You want to know why I was so incensed by OKC losing to the Bucks and Mavs to close out the month of December?
Look at the Western Conference standings this morning and one would hope the answer is clearly there. If OKC had won those two home games as they surely should have—then as of this morning OKC would be in fourth place in the West and only two games down in the loss column to the Spurs for the No. 3 seed. And seeing as such as Russell Westbrook says keeping Paul George here is a fairly simple task by simply winning it all, then the Thunder losing anymore bad games can’t really happen too much more this season.
Let’s count bad game losses two games short of the 41 game midway mark. Note: I don’t count a road loss to a .500 team as a bad loss. Let’s go…1 at Dallas on Nov. 25, 2 versus Brooklyn in Mexico City on Dec. 7, 3 to Atlanta at home on Dec. 22 (circle this one), 4 at home versus the Bucks on Dec. 29, 5 at home to Dallas on Dec 31. That’s four horrible losses and a loss to the Bucks which isn’t as horrific as the other previous four
The Thunder cannot in anyway piss away anymore games. The West minus Golden State isn’t as good as we thought it was going to be. Every team minus the Warriors is flawed. Houston’s two stars have never won anything, neither has D’Antoni. San Antonio has gaps and is not in my mind a championship contender. Minnesota is inconsistent. OKC in my mind, still possibly has the second best mix of players in the West. But here’s the thing…it’s time for some urgency. It’s time to realize the organization isn’t merely playing for seeding position, but more to the point to show Paul George and possibly other free agents that a star can come here and win a ring with Russell Westbrook.
Remember, the Thunder template changed this summer from ‘Sustainability’ to ‘The Future is Now’. Sam Presti traded away big parts of the future for Paul George. Victor Oladipo was a core piece. Sabonis is a nice player. If Paul George stays, it’s a great trade, but the only possible reason Paul George would stay is if he calibrates Russell Westbrook is his best player to hook up with beyond this season to win a championship.
That’s exactly what Kevin Durant and his handlers did. They calibrated Steph/Klay/Draymond > Russell/Steven/Andre. And you know what…they were right up to this point.
We still don’t know to date if KD/Steph/Klay/Draymond is greater than Westbrook/George/Melo/Steven. We think it is. We assume it is. But we really don’t know this with certainty because of how often this Thunder team has played in a sleep-like state so far this season.
Against the Warriors and Rockets the Thunder have had the look of team which could be pretty good.
So—I’m hoping this Thunder team kind of understands the month of January is where they need to be pretty close to the Spurs in that the Thunder play at Golden State twice in the month of February.
I know Dippy and Daffy who do the Fox telecasts don’t quite see it like I do. But they get paid to be romantic homers. I just write what comes to me.
I would say if Vegas were handicapping the Thunder’s 14 games in January…Vegas would have OKC as favorites in ten games, dogs in two games (at Minny and at Cleveland), a slight dog to pick ’em at Washington, and a slight dog to pick ’em at Detroit.
So 10-4 or 11-3 is what in my mind OKC has to get done this month.
This month in essence should be a preview of what OKC can do or can’t do. Half the season is done. Billy Donovan and his team can’t sleep walk anymore.
The future is now.