Kevin Durant And Russell Westbrook: Gift And Curse Of OKC

Unlike most teams that try and buy their way to the top via free agency, the Oklahoma City Thunder took their time and opted to build their team via the NBA Draft. Why? They simply couldn’t afford it.

Unlike the Los Angeles or New York based teams, OKC is one of the smaller market teams in the NBA. The club is located in America’s 42^nd ranked city when it comes to the population in the metropolitan area, which is 28^th in the NBA – trailed only by New Orleans and Salt Lake City. The same can be said for the equally important TV markets as Oklahoma City ranks 41st in American TV markets and 28th in the NBA (per Barry Trammel of The Oklahoman).

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As such, general manager Sam Presti has been tippy-toeing around the increasingly punitive luxury cap for years, resorting to building through the draft and nurture young talent from within the franchise, as opposed to shelling out the big bucks in order to poach superstars from elsewhere. And in 2007 — as well as a few years after that — he struck gold.

With the second overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, the then Seattle Supersonics lunged at the opportunity to take Kevin Durant after the Portland Trail Blazers passed on him for Greg Oden. Then in 2008, OKC nabbed Russell Westbrook with the fourth overall pick, (in addition, Serge Ibaka at 24 and James Harden in 2009.)

Fast forward to the present day Durant is, at worst, the second-best player in the game and has a Most Valuable Player award to his name. Meanwhile, Westbrook has established himself as one of the best point guards in the NBA. That partnership has done a great many things to fill the pockets of owner, Clayton Bennett.

After a four-year drought, the team made it to the Playoffs in 2009-10 — Durant’s third year and Westbrook’s sophomore year- after clawing their way into the eighth spot with a 50-win regular season in the brutal Western Conference — but they were knocked out by the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.

That particular venture, albeit ending up in a first round exit, helped the team net an extra $29 million in revenue. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Since then, the Thunder have recently turned in a revenue just north of the $150 million mark, according to Forbes. That’s almost double the $81 million the team generated in 2006, before Durant was drafted. Not too shabby, eh?

Furthermore, this partnership has also been fruitful for the fans.

With that kind of talent at the helm, you would expect the Oklahoma City Thunder to be perennial contenders on a yearly basis – which they are. Unfortunately, that’s all they have been: contenders, not champions.

For years now Durant and Westbrook have propelled Oklahoma City to new heights and led the team deep into the postseason – only to crash and burn when it really matters.

After the experience gained in 2009-10, OKC claimed the fourth seed in 2010-11 and the duo went on to lead the team to a deep run in the playoffs, until the Dallas Mavericks — eventual champions that season — halted their run at the Conference Finals stage. Durant and Westbrook would get their revenge, though, sweeping the Mavericks in the opening round of the 2012 Playoffs and making it all the way to the Finals.

It was the pair’s first time in the championship round and while they managed to keep pace with LeBron James and the Miami Heat, the rest of the team simply couldn’t.

Durant averaged 30 points and six rebounds, while Westbrook poured in 27 points, dished out 6.6 assists and hauled in 6.4 rebounds, but they’re about the only players that produced anything for the Thunder that series. James Harden — fresh of a Sixth-man of the Year winning regular season in which he averaged nearly 17 points a game — was restricted to just 12.

Since then, OKC haven’t been to the Finals. In fact, despite the meteoric rise of their superstars, a case could be made that they have actually regressed – yet expectations are still sky-high because of Durant and Westbrook.

And expectations bring pressure.

For the past two seasons the Thunder have crashed out at the Western Conference semi-finals and Finals, respectively, and Scott Brooks’ job security has increasingly come under scrutiny. Just last postseason, there were rumors that the front office was considering a change at the head coaching position because the team seems to be reeling, and one of the major talking points was Brooks’ creativity — or lack thereof — as well as his heavy reliance on his superstars on the offensive end.

Time and time again, it seems OKC have resorted to running isolations plays for KD and Russ as opposed to actually running set plays that utilize, not only their skills, but the whole team’s. As a result, the team became predictable and elite defensive teams have been able to have their with them – or given them a lot of trouble.

Then again, to be fair, injuries have been a key reason for the struggles. In 2013, Russell Westbrook got injured and Kevin Durant essentially had to carry had to carry the team the rest of the way. As for last year, Ibaka had to power through was said to be a serious calf injury.

Still, this is clearly a team that is too good to have made only one trip to the Finals in the these past few years, and the recent struggles don’t help matters either with OKC still on the outside looking into the Playoffs picture.

That is why Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are a gift and a curse to the Oklahoma City Thunder: their talent has given a small market team hopes of a championship. But until they actually do win, those hopes and expectations will only fester and turn into frustration. And not just for the fans, but for the players as well.

Kevin Durant is a free agent in the summer of 2016 and rumor has it his preferred suitors include: his home-town Washington Wizards, the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. All of the teams mentioned there are in major markets and you could argue the only way Oklahoma City Thunder can compete with that, is by winning a championship.

Next: NBA: 50 Greatest Players Of All Time

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Kevin Durant And Russell Westbrook: The Gift And Curse Of OKC

By Sipho Mangoye | Feb 2, 2015

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