How Do You Feel About OKC Contending Next Year

[DubaLakers]

I really hope my LAL coninue to take advatage of Mr. 24's ability for a few more years and then Durant takes over the league, because that group in MIA is beyond obnoxious...

...LBJ saying 6 or 7 championships.

...Wade saying best trio ever.

...Kharma is a byotch MIA.

[KayDee35]

We know that Durant and Westbrook will be better. But a lot depends on the improvement of Harden, Ibaka, and Aldrich (or Mullens?). I'm hopeful, for no other reason than they are hard workers and having playoff experience seems to help young guys tremendously.

Will Brooks be willing to let some of these guys develop during games or will he limit their time severely when they make mistakes? He tends to be conservative but taking some risks early in the season may pay off down the road.

[JasonDaPsycho]

We know that Durant and Westbrook will be better. But a lot depends on the improvement of Harden, Ibaka, and Aldrich (or Mullens?). I'm hopeful, for no other reason than they are hard workers and having playoff experience seems to help young guys tremendously.

Will Brooks be willing to let some of these guys develop during games or will he limit their time severely when they make mistakes? He tends to be conservative but taking some risks early in the season may pay off down the road.

Someone needs to remind Scott Brooks of the Suns last year.

Hopefully he'll have enough balls to put the bench on the court and give them the confidence they need.
Once they have confidence, there will be people who step up in a game.

[wiff]

We know that Durant and Westbrook will be better. But a lot depends on the improvement of Harden, Ibaka, and Aldrich (or Mullens?). I'm hopeful, for no other reason than they are hard workers and having playoff experience seems to help young guys tremendously.

Will Brooks be willing to let some of these guys develop during games or will he limit their time severely when they make mistakes? He tends to be conservative but taking some risks early in the season may pay off down the road.

Someone needs to remind Scott Brooks of the Suns last year.

Hopefully he'll have enough balls to put the bench on the court and give them the confidence they need.
Once they have confidence, there will be people who step up in a game.

Not to be a jerk. but someone needs to remind you two of what Scott Brooks did last year.

Ibaka, Harden and Maynor all received plenty of opportunities to succeed last year.

And in the playoffs they all had their moments.

I'm sure they will all be given a fair amount of leash.

[slick_watts]

Yeah, Brooks stuck with his rotations even to a fault this season. Our bench save Nick Collison was less experienced than Phoenix's and got pretty decent run most of the year.

[Ontario]

I really hope my LAL coninue to take advatage of Mr. 24's ability for a few more years and then Durant takes over the league, because that group in MIA is beyond obnoxious... Kharma is a byotch MIA.

Did a fan of Therapist for $1000 Kobe Bryant actually just say that?

[SD2042]

The Thunder are on their way to becoming contenders. Just keep the main guys chemistry intact. Improve on post interior defense and more potent offense preferally from the bench standpoint w/o sacrificing the defense. Hell this team's defense and athleticism nearly took the Lakeshow to the limit if it wasn't for the letdown of the post defense @ crucial times. Otherwise, this team will get better in no time.

[JasonDaPsycho]

Yeah, Brooks stuck with his rotations even to a fault this season. Our bench save Nick Collison was less experienced than Phoenix's and got pretty decent run most of the year.

That really was a relief.
I didn't watch enough Thunder games to understand their rotations.

And that part about Brooks having more balls kind of sounded bad. I take that back. Sorry if I pissed someone off.

[lakers16xchamps]

They are not even close to contenders, they'll be 1 or 2 seeds better but they'll lose in the 1st round. They just haven't really improved and I don't see them making any dramatic improvement.

[slick_watts]

They are not even close to contenders, they'll be 1 or 2 seeds better but they'll lose in the 1st round. They just haven't really improved and I don't see them making any dramatic improvement.

Could you explain why you feel the team won't improve when five of the nine rotation players from last season were 22 years old or younger? Players generally improve in their early twenties.

[BULLS333]

hey guys Bulls fan here ,
i just want to say that i follow you guys alot and i have always enjoyed watching westbrook and KD and jeff green in college and there much better now. I think you have a great GM and even a better team! I really hope you guys do great this year ill be rooting for you guys for sure Tons of upside and i think you guys will compete in the west finals for sure!!!! I look foward to watching Good luck

[Jase]

They are not even close to contenders, they'll be 1 or 2 seeds better but they'll lose in the 1st round. They just haven't really improved and I don't see them making any dramatic improvement.

As a Lakers fan, I humbly disagree. I think OKC has the best chance to unseat us as the West elite. Even if they didn't add anyone significant (I'm not sold on Aldrich.....Ostertag 2.0 if you ask me), they're getting another year of experience, which for this team is HUGE. They have a good rhythm to their team, great chemistry, a superstar, and players who actually put effort into defense.

[fallacy]

If they can get a Kendrick Perkins type center they should be in great shape.

Personally I think Ibaka has a bigger offensive game than what he showed last season. I think Brooks wanted Ibaka "to let the game come to him" so to speak. But I think if Ibaka wanted to force the issue he could be a decent option in the post. Not Chris Bosh or anything like that, but I don't think the kid is a deer in headlights down there. Plus he's only 20 he'll only get better and develop more of a post game.

I'm not sure I get the 'Kendrick Perkins type center' thing. We were a great defensive team but struggled on offense.. especially if we start Ibaka, we should be aiming for a front court guy with a bit more of an offensive game. Our defense was great against the Lakers, we got beat on the defensive boards and we couldn't score at all.

This is the difference between adding a guy like Kendrick Perkins or David Lee. Perkins would improve our defense, but by how much? We're already good there. Subbing David Lee in for Jeff Green isn't likely to affect our defense much (Green was one of the worst rated defenders in the league at PF), but he'd make our bad offense at least good and maybe even better than that. Going from 9th in the league in defense to, say, 6th with Perkins doesn't affect much. Moving from 13th in offense to 6th with Lee makes us a title conteder.

A guy like Perkins doesn't improve any of our major weaknesses except defensive rebounding...

Maybe I'm overestimating Serge's offense but I think everyone is underestimating it. Ibaka looked pretty damn good on offense when we actually gave him the ball down in the paint. I wouldn't be concerned about Ibaka at all.

yeah, that's me

I love how Slick hated the idea of getting perkins

Old threads are awesome

[slick_watts]

Let's not bump threads and ship titles until we've actually won something, OK? Obviously, if anyone would have predicted the season Russell Westbrook was going to have things would have been evaluated differently.