Russell Westbrook Extension: Why the Deal Could Blow Up in OKC Thunder's Face

Only a few hours after the Minnesota Timberwolves prepared to low-ball Kevin Love into a contract worth $60 million over the next four years, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the first team this offseason to give a legitimate offer to one of its star players.

It's being reported that the Thunder reached a deal with point guard Russell Westbrook. It's reportedly worth $80 million over the next five seasons, which would be the maximum, as Westbrook will now look forward to making $16 million every year for the next five years.

Westbrook is the second star on the Thunder to receive a deal. Kevin Durant signed a lucrative deal last year that will keep him in Oklahoma City through the 2015-16 season. It's a smart move by the Thunder to sign both of these players as they now have one of the league's top duos.

Durant and Westbrook have emerged as prolific, dynamic and athletic players who are very capable of leading this Thunder team to the NBA Finals. The two have played three years together and made it all the way to the conference finals last year, coming within three games of making their first NBA Finals appearance since 1996 when the top duo on Seattle was Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp.

It was a tremendous run by the Thunder. They won their division, beat a tough Denver Nuggets team in the first round and then defeated an upstart Memphis Grizzlies club in the semifinals. They had a significant chance to beat out the Dallas Mavericks in the conference finals as well. They fell 4-1 in the series, but held a lead in the fourth quarter of every loss.

It was alarming to see the Thunder struggle so mightily in the fourth quarters of each of those games. Granted, the Dallas Mavericks were playing amazing and did prove they were the best team in the end, but the Thunder could have won that series had they maintained their composure in the fourth quarter.

The problem in the fourth was that there were two leaders on the floor when there's only room for one. Even though we believed it was previously established that Durant was the team leader, it appeared Westbrook thought otherwise. There were too many instances where Westbrook was taking the shots from deep instead of Durant.

Westbrook is capable of leading a team, but that position belongs to Kevin Durant on the Oklahoma City Thunder. With Russell jacking up every shot the second he crossed halfcourt, Durant couldn't get into his usual shooting rhythm and it resulted in the Thunder struggling and ultimately losing due to the conflict of interests between the two All-Stars.

After their loss, it was discussed about what type of point guard the Thunder need. Many analysts thought it would have been a better idea if the Thunder traded Westbrook in order to secure a pass-first point guard instead. Even though Westbrook had averaged eight assists per that season, it was still believed an actual pure point guard would be able to allow Durant to solely take over.

Of course, that didn't happen and the Thunder are now committed to the long haul of pairing Westbrook and Durant.

Pairing up two superstars and then having it work is extremely difficult. No matter how good each of those players are, there will always be at least one problem when dealing with who gets the majority of the shots.

A team like the Miami Heat with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade or a team like the New York Knicks with Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony can both say that they've had trouble having their superstars adjust to each other.

The Thunder are lucky enough that Westbrook is an actual point guard. It's a huge benefit to have a point guard because he's the guy that will dictate the flow and tempo of the offense. However, you sometimes run into a problem with point guards like Westbrook who happen to enjoy shooting it as much as passing.

If you allow a player like Westbrook to take the ball down the court every time, eventually he's going to want to throw up a few shots. The Thunder can't allow Westbrook to take over whenever he feels like it. They need moderation and they need Durant to be the closer if he's feeling it.

There shouldn't be a conflict between these two when they could easily work these things out and discuss beforehand who should have the final say.

It's already been reported that there have been two run-ins between Westbrook and Durant, once during last year's playoffs and the other time occurring earlier this year. They did a great job at playing it down and making sure the hype surrounding it quickly died, but it still might be a concern that these two have been in two spats on the bench over the past few months.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've yet to hear the dynamic duos of the Heat and Knicks getting into an argument nor the big three's of the Celtics and Lakers.

The main difference between the Thunder's duo and the duos and trios of those other teams is the age difference. Both players are 23 years old and that means there are going to be some egos. They haven't been in the league for long and have always been regarded as No. 1 options on their teams prior to moving to the NBA.

Of course, we could be looking a little too far into this. Five years is an awfully long time and anything could happen in between now and 2016, perhaps even a championship or two for the Thunder.

If Westbrook is willing to commit to signing with the Thunder for five more years, it seems he's ready to accept playing with Durant over that period of time. The Oklahoma City Thunder are an amazing team and they're a championship favorite this year, it would be extremely disappointing to see that blow up because these two stars couldn't agree on something as simple as taking the last shot.