With nineteen games left in the NBA regular season, the Thunder are 43-20 and still possibly the fourth best team in the NBA if they can pull themselves together during the stretch run. I don’t envision enough ‘pulling together’ for OKC to beat the Warriors, Spurs, or Cavs, but more the pragmatic hope the Thunder can play well enough to win a first round series and then play the Spurs to the hilt in a second round matchup. Anything beyond that with this team is wishful thinking.
Another story by Adrian Wojnarowski surfaced last week reiterating Golden State’s very strong intent on pursuing Kevin Durant at the conclusion of this season. Warrior GM Bob Meyers could make it work by not resigning Harrison Barnes. Durant could leave to be the No. 1 guy on a team of his own outside of Oklahoma City or Golden State as well. Or he could sign a one year extension in OKC and make one last effort with Westbrook to win a championship together.
Still hard to tell what will happen, but this remains somewhat certain to me–OKC needs to pull itself together enough to the point where the way they finish makes Option No. 3 a plausible alternative for Durant.
OKC looks like they’re probably headed for maybe a 56-57 win season. In itself that isn’t awful, but it’s more the way the team has regressed which should be more of a concern. The Thunder look like they’re an ocean away from winning an NBA crown simply because it appears Sam Presti has never been able to find the missing piece to replace James Harden as the sixth man and hybrid guard closer with Westbrook. Granted—OKC has defensive issues, but the inability by Presti to find a reliable player for the shooting guard minutes continues to haunt the Thunder.
This was a season which started with so much hope. So much hanging on a season to see what the Thunder could be if they remained healthy. Yet—it’s been more of a nightmare with the deaths of Ingrid Williams and Aubrey McClendon, combined with the team playing some of the worst basketball of the Thunder era in Oklahoma City since the All-Star break.
The Thunder host the Clippers tomorrow night entering with a game and a half lead for the No. 3 seed. Huge game for OKC to be played in front of fans wondering if every glimpse forward of Kevin Durant is a precious snapshot of his last days in Oklahoma City as a member of the Thunder.
It kind of makes you swallow hard as a Thunder fan. Thinking this could be the end of Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City.