NBA Lord's NBA Blog

NBA Lord's NBA Blog

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Skyhook Sunday: Are the Oklahoma City Thunder serious contenders after landing Paul George?



A move that caught the basketball world by surprise was the Indiana Pacers trading Paul George to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Paul George leaving the Pacers wasn’t a huge shock, but Oklahoma City wasn’t a destination that was considered a likely landing spot for him. With George now on their roster, the Thunder have a legitimate superstar to pair with Russell Westbrook. The question is, do they have enough to contend for a championship in such a loaded Western Conference?

In order to answer this question, it needs to be understood that while the Golden State Warriors remain the clear cut favorites to come out of the Western Conference next season, it is not clear who should be expected to face them in the Western Conference Finals. Even though free agency is still going on, we already can put the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder in the conversation based on the trades that they have recently made. The San Antonio Spurs we also can’t leave out due to the fantastic season that they just had.

In addition to the Rockets, Thunder, and Spurs, the Minnesota Timberwolves are also making big moves and the Utah Jazz, if they can hang on to Gordon Hayward, will be another force to be reckoned with as well. The bottom line is the Western Conference will be loaded next season and the race to the conference finals will be a battle.

What the Thunder have in their favor is they have the 2017 NBA MVP in Russell Westbrook, who averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 10.4 assists per game last season, the first triple-double average for a single season since Oscar Robertson did it way back in the day. Westbrook is arguably the best player in the NBA and when you pair him with a guy like Paul George, who averaged 23.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game last season, you got yourself a team that can do some serious damage.


While we are still yet to see how the rest of free agency plays out, it’s already clear that the Oklahoma City Thunder will be a serious contender next season. With Kevin Durant leaving for Golden State, the Thunder had to find another elite swingman to pair with Russell Westbrook and Paul George is as good of an option as anyone out there. While they probably still need to make one more major move in order to give the Warriors a serious scare, the foundation to contend is definitely in place. 

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