Thunder miss playoffs

[Marcus]

They really need to fire Scott Brooks and hire a real coach.

Really, though, it all comes back to that Harden trade. How must Durant feel watching Harden win the MVP playing for another team because Oklahoma City was too cheap to pay him an extra one to two million a year?

Fact of the matter is that OKC has two (formerly three) of the very best players in the league and has had five of the last six scoring champions, and they have one Finals appearance to show for it. Plenty of that can certainly fall on that awful James Harden trade, although I don't think he would have broken out or produced like he is now by playing in Kevin Durant's shadow.

Brooks has to go if that team is ever going to take the next step. It might even be too late now to keep Durant. He has shown a visible edge and attitude that we haven't seen out of him before, and he has to be entertaining the possibility of going home to Washington to team up with those guys in an easier conference. With a healthy core of Westbrook, Durant, Ibaka, and Kanter, they should be able to stack up against probably any other team in the league on any given night.

 

[Zog]

The big question mark to me with the Thunder is how Durant will be when he comes back. Will the foot ever be 100%? He has had at least 3 surgeries on it now in less than a year, I just have to wonder if it ever is going to be comfortable for him to do the things he is accustomed to doing on the basketball court.

 

[Tornicade]

I look at it as the Finals appearence was early for this team. the seasons after that have been marred by injuries. you get ibaka , Durant and westbrook healthy going into their primes the team has alot of possibilities surrounded with all this young talent they keep acquiring.

OKC needs to do something next season though or they gonna lose their core.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I look at it as the Finals appearence was early for this team. the seasons after that have been marred by injuries. you get ibaka , Durant and westbrook healthy going into their primes the team has alot of possibilities surrounded with all this young talent they keep acquiring.

OKC needs to do something next season though or they gonna lose their core.

They also traded their third-best player (and a future MVP candidate) for a couple of role-players. That certainly hasn't helped them out, especially since Harden has been an iron man for Houston.

 

[PIP]

I don't trust Durant's injury with that frail body going forward... Might not matter..

 

[Tornicade]

They also traded their third-best player (and a future MVP candidate) for a couple of role-players. That certainly hasn't helped them out, especially since Harden has been an iron man for Houston.

The year they traded Harden they lost westbrook in the playoffs. do they make it to the finals with a healthy harden.. im really doubtful.
the following year healthy they make it to the conference finals.
Harden hasnt shown he can do anything in the playoffs as a 1st or 2nd option. he has shown he can hit threes one playoff season as a 3rd option.

perhaps Harden shows he can handle pressure this season

but either Brooks as a coach has underchieved without harden or he has overachieved.

Harden is where he should be and The Thunder wasnt able to pay a max contract. I dont think OKC recovers and goes to the finals after losing westbrook with Harden so making the trade and collecting a few first round picks doesnt seem like a bad deal. Once Harden was removed from the roster . he isnt any longer part of the equation and the team has demonstrated they are contenders without him.

Steven Adams is looking like a good pick and fills a need.
The Martin acquisition allowed the team to allow regiie Jackson time to develop who was a key piece off the bench in the finals drive.

Jackson became a key piece in the trade that allowed them to acquire Enes kanter.

If anything time is favoring OKC did the right thing

 

[Jack Brickman]

Harden hasnt shown he can do anything in the playoffs as a 1st or 2nd option. he has shown he can hit threes one playoff season as a 3rd option.

Harden was really good in the playoffs the year the Thunder made the Finals. He just pulled a no show in the Finals. He was great in the first three rounds.

And come on? Time is proving OKC right? OKC is sitting at home right now while James Harden is leading the number two seed in the West and may win the MVP. Saying time is proving OKC right is a fucking joke. That may go down as the worst trade of all time.

 

[Tornicade]

I don't trust Durant's injury with that frail body going forward... Might not matter..

That Scenario would be absolutely devastating for OKC

 

[Tornicade]

Harden was really good in the playoffs the year the Thunder made the Finals. He just pulled a no show in the Finals. He was great in the first three rounds.

And come on? Time is proving OKC right? OKC is sitting at home right now while James Harden is leading the number two seed in the West and may win the MVP. Saying time is proving OKC right is a fucking joke. That may go down as the worst trade of all time.

Does Harden and Wesbrook sans Durant goto the Finals? Ill be surprised if Houston makes it to the second round let along past it.

OKC meanwhile has a shot albeit remote at a lottery pick and further add depth to a deep roster. so its not exactly the end of the world for OKC not to make the playoffs after a season when their projected starting lineup only played 23 games as a unit

 

[Jack Brickman]

Does Harden and Wesbrook sans Durant goto the Finals? Ill be surprised if Houston makes it to the second round let along past it.

OKC meanwhile has a shot albeit remote at a lottery pick and further add depth to a deep roster. so its not exactly the end of the world for OKC not to make the playoffs after a season when their projected starting lineup only played 23 games as a unit

The way Harden and Westbrook both played this year, I think that team absolutely has a shot at the Finals. I don't think they make it, mostly because the West is tough and Brooks would be the worst of the eight coaches in the Western playoffs, but they'd have two top ten players in the league. You always have a shot when you have guys that good on your roster. They'd be the best two players in almost every series OKC could play out West.

 

[Cavatt]

Trading Harden was a lot like the Mavs letting Nash walk. Those two moves were the reasons I was ultimately fine with the Love trade. You just don't know your window especially with injuries.