OKC’s Front Office Has Failed The Fans
Since making the NBA Finals in 2012, it has been all downhill for the Oklahoma City Thunder. From injuries to major departures, the OKC front office has failed
By the year 2012, and the Oklahoma City Thunder had successfully selected three top five picks. Fast forward to 2017, and all three of those picks are NBA MVP candidates (James Harden, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook), yet they’re all on different teams with Westbrook being the only one left in OKC.
Even after losing to LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals, the vast majority believed that is was a matter of when, not if, the Thunder would win their championships. With three budding superstars under the age of 26, there was no reason to think otherwise.
However, after the NBA Finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder elected to trade 6th Man of the Year James Harden to the Houston Rockets. In return, OKC essentially got a paper clip and string in return.
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Now, it was up to Durant and Westbrook to lead OKC to the promise land. And they’d be just fine, continuing to be one of the best teams in the NBA. However, they still seemed one piece away from winning a championship. Unfortunately, that final piece never materialized.
Until 2016.
The stars seemed aligned for the Thunder to finally make it back to the Finals. OKC ran through the Dallas Mavericks in the first round and overcame the San Antonio Spurs (as underdogs) in the second round. All that stood between them and a trip back to the Finals was the 73-win Golden State Warriors, led by a hobbled Stephen Curry.
OKC would go up 3-1 on the greatest regular season team of all-time, only to blow it by losing in Game 7.
They choked.
The Summer of ’16
The Oklahoma City Thunder front office had a full plate on their hands, which was to retain Kevin Durant’s services. Just like the Harden situation a few years earlier, the front office would fail to keep the star happy or to give him the image that OKC was in the best situation for him.
Kevin Durant walked.
Not only did he leave the Thunder, but he joined the Golden State Warriors. The fail counter for OKC’s front office is now at two – two zeros, if you ask me, as in the team failed to add quality pieces around their stars.
The Thunder failed repeatedly, in the draft and free agency.
In fairness, it’s hard to acquire top tier talent with zero-to-no cap space, so I can’t completely fault them there. Still, the inability to sign quality bench veterans or to find young untapped talents that somehow fell through the cracks is something that can’t be forgiven.
When it comes to the draft, it doesn’t get any better. Since drafting James Harden in 2009, only TWO players OKC has drafted since remain on the team. They’ve had 13 draft picks since, and a good portion of them have been first-round picks (including three in 2010).
Their inability to consistently not find – or keep – a backup ball-handler or jump-shooting wing during that span is horrendous. For the record, the two players still on the team are Steven Adams and Alex Abrines.
So yeah, take that for data.
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The bottom line is that the Oklahoma City Thunder have failed to provide their stars with a selling pitch to stay home and to build around them with quality role players in the draft and free agency.
OKC’s failures aren’t primarily on Russell Westbrook for playing badly in fourth quarters, on Kevin Durant failing to close out the Warriors last year in the playoffs or getting outplayed by LeBron’s Miami club in 2012, the front office has failed the fans and stars they drafted.