Sam Presti’s reset is going pretty well if you haven’t been paying attention of late. With his team’s 126-108 win over the seemingly always tanking Phoenix Suns on Friday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena–the Thunder stand at 14-14 twenty-eight games into this NBA season.
The Thunder stand alone as the No. 7 seed a full game and a half ahead of Portland.
Like it or not—I don’t think the Thunder can tank even if they wanted to. I don’t know how you tell fans in a small market you’re going to tank when it appears you already have a playoff team in place. Plus, it’s a team which is creating a feel good story in central Oklahoma with their attitude.
People like this team. They like the fact the Thunder are no longer one of the dumbest teams in the league and are instead playing with smarts and heart galore.
Quite frankly—if the Clippers were the feel good story last season before they made their free agent haul in the summer…this Thunder team isn’t far behind that bunch. Fact of the matter is—this Thunder team has a little more firepower than the Clippers did last season.
Dennis Schroder is my Sixth Man of the Year so far. ‘THIS’ Dennis Schroder is the Sixth Man who Sam Presti has been looking for ever since the trade of James Harden.
Add to the fact—despite what I’ve written at times…Billy Donovan has these guys playing like a team. The ball moves. The offense isn’t stagnant with Westbrook dominating the flow. Quite simply—these guys have caught the fancy of the local market.
Despite the steady play of Big Gallo, SGA, Nerlens Noel, and Steven Adams…Dennis Schroder to date along with Chris Paul are my twin team MVP’ers heading into Sunday’s suddenly big game with the now superstar laden LA Clippers.
Of the six teams above OKC in the West currently–the Thunder have only one win over Utah against a top six team in the West to show for their grit.
I’m still not ready to say this Thunder team can be the Washington Nats or the St. Louis Blues, but they can definitely be last year’s LA Clippers or last season’s Portland Trailblazers. Their guard play isn’t that far off from what Portland as the No. 6 seed rode to the Western Conference Finals. Tell me Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and SGA can’t be for this team what Damian Lillard, my buds CJ McCullum and his dad, and Seth Curry were to the Blazers last playoff season.
So haven written this on December 22nd…I just don’t see how Sam Presti can go from reset to tank mode given how city is beginning to feel about its NBA team heading into Christmas.
The feeling is pretty clear according to my ticket broker…the ticket prices are trending and that’s a good thing for Oklahoma City given how bleak the outlook was for this season after Presti traded Jerami Grant to the Nuggets.