The 2011 lockout occurred to benefit the NBA's small-market franchise, creating conditions in which many of the league's premier franchises (e.g. the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers) could not outspend their rivals to gain a competitive advantage. (Cutting players' salaries was but a happy byproduct for owners.) While the Brooklyn Nets have proven that there still is a way to get value for gobs of cash, the system seems to be working to minimize risk and keep most big teams from piling up expensive players. Oddly enough, though, the biggest victim of the new rules has been the Oklahoma City Thunder, a small-market team lucky enough to have added three superstar talents via the draft lottery. When the Thunder were faced with a future luxury tax payment to keep the trio intact, they opted to keep Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and trade James Harden to the Houston Rockets, inadvertently creating a potential contender within their own division. The aftermath has been rough: the Thunder crashed out of this past postseason when Westbrook suffered a season-ending knee injury and have no clear path to adding another impact player to approximate Harden's value. However, OKC did get some good financial news on Thursday at the NBA's Board of Governors meeting — the league will reimburse them for part of Kevin Durant's max-level contract extension. From Darnell Mayberry for The Oklahoman :
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