DeMarcus Cousins - OKC

[Alex English]

^{Oklahoma City Thunder}

DeMarcus Cousins will re-sign with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He signs a 6 year contract worth $176,061,125. Years 2 through 5 are player options.

Year 1: $22,250,000
Year 2: $24,697,500 (PO)
Year 3: $27,414,225 (PO)
Year 4: $30,429,790 (PO)
Year 5: $33,777,067 (PO)
Year 6: $37,492,544

DeMarcus entered free agency with an open mind but ultimately expectied to re-join the Thunder where he has been for many years now. There were many great offers and that made him take pause and he was far closer to leaving Oklahoma City than was previously expected before this process began. Playing with Durant and the fact that the Thunder can offer a sixth year were key advantages. In addition to that the Thunder are giving him four player options which give DeMarcus an enormous amount of control over his own future. Thank you to everyone that showed interest, but DeMarcus is excited to return to OKC.

[Chris Mullin]

Wow what a contract!

A lot of money and a lot of player options seems to be the trend so far. Cousins, Aldridge, & Bledsoe could all opt out after next year. Going to be an interesting season because somebody out West is going to get left out of the Playoffs again based on the depth of the conference.

Could something like that cause a guy to opt out after 1 season?

[Ghazny Dimalen]

For demarcus cousins situation it is possible that he will demand a player option in 2nd year for the huge changes in salary cap, but i think player option is trending for this year offseason free agency.
If you will not use that tactics for signing a player the percentage that player will sign to you is lower in 50% it will range to 1-49%

[Hanamichi Sakuragi]

So for the next four years, Kevin will be agitated to open the Player Option Decision post. That will be nerve wrecking!