Oklahoma City – The Oklahoma City Thunder are once again shocking many. Or are they?
The Thunder were projected to win anywhere from 19-27 games this season and that’s exactly what they’re on pace for so no surprise there.
What is a surprise though, is the way they’ve been playing and the teams they have beaten. So far, they have beaten the Nets, Blazers, Suns, Rockets (before Christian Wood got injured), and the Bucks. They have also played really good games and were a couple of plays from beating the Lakers twice, the Jazz, the Clippers, and Nuggets. Those are almost all of the premier teams in the league they have either beaten or been really close to beating.
Now, I knew they would be a competitive team no matter what because they have decent to good players and NBA players don’t like to tank. I didn’t think they’d compete this well though. In a way, they have perfected the right way to tank.
The players obviously don’t want to stop on the court to try and lose game but you would be crazy to think the Thunder organization doesn’t want this team to tank with all of the draft picks they have accumulated the last few seasons. NBA players love playing in OKC because fans won’t bother them when they’re out and about and because it’s a really good organization, but it’s not likely that they can bring in a premier free agent. They’ll have to repeat their success in the draft like with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. Or at least something close to it.
They can also use those draft picks to acquire a disgruntled star but that’s not a guarantee because you never know who will become disgruntled. So hitting on the draft picks is essential. The better the draft pick, the easier it is to hit on a guy and the worse they are, the better the odds are they get a good draft pick so it’s really best for the team to tank as best as possible.
Tanking isn’t always easy though. It could hurt your franchise more than helping it. There have only been a handful of teams that have had tanking work for them and only 2 recently. That also would depend on how you define success. The Lakers tanked, got guys like D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Ivica Zubac, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance Jr. They traded them all (except Randle who they just didn’t resign) so they could get LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They ended up winning a championship so that’s clearly success.
The Sixers who has been the team to tank the most got a ton a top picks and have only had two of their picks really pan out with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. I would consider that somewhat of success because they have two perennial Allstars. Other than those two team, no others have really had success tanking in recent year and it’s obvious why.
Teams like the Kings, Knicks, Wolves, and others that tank every year have created a horrible mentality for the guys on their team and it takes a while to turn that around. It’s not a coincidence that they’re always at the bottom of the league and drafting in the top 10 every year. That’s what the Thunder want to avoid and they’re doing a great job of it so far because they have kind of perfected tanking.
Yes they are under .500 and only on pace to win 24-27 games but they are losing the right way. They aren’t going out there and getting blown out every night and creating losing habits for their young guys, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Theo Maledon, Darius Bazley, and Hamidou Diallo. The Thunder haven’t surrounded the young guys with vets that are almost out the league and aren’t good leaders. They’ve surrounded them with guys like Chris Paul last year and George Hill and Al Horford this season. Having good leaders in the locker room is doing wonders for the younger guys and it shows every night. That’s how they have perfected tanking.
The guys they have who could be on this team in the future are all creating good habits that they will use in the future when they hit their primes. I’m not a proponent of tanking per se but if you’re going to tank this is the way to do it.
Tanking is all about losing but losing the right way. The Lakers lost the right way because they young guys were growing every year and almost every guy they drafted during their tanking years is on a roster helping the team they’re on. Look at the Sixers and the guys who they drafted during their tanking years, most of them aren’t helping their teams, not in any rotations, or not even on a roster. Luckily, two of the guys panned out and the Thunder haven’t been following the path of the Sixers, its been more like the Lakers.
That’s not to say that the Thunder will be able to sign a perennial MVP candidate and trade for a top 5-7 player in the league but they’re doing everything the right way and when you do things the right way they typically lead to success which what the Thunder are striving for.