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Are the Thunder the only contender in West?
Are the Thunder the only contender in West?
The Oklahoma City Thunder became the 14th-ever team to win 67 games in a single season Friday against the Utah Jazz, and could become the seventh-ever franchise to notch 68 wins in their season finale Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans.
They have put together a historically great season. After Friday night’s win, they sport a league-best 12.4 NET Rating, the highest single season NET Rating since the NBA started tracking NET Rating in 1996-97. They have the league’s third-best offense, but are allowing a whopping 106.7 points per 100 possessions, which is unheard of in the modern day.
While they are a still unproven commodity, one ESPN commentator believes they are the only contender in the Western Conference.
“[There’s] one serious contender in the West right now, and that’s the Oklahoma City Thunder because of [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander],” ESPN’s Courtney Cronin said Friday. “I don’t think they’re the incomplete Thunder from year’s past. They’re not the team that you thought, ‘Hey, they’re really good in certain respects, but they’re young, they’re inexperienced, the Western Conference Finals is their ceiling.’ This is a team whose ceiling is the NBA Finals. I think there’s three teams that can win an NBA championship this year, and only one of them truly coming from the Western Conference … coming from the catalyst, the engine that SGA has been all year.”
If you go by Phil Jackson‘s famous 40-20 rule, the Thunder would be the only team in the West that qualifies.
Each of the last three and 17 of the last 18 champions have been teams that have followed the 40-20 rule, which suggests the sign of a “true contender” is a team that wins 40 games before losing 20.
The Thunder haven’t even lost 15 games (yet?), let alone 20. As I belabored above, they’ve been the NBA’s most dominant team. I think they’re the clear favorites. However, I wouldn’t completely rule out the Los Angeles Lakers with Luka Doncic and LeBron James at making a run, nor would I rule out the Denver Nuggets with Nikola Jokic and the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.
You could make a case for the Los Angeles Clippers, too. I don’t trust the Houston Rockets’ halfcourt offense to make a deep postseason run, even though they could certainly win a series or two. It should be a compelling race, regardless.
It’s difficult to make a firm conclusion before the postseason even begins. Injuries are a very real possibility for any of the eight teams in each conference; the NBA postseason is just as much of a “who’s healthiest?” battle as it is a basketball game. Though we were making similar claims about the Boston Celtics last year–Boston went 16-3 en route to its 18th title.
Why can’t it happen for the Thunder this year?
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