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The Oklahoma City Thunder? Gone till November.

Kevin Durant pauses. (Getty Images)
Kevin Durant pauses. (Getty Images)

We should probably start by thanking the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Kevin Durant.

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Not just for pushing the Western Conference finals to seven games, allowing us the maximum amount of times to view this team battle the Golden State Warriors, but for keeping 2015-16 nice and decent.

Perhaps it was due to the paucity of option, or his potent supporting cast, or a run that fell just one game short (three different times!) of the NBA Finals, but we hardly heard a peep about Durant’s impending free agency all season. At least in relative terms to the last two noisy times LeBron James made himself available to jump ship.

Maybe your local newspaper general sports columnist is right. Maybe Durant is a swell sort that likes his milk room temperature and his apple pip pipin’ hot, and LeBron James is everything that’s wrong with sports. Whatever the reason, though teams have been prepping for Durant’s free agency for as long as they prepped for LeBron James’ in 2010, this season was a breeze.

It’s over, now, following Oklahoma City’s rough Game 7 loss to Golden State on Monday night. Infamously, the Thunder went up 3-1 in the series before its habit of blowing leads at the absolute worst time allowed the Warriors to stage a comeback and defend its Western crown. Oklahoma City had a very winnable Game 5 to contend with and double-digit leads long into Games 5 and 6, and yet the team could not pull things off.

In most other instances, this would result in the Famous Free Agent Superstar hopping on the first plane out of town. With Shaquille O’Neal out of the O-rena before Michael Jordan has even finished speaking to Ahmad Rashad, or with LeBron basically leaving his Cavalier teammates midway through 2010’s Eastern Conference finals. Durant and his reps dutifully answered questions both in public and private settings on Monday night, with the 2014 MVP once again saying that he’s far, far removed from coming up with a strident free agent plan.

And, because we’re hayseeds, we believe him. Friday morning, after Game 1 of the Finals? Yeah, he’ll wishing July 1 was just a few hours away. For now, though, until the sight of LeBron and those Warriors battling it out sets his mind a’spinning, Durant is going to let those reps do the talking. As they have been for months. Almost certainly longer, in fact.

Which is fine, because the free agent placement of one of the league’s top players as he enters his prime is absolutely crucial. Durant is four years younger than James and actually six months younger than Curry, so the timers have to be set to “Pounce.”

The Thunder, meanwhile, are locked into a situation they’re familiar with. The team’s general manager, Sam Presti, will once again have to determine how to work around a cadre of stars and superstars, divining the difference between “star” and “superstar” while determining just who is superfluous amongst all the talent.

Presti is often derided for jumping the gun on the 2012 deal that sent James Harden to Houston. Clearly, Presti weighed the “superfluous” end of things in that move, and though Harden averaged 29 points per game this season (with starting off guard Andre Roberson and reserve scoring guard Dion Waiters combining for Not 29 Points per Game This Season) paying transaction-inhibiting tax penalties in order to jump from No. 2 in offense to No. 1 (over Golden State, ‘natch) in the NBA just isn’t worth it. Not when there is a rotation to fill.

That rotation, currently, is enviable. Presuming Durant stays, he’ll pair with Russell Westbrook in the final year of Russ’ second contract, with Steven Adams working on the final year of his rookie deal. Fellow front court bigs Serge Ibaka and Enes Kanter will combine to make nearly $29.4 million next season, while Andre Roberson is still in the final year of his rookie contract (and eligible for an extension). Waiters is a restricted free agent, but he’s made strides this season. And when you have players like KD and Russ on your team, along with a fabulous supporting cast, you go all-in and try to grab that ring, right? Bust out the checkbook, eh?

I suppose. This is going to get nasty.

Russell Westbrook is a free agent in 13 months. (Getty Images)
Russell Westbrook is a free agent in 13 months. (Getty Images)

Toss all the (deserved) enmity you hold for the Thunder’s ownership group out the window, for as long as it takes to read this column. This is a team that could end up paying historically lofty salaries for a team that has proved it can compete, but has not yet turned the corner.

Unless Durant is fixated on curbing rumors and going after security (following those series of foot fractures from 2014-15), his best move will be to sign a two-year deal with a 2017 player option for next summer as opposed to committing to a long-term deal. This would allow him to then opt-out and then in 2017 sign a starting salary worth, in millions, what the number on his jersey has been since he entered the NBA. Kevin Durant, not unlike Jason Caffey before him, wears No. 35.

Westbrook, as noted above, will also be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2017, and after a season spent making about as much as Enes Kanter, he’ll want the bank that he’s earned. The same goes for 2017 free agent Serge Ibaka, who will only turn 27 this September.

Then there is Steven Adams, league darling, who will be available to negotiate a contract extension this summer and fall.

It would behoove the Thunder to lock him up right now with a four-year deal, what with the salary cap “only” at around $92 million, rather than waiting until he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2017 (when the cap vaults up yet again), potentially signing an offer sheet with a salary starting around $25 million that the Thunder would be either forced into accepting, or forced into wishing their starting pivotman “so long.”

By July of 2017, you could see four different Thunder starters making max money, with Roberson on his second deal, and Kanter still chugging along at $17.89 million for 2017-18. Not only is that an ungodly amount of cash, even for champions, but also the tax implications would make it increasingly harder and harder for the Thunder (already bereft of first round draft picks in 2016 and 2018) to add rotation parts. These aren’t just business decisions.

Would Adams, one of 18 children, prefer the security of the immediate deal this summer? Would Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka collude to take less as they make that deep and potentially championship dive into their early 30s? What happens if the still-potent Warriors or Cavaliers nip the championship hopes short yet again in 2017?

What happens when one of the many, many teams that will offer Kevin Durant a max contract this summer points the Thunder’s rather rough future financial outlook out to him and his reps again – this time officially? It’s not as if KD and especially the representatives weren’t already aware of this last February, when Presti went all in on a series of trades, but being reminded of such in June and early July tends to shake the tree a bit. Especially when Durant has, at that point, spent “a month” removed from the teammates he just battled with.

Working around these sorts of things won’t be easy, but Presti will try.

Kanter genuinely improved this season and was one of the bigger reasons why the Thunder made it past the San Antonio Spurs in the first round, and NBA teams can talk themselves into a whole heck of a lot during the summer (like, “trading for a center that just cannot defend”), but he’s still a tough sell in a trade with two years and $35 million left on his deal, prior to an $18.6 million player option for 2018-19.

Letting Dion Waiters (last seen once again resuming his practice of wildly flailing his arms on the weak side while demanding the ball in Game 7) go for nothing but payroll breathing room would be an option, but the Thunder have to make their decision quickly: Waiters has a cap hold of $12.8 million, so the Thunder have to decide right away whether they want to let him go for no compensation, or offer him the qualifying offer of $6.7 million. Even in this crazy free agent climate, in a player’s market, Waiters at one final year with OKC for that mark might be the best move for either side. His image isn’t exactly fully rehabilitated.

The Thunder will attempt to find a taker for the final four years and (just leave the room now) $19.8 million owed on Kyle Singler’s contract, and it will have to consider Anthony Morrow’s $3.48 million team option.

It’s not all Durant. Even if a beaming KD puts pen to paper with Oklahoma City as soon as he can on July 1, that’s just the beginning of the whirlwind.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!