We don't beat Thunder if Westbrook healthy last season

Without Harden, the thunder are a solid playoff team but are no longer a threat to get back to the finals.

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Originally Posted by TXstbobcat

Without Harden, the thunder are a solid playoff team but are no longer a threat to get back to the finals.

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How can you say that? They won 60+ games last year and were the #1 seed in the West...all without Harden. Only reason they didnt go as far as they were expected was because losing one of their big 2. Who can lose one of their top 2 players and still win? Imagine if we lost Parker or Duncan...we definately wouldnt have reached the Finals.

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Originally Posted by HemisfairArena

How can you say that? They won 60+ games last year and were the #1 seed in the West...all without Harden. Only reason they didnt go as far as they were expected was because losing one of their big 2. Who can lose one of their top 2 players and still win? Imagine if we lost Parker or Duncan...we definately wouldnt have reached the Finals.

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I think that the thunder will be solid next year and they may still win 60 games but I think that Harden was the difference maker as far as getting that team to the finals. I could be wrong though.

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Originally Posted by HemisfairArena

How can you say that? They won 60+ games last year and were the #1 seed in the West...all without Harden. Only reason they didnt go as far as they were expected was because losing one of their big 2. Who can lose one of their top 2 players and still win? Imagine if we lost Parker or Duncan...we definately wouldnt have reached the Finals.

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We were the #1 seed on a few occasions, and didn't make the WCFs, let alone the Finals. It's not unheard of.

OKC has fallen back.

Everyone will be a year older in 2013-2014. But if everyone stays healthy, I like the Spurs chances of coming out of the West. Probably will need home court advantage and not have meltdowns to beat the Heat.

tbh, I'm not sure the Thunder even beat the Grizzlies with Westbrook healthy

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Originally Posted by SpursFan4-Life

I will always be a Spurs fan, but it's just the reality, WE DON'T GET STAR FREE AGENTS IN THEIR PRIME

?That's the reality of having a team in San Antonio. We are the luckiest franchise in all of sports to be honest. Look at all the #1 picks that turn out be busts or just good players and ultimately do nothing for their franchise. We got damn lucky getting Robinson, then he gets hurt for one year and we get the greatest PF of all time in Duncan. We still can't get free agents who are stars for shit and we happen to draft HOF players with the 28th and 58th pick. Pure luck and blessing from the sports gods. Even after all this we still can't get ANYONE in their prime to join who is an All Star player. After the 14-15 season, Duncan/Manu/Parker all off the books and we are officially lottery team for the next 50 years. Pop is gone with Duncan. It's just the reality, that was our shot at #5, we blew it, but it was a good run

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Did the 2000's Pistons sign a star FA in their prime? Did the first Heat team (Eddie Jones doesn't count and they traded for Shaq)? Did the Mavs? The Celtics had to trade for their stars (Al Jefferson, Jeff Green) though not in the same boat as the prior ones.

Plenty of teams got stars in their prime and stink. Would you rather be a Knicks fan right now if that's the most important thing to you? If so, have fun.

The way the Spurs played in the playoffs, I think we would've beaten the Thunder. We got lucky sure, the road to the Finals got much easier but I think we still make it to the Finals with the Thunder fully healthy.

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Originally Posted by TheGoldStandard

Spurs can beat the Thunder, it's the Heat that are still the toughest road to go through.

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PERIOD END OF STORY! THANK God though no Heat and Thunder finals this year! My God that one was boring as hell and during the year Thunder got blown out by them twice, it is clear they are scared of them and no match for the Heat. I would not have watched the finals if it was those two against eachother again, seriously sucked.

Yeah about that, Westbrook isn't as good as his stats indicate and he's advertised as.

We lost to the Thunder in 2012 because Harden killed us and Ibaka had a miracle game (not to mention got away with like 12 goaltends and he and Perkins were setting moving screens all series), not because of Westbrook.

Westbrook shoots 6.4% below his career average against us (36.8%), and less than 18 PPG. Parker shoots 48% on him. He hasn't exactly been blowing the doors off the Spurs.

So no, we wouldn't have lost. OKC minus Harden is significantly worse than they were before even with Martin. We probably would've won in 5-6. OKC isn't as good as they used to be. Harden was a big reason they were a real contender. They're still a contender, just not scary anymore.