Usually in early August I’m in a chill mode as far as the NBA season. OU football is usually on my mind, but not this August and OU has a team with enough talent to make the Final Four again.
It’s Thunder right now with me given the events of the past month, plus the excitement of seeing a team with Westbrook, Adams, Oladipo, Kanter, Payne, Roberson, Ilyasova, Abrines, Sabonis, and others begining the journey of becoming a contender.
There will be some tough moments, but there’s potential for this to become an interesting ball club especially with the addition of another swing player who can shoot and play some defense. Maybe he’s already on the roster.
Westbrook said in his presser he’s ready for the season to start and I believe him. The city will galvanize behind this team.
This should be a very physical team with a chip on their shoulder. Much to prove and incremental team improvement needed every month to become the type of team they want to become in April.
The Thunder will make the transition from finesse ball to blue collar pounding their opponent ball. But they’ll still have the most talented point guard in the league and probably the second most talented player in the league only behind LeBron James.
It would not be surprising at all if the MVP race ends up with Westbrook dueling one of the players from the Oakland AAU team for the trophy.
Storylines will be omnipresent.
There should be genuine hatred between the Thunder and the Oakland AAU team. I won’t be able to sit low at these games in fear of getting into a verbal exchange with Draymond Green and being removed from my seat by arena security. OKC won’t be tethered with high expectations. They’ll be an underdog, but an underdog with Russell Westbrook, Steven Adams, and Victor Oladipo. An underdog with a puncher’s chance if they do the little things the right way.
This should be a very fun season. Time to start training.
Yo, Russell. Let’s go, buddy.