Oklahoma City Thunder: Title Window Closing?
It takes star players to win a championship. It takes an intelligent front office capable of making game-changing moves in the draft and free agency. But most of all, it takes a little luck.
For the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kevin Durant‘s latest foot procedure marks yet another unlucky roadblock on what once seemed like a clear path to an eventual championship.
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In 2012, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden led the Thunder to the NBA Finals. After falling down 2-0 to the San Antonio Spurs, they steamrolled the former champions in four straight games and despite a lack of experience, they were playing the best basketball in the league heading into the championship series.
Things didn’t go as planned in the Finals; Harden disappeared, Mike Miller was an honest-to-God X-factor and the Thunder lost to the Miami Heat in five games.
But until the Game 5 blowout, every loss was by six points or less, and as the world watched Durant, Westbrook and Harden stand arm-in-arm with the clock winding down on their title hopes, it felt like the defeat was just the fuel they needed to launch one of the NBA’s great modern dynasties.
Nearly three years later, Harden has become an MVP frontrunner with the Houston Rockets, each member of the Thunder’s Big Three has missed significant time due to injury at least once and OKC still hasn’t been back to the Finals.
With Durant sidelined for the next four to six months due to the bone graft he requires in his foot, they won’t be returning this season either. It’s too soon to assume the worst, but none of this bodes well for correcting the ever-increasing concern that this team’s title window is rapidly closing.
Could the Thunder become the greatest NBA team to never win a title? For the first time, it’s reasonable to wonder.
Next: Durant's Injury