As with life, things change. As with the Oklahoma City Thunder, things also change, especially when you are dealing with a rebuild of the team, which is currently happening with the team on Reno Street.
That rebuild continues today as I awake from nice dream this morning and find that my most favorite personality on the Thunder is in the middle of a four team trade that will send Steven Adams to the New Orleans Pelicans. (You can read the particulars on the net if you wish).
With that, the seven year veteran Steven Adams will take his nine points and seven boards (career stats) to the Big Easy and hope to lead them to an NBA title in the next few years. The Thunder will use the following our or five years to reboot in their quest to getting an NBA championship sometime in the middle 2020’s.
OKC GM Sam Presti understands the nature of the game and thanks to him that he has finally abandoned the Utah Jazz mind-set to always having a team that pursues a playoff spot and actually not a NBA title. OKC has been a conventional winning team here in OKC, but for just a couple of seasons has the Thunder been a not just a solid playoff team but one that had a great chance to win the whole thing.
Yes, it is nice to enter the Chesapeake knowing that you had a great chance to win night after night, but to know that you have a team capable of winning it all is much the better feeling. Kevin Durant, when you abandoned the Thunder you actually put the team in the position of being good but not great. That is another story that I will not address now.
Hopefully in a few years Presti will have the Thunder in the Western Finals and staring down a Larry O’Brien trophy in OKC. That journey has begun again and for me, it is going to be exciting, day to day, wins and losses, trades and dealings included.
OKC will always love big Steve and will wish him well. Same with Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder, and all the other players that are gone from the 2019 team. That group will always be remembered for their work in this city.
Thunder up OKC!
(photo: AP)
