Oklahoma City Thunder: 5 predictions for 2019-20 season

3. Thunder will be in West’s top 8 … until the trade deadline

The NBA’s Western Conference looks to be incredibly formidable once again.

The Oklahoma City Thunder still help factor in to that equation.. For now.

While teams like the LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets all seem to have become significantly better over the summer, Oklahoma City’s roster should keep them competitive in the first half of the season.

The team’s starting lineup projects to look something like Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Andre Roberson, Danilo Gallinari and Steven Adams, with players like Dennis Schroder, Terrance Ferguson and Nerlens Noel coming off the bench.

While it is incredibly clear that the Thunder are headed towards a complete overhaul of their team, the current product is far from bad.

You can be even more optimistic on the team when you consider that players like Gilgeous-Alexander, Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo should all progress substantially from last year due to their youth.

It’s evident that Paul is nowhere near the caliber of player that Russell Westbrook is, but his fit with Adams may unlock the young big man as well. Paul was instrumental in setting up former big man teammates DeAndre Jordan and Clint Capela in the past.

It’s reasonable to think that Adams could have a career year playing next to someone that the NBA community has dubbed “the Point God.”

Even though Oklahoma City’s current roster seems primed to — at least — compete for a top eight spot in the Western Conference it’s also realistic to think that after the February trade deadline the team will be significantly worse.

With Westbrook and Paul George now wearing different jerseys, the Thunder are gearing up to tear down the rest of the roster and begin to build around their young players and monstrous hoard of draft picks.

That process could start as early as this season. If players like Paul, Gallinari, Schroder and others are traded during the season Oklahoma City could go from competing for a Western Conference playoff spot to competing for a top-five draft pick.