NBA: Exploring the 5 biggest ‘what if’ questions in recent history

What if the Thunder had stayed together?

Another one of those big “what-if”‘s that will probably never fade, many people wonder to this day what the Thunder would look like had their 2011-’12 roster stayed intact. For those who don’t remember, that season’s Thunder had, among others, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka, Nick Collison, Derek Fisher, and Kendrick Perkins. That offseason, the Thunder would trade James Harden, and that season they would beat the Rockets in the playoffs.

Then, with the signing of Steven Adams and Enes Kanter, things were certainly looking up for this Thunder squad.

Well, you all know what happens next, they lose to the Spurs in the playoffs, then they lose to the Warriors a few years later, Kevin Durant leaves, James Harden becomes an MVP caliber player, and the Thunder struggle to find any foothold in the Western Conference. It seems that stage of their franchise has left, considering that the Thunder are sitting at third in a tough Western Conference as of writing this, but still the question of what could’ve been rests over everyone’s head.

To start off with, the Thunder almost certainly would’ve had to let one of the big three go soon after  the 2012 season had they not traded Harden. The talent that those three had would’ve meant that they all demanded enough money that it would be impossible for all three to stick together unless someone took a paycut, an option which none of those stars seemed keen on taking. Also, let’s not pretend like we didn’t know Harden was going to be a star. He was a sixth man of the year award winner, and even at the time, many questioned the decision-making of Sam Presti with letting Harden go.

Interestingly enough, if these three had stayed together and the Thunder needed to get rid of one of them, it probably would’ve been Westbrook. He seemed to have caused the most trouble on that team and also is probably the least talented among the three players. Some key signings, such as Paul George, wouldn’t have happened either. However, it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that the Thunder still would’ve picked up some key role players like Adams, Schroder, and Kanter.

Regardless, the Thunder seem to have rebounded fairly well from this trade, but there is no doubting that letting Harden go was the start of a few years of problems with the Thunder.