Eric Maynor is going to be a key part of the Oklahoma City Thunder this year, a role that just got bigger in the wake of the James Harden trade.
Maynor is going to get a piece of the Harden role. No, he hasn’t been asked by management to grow a beard. Probably. But Maynor is going to have to create shots and get the offense going with the second unit. He’s going to get the plenty of rope, plenty of run to prove himself.
Then, next summer he’s going to be a restricted free agent.
Maynor and the Thunder have stopped talking contract extension and have agreed to pick up talks again in July, reports the Oklahoman. That means next July the market will set the price for Maynor (the Thunder can match any offer from another team). But the two sides could not reach a deal right now.But two issues have complicated matters. Maynor is coming off a major knee injury, and second-year point guard Reggie Jackson is emerging into a potential impact player. Maynor tore his ACL nine games into last season but is now recovered and ready to reclaim his position as the primary backup to Russell Westbrook. But coach Scott Brooks has maintained that the backup job is an open competition between Maynor and Jackson, who showed tremendous growth this preseason.
Jackson clearly is considered an important part of the Thunder’s future, which puts a small level of pressure on the franchise to decide how much it is willing to commit to Maynor
Maynor is going to get a healthy pay raise next summer, he is a quality point guard. Some team is going to step up and pay him. It may well be the Thunder (they could have used Maynor in the finals over what’s left of Derek Fisher). Whatever the Thunder decide, Maynor will get paid.
But one of the points of how Thunder GM Sam Presti handled the Thunder trade was to give himself flexibility going forward. It makes sense not to lose some of that flexibility by locking in with Maynor now.