Nah, at their best the Thunder were only 2-4 points away. Above average team. Above average coach in Donovan. Average role players with promising Adams, couple of guys. Superstar with flaws. Now if they played elite, stifling Defense instead of just above average one, this series would get more interesting. Even without scoring much on their role player's side. They play well enough but they do not have the burst mode or beserk mode to score in bunches when needed. (Probably needed some Lou Will and Eric Gordan type of scoring) They were close in most of the games. Glad this is over. OKC should rebuild and give up Westbrook.
I agree but if the OKC front office does as well, they've got a huge dilemma on their hands. Giving up on Westbrook would mean giving up on one of the most popular stars at his peak. For a small-market team, I'm not sure they'd survive financially. On the other hand, if they do sign Westbrook to the possible extension that's being reported, and make him the highest-paid player in the NBA, they're relegating themselves to an also-ran team for many years to come. Tough choice.
Presti is going to find a way to get a shooter or two on that team... Then they are going to learn that shooters actually need the ball to shoot...not like Abrines and McBuckets can't shoot, when they played they were dangerous, but they hardly saw the ball anyways. In a crucial moment in one of those games I remember McBuckets being left open and not getting the ball in the 4th...
The real issue with Russell Westbrook is that he's not very good at the game of basketball because basketball is a team game. That said, he's very flashy and fun to watch for casual fans which would translate to him being the greatest player in And1 or Harlem Globetrotters history.
I agree, and would agree if this was Harden we're talking about with these problems instead of Dwight. I've moved to a position where i definitely think you move on sooner rather than later. I was on the Rockets for moving dwight 2 offseasons ago where it became apparent the fit wasn't here and most importantly Dwight, while still decently effective, was slowly getting worse at defense and couldn't adjust his game for the way the league was going. Absent basically "magic" happening, the Thunder are multiple years away form getting the roster in place to best fit Russ to be even remotely deep playoff run (eg. WCF or Finals) competitive... by which point Russ will be 31 - with plenty of good years left, but he's already "tired" form a 5 game, 40 mpg playoff series, lol. This will obviously never happen. Trading Russ, off a triple double average, when your OKC and KD left... not happening. Also, I think you'd be surprised that you might not get as much in return as they'd think. I mean, certainly the Celtics aren't trading Crowder, 2017 first (Nets), 2018 first (Nets) for example. They could get some young assets and draft picks from a crap team. Lakers, Kings, Sixers, Orlando, NYK, Pelicans. But are any of those packages interesting? Ingram and the Lakers 1st this year (if they keep it)? That's not fair value. Ask for more and the Lakers tart to waffle. Kings have no assets. Magic - what player on the Magic plus Magic picks is a good deal for Westbrook? Maybe the best deal they could get and might be worth it would be Porzingis, Melo and a pick. Build around Porzingis.... try to move Melo (or in a 3 team deal) for cap relief.
Russ plays a Style that won't ever be effective in 4th quarters of playoff basketball. He doesn't know how to pace himself. Chris Broussard made a valid point yesterday on the Herd. He said typically the good team in the playoffs coast in the first round and then turn up there play in the 4th and win the game. Surprise surprise the warriors did this a little bit in a game or two against Portland and closed them out in 4 the Cavs did this in every game and closed the pacers out in 4 the rockets did this every game besides the 1st one and closed the thunder in 5. The rockets were never in trouble this series even though the games were close. Okc would play awesome basketball and build 15 point leads and in a matter of 2-3 minutes houston would be right reminding them that when we want to we'll close u out. Russ can't do this and has never been able to adapt this aspect of his game. He couldn't figure it out with KD who else are you going to bring in there and he's going to learn how to change his mindset in late games. Sure he hit some game winners against lottery teams. That's nice. Teams like houston golden state SAN An were never in close games against teams like that.
