What do you see as the biggest mistakes the franchise has made over the years?

[PaulGaston]

As an outsider, I'm just curious what you guys see as the biggest mistakes management have made during the Durant/Westbrook era.

I'm curious about the perspective of actual Thunder fans. From the outside, I'd guess that trading James Harden is seen as the biggest mistake, but you guys might have a different read on it than I do. Was that the biggest one? What other moves do you see as mistakes? Do you guys think trading Reggie Jackson was the right move? Getting rid of Jeff Green? Is there something else ?

[bondom34]

I'm pretty good with Harden. Honestly the Waiters trade kills me.

Jeff Green is a bad player. Jackson forced his way out. Harden didn't really want to be there IMO and it ended up fine.

The whole Waiters/Lamb thing bugs me most.

[spearsy23]

As much as I love him the biggest mistake was giving Perk that big contract. Without it we'd have Harden and Ibaka plus probably rudy Gobert who we selected Roberson one pick ahead of because we'd already picked Adams earlier. I like Steven better than Gobert but Harden + Gobert is a no brainer.

[bbms]

Drafting Harden over Curry in 2009. Even if Curry didn't went godlike, if he peaked in like in his 2014 form. Curry settled for 11mm APY back when Harden wanted 16mm. OKC did scout Curry heavily. Curry would fit Westbrook better too, specially on his first 3 seasons, coming off the bench.

The Waiters trade was a really bad move.

I don't like the Josh Huestis pick.

Not pulling the trigger for Tyson Chandler in 2009 was a remarkable one. This could mean titles in 2011 and 2012. Seriously.

Westbrook / Maynor
Sefolosha / Harden
Durant / Green
Ibaka / Green
Chandler / Collison

This could be a sensational playoff rotation if we had a competent coach that didn't give 40 MPG to a 6th man at best in Green.

[bondom34]

I really don't understand the Jeff Green love.

[bbms]

I really don't understand the Jeff Green love.

I don't love him. Hated his rebounding, specially. He was misutilized by Brooks who made him a starting PF and a 40 MPG guy when he clearly didn't belong to the starting lineup with Ibaka breaking out. He was good against second units, though. Even on toxic offensive environments like the Grizzlies bench, he was serviceable. He could stretch defenses, was excellent in transitionand a solid perimeter defender and could create some off the dribble.

[bondom34]

I really don't understand the Jeff Green love.

I don't love him. Hated his rebounding, specially. He was misutilized by Brooks who made him a starting PF and a 40 MPG guy when he clearly didn't belong to the starting lineup with Ibaka breaking out. He was good against second units, though. Even on toxic offensive environments like the Grizzlies bench, he was serviceable.

He really wasn't though. The Grizzlies dumped him to the Clippers, and he stunk there too. He's just not very good at anything. He's Perry Jones with a little more talent, which is a barely NBA level player.

[Kizz Fastfists]

The Jeff Green pick. Although that is nitpicking as the thinking at the time was that KD could play SG and SF and Green could play SF and be a stretch 4, but they just didn't end up fitting together. If that pick had been Noah things might have been much different. Trading up for Cole Aldrich instead of just taking Eric Bledsoe, but again that is nitpicking as the team needed a big.

The only move I didn't like at the time and has proven to be a mistake was the trade for Waiters. I can nitpick other moves and all sorts of hindsight stuff like not drafting DeAndre Jordan who went in the 2nd round.

If OKC takes Curry and things play out so he takes the smaller contract OKC does not make the Finals in 2012. Curry only played 23 games that year and his constant injury issues early in his career are why his contract was less than his talent level. If he had been healthy for OKC, like Harden was, then he still would have been the max player. So either OKC has the same salary cap issue or OKC has the injury issues and who knows what happens with KD's RFA if they have a first round exit in 2012 with no Harden or anyone to fill that void.

The only other thing I can come up with as an actual mistake was keeping Brooks. Even after the trip to the Finals it just didn't feel like Brooks was a coach that could adjust and lead the team to a championship. As fans we were lost with replacement options, but the general thought was he just wasn't the guy. It would have been nice if Presti had replaced him sooner. Maybe then they could have handled some of the injury issues over the last few years better.

[bwgood77]

Not pulling the trigger for Tyson Chandler in 2009 was a remarkable one. This could mean titles in 2011 and 2012. Seriously.

As an outsider, when I saw this thread this was the first thing that came to mind.

[Old Man Game]

Cole Aldrich in a draft day trade in which we surrendered the rights to Eric Bledsoe is an underrated blunder.

[slick_watts]

this is obviously the james harden trade. how anyone could suggest otherwise is bananas.

after that, the curious decision making from 2014-15. guaranteeing money to sebastian telfair, signing ish smith with the injury roster exception when we had two PG healthy (including the aforementioned telfair) out of seven healthy players, trading a first round pick for dion waiters, the reggie jackson fiasco and selling him for 2 pennies on the dollar, giving up a 1st for waiters...

[rallydurham]

Yeah okc has really made a litany of mistakes. A few decent decisions and this could have been a dynasty

[bondom34]

Yeah okc has really made a litany of mistakes. A few decent decisions and this could have been a dynasty

Not really, unless you just assume that nobody gets injured ever. With the injuries, they don't win a ring either way. This isn't on any mistakes made.

