Oklahoma City Thunder Season Preview

Oklahoma City Thunder

2014 Record: 45-37

2015 O/U: 57

Who are their stars?

Losing an entire season of Kevin Durant is a curse from the gods that we did not deserve. He now comes back, and this team is getting LOVE with an expected twelve game increase on their win total and lets not kid ourselves it is not crazy. Before KD went down, he was hand down the second best player in basketball. Guys like Steph Curry, Anthony Davis and James Harden stepped up to the challenge of making us forget Durant, but he is still right in the conversation with those three, as well a Lebron James for the top dog. In fact, for someone who takes basketball as personally as KD, I see his bounce back year being one that makes him the favorite to win the MVP this season. What makes a lot of this possible is the duo of him and Russ Westbrook, who had this team one game out of the playoffs even without the MVP candidate. Westbrook also missed fifteen games, but he was an MVP candidate in his own right last year. He plays a different style than Durant, and the question has always been how the two can play off of each other, and now that Westbrook has the taste of being the man, the question may now be bigger. Either way, you more than likely have two of the ten most talented guys in the league on one team, and that is a championship threat no matter whom you add. Adding in a guy like Serge Ibaka in the mix, who also missed eighteen games last year, you have a team that would be asinine to leave out of the top five. Ibaka is the rare rim protector, who is growing an outside game. He has a decent shot, and spent a lot time last year working on his three point talent. The spacing he provides on offense, and the wall he forms on defense makes him one of the most underrated players in the league. To have missed 88 games between the Thunder big three and still be one game out of the playoffs shows that this an obvious playoff team. The question becomes, how healthy and how high can they reach?

Who are the glue guys?

All of the injury and mix and matching of lineups leaves out the fact that Durant is yet to play with trade deadline addition Enes Kanter. Kanter is only 23, but it seems as though the book is out on him. Kanter simply doesn’t care to defend. He is a back to the basket guy who can score in a variety of ways in the post, but he doesn’t defend anyone. This seems to be an effort problem, and I don’t see it changing much, instead I see lineups formed around his skill set. Ibaka is obviously a guy who can play with him, because Ibaka can clear the paint on offense, letting Kanter produce in space, and can defend the rim on defense, giving Kanter a smaller burden on that end. How else they mix and match to mask Kanter will be interesting for first year coach Billy Donavan, but to have four threats who pretty much can score from anywhere on the court is a mismatch that many teams will be unable to touch.

Who are the rotational players?

I think the Thunder did a strong job adding bench big men through the draft to put them in a stronger spot. Steven Adams essentially can be a spell for Kanter. Adams is so unpolished on offense that his job is basically to rebound and keep someone guarding him, but his size, speed and effort on defense make him a crucial player in the OKC system. With him, Nick Collison, and Mitch McGary, are two guys that remind me of each other. High energy bench players who do a little of everything, but nothing great in particular are who these guys are, and McGary has arguably the most energy on the team. He is a hustler, and between the three you have all of the rotating and mixing you need for a strong front court. The backcourt depth has some skill as well. Veteran DJ Augustine and rookie Cam Payne back the point guard position. Augustine, a teammate of Durant in college can help the team gel, and give quality bench minutes. Payne is a guy who is ready for minutes, can run either guard spot on the bench, and can also play with Westbrook in some formations in my opinion. His ability to play SG helps the rotation of Andre Roberson, Anthony Morrow and Dion Waiters. Basically you can add all three together and you have a strong 3-and-D player, but in separate parts you have Roberson, strictly the D, Waiters strictly the three, and Morrow an average blend of both. Roberson is a guy who can spell Durant, but with Kyle Singler added I would expect these four to play sparingly due to matchups. In all, the depth is something needed. If one of Morrow, Singler, Payne, Waiters, or Roberson can give effective crunch time minutes this team will be complete, and to have the bottom four of your roster be the teams’ biggest weakness, isn’t much of a weakness.

Where do they rank? Over Under? How far do they go?

In my Clippers post, I mentioned that them as well as OKC have the biggest chips on their shoulders this season. Obviously missing the post season, and all of those games not only from Durant, but Ibaka and Westbrook puts chips on all three of their shoulders. A rookie coach like Billy Donavan makes the volatility a touch high, but lets get it straight this talent is like only the top five in the NBA. If all of the pieces that have yet to form with Durant can do so with ease, and little resistance this is probably the one seed heading into the playoffs. With all of these questions, I see them being a potential out at any time in the playoffs, but if I like what I see, this team could also be the title favorites. In all I am rooting for them to be one of the healthy teams in the Western Conference semi finals, and really see it as a toss up from there.

Over 57 wins, 3rd in the Western Conference, 4th in the NBA