Oklahoma City – The OKC Thunder shocked everyone last season after they had a surprising 44-28 record which was good enough for the 5th seed in the Western Conference. Most thought they were destined for a season full of tanking because they didn’t know if Chris Paul would remain on the team the whole year. Even the ones who thought he would be on the roster the whole season thought the Thunder would still be one of the bottom teams in the conference.
I was one of those people and boy was I wrong however, this season I expect to be spot on about them.
What we expected last season is what will most likely happen this season. This year’s team is in full rebuild mode. After losing key guys like Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari, Dennis Schroeder, Steven Adams, Nerlens Noel, and losing head coach Billy Donovan without getting equal value for those players, it makes a lot of sense to tank. Especially given how many draft picks they have acquired for the next few drafts.
Now, they won’t be a tanking team like the Sixers were a few years ago where they actively try to lose games. This year’s team will compete every night. They’re a young team but will play hard but the main reason they will compete every night is because this is a year of opportunity for everyone on the team. Everyone on this team has something to prove and this is the perfect year for them to do it.
The Thunder lost a HUGE chunk of their offensive production from last year losing 81.4% of their scoring and a majority of the assists created. NBA teams don’t average 50, 60, 70, or even 80 points a game anymore. In fact, last season the team that was the worst scoring team in the league averaged 102.9 ppg which means someone will have to do the scoring.
That’s a big reason why this is the year of opportunity for everyone.
We know SGA will get the most opportunity to score because he’s the face of the franchise but he still has to prove he’s worthy of being the face. This is somewhat of a contract year for him because he will be eligible for an extension at the end of the season so this is a big opportunity for him. He will also have to show that he can lead a team going forward. All eyes will be on him every night and I expect him to shine and seize the given opportunity.
Like I said, we know SGA will do a lot of scoring and get the nightly touches so who are the guys that will make up the rest?
There are guys like vet Al Horford who is a new addition to this year’s team and could be trade bait but OKC has wanted Horford for years so they could very well keep him. Either way, he will have the opportunity and have reason to play well. If he’s trade bait, he’d probably want to get traded to a decent team and if he’s staying he’ll want to play well so he can get another contract.
Outside of him and SGA, the opportunity for guys will likely be sporadic. We’ll see guys like Darius Bazley who I see averaging around 15p and 8r a game this season and George Hill get a lot of chances to be a scorer for this team. We will also see guys like Theo Maledon, Mike Muscala, Aleksej Pokusevski, and Hamidou Diallo have big scoring nights here and there for the team.
Overall it’s probably best not to expect too much from this Thunder team. SGA could be in the running for Most Improved Player but the lack of wins will likely keep him from winning it unless he just has a crazy season. Other than that, there will be a lot of losses. It won’t be because they aren’t playing hard, this team is still decently talented. It’s just, every team in the West, for at least at the beginning of the season, will be playing to make the playoffs except for the Thunder so every team will likely be more talented and they will have more to play for every night.
My prediction is they go 27-45 and have the worst record in the West. Nothing against them at all, just think the West is a little too deep.
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