Oklahoma City Thunder: Assessing the overall state of OKC

Assessing the future plans of the Oklahoma City Thunder and how they can move back into the contenders talk in the NBA with Westbrook and George

The date was July 4th, 2016. Many Oklahoma City Thunder fans will remember this day in history as the day that shifted everything within a two-minute span of the Thunder franchise. It didn’t take many words into Kevin Durant’s Player Tribune article to know that he was writing a farewell to OKC.

Many hoped that it was a fake account, but it was in fact very real from Kevin himself. Many expected Russell Westbrook to follow KD out, as was reported he had no interest in signing an extension after KD left, and if he wouldn’t sign quickly Sam Presti would look to trade him and get back a package that would help start a rebuild.

It was much needed if it were to go down this path because OKC just lost the best scorer on the planet and the 1B best player in the NBA with only LeBron James opposing KD.

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But things took a gradual turn when Ramona Shelburne reported Russell Westbrook would, in fact, re-up his deal for two years with a third-year player option locking him into OKC short term and getting him to a 10 year mark that would allow him to sign a super max deal which would be the biggest deal in NBA history.

OKC essentially had a two-year window to make moves to impress Westbrook to get him to sign the ultimate five-year, $205 million supermax. The 2016-17 season became the Russell Westbrook show, he did everything on a nightly basis that the league has never seen, it was a patchwork year roster wise, many new parts, the team was basically built for having KD long term, Westbrook ultimately led the charge, there were ups and a lot of downs, Westbrook never complained assuring his love for Oklahoma City and being there long term.

Westbrook was fun to watch on his triple double historic season, but it didn’t take much to know OKC wouldn’t go far in the playoffs as constructed. The Thunder were eliminated in five games by the Houston Rockets often looking clueless on the court without Westbrook.

Going into the 2017 offseason there was a lot more questions about the Thunder raised. Would Westbrook resign? What money does OKC have to pursue another superstar? Will Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams progress enough to make them contenders?

The date is now June 30, 2017, most people were sitting at home just kicking back and relaxing and Ramona Shelburne who reported the Russell Westbrook extension in 2017 reported now that the Oklahoma City thunder had traded for perennial star Paul George.

This shocked many people around the league, because OKC came out of nowhere to snag George for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo, issue was that it was met with criticism in a way because many expected PG to bolt for LA. Presti had a one year window to get PG to lock in long term, this would prove to be 50 percent of the move that led Westbrook to sign his large deal.

The second move came on September 23rd, when OKC again came out of nowhere to land Carmelo Anthony from New York for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a second round pick. The other 50 percent was complete and Westbrook locked into OKC with what basically will put him in Oklahoma City his entire career.

The Thunder took a complete 360 and now had a big 3 to go compete with other power teams such as Golden State, OKC was rolling for awhile and then a gruesome knee injury to Andre Roberson seemed to derail OKC’s contending status, OKC’s defense went from the top in the league with Roberson in the lineup to one of the worst allowing over 100 points in 28 of their last 33 games. With Andre Roberson in the lineup, the Thunder held opponents under 100 points in 19 of the 39 games.

OKC faced off against the Jazz in the playoffs and were bounced in six games. They now faced an off-season where they were going to be stuck with Carmelo Anthony opting in to a large contract and most seemingly losing PG for nothing after rolling the dice keeping him at the deadline.

OKC played with this same fire with KD and had it burn them, now they sit and wait on PG. OKC fans had to watch a whole documentary documenting PG’s every move and LA thrown around so much, that it gave people turning stomachs in Oklahoma City.

Free agency rolled around and Westbrook came home from a family Hawaii trip early for a party in Oklahoma that would feature Nas performing. Reports started to surface that Paul George in fact stiffed Los Angeles to stay in Oklahoma City, it became official at 12:01 a.m. Now Paul George and Russell Westbrook were locked in long term, OKC could formulate a plan and start getting win-now guys on smaller contracts.

Nerlens Noel came into the fold on the veteran minimum and then Jerami Grant resigned to stay in OKC. Things for a second straight offseason continued to take crazy turns in a good direction when Presti was able to get out of Anthony’s 27.9 million dollar one year player option that he picked up, by sending him to Atlanta for Dennis Schröder.

No one expected Melo to waive his no-trade clause and it all played out. OKC now went into the 2018-19 season with big aspirations and no superstar on a deal that was expiring. No free agency talk to distract them, just go out and play basketball. OKC would play well against contenders but fell into old habits against bottom feeder teams playing to the level of their competition.

They finished the year 48-34 after struggling after the all star break. OKC went into the playoffs as the 6 seed but were favorited in their series against the Blazers who they swept in the regular season. That absolutely meant nothing, OKC for the third straight year lost in the first round as Damian Lillard basically singlehandedly sent OKC home in five games.

Shortly after that series Paul George and Russell Westbrook each had surgeries to correct problems, George for his shoulder and Westbrook for his yearly knee clean up and torn ligament in finger.

So let’s take a look ahead, 2019-20 is a big season for the state of this franchise, OKC has seemingly since KD left seen their window slam shut. PG and Russ are in their primes and that goes very quick, so they need to collectively decide how to improve this team before it closes without Westbrook and George holding up a championship trophy that doesn’t involve them title hopping late in their careers.

OKC doesn’t have much of a route free agency wise, they’re strapped up against the luxury tax, so it will have to come through the draft or through trades.

Let’s explore the draft route, OKC holds the 21st pick in the draft. There is definitely some value there, OKC needs shooting it’s no secret, Tyler Herro is a popular pick there that can provide spacing. OKC’s pick needs to either contribute now or they need to make that pick and trade the players rights with another player that we will get into later. There is no room anymore for draft and develop, Westbrook isn’t 23 years old anymore and this OKC roster isn’t filled with enough talent to allow guys to sit back and watch. It’s now or never.

If OKC decides they need to trade for shooters and want to package the rights to their pick, the popular one to trade is Steven Adams, he is a fan favorite, but with the way the NBA is shaping you can’t afford to pay a guy $25 million a year who is going to be benched late in games to go small to match up. There isn’t many teams that would absorb Adams contract without incentive. A trade with the Kings could benefit OKC, they could covet Bogdanovic or Bjelica and some fillers. Whether the Kings would be interested in Adams is unknown.

Next up you look at Dennis Schröder, his contract is high and his fit isn’t what OKC needs, OKC needs a 3 and D next to Westbrook and George. OKC was so bad shooting 3’s late in games that teams would sag off and dare everyone not named Paul George to shoot the ball. Schröder could have value for a team that needs instant scoring, he has started many games in the league, Presti has been able to work some magic with trades, but Schröder’s value isn’t sky high. A trade would more lead towards saving some money on the luxury tax bill.

Whatever OKC does they need to do it with the thought in mind that they have two more years of the window open with Westbrook and George under contract together. If they don’t decide on a plan for those years we will be watching the 30 for 30 on OKC in 20 years and the end of it will be with OKC not winning a championship and thinking about how quick injuries slammed their window shut.