http://bleacherreport.com/articles/450495-oklahoma-city-thunder-in-2010-are-they-for-real Some of the biggest offseason hype has gone to the Oklahoma City Thunder after their great regular season in 2010 and exceptional showing in the playoffs. Just two years ago, in their inaugural year, the Thunder looked like they were headed nowhere. But with the emergence of some of the best young talent in the league, the Thunder were soon the "dark horse" of the NBA and are currently a force to be reckoned with.
Any team with Kevin Durant is for real! I think James Harden could potentially be the second best player there if they let him play. I guess besides those two, I'm kind of meh on the rest of em. Obviously Westbrook is a nice player, but I don't really think of him as a big time guy.
I think they are the real deal. I think Westbrook will be a future all-star. Green and Harden are both above average players. Cook is an upgrade who will give them more 3s and steals. Ibaka is improving too. The team is stacked with good talent. If Krstic/Collison were in their prime they'd be a scary team. We'll see how they do this season.
Durant looked phenomenal this summer, much like Dirk Nowitzki always does in international competition. Nobody seems able to guard really tall guys who can shoot threes. Nothing screws up a zone like a 6'9+ guy who can kill threes when faced with a 6'1 guard. Still, though, he may be the best scorer in the league for the next decade. However, their top 8 players last year combined to miss only 26 games. That's insanely perfect health. Compare that with my Blazers. Roy, Oden, Outlaw and Batum each missed more than 26 games. Each. Yet the Blazers had the exact same 50 win total. If the law of averages works out, both teams come back to earth on injuries. That'll probably be counterbalanced for the Thunder with Durant's improvement and some of their other youngsters getting better, so they probably stay at 50 wins. But I think the real story will be the Blazers this year. Every year it seems like there's a young media darling team. Two years ago, New Orleans. Last year, Portland. This year, Oklahoma. But I wouldn't buy too much into the hype.