First off, congratulations to the OKC Thunder for advancing to their first Western Conference Final since 2016. This win is not only the biggest win for the franchise since that fateful June of ’16…I would say it is the biggest win in the Thunder era in Oklahoma City to ‘date’.
If the Thunder had lost this game…I shudder to think how the Thunder fanbase and the Jim Traber callers would have reacted. It would have been semi-ugly that’s for certain. But instead–the Thunder now stand as the only No. 1 or No. 2 seed left standing in either of the conference finals.
What we as NBA fans have witnessed in these playoffs is virtually the changing of the guard in the NBA hierarchy. Left standing instead of LeBron, Steph, Kevin, Giannis, Jimmy Butler, Jayson, Nikola and even Luka are four younger teams—three of which play in small to medium sized markets.
The New York Knicks are the only team left in this year’s NBA Final Four which plays in a big city market. And consider what Michael Breen said during yesterday’s game when it became obvious the Nuggets had run out of gas and were done for this season: “This for the first time in NBA history marks the first time we will have a different champion in a consecutive seven year stretch.”
Anotherwords, what Mike Breen in my mind was saying is…”How hard it is in this collective bargaininng era to stay atop the league without going too deeply into the salary cap tax.” But this isn’t unique just to the NBA, ask the GMs in the NFL and the NHL as well. It’s tough to not only repeat, it’s tough to maintain the talent integrity of your first championship team.
Enter these Denver Nuggets who for the second straight year failed to get beyond the conference semi-finals do the fact they no longer have Bruce Brown, Ketavious-Caldwell Pope or Jeff Green.
The same narrative has befallen the Colorado Avalanche since their Stanley Cup season… as their fourth best player is now a member of the the Dallas Stars post-trade deadline and probably one of the leaders for this season’s Conn Smythe Trophy if the Stars advance beyond Edmonton to the Stanley Cup Finals.
What I’m saying is it’s tough to repeat…even for Patrick Mahomes when he doesn’t have affordable personnel around him.
But for these Thunder I would advise…THE FUTURE IS NOW. YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP WINDOW IS FULLY OPEN AS IT MIGHT NEVER BE AGAIN. Sam Presti will have to max JDub and Chet…and from that point forward the roster will change accordingly. The luxury of going 12-deep will not be there. Tough decisions will have to be made to keep the top four core intact.
So again from this objective view..THIS CHAMPIONSHIP WINDOW MAY NEVER BE AS OPEN AS IT IS RIGHT NOW. Go grab it is what MJ is saying. This should be your championship season…take what should be yours and have no regrets. Follow that 68-win season with an NBA championship and have a parade.
Eight more wins to claim a championship is where these Thunder are…and the next eight wins will be even tougher than the eight we have just witnessed. But from where I sit…I would say Sam Presti pushed just the right off season buttons in making this team a serious NBA championship contender, and now the favorite with the four teams we have left standing.
My Three Stars from Game 7 were in this order: 1 Alex Caruso, 2 Shai, and 3 a tie for me between Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon (for playing as well as he did).
No star for JDUB. He basically made a bunch of layups created off of the many turnovers created by Caruso and others. What I’m doing right now is openly challenging JDub…”Dude–it’s great you finally showed up in this series as Shai’s Robin, but to win a championship…Batman will need Robin more than once every 3.5 games. Challenge yourself.”
Some additional advice to the turnover prone Minnesota Timberwolves as well…”I’m for the Thunder from this point forward, but I want to see a compelling Western Conference Final to cover on my blog. So I’m giving you this salient scouting advice…if you turn the ball over 20 times or so and give these guys 37 live ball turnover points this will not be a compelling series.”
Anthony Edwards…this is when you either do or don’t show the world what the face of Team USA is going to look like in the coming future.
I’m sad the Nugget season is over obviously, but equally excited to see if the Thunder can win an NBA championship in Oklahoma City and have a parade. The White House visit part with that ‘person’ still makes me want to potentially puke though.
‘Taking whatever is mine.’ Tom Petty
Know what I mean, Thunder? Make Little Nick Gallo faint from joy. Talk about a dude who’s paid some dues. Carry him off into the sunset.
Sadly, Russell Westbrook was a Game 7 worst with a -34 rating. Maybe later today or tomorrow before the OKC-Minnesota series begins…I’ll blog on what I would do this off season to make the Nuggets championship contender next season. I only have one trade exit move and it’s the same move I would have made last summer after the Game 7 defeat to Minnesota. This does not need to be draconian at all.
Good luck, Thunder
Mike J