how screwed are the thunder?

[skut_farkus]

With all this Dwight talk and other misc. Shit going on the thunders off season has been overshadowed. They lost their only bench scorer, chimpbrook is coming off a serious injury and Durant has a new agent in jay z filling his head with larger market teams to go to in the next couple years. can we officially say this team is pretty much done?

[Michael Jordan.]

Yep. Especially with Presti making another team a contender from his own mistake.

[jeebus]

they were never a contender. in their best season ever, they got anally raped by miami.

[ElNono]

The biggest concern for them is how chuckbrick looks after that surgery... it's clear they need an alpha out there making Durant his bitch before another team does...

I still think they're going to trade Perkins if they can find a sucker to take him...

[GuerillaBlack]

Depends on how lamb does taking over martin's role. I think Durant leaves later

[Thread]

It's a 52 card pickup sitch. Westbrook ain't gonna be happy second on the marquee. He's going to want to be 50/50 or better with Durant. And he's gonna be pissed at Beverly. That ain't over.

They'll founder quickly. Whether they sink is the unknown.

[Clipper Nation]

:lol Thunderefs
:lol Presti building title contenders everywhere except OKC
:lol Durant bolting as soon as he can
:lol Westbrick probably also bolting
:lol Trading Harden for garbage
:lol Kevin Martin bolting for Minnesota
:lol No bench
:lol Kendrick P:lolrkins starting at center
:lol Scotty Br:lol:lolks still the coach
:lol Meth-addled redneck bandwagon fans
:lol Steven Adams
:lol "Not worried yet"
:lol thunderup

[Joyrider]

Can we just pencil Spurs and Clippers in the WCF already??

[Thread]

Can we just pencil Spurs and Clippers in the WCF already??

I can see the Spurs there, but, the Clippers? Aside from Paul they've not a player that can bust a move and a get a shot at command and he's notorious for packing his bags and heading for the side door when the booty holes be gettin' tight.

[LarryDavid]

Depending on how Westbrook recovers. But yeah, Presti fucked up any hope this team had with that trade. Martin bolting just made it that much worse. When does KD hit free agency?

[Clipper Nation]

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http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2562821/asiktrain.gif

http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/article/media_slots/photos/000/864/889/DurantMiss_original.gif?1368678838

[TXstbobcat]

I think it will be the spurs and the thunder in the WCF next year.

[Rogue]

They're still a perennial playoff team but no longer a title contender, and the team will eventually cease to exist when Durant gets bored of playing there and decides to move elsewhere. trading harden for the one year rental of Martin was even more dubious than blewing up a champion squad by letting TC walk imho. at least we won a ring before getting fucked.

[Thread]

I think it will be the spurs and the thunder in the WCF next year.

Does it even matter who shows up in San Antonio next April? They're gonna be dead in the water. The Spurs are set and set up.

[Thread]

They're still a perennial playoff team but no longer a title contender, and the team will eventually cease to exist when Durant gets bored of playing there and decides to move elsewhere. trading harden for the one year rental of Martin was even more dubious than blewing up a champion squad by letting TC walk imho. at least we won a ring before getting fucked.

Don't even try that fucking stunt, late Sunday nite after the 4th and everything. What happened in Dallas after you rang is tantamount to a criminal act.

Straighten up, Roguey, get your narrow ass up and erase the bolded part of your post.

- Pappy

[Kai]

Really just depends on how they compensate the loss of KMart. Lamb, Jones and Jackson all have potential.

[InRareForm]

Funny how they had their climb (every year got better) and now after their finals appearance it is now the descent tbh...

[Sean Cagney]

they were never a contender. in their best season ever, they got anally raped by miami.

That series was horrible, after that and this years games vs the HEAT THANK GOD that was not the finals again! I did not want to see that again. Worst finals in years.

[baseline bum]

So anyone think Durant's gonna return home to play with John Wall in DC in 2016?

[baseline bum]

Amazing how quickly things change in the NBA. A year ago they looked like they'd be a team to win multiple titles. I mean how do you not with Durant, Harden, and Westbrook lol. And now Harden's the best SG in the league, Perkins sucks, and Abaka was exposed without Cripplebrook on the floor.

LOL trading prime James Harden for Jeremy Lamb, Perry Jones III, and some honkey center.

[Thread]

Amazing how quickly things change in the NBA. A year ago they looked like they'd be a team to win multiple titles. I mean how do you not with Durant, Harden, and Westbrook lol. And now Harden's the best SG in the league, Perkins sucks, and Abaka was exposed without Cripplebrook on the floor.

