I also don't like them missing Dante Exum this year, even if his numbers last year weren't particularly noteworthy. They had a great second half last year, but I am not sure I would have stood pat like they did. They didn't make any real moves of note besides drafting Lyles and bringing over noted Kings killer Jeff Withey. I just don't like this matchup on paper to be honest.īRAD: The Jazz seem to be banking on their late season success. The Thunder may be forced to play more Steven Adams, which may even make the team better offensively because of balance. When the Kings have the ball, Boogie against Kanter is a complete mismatch, although Serge Ibaka swooping in from the weakside may complicate the situation. On the other, the Thunder have been an iso-heavy team for so long, and the Kings can leverage those habits to force the Thunder into a "my-turn, your-turn" offense, and anytime Kanter or Waiters eats that kind of possession as opposed to Durant or Westbrook, its a win for the defense. On the one hand, both are talented offensive players. That being said, Kanter and Waiters muck the picture up a bit. Rajon Rondo and Darren Collison just aren't big enough, and Ben McLemore isn't quick enough. The Kings can theoretically throw some pretty good defenders at him, but there is no ideal defender. Westbrook is a completely different animal. The Kings can throw Rudy Gay at Durant, and on paper that's not a physical mismatch, although with Rudy's tendency to coast defensively could be costly. Lining up against Durant and Westbrook is daunting for championship contenders, let alone playoff contenders like the Kings. You know who would be a scary coach for this team? George Karl. First year coach Billy Donovan is going to have a hell of a time integrating all of those pieces. That's a lot of mouths to feed, including two top-5 players in the league who rightfully should be topping the usage charts. I just don't know about the Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter additions. But this team is still young and dangerous. With Russell Westbrook going down in the 2013 Playoffs, Serge Ibaka's absence against the Spurs in 2014, and Kevin Durant's foot issues in 2015, Oklahoma City is probably bristling at their awful injury luck. OMER: Once a team of destiny, the Thunder have been reeling with injuries ever since they shipped James Harden off to Houston in 2012. Even some of the worst Kings teams have managed to beat the Thunder but this may be an even better team than we have seen in the past, so it will be tough. Travis Outlaw isn't here to cancel out Kevin Durant anymore so they will need all of the help they can get. On the offensive end the Kings have more depth and may need to use all of it. The Kings are going to need to have defense from all five positions to have a shot. The Kings revamped front court should be able to help the inside but the Kings are going to need to need to defend the perimeter as well. Westbrook and Durant are match-up nightmares for any team. I am very interested to see how Billy Donovan does at the NBA level as I, admittedly, was not a fan of Scott Brooks.Īs far as the Kings go the Thunder are a tough match-up. With the best 1-2 punch in the NBA they could very well have a top 2 record, but as a Grant Hill fan, I would be lying if I said the Kevin Durant foot issue doesn't scare me a little bit. I believe they have a similar record to last year without him and can break 60 with him, so why not meet in the middle? As far as roster turnover they did not have much that was noteworthy, but it must also be stated that the roster has not played together healthy and they are a very good roster when healthy. I decided to do what every annoying person does and take the middle. I don't know whether to entirely ignore Kevin Durant's foot issues or to overreact to them.
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Russell WestbrookīRAD: The Thunder are the hardest team to predict for me. Key Subtractions(s): Scott Brooks, Perry Jones III In this episode of The Kings Homer's NBA Preview, I am joined by Omer Khan as we discuss the most geographically confused division in the NBA, the Northwest division.