5.95 million cap hold from the books.
As far as Waiters is concerned several teams have talked to him but no one has given him an offer. The Thunder’s nearly $6.8 million qualifying offer is still out there. Earlier in free agency it was thought Waiters might be able to get an offer sheet of somewhere around $10-$12 million, maybe even more, but that kind of interest has apparently dried up.
NOTHING NEW ON WESTBROOK
Despite a lot of internet chatter with reporters quoting sources who say Westbrook will likely be on the move to another NBA address soon, there’s been no solid indication the Thunder are actively pursuing a trade.
In fact sources have told The Sporting News Westbrook’s representatives have not been approached about any impending trade.
The Thunder are believed to be trying to get Westbrook to agree to a renegotiation and extension of his current contract, similar to what old teammate James Harden has done in Houston.
If the Thunder can’t get strong assurances from Westbrook that he plans to stick around longterm the thinking is he will be dealt so that Thunder GM Sam Presti isn’t left holding another empty bag if Westbrook does what Durant did.
The waiting, wondering and worrying isn’t easy but right now that’s pretty much all there is.