Nenad Krstic's Walk of Shame to OKC

That headline is terrible/terribly tongue-in-cheek. There should be no shame in Nenad Krstic's aborted European move, as impeccable Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress reports the Serb is signing a three-year, $16 million contract with the Thunder.

Krstic will bail out on Triumph Moscow, the Russian team he took a two-year deal with last summer after NBA offers fell short of his desires. According to Givony, Triumph was knocked out of the ULEB Eurocup qualifying by one of the worst Belgian clubs (!) and hasn't even qualified for the Russian league tournament. This isn't Euroleague we're talking about -- Krstic's Triumph cannot even compete at the lower levels of European ball.

As such, Triumph's owners aren't happy and Krstic isn't happy. Givony reports Nenad will pay back all he's made just to get out of the contract ... and Triumph won't be fighting him. OKC is the facilitator, and this where the NBA angle gets interesting.
Oklahoma City would normally fear its offer to Krstic being match by New Jersey. How did Sam Presti work around this? By offering three years guaranteed. N.J. has been cutting costs in advance of the Summer of 2010. With Devin Harris locked up long-term and Vince Carter possibly remaining in a Nets shirt, New Jersey cannot really afford non-stars. Also, the Nets have 15 guaranteed contracts on the roster right now; they'd have to pay someone to go away in order to sign Krstic.

Meanwhile, OKC gets an already solid big with some potential for a relatively cheap price. No offense to Nick Collison or Chris Wilcox, but the Thunder desperately needs size right now. Krstic can't hurt. (And hey, this is also a reminder that OKC has cap space, now and forever. Pass the memo to Chris Bosh, will ya?)