Oklahoma City Thunder: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18

Weakness: Keeping Paul George and Russell Westbrook

Paul George is from Palmdale, California and wants to play in Los Angeles with the Lakers. This may be a one-and-done situation for the star swingman.

The Thunder could try and get something for him and try and trade him to LA during the All-Star break if it feels like he’ll be leaving next summer. That would put an end to the Westbrook-George experiment and represent one worst-case scenario.

What they could do is get Westbrook to recruit him to stay past this season, but Westbrook himself might not be guaranteed to stay beyond this season if he doesn’t sign his Designated Player Extension.

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Both players so far seem to be committed to the franchise, but the way this business works is anything could change at any second. The Thunder need to make sure they retain these two players, or their short-term and long-term future will be ruined.