Biggest Offseason Priorities and Targets for Oklahoma City Thunder

It’s a rule of thumb in the NBA playoffs that the team with the best player typically advances. The Oklahoma City Thunder's five-game defeat at the hands of the Houston Rockets, despite Russell Westbrook's extended triple-double crusade, doesn't so much upend that line of thought. As otherworldly as Westbrook was in the aggregate, James Harden met him at the mountaintop and brought with him a superior group of shooters, screeners, finishers and instigators.

This OKC team wasn't built to last in a seven-game series. It was cobbled together in the aftermath of Kevin Durant's departure and tweaked on the fly by Thunder general manager Sam Presti.

That this team made the playoffs at all and gave the Rockets a legitimate first-round challenge is a testament to Presti's seat-of-his-pants resourcefulness, the organization's rock-solid culture and, of course, Westbrook's unyielding tenacity and seemingly boundless energy.

For a team that lost one of the five best basketball players in the world for nothing in return last summer, the Thunder are in great shape. But with another of the NBA's top five still on the roster—and only one playoff win to show for his efforts—their work is far from over.

Sign Westbrook to Another Extension ASAP

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Once Durant left for Golden State last July, OKC moved quickly to deepen Westbrook's roots. The result: A new deal, worth $85.7 million, that raised his salary from $17.8 million to $26.5 million for 2016-17 and tacked on a guaranteed year in 2017-18 and a player option for 2018-19, per ESPN.com.

Westbrook said at the press conference announcing his extension:

"

There's nowhere else I would rather be than Oklahoma City. You guys have basically raised me. I've been here since I was 18, 19 years old. You guys did nothing but great things for me. Through the good and the bad, you guys supported me through it all, and I appreciate it.

Definitely when I had the opportunity to be loyal to you guys, that's the No. 1 option. Loyalty is something that I stand by.

"

Thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, Westbrook should have another opportunity to back up his commitment to the Thunder and the surrounding community. According to The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski, OKC's lone superstar could sign a five-year deal worth around $219 million that starts in 2018-19, effectively replacing the option year on his current contract.

Under normal rules, the Thunder would've been unable to extend Westbrook in consecutive summers. Per Woj, the league grandfathered him and Houston's James Harden, who signed a similar deal with the Rockets in 2016: "The league and union worked together on the Harden/Westbrook arrangement with the belief that neither player, nor the Rockets or Thunder, should be punished for honoring the spirit of the rules: encouraging players to remain with current teams on contract extensions."

Thus, OKC figures to come at Russ with a lavish new contract as soon as the clock strikes midnight ET on July 1.

Find a No. 2 for Russ

Alex Gallardo/Associated Press

That is, assuming Westbrook is ready to commit to the Thunder for what would likely be the rest of his prime.

Publicly, he's taken great pains to emphasize how he's part of a team rather than apart from his teammates. After Game 4, he went so far as to intervene when a reporter tried to ask Steven Adams why OKC struggles so mightily when Russ sits.

"I don't want nobody to try and split us up," Westbrook interjected, per ESPN.com. "We're all one team."

Behind the scenes, he's worked just as hard (if not harder) to support the Thunder's other players, particularly youngsters trying to learn on the job.

But even Westbrook, for all his optimism, must see the OKC's need for another floor-tilting talent if it's going to contend in the Western Conference. Certainly, Presti recognizes as much.

As Wojnarowski reported last July, the Thunder had—and might still have—their sights set on Blake Griffin, a likely free-agent-to-be and native of Oklahoma City.

There's been nothing to suggest that Griffin, whose kids live in Los Angeles and who has established a foothold in the city's comedy scene, is eager for a homecoming in the Sooner State. Nor does OKC have the cap space to sign him or any other big name outright.

But Westbrook's historic campaign could pique the interest of some of his high-profile peers. Should one major difference-maker signal a desire to team with the league's triple-double king, you can bet Presti will move heaven and earth to make it happen.

