The Thunder are a better team than last year. I was really surprised how deep the team is now. They got a lot of new depth. Kanter and Agustin are tremendous pickups. Kendrick Perkins was a definite weak point for them, now they have a front court of Ibaka, Kanter, Stephen Jackson and Collison. Not to mention McGary who burned portland. They have really solid wings in Morrow, Singler, Lamb...not a fan of Waiters but he can occassionally put points up.
Blake played well at the end of games before we got AAA. I would rather have AAA in there because of his size, but Steve is a better ball handler. However I would not exactly say AAA is not making any stupid decisions. Forcing the ball into Kaman yesterday TWICE with passes that were not even close was not bright. Obviously those type of things are going to happen while new teammates learn to play with one another, but none the less he has had a few bad turnovers.
Their roster is better than ours. They have two top 5 players, insane front court depth and some decent backup guards. We have a good starting five, one good bench player and a bunch of easily replaceable/underused players.
The simple fact is that I don't think they will win with Westbrook and Durant. They don't mesh well together at all. If they did, they would have already won a championship. Kanter was a nice pickup, Augistin is meh, and Singler is another one of those overrated white guys that everyone always talks about. He looked like complete shit against us the other night.
The only thing that really prevented the Thunder from winning already is the spurs, LeBron and injuries
To chime in here, as a Bulls fan, I would trade Taj for a good perimeter defender with a shooting stroke (Afflalo) in a heartbeat. That small ball isn't very small. LMA is a big dude who's always been a PF/C and Batum is like 6'8-6'9 with long arms.
I still think they would be better off trading Westbrook. I'm sure they would never do it, but his value is at an all-time high and they could probably pull in a monster haul. They need to make Durant the focus of that team so he doesn't leave in free agency.
Can't believe I'm saying this but the Spurs aren't looking good. Had some injuries early on, but Parker's sudden decline is something to keep our eyes on.
Their run is likely done unless their role guys like Mills, Diaw and Belinelli go off in the playoffs again. If that happens then they may just get a 6th. There is seriously no way to beat that team when every shot they get is open.
The decline of Parker and Manu has been crippling. Surprisingly, old man Duncan is still going strong.
Parker fell off a cliff and I did not see it coming at all. He was never good on defense but his defense this year is the worst I've seen from a starting point guard.
He was so big for them last year in the playoffs. If he's nearing retirement, I could see them getting swept.
Oklahoma City is irrelevant. Westbrook will run out of gas and/or will to cooperate if and when Durant comes back. San Antonio will be tough, as usual.
The run and gun teams like OKC aren't going to be able to dictate pace in the playoffs. Game slows down. I wouldn't sleep on the Spurs come playoff time. The Blazers are also better this season than last season. We're looking to be full strength come playoff time and we win in a variety of ways. I don't think anybody in the west wants to face the Blazers early either
We haven't played OKC with Durant this year and 2 of our wins against them were nail biters. Fun nail biters though. When healthy, this OKC team is much deeper than last year.
So without Wes who is in our small ball unit now? Gee gives us similar defense or CJ gives us similar 3 point shooting. It'll probably end up being Blake.
