OKC needs to get ripped a new one by the media for their terrible play and Scott Brooks is definitely not that a great a coach. There have been teams with 2 stars out who did way better than this team does now, so Brooks really getting exposed and their whole team too much reliant on those two stars.
Did you follow OKC.... this might be their worst season in 5, 6 years? They were always a Top 5 team in the West.... They did very well for a small, small market team.
If OKC still had Harden and Durant and WestBrook were out do you think they'll be winning games or losing them like they are now?
What does that have to do with what I am saying? I am saying that as a team, without Durant and Westbrook, they are doing far worse than what you would expect from a team with a coach who was said to be very good and some very good players. Remember the times without Yao & Tracy, we managed to keep winning or at least stay around .500
I think that was more the Rockets over achieving than the Thunder under achieving. All the "experts" predicted the Rockets to be where the Thunder are now after Yao and Tmac went out. The Thunder's losses are to Portland, Clippers, Brooklyn twice, Toronto, Memphis, Bucks, Pistons, Rockets, Jazz, Nuggets, and Golden State. So eight out of 12 losses were against playoff teams, and 5 of the losses were 5 point or less losses where they were in the game til the end, with a sixth loss coming in over time. I think Brooks is average at best, but I think it would take an elite coach to have significantly better success under the circumstances. And the west might even be stronger top to bottom this year. Clippers and Pelicans as the current 9th and 10th seeds would be tied for fourth seed in the east right now. 11th seed Denver would be 7th in the east.
Coach Bonehead has been exposed way before this. It's hard to judge him based on the performance of OKC's depleted roster. They are terrible, as expected. If their record was 8-7 or 7-8, he would deserve kudos. But anybody thinking they would be anything other than the worst team in the WC at this point just doesn't know. A mediocre at best coach + a ravaged roster = #15 seed and 7 losses out of 8th place after only 15 games. It's adds up. The only team in the NBA with a worse record is the Sixers, who are trash because their GM wants them to be.
The Lakers should have the same record as OKC after they play the Grizzlies Wednesday. Their point differential is 4.3 points worse and they have the same number of wins, just haven't played as many games. That being said the Lakers schedule has been pretty brutal and their 3 wins have been against playoff teams last year in Charlotte, Houston, and Atlanta. Losses: Rockets Suns Clippers Warriors Grizzlies Pelicans Spurs Warriors Mavs Nuggets Seven losses to teams who made the western conference playoffs last year, and Suns and Pelicans have a legitimate shot to make it this year.
