What to Expect from the 2016–17 Thunder

This article originally appeared on The Sports Whorl website on Saturday, August 6, 2016.

This summer will be known as the summer of Kevin Durant’s free agency. Much in the same way LeBron James’ free agency from July 2010 is still remembered, or also known as The Decision. No, Kevin Durant didn’t take to America’s T.V. sets to announce his decision to leave his team, he wrote a thoughtful letter on The Players’ Tribune and, therefore, won’t receive nearly as much scrutiny as LeBron once did. However, this is easily the most impactful free-agent decision since LeBron left his hometown team to join the Miami Heat. Kevin Durant’s decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and join Stephen Curry and the Warriors was felt around the league immediately. It made an already dominant team in the Warriors even larger favorites to win this upcoming NBA championship. It also left the Western Conference finals’ runner-up team — with some major questions.

One thing is clear with the Oklahoma City Thunder after the departure of Kevin Durant: This is now Russell Westbrook’s team. For the past eight seasons, the Thunder have had both K.D. and Russ on their roster, and both have developed into these magnetic, offensive tycoons who somehow coexisted without much ruckus. It has been unclear over the years if the team truly belonged to Durant or Westbrook, although a majority would agree that it was Durant’s team. In his time with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Durant was a four-time NBA scoring champion, seven-time NBA All-Star, and MVP of the NBA in the 2014 season. However, with Durant’s departure this is undoubtedly Russell Westbrook’s team now. Sam Presti, the Thunder’s longtime general manager, has taken matters into his own hands this offseason after watching one of his star players go. Recently, Presti and the Thunder agreed to sign Russell Westbrook, who would be a free agent at the end of this upcoming season, to a new contract that keeps him on the team until the end of the 2018 season.

We have seen Westbrook play without Kevin Durant for an extended period of time in the past. Two seasons ago, Kevin Durant played in merely 27 games out of the 82. During his absence, the team was run by the remaining star on the court, Westbrook, who found great personal success in the process. That year, Westbrook finished the season with 11 triple-doubles, and fourth in the MVP race.

This chart shows a player who is more than equipped to take the reigns of a NBA franchise, and become the team’s number one option. If Westbrook can maintain numbers like these — averaging nearly a triple-double every game while scoring close to thirty points per game — then the Thunder and Sam Presti will be thrilled to have kept the beast they have in Russell Westbrook.

This process of going from KD-and-Russ to just Russ has been turbulent, though. Westbrook, ever the fierce competitor, isn’t always open to talking about Durant’s departure from the team, and history tells us to believe that Westbrook will enter this season with a massive chip on his shoulder. Westbrook performing at a higher rate than he did in 2015, without Kevin Durant on the floor for long stretches of the season, is a scary thought for other Western Conference teams.

Of course, Westbrook won’t be the only player of importance taking the court for the Thunder this season.

On June 23, Sam Presti made a bold trade that was received with uncertainty, widespread criticism, and general disbelief by the NBA community. The trade involved a pillar of the Thunder’s Big Three in Serge Ibaka, who was also the team’s defensive anchor. In the trade, the Thunder added a young Domantas Sabonis, drafted 11th overall this summer. But the big pickup for the Thunder was at shooting guard, a position that’s been hellish for them to adequately fill ever since James Harden departed. The Orlando Magic just somehow gave up Victor Oladipo in the Ibaka trade and now OKC has a shooting guard for the future in the 24-year-old.

But before we focus on Oladipo’s many talents, let’s get one thing out of the way: There is no doubt that Serge Ibaka will be missed dearly by the Thunder faithful, especially on the defensive end.

Ibaka was able to hold opposing teams to 52.2% around the rim, almost 8% lower than the league average. He did that by blocking 148 shots this past season,2 earning the well-deserved Serge “Iblocka” nickname.

The Thunder will no doubt miss his effectiveness, the young Domantas Sabonis is expected to help fill some of the void left from Ibaka’s departure, however. The rookie played two years at Gonzaga before entering the draft. He averaged 13.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game during his tenure at Gonzaga. The Thunder, in the past season’s NBA playoffs, seemed to find a good-fitting power forward and center combo with Steven Adams and Enes Kanter that didn’t always involve Serge Ibaka. Sure, that Kanter-Adams combo gave up points out of the wazoo, but their offensive acumen kept the Thunder rolling.

With height being one of the Warriors’ weaknesses, since they love to field the small-ball “Death” lineup, the Thunder can now throw out their two 7-footers on the court at the same time. And this idea seemed to work in last season’s Western Conference finals, at least at first. The Thunder held a 3–1 lead against the Warriors, and both Adams and Kanter were playing out of their minds…until they lost the three final games in a row to the Warriors. Then, Ibaka was traded. Finally, Kevin Durant sprang to the Warriors. And the Thunder’s tailspin dive into oblivion only ended this past week when Russell Westbrook committed his future with the Thunder.

For this upcoming season, as Billy Donovan begins to plan out the minutes, the lineups, and the tactics, he will probably end up going with a Kanter-Adams frontcourt and a Westbrook-Oladipo backcourt. The only hole will be at small forward, which could be filled by moving the 6’7” Andre Roberson from the two to the three.

Oladipo should remain at the two and alongside Westbrook because he is known throughout the league for his perimeter defense and athleticism. Oladipo is also on the verge of having a breakout year, and rolling with Westbrook could provide the spark that ignites Oladipo’s potential. A creative combination of rim attackers, like Westbrook and Oladipo, could work wonders for the Thunder. In the first season without Kevin Durant, Sam Presti made a risky offseason trade on draft night to acquire Oladipo. Now, it seems like the risk may have paid off. With Durant’s departure, the Thunder would have been lacking in perimeter players, had the Ibaka trade not been so fruitful.

Despite the loss of Kevin Durant, there is still reason for optimism with this upcoming season. By locking down Russell Westbrook for the foreseeable future, Sam Presti made certain that the Thunder would have a top player in the league suiting up for them every night. Another reason Thunder fans have to be excited about the upcoming season is their young coach, Billy Donovan, who finally figured out NBA coaching last year in the midst of a playoffs series against the Gregg Popovich-led San Antonio Spurs. Donovan is not new to winning big games in the spotlight, in fact, he took his former team, the Florida Gators, to back-to-back NCAA championships in 2006 and 2007. Now it’s time for Donovan to innovate once more and take a different, varied Thunder roster to the promised land.