LOL trading prime James Harden for Jeremy Lamb, Perry Jones III, and some honkey center.

& Media let's you off the hook, like Rivers quittin' on the Celtics.

Just shows ta go ya.

[scanry]

& Media let's you off the hook, like Rivers quittin' on the Celtics.

Just shows ta go ya.

Surprising considering the media was all over this guy preaching loyalty. It'll be interesting to see how CP3 responds this season. I don't trust his health tbh. He's never had a healthy season in a long time. Heck Tony Parker with all the mileage has been healthy throughout his career.

[TE]

They're fucked if you are talking championship aspirations...out west not so much as people make it out to be. They are a bad matchup for the Spurs. They'll be the team that stands in the way of a finals appearance imo.

[Rogue]

The saddest part of the story is that last year's OKC team, with the Quad i7 core consisting of Durant, Westchuck, Harden and Ibaka would be seriously challenging Miami within 2 years from now, and would probably make a dynasty of themselves when Lebron and the Heat start to go downhill.

[TDMVPDPOY]

thunder were never serious threat out west, they were nothing but fodder team buying some time for the spurs to cure that premature ejaculation for the last 6 years,

[elmanutres]

Westbrick should've been the one that was traded, now the thunder have missed out on a dynasty. Depending how it goes, maybe durant will bolt knowing he's going through the lebron in cleaveland phase and the thunder ironically become candidates to move to seattle. to think stern let the sonics move to that wasteland just cause key arena wasn't fancy enough.

[AchillesHeel]

Thunder's always gonna be there with KD and RWB, though Alpha suffered a serious injury he's still a top 5 NBA player and Beta is not even in his prime yet. I doubt Beta will leave Alpha, he's too much of a pussy, imo, tbh.

[whitemamba]

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[dg7md]

They truly are the '90s Sonics, best way to approach it.

[Twisted_Dawg]

The real question is what team will the league, TV networks, and NIKE send Durant to? MY guess would be the Lakers in a couple of years after Kobe limps off into the sunset. Both NY teams have marquee names, Chicago too, so the Lakers for sure.

[Clipper Nation]

Raptors to play with Wiggins, tbh.....

[Raven]

not screwed at all, don't know what you guys are talking about, if they kept all their studs, they would destroy the league for the next 10 years, the way it is now you can't tell who will win next year, which is great.

[Clipper Nation]

I don't see how people don't think the Thunderefs are in trouble when they're basically a two-man team with zero depth and one of the worst coaches in the league.... alternating Durant isos and Westbrick isos all game might work in the regular season but it will be shut down in the playoffs by one of the many deeper, more balanced and better-coached teams in the West, tbh.... the only way I see them getting back to the Finals is if Stern/Silver gives them the '02 Lakers treatment all playoffs long (and even that might not be enough)....

[MeloHype]

They will still be better than the Clippers, GSW, Houston tbh

[Raven]

I don't see how people don't think the Thunderefs are in trouble when they're basically a two-man team with zero depth and one of the worst coaches in the league.... alternating Durant isos and Westbrick isos all game might work in the regular season but it will be shut down in the playoffs by one of the many deeper, more balanced and better-coached teams in the West, tbh.... the only way I see them getting back to the Finals is if Stern/Silver gives them the '02 Lakers treatment all playoffs long (and even that might not be enough)....

tbh they are not thin at all, they only need to start developing their young players, they have a lot of assets that only need playing time. With Martin gone, and a granted top 3 seed, they should find some time for Jackson, Jones and Lamb to play. Their center spot sucks though.

[Brazil]

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:lol the goods

[thunderup]

Right now everything feels like a trainwreck. Scotty Brooks has to let Lamb and Jones develop. Another thing that should be on the coaching agenda is the micromanaging of minutes to our key rotation players. Running them to the ground will come back to bite us in the ass in the postseason. The front office needs to bring in a reliable scoring threat at shooting guard. Bullshit like wanting to bring Fish back will keep us stationary.

The problem with bringing a quality player in is it likely puts us in the luxury tax which is something Presti wants to avoid for this season. Presti knows this Thunder core will be intact for the foreseeable future so wasting a year of paying the luxury tax with this unimpressive group of free agents is something he'll pass on. Provided that we amnesty Perk, we can avoid paying the luxury tax for 2014-15 and avoid the dreaded repeater penalty of 2015-16.

Under these circumstances we are going to need drastic internal improvement to have a shot at a finals berth, our current ceiling as of now.