The 24-56 Thunder finish off their second straight season of tanking this week-end in Los Angeles. If the Thunder could lose both games that would bring them in at 24-58 for the season. Couple that with last season and that means the Thunder would be 44-110 the last two seasons in Oklahoma City.
Thunder have two pretty good picks in this summer’s draft, and the Thunder should come out of this draft with two players who should be good enough to move into OKC’s top seven or eight players next season.
I also have no idea if the Thunder will be tanking beyond this season.
I do know this though, the Thunder per league release ranked 28th in attendance this season only beating the Kings and Pacers for the dubious honor of having the league’s worst home attendance.
Per the league stats which do not reflect actual bodies in seats….the Thunder averaged 14,877 for their forty-one home dates which translates into 81.7 home attendance.
I think in reality from what I saw in the arena the Thunder had around 9,500 bodies in the arena for most of their games. The top two levels were primarily empty.
Next season I would think if the Thunder tank again these numbers will drop even lower because at some point any legitimate entity has to display some sense of reasonable legal good faith in selling their product to the public.
If Sam Presti has a real vision of sustainability in Oklahoma City…I would think he and his ownership group would need to project that vision next season.
In closing…the bottom five teams in attendance this season were… 26 Orlando, 27 San Antonio, 28, Oklahoma City, 29 Sacramento Kings, and 30 Indiana Pacers.
Pulling aside San Antonio is there any real reason these other four cities have NBA franchises and Seattle, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Kansas City do not?
The rest of the league is getting ready to begin the NBA Playoffs in what should be a great post season. I’ve watched my last Thunder game of the season. Pro wrestling has more integrity.
Bring on the sustainability, Sam Presti.
Just make the cut today, Tiger. Stay on the leaderboard and just make the cut to live the last two days of the tournament.