[rallydurham]

True, the injury bug has hit them hard.

It's possible injuries would have been less threatening if their usage levels had been lower but that's an impossible argument to reconcile.

Regardless, this franchise has made tons of mistakes like the Perkins extension, waiters trade, harden fiasco, green draft pick, fisher minutes (lol), etc

[spearsy23]

Yeah okc has really made a litany of mistakes. A few decent decisions and this could have been a dynasty

Not really, unless you just assume that nobody gets injured ever. With the injuries, they don't win a ring either way. This isn't on any mistakes made.

If Perk hadn't gotten the big contract we could've won last year even without KD with all the other injuries in the playoffs. And it's possible we could've beaten the Spurs even with a hobbled Ibaka a few years ago. There's no way he would've gotten that contract if we waited until free agency, and if he did we may have been better off with any cheaper replacement anyway.

[bondom34]

Yeah okc has really made a litany of mistakes. A few decent decisions and this could have been a dynasty

Not really, unless you just assume that nobody gets injured ever. With the injuries, they don't win a ring either way. This isn't on any mistakes made.

If Perk hadn't gotten the big contract we could've won last year even without KD with all the other injuries in the playoffs. And it's possible we could've beaten the Spurs even with a hobbled Ibaka a few years ago. There's no way he would've gotten that contract if we waited until free agency, and if he did we may have been better off with any cheaper replacement anyway.

Problem is that when he got that contract, everyone loved it. Yeah in retrospect it was a mistake, but not really at the time.

[rallydurham]

Perkins was coming off a devastating injury in Boston when they traded him. It was a bad trade and a terrible extension at the time. Fans and media may have praised it at the time but only if they weren't paying attention .

Boston was dumping him because they had no intention of extending him. He lost too much mobility and quickness. He was a solid player prior to the injury but he was a waste of space after it.

Guy couldn't even set legal screens anymore

[bondom34]

Perkins was coming off a devastating injury in Boston when they traded him. It was a bad trade and a terrible extension at the time. Fans and media may have praised it at the time but only if they weren't paying attention .

Boston was dumping him because they had no intention of extending him. He lost too much mobility and quickness. He was a solid player prior to the injury but he was a waste of space after it.

Guy couldn't even set legal screens anymore

He never set legal screens lol.

And he brought this team an actual defensive identity, he was fine his first year.

[spearsy23]

Not really, unless you just assume that nobody gets injured ever. With the injuries, they don't win a ring either way. This isn't on any mistakes made.

If Perk hadn't gotten the big contract we could've won last year even without KD with all the other injuries in the playoffs. And it's possible we could've beaten the Spurs even with a hobbled Ibaka a few years ago. There's no way he would've gotten that contract if we waited until free agency, and if he did we may have been better off with any cheaper replacement anyway.

Problem is that when he got that contract, everyone loved it. Yeah in retrospect it was a mistake, but not really at the time.

Nah, nobody loved the contract at the time. He hadn't even suited up for us yet and Boston had been offering him around 5.5 million per year. It wasn't viewed as the colossal mistake it ended up being, but it was already a slight overpay. Fwiw here's the DT's take on it

The $35 million is probably more than Perkins’ was going to find in the open market this summer, especially with the uncertainty of the new CBA. But that’s not a massive price tag for the Thunder to pay to their starting center for the next five years.

It was a minor mistake that ended up costing the franchise an MVP caliber player. But the real point is that even if you only view it as a small mistake it's still one that probably kept us from having at least a championship by now. And I don't buy that you can't use hindsight to judge a move. Ultimately we judge gm's on what they accomplish, otherwise the only moves you can ever criticize are the absolute dumbest Billy king moves.

[bondom34]

If Perk hadn't gotten the big contract we could've won last year even without KD with all the other injuries in the playoffs. And it's possible we could've beaten the Spurs even with a hobbled Ibaka a few years ago. There's no way he would've gotten that contract if we waited until free agency, and if he did we may have been better off with any cheaper replacement anyway.

Problem is that when he got that contract, everyone loved it. Yeah in retrospect it was a mistake, but not really at the time.

Nah, nobody loved the contract at the time. He hadn't even suited up for us yet and Boston had been offering him around 5.5 million per year. It wasn't viewed as the colossal mistake it ended up being, but it was already a slight overpay. Fwiw here's the DT's take on it

The $35 million is probably more than Perkins’ was going to find in the open market this summer, especially with the uncertainty of the new CBA. But that’s not a massive price tag for the Thunder to pay to their starting center for the next five years.

It was a minor mistake that ended up costing the franchise an MVP caliber player. But the real point is that even if you only view it as a small mistake it's still one that probably kept us from having at least a championship by now. And I don't buy that you can't use hindsight to judge a move. Ultimately we judge gm's on what they accomplish, otherwise the only moves you can ever criticize are the absolute dumbest Billy king moves.

Darn it, I'm just ready to leave work, but Id really recommend looking back on this board when perk was extended. The contract was really really loved. I found the thread a few weeks back and can't right at the moment. Pretty sure slick created it back then. It was certainly a loved deal at the time.

Edit:

viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1142974

Found it.