NBA Talk: Harden's Future with Thunder in Jeopardy after Westbrook's Extension

Russell Westbrook reportedly just signed a five-year, $78-million-plus maximum contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

Now you may be wondering, how does this affect James Harden’s future with the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Well, according to John Hollinger of ESPN, this now means that the organization can offer James Harden a four-year extension when he is due for one next season, instead of the maximum of five.

You may be thinking, what does it matter? Harden isn’t a superstar and won’t command a huge contract anyway.

The thing is, young productive shooting guards have become somewhat of a rarity in the league right now. Within the past five years, there have only been a handful of 2-guards to enter the NBA that have flashed the potential to be great.

There is a high probability that Harden continues to develop as he has steadily over his first three seasons, and might become one of the premier guards in the game.

Sure, Harden will be sticking around in OKC for at least the next three seasons as he is eligible to become a restricted free agent, and most likely, at the very least, will sign a qualifying tender after next season.

However, contract disputes have upset many NBA players in the past and it may be more of the same when the Arizona State product realizes he can get the same money and the same amount of years by joining another squad.

The Thunder have built their team amazingly well and do not have a single bad contract on the roster, but GM Sam Presti is going to eventually realize that he cannot keep all of these young studs as they  are able to earn bigger deals and move on to cities with brighter lights.

Oklahoma City is built to win now, and has to make a serious run in these next few seasons while they have their core group together.

If not, they will start losing players like Harden to free agency and lose the championship window they worked so hard to open.