After being bounced in the first round of the playoffs, here are five takeaways from the 2017-18 season for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For a season that commenced with such fanfare, the 2017-18 campaign concluded with enormous disappointment for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Following the offseason acquisitions of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony, the Thunder seemed poised to legitimately challenge the elite teams in the league. However, despite these momentous changes, the Thunder improved by just one regular season win in posting a 48-34 record.
Overall, the Thunder performed commendably across the board, finishing 10th in offensive rating, 10th in defensive rating and eighth in overall net rating. However, their shortcomings became more and more pronounced as the season progressed. In short, a heavy reliance on their leading players, combined with a pronounced lack of depth all proved too much to overcome in the end.
Despite the increase in top-end talent, Russell Westbrook again dominated statistically in averaging a triple-double for the second straight season. However, it was the overall maddening lack of consistency that restricted the Thunder to finishing fourth in the Western Conference standings, which was accompanied by a six-game first round exit at the hands of the Utah Jazz.
Thunder GM Sam Presti with media. "48 wins, one of 3 or 4 teams in top 10 in offense and defense, 7th best net rating in the league, 9th best record and we're disappointed and we should be. We expected more out of the team." pic.twitter.com/mpPz3FGKz8
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) May 2, 2018
In all, the Thunder lost 10 games by three points or less, and simply couldn’t put together a sustained stretch of success at any point of the season.
A perfect example began on Jan. 7, whereby the Thunder lost three games in a row. They followed this up with a season-best eight-game winning streak, only to follow it up by dropping the next four games in succession.
Presti says he looks a the season in three different segments: The 8-12 start (which he expected to be "a little choppy"), the hot stretch in January ("I thought we were at a really, really high level and balanced), and the post-Roberson injury stretch.
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) May 2, 2018
Furthermore, this offseason promises to be even trickier than this past regular season, with some enormous decisions to be made regarding key personnel.
However, before looking too far ahead, here are five takeaways from the 2017-18 season.