OKC Might Have the Worst Bench in the League

[Flash31]

Too late. In the past year OKC have demonstrated that money is more important than success. While Perkins is still under contract and the FO isn't willing to hit any luxury tax bills, this team cannot make any moves or winning a championship. 2 more years wasted of the Durant/Westbrook years while they're close to their prime. This is going to go down as one of the worst co[COLOR="Black"]c[/COLOR]k ups in NBA history. This team could have been special.

They basically did what their rivals the grizz did
lost their 3rd best star,Harden-Gay
replaced them with a role player,played better but ultimately it cost them
no playmaker for Okc,no ability to create own sgot,space floor for mem

then they both lose their other contributors Martin,Mayo

They change their strategy to focusing on 2 stars and company
Durant-Westbrook with Ibaka
and
ZBO-Gasol with Conley

they both have each others weaknesses now
Okc-no post,rim,inside game
Mem-no perimeter shooting,spacing the floor


Champagne on beer budgets,
not all teams can be the spurs,they run as a team
okc-mem became a two man team

[Horde of Temujin]

Replace Collison with Perk in thr starting lineup and then it will certainly be the worst bench.

[Flash31]

Johnson and Hill will probably start. Young might get some starts too, considering he's only backing up Meeks.

Nick Young is starting

Nash
Kobe(whenever he returns)Meeks
Young
Gasol
Kaman

farmar,sacre,hill

Their frontcourt depth is lacking
and their backcourt has virtually 0 defense and neither does their starting front

The Lakers have an all o coach and an all o team

gasol,kaman is a horrible defensive frontcourt
nash,kobe is one of the slowest,least defensive backcourts
not to mention young or meeks

Theyre like the opposite of mem
all o 0 d

And with Kobe coming off an achilles tear
speed and defense and dantoni system

No DEFENSE

[Twiens]

Nick Young is starting

Nash
Kobe(whenever he returns)Meeks
Young
Gasol
Kaman

farmar,sacre,hill

Their frontcourt depth is lacking
and their backcourt has virtually 0 defense and neither does their starting front

The Lakers have an all o coach and an all o team

gasol,kaman is a horrible defensive frontcourt
nash,kobe is one of the slowest,least defensive backcourts
not to mention young or meeks

Theyre like the opposite of mem
all o 0 d

And with Kobe coming off an achilles tear
speed and defense and dantoni system

No DEFENSE

I think it's gonna be:

Gasol/Hill/Young/Kobe/Nash

with Kaman/Johnson/Farmar/Blake though I'd prefer Wes Johnson at SF and Young as our bench scorer.

[chips93]

Too late. In the past year OKC have demonstrated that money is more important than success. While Perkins is still under contract and the FO isn't willing to hit any luxury tax bills, this team cannot make any moves or winning a championship. 2 more years wasted of the Durant/Westbrook years while they're close to their prime. This is going to go down as one of the worst co[COLOR="Black"]c[/COLOR]k ups in NBA history. This team could have been special.

i wouldnt be so down on the thunder

they have the 2nd best player in the league locked up for 3 more years, and a top 10 player in westbrook locked up for 4 more years.

they are guaranteed to be at least a good playoff team for the next 3 years, how many teams can you say that about?



they just need one or two of PJIII, lamb, orton, or adams to become a solid player, or good trade asset, and they should be right back as strong contenders.

if i could bet money on okc winning a title in the next 5 years, i would

[Flash31]

I think it's gonna be:

Gasol/Hill/Young/Kobe/Nash

with Kaman/Johnson/Farmar/Blake though I'd prefer Wes Johnson at SF and Young as our bench scorer.

either way their d is practically nonexistent

Kobe played d sometimes,usually only against stars,and now coming off from achilles surgery hell be even slower and even less inclined to play d,
hes been focusing more and more on the offensive side and less and less on the defensive side as the years go by

and on top of that Nash and Gasol got even slower and older,


The players are perfect for Mike Dantoni in that theyre all about offense but at the same time
with a coach that only emphasizes o,is horribble at d,and you have Kobe taking plays off

Their defense is going to be one of the worst in the league

[flipogb]

I wouldn't list a starting PF for the Lakers just yet, they are still looking at the FA market, so Hill and Kaman could both be backups and Gasol will start at C

[oh the horror]

Thunder keep fu*king around and one of their big two is going to walk.

[PickernRoller]

Two players that are young, soon to enter their prime who can average 25/25 together easily. How many teams in the league have that kind of star power?

Compared to super stacked neighbors, and summer BFF Lebron yeah OKC isn't as stacked.

[fozi]

I'm just wondering what would've happened if OKC kept Harden.

If things arent getting better i expect Westbrook and Durant requesting a trade ..


Hopefully they stay in the west though, but its still too early to say ..

[Duderonomy]

We'll still win 55-60 games because Durant and Westbrook are so good, and we'll just overwhelm all the bad teams like we did last year. But every other contender in the West improved. I'm predicting 55-27, 4th or 5th in the West, and a 2nd round exit...at best.

Our front office is wasting another year of Durant and Westbrook's prime. Sat on their hands because they're too f***ing cheap and don't want to pay the luxury tax. I've blindly been trying to defend them all summer but, unless they go out and get someone else that I'm not thinking of, I've had it. We're too short on shooters and our second most talented bench player is virtually a rookie who's going to go through a lot of ups-and-downs this year like most rookies.

[Nastradamus]

Terrible bench for sure. Plenty of solid players, but all of them are 8th man types (Collison,Jackson,Sefalosha), unproven(Jones,Lamb,Adams) or just not that good at all(Fisher,Thabeet).

They have no 6th man, period. They've averaged 8 win shares from their 6th man over the last couple years and they've now completely lost that with no replacement whatsoever.