preface:
The Thunder, which had been active in the fans' sights in previous seasons, seemed to have disappeared all of a sudden in the past two seasons. Indeed, nowadays, fans rarely see the news of the Thunder on the Internet, and the "disappearance" of the Thunder is actually mainly because they are experiencing a long road of reconstruction, and without stars and no points to watch, the media will naturally not report too much news about the Thunder.
In the face of four consecutive seasons of playoff round trip record, the Thunder management finally can't stand it, began to make up their minds to rot, so far the Thunder have not entered the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, in today's turbulent NBA, the Thunder team muffled and made a fortune, muddy waters, through the pendulum and trade, the Thunder now have 18 first-round draft picks in the next seven years. If the Thunder management can operate well and the coaching staff can cultivate players well, it can be said that the Thunder are very likely to become a strong team in the league in the future.
Thunder's poignant history
Speaking of the glorious history of the Thunder team, the first thing fans think of is the "Thunder Three Young" of that year, when Wei Shao was not the strongest "Mr. Three Doubles" in the league, Durant has not yet evolved into the "God of Death" Harden has not yet grown a beard to become a top superstar, but the three young people together but burst out of huge energy. Just as the so-called newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, the "Thunder Three Young" at that time was not afraid of any strong team, in 2011, the Thunder team rushed all the way to the finals in the playoffs, although in the end 4-1 lost to the Heat to miss the championship, but fans began to look forward to the future of the Thunder. As a result, due to differences at the end of the season, Harden and management parted ways, so the "Thunder Three" became the "Thunder Twins".
In 2014, in the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors, the Thunder were overturned 3-1, which was the loss, and the situation of the Thunder changed dramatically. At the end of the season, Durant joined the Warriors who beat them in the playoffs, and his relationship with Westbrook broke down. Later, the Thunder team became a single-core team with Wei Shao as the core, Wei Shao did not live up to the expectations of the public, played a phenomenon-level performance, played three consecutive seasons of average triple-double data, becoming a veritable triple-double king of the league, but the Thunder's record was the opposite of Wei Shao's performance, although it entered the playoffs for three consecutive seasons, but the record was a round trip, and Wei Shao also carried the black pot of "brushing data".
The Thunder introduced Paul George, the Thunder returned to the "Twin Star" era, the regular season stage of the Thunder once hit the third position in the West, but the "Thunder Twin Star" who was pinned on high hopes was beaten by the Trail Blazers led by Lillard in the playoffs, and the scene where Lillard scored a killer goal against George's defense is still vividly remembered.
Three consecutive seasons of playoff round trip, the Thunder are full of trading flavor, after all, the Thunder team has the highest salary in the league, and with the thunder team's book strength, the Thunder team is not a playoff one-round tour team in any case, the clear-eyed people understand that relying on the Westbrook Thunder team is not able to achieve good results, although Westbrook is an all-star level star, but the way of playing around Westbrook has become obsolete, and finally the Thunder management has a heart, traded Westbrook and George, although signing Chris Paul, But the idea of the Thunder rebuilding is already well known, and as a result, Paul played extraordinary and led the Thunder into the playoffs, but it was still a round trip. Later, Paul was traded, and at this point, the Thunder were completely on the road to rebuilding.
The rebuilding form is very good
Last season, the Thunder team was fully rotten, but the Thunder team still had some foundation, and finally only achieved the fifth-to-last result in the league, only drew the No. 6 draw, no way, the strength does not allow the Thunder to become the penultimate first, so far this season the Thunder team is still in the swing, in fact, the Thunder team still has some strength, many times to make the hard to win the game, the Thunder team is not willing to win, the Thunder team has so far achieved a record of 14 wins and 27 losses, ranking second to the bottom in the West, and there is a Rocket team in the thunder team to compete for the first sign.
In addition, the Thunder have exchanged 18 first-round draft picks for the next seven years through trades with teams such as the Celtics and Wizards, and it can be said that the Thunder's talent reserve in the next few years is completely worry-free. And as far as the Thunder's existing young players are concerned, the Thunder are also looking forward to the future. First of all, Alexander, Gidy and Dolt are the defensive line combination that the Thunder will adopt in the next decade, and alexander has averaged 22.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game so far this season, and there is no doubt that he will be the focus of the Thunder's training. In addition, Dort averaged 16.5 points per game and Gidy averaged 11.5 points per game, the combination of these three people can still be expected, and may be comparable to the popular "Thunder Three Less" combination of that year.
Obviously, in addition to the three players on the guard line, other players are not within the Thunder's planning, but the Thunder team's weak front and interior line do not need to worry too much, after all, they have a lot of draft picks, the Thunder team can completely select a few potential young players, even if not, the Thunder can also use the draft pick as a chip to trade with other teams, in exchange for an all-star interior line. In short, whether from the perspective of the existing lineup or from the perspective of the future, fans can vaguely see the shadow of the strong team from the Thunder.
summary:
Rebuilding is a long and risky road, and today's Thunder can't be achieved overnight. Although the Thunder team will remain tepid in a short period of time, it is undeniable that the Thunder team now has the foundation to become a strong team, and then it is necessary to see how the management of the Thunder team will operate to strengthen the team, and the management will not make the low-level mistake of letting harden go at that time, and also hope that the thunder coaching staff can fully tap the potential of the players, and the Thunder team with many favorable factors will be able to become a strong team in the future.