The Thunder could have a Shaq-and-Penny situation on their hands
There's this moment during the This Magic Moment 30 for 30 that had to have been stomach-churning for Oklahoma City Thunder fans.
Toward the end of the lowlight reel of the Bulls sweeping the Magic in the 1996 Eastern Conference finals, it starts to set in that it's the last push this Magic team will have with this extraordinary collection of talent-- a transcendent guard like Penny Hardaway and a confoundingly nimble 7-footer like Shaquille O'Neal-- and you know what's coming next.
As soon as they cut forward to the summer of 1996 and the words "free agency" cross John Gabriel's lips, you get that same sinking feeling you get when you miss the train and the next one might not be coming for another 58 minutes. Or, in this case, another 13 years.
That's what the Thunder have on their hands now with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook: a Shaq-and-Penny situation. Sam Presti hit the lottery when he drafted Durant in 2007, again when they drafted Westbrook and Serge Ibaka the following year, and a third time when they got James Harden in 2009. The pieces fell together nicely for one promising NBA Finals appearance in 2012, but Presti has more or less been steering the ship with his eyes closed ever since.
Durant signed a 6-year deal with no fuss in 2010, but Harden presciently spurned an extension and took a pay cut to be The Man in Houston after that 2012 Finals run. And, with his contract up after this season, Durant is looking forward to being courted like LeBron James as a free agent.
Who can blame either for considering their options? There's no two ways around it: the Thunder front office is butt. Since offloading Harden, they've done next to nothing with that freed up cap space. They inexplicably signed Kyle Singler to a long-term deal and picked up Randy Foye from Denver at the trade deadline to round out the cruelest joke of roster outside of maybe the Lakers, and that team was built to be blown up. The Thunder meanwhile, are squandering the primes of two of the best 5 (or 10, whichever) players on the planet, seemingly just because.
Including Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka, OKC currently has maybe three-and-a-half NBA-caliber starters if you count Enes Kanter, who's usually good for 20 points a game and is impossible to box out but also couldn't guard a lawn chair.
You could say the same of Andre Roberson, who can defend but can't shoot, or Anthony Morrow, who can shoot but can't defend, or really any other player on the roster that you care to mention, since no one outside of that core three can actually be trusted to play both ways for any length of time. Throw in a coach like Billy Donovan to whom simple things like staggering and inbound plays are basically the moon, and what results is a porous defense and a stagnant offense that leans on Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant consistently hitting heroic, contested jumpers.
Ordinarily one or the other can be relied upon to do so, but on nights like last night against the Dallas Mavericks when Durant can't fall out of a boat and hit water at the same time that Westbrook's turbo bar is blinking danger and both are turning the ball over in volume, the Thunder come toppling down like Jenga blocks. And still, to their credit, they had a chance to steal the game late on.
Last night's loss to the Mavericks felt like a hiccup on the way to an impending first-round win, but with all of their many, almost wilful missteps, a championship-- even with two of the five or six best players alive in the ranks-- seems totally out of the question.
If they continue on as they have been, they'll likely be sent to an early summer vacation, at which time Kevin Durant will enter the Wild West of unrestricted free agency.
I've seen that movie and I know how it ends.
