We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Basketball is back at the end of July, the Thunder play on August 1st. The return of the NBA has been long anticipated by fans. There have been no NBA games for almost four months.
The hiatus has been uncertain, there were concerns that the NBA would not return at all. Those concerns still exist but as the restart date approaches, it seems probable that basketball will be played in Orlando. The Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the biggest storylines in the league this season. The Thunder were expected to be nowhere after the seismic trades of Russell Westbrook and Paul George in July of last year.
It seemed likely that Paul and Gallinari would be dealt for draft picks and the rebuild would start in earnest. Those expectations went out of the window when the Thunder put together an excellent run of victories in late December.
During that period of time, the Thunder showed that the team wanted to fight for the playoffs. Oklahoma City toppled contending teams and came back from huge deficits to win games. There should be no mistake made, the Thunder will be a competitive team in the playoffs.
Oklahoma City are well-equipped to beat a team like Utah or Houston in the first round. The Thunder have the right combination of talent and mental strength to win games when it matters most. The Russell Westbrook trade was huge for Oklahoma City. Westbrook was the cornerstone of the Thunder. The trade with the Houston Rockets shipped out a beloved son of Oklahoma for an ageing point guard who came with a lot of questions. In his final season with the Houston Rockets, Paul was seen to be an injury-prone, washed up former star.
Paul did not play well in Houston. Paul has looked like the floor general that he was during the prime of his career. Chris Paul is the guy the Thunder turn to when the game gets tight down the stretch. Paul has played the closer role well over the course of the season. Chris navigates through actions with the same sort of precision and planning that a surgeon employs during heart surgery.
It has been brilliant to watch Chris Paul take on a leadership role with the Thunder. When the trade was made, there was a feeling that Paul did not want to be in Oklahoma. Paul is at the stage of his career where he wants to be contending titles. However, Paul did not demand a trade. Instead, Paul got to work and started building bonds with his teammates.
It is Paul who calls people out when they do not make the right rotation on defense. Chris has also played an important role in mentoring the young players on the Thunder. Paul has worked closely with SGA on his game and treats Shai like a little brother.
It is a similar story with Darius Bazley , Paul has made a point of building close ties with young players. The influence of vets is important on younger players. A good vet will teach young guys how to eat, train and survive in the league.
Dennis Schroder has emerged as the leading candidate for the Sixth Man of the Year award this season. Schroder was an inefficient scorer last season. Dennis did not look comfortable within his role, the spark plug role off the bench was ill-fitting for Schroder. This season has been a totally different story. Schroder has scored efficiently from all three levels and has played energetic, aggressive defense. One of my favourite moments from the season was at the end of the Boston game.
Schroder and Paul worked in tandem to trap Kemba Walker and steal the ball. That steal led to a game-winning bucket for Schroder. Dennis Schroder should win Sixth Man of the Year. Dennis has the statistical advantage over these two players and his value to the Thunder has been greater than Harrell or Rose to their respective teams.
The Thunder have been very good at winning close games this season. Oklahoma City have won fourteen games by a margin of five points or less. OKC have displayed an ability to get stops or score crucial buckets when it matters. It is has become normal to see the Thunder grinding out wins against good teams. Oklahoma City's games this season have often been thrilling and tense in crunch time.
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More FS Southwest News ». View all Southwest Sites. He was a nightly sensation to watch for Thunder fans. The six feet three inches point guard was drafted at number four in Russell is a versatile point guard. He was the scoring champion in and He led the league as the assists champion in and Russell was instrumental as a dynamic tag team for Kevin Durant. As an athletic point guard, he shared the offensive load with Kevin and helped orchestrate the plays for the team. His defensive intensity helped his frontcourt players jostle better for rebounds, blocks, and box-outs.
His full-court pursuits and blazing transition play kept the Thunder's pace going every season. Following the exit of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook had to carry the bulk of the load, leading, scoring, and playmaking for the team. During that period, Russell's electric plays and triple-double seasons were a thing of legends. With the management looking to reboot the roster and rebuild for a younger core, Russell was traded in That marked the complete end to the Oklahoma City Thunder's original 'Big Three', the only trio which any NBA team groomed right from the beginning of the Draft process.
The Indiana Pacers' meteoric rising star brought the team back to relevance with his blistering offensive pace and suffocating perimeter defensive intensity. After hitting the wall and unable to come through the Eastern Conference, Paul George demanded a trade and landed in Oklahoma City. Paul was the tenth pick of the draft. He was the Most Improved Player in and became the steals champion in Together with Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony, they formed the new 'Big Three' in a post-Durant era when the trio-stars-combination was in vogue around the league.
The experiment quickly faltered as the trio were unable to see any breakthrough beyond the first round of the Playoffs in the Western Conference. Paul George was only good individually for his elite defensive showings and scoring outbursts but was unable to help lead the team to progress to become a real contender.
Seeing that the chemistry and roster don't produce results, Paul and his two superstar teammates agreed to mutually part ways for greener pastures. The 'Point God' arrived in Oklahoma City as part of a mammoth trade. The Thunder sent Russell Westbrook to Houston Rockets and received Chris Paul, both protected first to fourth picks for and , the first to 20th protected pick swap for , as well as the first to fourth protected pick swap for , with a Clippers pick or Heat pick.
In his lone season, the Thunder were underdogs without any expectations to make the Playoffs. However, in classic basketball savant style and under Chris' premier leadership, the Thunder surged into the fifth seed of the Playoffs.
That gave fans a spark and glimmer of hope in this period of Thunder doldrums. Despite not pushing deep in the postseason, the Thunder made superb progress with their newly assembled crew and the young core flourished under the development of Chris Paul. But alas, all is not meant to last and Chris was traded to the Phoenix Suns after just one season wearing the Thunder jersey, and fans were left guessing what the trajectory would have been if he stayed.
Extremely high levels of commitment, resources, expertise, and faith are required to endure the unending torrents of influence from various fronts that threaten to pull apart a successful roster. With the passing of yet another era of Thunder basketball, the future is anything but set in stone. With the plethora of draft picks that Sam Presti has so brilliantly collected over the years, the Thunder have sufficient ammunition to embark on yet another quest of assembling their perfect roster to make a future push for their enigmatic success and second championship.
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