Maybe it's luck, but when a franchise drafts three superstar-level players with three top 5 picks, I think you have to give them some credit for their drafting ability too.
exactly.. it's easy to throw around these words now that these guys have been in the league for a couple of years.. also i think not enough credit is given to the environment that has been created in OKC that has helped the thunder's young guys grow into the players they are.. the 2 guys who are the leaders of the team seem to be ultra compeitive and very hard working (durant and westbrook).. i think everyone else falls in line and that helps with their individual development (harden and ibaka.. and even someone like byron mullens)..
i think when guys see the effort put forth by durant and westbrook, they cant help but be motivated themselves
but people forget how much the westbrook pick was questioned..
and people also forget how much the harden pick was questioned because of the early success of curry and tyreke.. here is what bill simmons said:
I think I want to know what life would have been like if Oklahoma City had taken Stephen Curry or Tyreke Evans over James Harden.
Sam Presti probably made the right choice. Repeat: probably. When you have someone like Kevin Durant (the best younger-than-25 scorer since Jordan), you borrow the Pippen-Grant-Cartwright recipe, surround that guy with flexible role players, and worry about chemistry and defense before anything else. I get it.
But just for fun ... I mean ... don't you wonder how the Curry/Evans directions would have turned out? I wish we could play them out in an alternate universe "Lost"-style just to see what would happen. My best guesses:
The Evans Universe: Makes the Zombie Sonics better on paper, screws them up in real life. Russell Westbrook would be threatened as the primary playmaker/distributor; Durant would be threatened as the alpha dog. From a chemistry standpoint, I'm dubious. I just don't think you need him. Think of it this way: I'm already making you dinner with Durant as my main course. He's the $200 slab of filet mignon on the bone. We're at a table with 10 other people. We're chowing down. We already have a Caesar salad (Westbrook), cream of mushroom soup (Serge Ibaka), potatoes au gratin (Jeff Green), asparagus (Thabo Sefolosha), sweet potatoes (Eric Maynor) and the filet (Durant). Harden is delicious corn bread done southwestern-style; Evans is a $150 rack of lamb. Do I really need the lamb? If I brought that out, wouldn't you say, "Good God, this is too much food; I'm gonna have a heart attack!" It might be delicious, but I don't need it. I need the corn bread.
The Curry Universe: Much more intriguing. Fits in from a chemistry standpoint. Hurts them defensively, but you can always get away with one squeaky wheel if the other four wheels are humming. (See: Parker, Tony.) Doesn't totally threaten Westbrook; as we saw with the Curry-Monta Ellis experiment this season, Curry floats between both guard spots effortlessly. And the shooting ... I mean ... good God. Nobody could ever double Durant with Curry's guy. Beyond that, alt-OKC would have two younger-than-22 shooters with 28-foot range and two 50-40-90 (field goal-3 point-free throw) percentage threats year after year. Could it find another Harden-like talent through the draft or free agency? Yes. Could it find another Curry-like talent? No. He's an original prototype. I like this universe more than Harden World. Sorry.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/part1/100416&sportCat=nba
rolleyes)?
.....so maybe not the whole roster.
