How good will the OKC Thunder be in a few years?

[mardigan]

I don't know why people are so down on Green, guy is putting up 17 and 7 in his second year, and seems to be a great teamate. Plus, I think the chemistry he Durant and Westbrook have is very noticeable.

[hater]

Kevin Durant!!

[slowchild25]

Kevin Durant is great. It's far from a certainty that he can be the type of franchise player that will make his team a 50+ win team season after season.

The Spurs front office factor is way overrated. The Spurs front office themselves would be nowhere near as perceived if they didn't land out of pure luck the #1 pick that got them Tim Duncan. Let's not fool ourselves here. They have made many good personnel moves along the way. None of those moves would have mattered without Tim Duncan on the roster. Same goes for Presti and Pritchard. Pritchard has a better chance because he also landed three great players with high lottery picks in Roy, Aldridge, and Oden. I'm not even close to sold with what Oklahoma City is doing yet. I think they've made quite a few questionable moves already under Presti. They have stockpiled draft picks though. It depends what they will do with it. I don't necessarily think Jeff Green or Russell Westbrook were the right picks. Kevin Durant was a fall-in-their-laps pick. With Oden off the board, that was pick that had to be made. Let's not give them credit for making a pick that 100% of other NBA GMs would have made at #2 after Oden was selected first.

I agree with a lot of your saying but I don't think your giving Durant and the Spurs front office enough credit. I do think he's their "Duncan" in that every move that they make will look a little better because they have him on their team. And no matter how the Spurs got Duncan the fact is that they did and then they went out and put pieces around him that both made him and the team better and not only have they done that they have done it for a very extended period of time. They just keep plugging new guys in and they just work in their system. Roger Mason anyone? Freakin' Matt Bonner?! Really??!?! Somehow they get it to work though.

[endrity]

I don't know why people are so down on Green, guy is putting up 17 and 7 in his second year, and seems to be a great teamate. Plus, I think the chemistry he Durant and Westbrook have is very noticeable.

I don't think anybody is sellin Green short. I think people realize he is a poor man's Durant, and both of them are perfect for the SF position but neither is really suited to play as a SG or a PF right now. One of them would have to bulk up considerably to do so. And I think durant's game would be greatly affected if he tried to put up 20-30 lbs of muscle very quickly.

So in the future there isn't very much Green can offer this team. Maybe he can be their Posey (08 Celtics)/Odom (09 Lakers) at best.

[tomtom]

As much it sucks that they moved out of Washington, I imagine they will become pretty good in the next couple of years but still far from contenders, though I'm sure Durant will probably one day be a league leader in scoring