[MettaWorldDurant1Participant]

 

 

I really love the addition of Victor Oladipo in that trade of Serge Ibaka. I feel like for some reason many of the players on the team we’re not playing to their strengths mainly Kd And Ibaka. The backcourt of Russell Westbrook and Victor Oladipo is pretty potent, when I actually look at this team I can tell that Victor Oladipo and  Steven Adams have pretty good chances at having  breakout seasons. Many fans analyst have this team ranked 7th 8th seed struggling to make the playoffs but I think this team is a huge sleeper for a top-three 4 seed  barring any major injuries to Steven Adams ,Victor Oladipo or Russell Westbrook of course. That’s a bold prediction BUT Kevin Durant is just one player who underperformed and bolted to chase championships with the team that eliminated them! I’m trying to judge this OKC team as a whole. Looking at what Damian Lillard did with his team last year I think they made some improvements but I think OKC is still far superior and will hit a stride with Russell driving the Bus. If they can find a nice veteran small forward peace maybe to even come off the bench I think we should really watch out for this team. What would qualify Westbrook for MVP in your mind right now A top-three for seed? what what should his stat line look like?

 

[Meditated StatesParticipant]

 Never got to play his game cause of Russell. He is playing his game now.

[Meditated StatesParticipant]

 Never got to play his game cause of Russell. He is playing his game now.

[Kokayne_DawkinzParticipant]

 I’m gonna to go ahead and just neg you twice.

[Kokayne_DawkinzParticipant]

 I’m gonna to go ahead and just neg you twice.^^^

[Kokayne_DawkinzParticipant]

 Dammit 

[Meditated StatesParticipant]

 Type player who has handle too. Allen had handle back in the day too. He was always in Isola or just a spot up shooter. Not coming off of screens or getting in on the brake. Russ goes to the rack on the brake. I like Westbrook but be serious. His style kills KD style. If you watch basketball as xoxo and not a fan boy you could judge and assess this. Obviously only a few really can do that. Durant has career year barring injury. He comes off of screens and fires and gets it in transition most of the year. Watch.

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

 So far this is what I have seen.

The offense will be alright post K.D. As Adams,Kanter,Russ and every other night we will have a fourth or fifth double point scorer. Most likely Dipo or Abrines

Our defense and bench offense outside of Kanter is an issue…

The Defense outside of our starting 5 is really bad like hands down man down bad and this needs to be sorted ASAP(Kanter has improved a little though)

A realistic range for us this season is 6-10 spot this season The reason I say this is because so many other teams have also improved :Jazz have all there team back + Have Exum back from injury,They pick up boris diaw and Joe johnson for reasonable prices(They were just outside the playoffs). The T-wolves are on the rise with Thibs and Towns at the helm(We have all seen what Thibs can do). The Suns(talent) or Nuggets(depth and talent) could surprise people this season.

So this makes the playoff picture look a little like this: 
1.GSW(Sadly)

2.Spurs

3.Clippers

4.Portland

5.Houston- They will score alot this season..It only depends on health with this team(pat bev,Nene,Eg,Anderson)

6.Memphis will be either 6 or 7th seed

7.

8.

9.

10.

With 6 -10 being either one of the following: T-wolves, one of the Suns/Nuggets,OKC and Jazz

However I guess the biggest things for all teams is the dreaded Injury word as one injury to the wrong player and your season can sprial pretty quickly..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SubZeroParticipant]

I’d slot Dallas over Memphis. I don’t think Dallas will ever miss the playoffs as long as Dirk and Carlisle are there

[Andv1 WaitingParticipant]

Most preseason rankings have Memphis anywhere from 2-5 seed due to their depth and Continuity..The only real variable is the coach which can either go Brian Shaw bad or Billy Donovan/Steve Kerr good…

The Mavs will have a good team but their depth and the amount of injury risks on this team are to high..

D-will seems on his last legs and always injured,Bogut is usually pretty injury prone,Wes matthews the achilles injury is always a concern and this is without mentioning Dirks aging body..Then Barnes is also an unknown as a second option..Carlise is a solid coach though with all the bits and piece he gets given.

So I kind of seeing Dallas as 8(at best)-12 spot..

Just to show the bottom 4 teams again: Jazz way more depth than Dallas,T-wolves more depth and same level if not better coach,OKC(Russ is all I will say),Memphis greater depth(I see them lower than top 5 due to new coach),Suns are on the same level as Dallas but young and have a similar back court to when they just about made it.Heck even the Nuggets have better team depth than Mavs it all depends on Malone making them fit..

Teams I see Dallas beating in the standings:

Kings,Lakers,Suns(Maybe might still be to young),New orleans and maybe Denver/Portland(if they don’t put it together so that has the Mavs about 9/11th overall out West..

The ones that may fall out of the Playoff hunt though which could see Dallas slip in at 8:If injuries pile up: Houston, Clippers and unfortunately OKC.. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SubZeroParticipant]

^I’m also an OKC fan and I agree with most of that. Our bench will be an issue, especially until Payne comes back. I’m not worried about our starting 5 because it’s actually one of the best in the league in my opinion, I’m just worried the end of the 3rd/beginning of the 4th quarters will kill us and force us to come back often

[NBAjunkie81Participant]

 way around that. 

Durant is a great scorer but he’s not a guy who can ever be that Alpha Male #1 option. It’s gonna hurt OKC for awhile but I like the moves they made & building around Westbrook was the right way to go.

I think Durant made the best move for himself too b/c at Golden State he can blend in & be part of a Great team minus the pressure of being "the go-to-guy"

I luv how OKC is constructed. They have a Huge front court w/ Kanter & Adams & the Rookie Sabonis they got along w/ Oladipo for Ibaka….. & speaking of Oladipo – is there a more Freak athletic, dynamic back court anywhere in the NBA???

People will say yea but they can’t win a Title now – that’s true but they were Never winning a Title with KD as their #1 star. I LUV that OKC is basically the first team in the Golden State era who put their foot down & said we’re Not going to try to be a Lite version of Golden State & think we can win a 3point shooting contest w/ the Warriors…… 

We’re going to go Big & Athletic & we are going to Pound them & everyone else & see if you have the Legs to shoot 25′ – 3-point shots in the 4th qtr after we Force you to defend our size & athleticism all game long in a 7 game series. Maybe not this year, but OKC will be more of a factor than people realize in the coming years

 

 

 

 

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