Throughout this winter, OFD will be looking at some of the positive surprises and disappointments among teams this NBA season. Stay tuned for the next two surprises and then five disappointments over the next couple weeks.
This is the perfect time to talk about the Thunder… and for me to brag just a little bit. OKC is firmly planted in 7th place in the West and far closer to 6th than 8th; all during a season where they were projected to finish near the bottom of the conference. I didn’t quite think so, and OFD bet on the over (you can thank me later, Rachel). They’ve exceeded even the wildest expectations, so let’s dive deeper into how they’ve done so.
Last spring, the Thunder as we knew them ended. Dame Lillard hit a game-winning three from what felt like outside the Portland city limits and mean-mugged during the following celebration – a couple months later, Sam Presti traded Paul George and then Russell Westbrook, ending the decade-long run which somehow never ended up bringing a trophy to Oklahoma.
The trades netted many future draft picks, as well as Chris Paul, Danilo Galinari, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. All three have been integral members of the new Thunder starting lineup. Alongside holdovers Dennis Schroder and Steven Adams, the new Thunder have constituted the most surprising dominant closing lineup in the NBA, with Paul turning back the clock to earlier in his career as an icy fourth quarter scorer. After a slower start to the season, they have easily been one of the best 10 teams since December 1st.
Their last two games exemplify their spirit and fourth quarter genius as well as making for extremely fun storylines. On Saturday, those same Portland Trailblazers that had ended an era last season came to Oklahoma City. CJ McCollum was injured, so Damian Lillard again tried to play hero, scoring a game-high 34 points, but Paul and Gilgeous-Alexander combined for 52 points and the Thunder notched the win.
Yesterday, the Thunder took the quick trip down to Houston to play the Rockets. The Rockets are significant because they were the team with which the Thunder made the Westbrook-Paul trade. Despite being alongside the picks in the trade, Paul has been the better player this season. However, Houston was expected to be a title contender but came into the game just 3 games in front of the Rockets despite James Harden performing at a near-MVP level. Through 3 quarters, the Rockets looked like the clearly better team and went up by 16 points. The fourth quarter saw a storming back by OKC, and by the end, Paul, Galinari, and Schroder had combined for 76 points overall, as the balance of the Thunder offense came to bear in the 4th. While Westbrook had a triple-double, as so often in his career, his individual stats didn’t mean success for the team, as he shot 3 for 9 in the 4th quarter and the Rockets were -13 with him on the Court. After 44 games last year, the Thunder were 26-18. This year, they are 25-19.
All this is to compliment the management for the Thunder. In trading George and Westbrook, they managed to give themselves an extremely promising future through both Gilgeous-Alexander and numerous future first round picks and to improve their financial flexibility by getting rid of the very highly paid Westbrook. The most incredible part is that they haven’t seemed to sacrifice their present. While it’s likely that they will again suffer a first-round loss in the playoffs this year, it won’t be with a team that has kept hitting its ceiling. It will be a team that is renewed with a desire to eventually bring a trophy to Oklahoma City.
