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Oklahoma City Thunder need a strike of inspiration

Russell Westbrook, the former MVP. (Wikipedia Commons)
Roar Guru
31st July, 2014
13

Now that the NBA Draft and free agency are drawing to a close, rosters for the next season are being finalised. This is not good news for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Apart from the addition and subtraction of a few role players and draft picks, the Thunder will essentially retain the same team as the previous year.

With the Western Conference competition getting much stiffer and OKC not having made the Finals since the 2011/12 season – in which they were destroyed 4-1 by Miami – they need to be improving to keep up with the competition, especially with Kevin Durant’s impending free agency in 2016.

The easiest way to shake up a team is a change in coach. Scott Brooks, despite winning Coach of the Year in 2012, has had the team on a stale and repetitive track for most of his Oklahoma City tenure (beginning 2008).

He has taken criticism in the past for standing back on the sidelines, while Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook go to work, and at championship level, more coaching is needed.

While he is no doubt a good coach, the longer OKC persist with Brooks at the helm, the less likely they will be to win a championship.

And the less likely they will be to retain Kevin Durant in 2016.

If this off-season has shown us anything, it’s that anything is possible. Not even a finals berth is enough for the best players in the league. This should be a big wake-up call to Oklahoma City.

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The less-travelled and much riskier path to stay within championship relevancy is a roster shake-up, a route which OKC are rather familiar with.

A few off-seasons ago, Oklahoma City traded away their third banana James Harden to Houston after failing to agree on a contract extension. Needless to say it was a major setback for OKC as they were destroyed in the second round 4-1 by the Memphis Grizzlies.

After failing to capture their major off-season target Pau Gasol, General Manager Sam Presti will be hesitant to again trade one of his superstars, but I implore he look into what he could get for some of his better players, including Russell Westbrook.

Oklahoma City’s need for a proper floor general point guard has been well documented, and while Reggie Jackson remedies that problem, he does not completely solve it.

Jackson is coming off his best season and if Presti could swing a trade involving him and some of OKC’s other young talent for an established floor general, there should be no hesitation.

If all else fails, Presti should at the very least explore what he could get for Russell Westbrook. A realistic best-case scenario for Oklahoma City would be a downgrade at the point and an upgrade at centre plus some change.

Another possibility Presti could explore would be the oft-mentioned Westbrook for Rajon Rondo trade. OKC get a fantastic all-round point guard with championship experience who is one of the best distributors in the league, something Westbrook is far from.

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Boston do not lose here either. Rondo’s future in Bean Town has long been uncertain with multiple reports stating that Rondo is keen to leave and Ainge is keen to let him do so. This trade not only allows Rondo to start anew on a championship contender, but Boston arguably also get the better player out of this trade. Seeing Westbrook run his own team similar to Harden’s Houston would also be an intruiging prospect.

Hypotheticals can be discussed all day, but there is no doubting that the Oklahoma City Thunder need a strike of inspiration. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are tired of playing the bridesmaid to the San Antonios and Miamis of the league, and the only way that will change is if the front office dares to be brave and acts now rather than later, when it could be too late.

The clock to free-agency 2016 is ticking.

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