Surround Westbrook with Shooters

Alonzo Adams/Associated Press

In losing to the Rockets, the Thunder saw a blueprint for how they might take the next step with Westbrook, whether or not they're able to land another stud this summer.

Like James Harden in Houston, leverage Westbrook's ability to attack off the bounce. Have him run pick-and-roll with OKC's bigs. Spread the floor around that action with shooters for days.

The Thunder already have the first two parts of that equation down pat. According to NBA.com, Westbrook ran the pick-and-roll 35.5 percent of the time during the regular season, scoring 0.89 points per possession—placing him among the league's top third. Steven Adams and Enes Kanter, OKC's Stache Bros, each averaged well over a point per possession as roll men.

To maximize those combinations, the Thunder will need to spruce up their shooting corps. During the 2016-17 regular season, OKC ranked 18th in three-point attempts (25.8), 26th in makes (8.4) and dead last in accuracy (32.7 percent).

Here, the Thunder may run into the same problem that figures to plague their pursuit of another superstar: a crippling lack of financial flexibility. Good luck luring a legitimate marksman (i.e. Kyle Korver, Bojan Bogdanovic, J.J. Redick, Patty Mills) to one of the NBA's smallest markets for the veteran's minimum.

Then again, Presti can never be counted out completely. He'll have a first-round pick at his disposal to spend how he sees fit.

And if someone from among OKC's youth movement—Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, Alex Abrines, Doug McDermott and Josh Huestis, among others—sharpens his shot this summer, the Thunder could find some of the help they need in-house.

Re-Sign Andre Roberson...and Get Him a Shooting Coach

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

In an alternate timeline, Andre Roberson is the perfect three-and-D complement to Russell Westbrook, a Bruce Bowen clone who locks up the opposition's best scorer and drains corner threes.

In some respects, Roberson already has his Bowen impression down pat, if he hasn't surpassed the former San Antonio Spurs wing entirely. He's one of the NBA's premier perimeter defenders, ranking fifth among small forwards in ESPN's defensive real plus-minus.

Where Bowen made up for his foul-shooting deficiencies with marksmanship from beyond the arc, Roberson has yet to find the range. He followed up a spike to a 31.1 percent three-point clip in 2015-16 with a drop down to a ghastly 24.6 percent on a career-high 2.3 attempts per game.

And yet, for all of Roberson's faults, OKC should absolutely pony up to keep him this summer, when he hits restricted free agency. Any team could use a stopper of Roberson's elite caliber. The Thunder, in particular, don't have the means to find a comparable replacement on the open market but can continue to spend over the cap to retain him.

And if the team locks him in a gym with a shooting coach this offseason, who knows? Maybe the 25-year-old will emerge a new man, with a league-average three-point stroke.

Bring Back Taj Gibson

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Taj Gibson's tenure with the Thunder was short and (for the most part) sweet. After displacing Domantas Sabonis as the power forward of choice in head coach Billy Donovan's starting lineup, the former Chicago Bulls big man averaged 9.7 points on 51.5 percent shooting and poured in a pivotal 20 points to help propel OKC to its only win of these playoffs.

With Nick Collison, 36, set to come off the books, the Thunder could use a tough, battle-tested veteran up front to complement the youthful exuberance of Adams, Kanter and Sabonis. Who better to fill that role than Gibson? He's already shown himself to be a strong fit for OKC's smashmouth style of play. And given the team's cap crunch, the Thunder aren't likely to find a better option among those left without a seat once the opening rounds of the NBA's Free-Agent Musical Chairs have concluded.

The 31-year-old Gibson won't help OKC spread the floor, but he'll be perfectly fine filling the gaps as a rebounder, finisher and defensive enforcer while Westbrook does the heavy lifting.

All stats via NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted. 

Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and listen to his Hollywood Hoops podcast with B/R Lakers lead writer Eric Pincus.