OKC Thunder: 2015-16 Roundtable Discussion

8. Have we seen the ceiling for this team or do they have the potential to improve?

Eberley: They have two top 10 players at age 27, despite all the criticism I’ve given them, the sky is still the limit.

Bourguet: As currently constructed, yes. Normally we’d be talking about how high their ceiling is with KD and Russ hitting their primes at the same time, Enes Kanter embracing a sixth man role and young guys like Cameron Payne and Steven Adams growing into consistent contributors.

But the Warriors and Spurs aren’t going anywhere, so the only way the Thunder are going to bust through the ceiling constructed by those two teams is by restructuring the roster to add more defense, depth and perimeter shooting around that unbelievable core of KD, Russ and Ibaka. Unfortunately, that won’t happen until this summer at the earliest, right when KD hits the open market.

Hanneke: No question they have room to improve. A lot of that will come when playoff rotations get set and KD and Russ can play more minutes together. The team is obviously a different beast with those two on the floor together, and when they get into playoff mode and have a feel for what they can get out of their teammates, and what they’ll need to bring themselves, there’s no doubt they’ll be a bigger threat than they are currently.

Woods: With all of the young players (Steven Adams, Enes Kanter, Andre Roberson, Cameron Payne and yes, even Dion Waiters to a point), it’s possible that one of two things could happen. Presti could decide that he wants to flip one or more of those pieces for a wing player capable of playing both sides of the floor at a high level.

More hoops habit: NBA: Ranking The League's Top 24-Year-Olds

The other option is hoping that Roberson learns to shoot, Payne gets a lot better on defense or Waiters improves a few things. With that said, I don’t see this iteration of the Thunder being much different so long as Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka are on the team, which is a good thing.