What it means...

Yeah, its been a long time.  But it's hard, you know?  Maybe you do...maybe you don't.  I've talked before about what it means to be a fan (still short for fanatic) which is usually the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows.  And (despite how hard it is) I'm okay with the thought of another team beating the Thunder.  I mean, if they played their best, and lost...everyone knows, sometimes you just tip your cap to the other guy and move on.  But - that's not what happened here.  And that's what makes this season such a strange, bewildering, depressing and significant one.  Because of what it all really means.


By now, everybody knows that the Thunder traded James Harden (aka the Bearded Wonder) before the season began, in one of the most unusual moves in franchise history.  Everyone also knows the Thunder finished with 60 wins and the #1 seed out West despite this.  With Harden gone, KD and Westbrook needed to up their level of play - and so they did.  They needed help from guys like Ibaka, newly acquired Kevin Martin, and 2nd year guard Reggie Jackson - and they got it.  The way it all played out was like a script, with Harden's new team (the Rockets) meeting his old team (the Thunder) in the first round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs.  And that's where things started to unravel for OKC.

I guess you could say that it started to unravel right from the moment Harden was traded...as this wasn't exactly a popular move in OKC from the get go.  But there were those who thought that the team couldn't pay Harden the max, those who said maybe he wasn't worth the max, and those who said that they traded away a guy like Jeff Green and they ended up just fine.  So the referendum was out on the Harden trade for a little bit - to see what ended up coming out of it.  And while Harden blew up and did his thing in Houston, OKC quietly did their thing, behind Russ and KD and went on to be the class of the West - and all is right with the world.  Or so we thought.

Again, by now, everyone knows that Russ's season was ended by a rookie making a mistake in game 2 of the first round.  I've heard every analyst's take, read every blogger's opinion, and seen every Thunder game televised on network television, and I'm here to tell you for a FACT - that play by Patrick Beverley should never have happened.  Guys going for a steal on a time out call is a low percentage play at best, and can have disastrous consequences at worst.  Generally this play results in nothing more than expended energy on the defensive players part, as the timeout is ALWAYS granted to the person calling it.  So if this is a lose situation 99 times out of 100, why do it?  I don't care who is the offensive player and who is the defensive one, this play should NEVER happen.  It should never happen because of what COULD happen - what DID happen to Russell Westbrook.  Not only was a player injured (ending his season), but a whole team's playoff chances were derailed.  A team among a precious, precious few that had a chance to win an NBA Championship.  And what that means is so much more than an injury that Russell will eventually come back from.

Now the Harden trade doubters come out in full force, shouting all over the internet at the top of their lungs that they said that Harden should never have been traded, that you ALWAYS need a "Big 3" to win it all, and that the Thunder probably would still have gone to the NBA Finals with Harden to step into the void left by Westbrook going down.  And much like many things in life, hindsight is 20/20.  Does Sam Presti wish he had the Harden trade to do all over again?  Probably.  But if he knew that a guy who hadn't ever missed a game in his high school, college, and pro career was going to go down with an injury at the very end of the season, he likely wouldn't be running an NBA team but instead making billions as a fortune teller to the stars.  Like Gandalf said "even the wise cannot see all ends."  Thus ends the "coulda-woulda-shoulda" junk - it died a quick death, and godspeed.

And while Russ will be back next year and KD took his game to monstrous levels during the post season (2013 stats:  30.8ppg, 9rpg, 6.3apg, and a block and a steal per to boot!) what this season means really is that something has to change.  For the team, for the franchise, and for the future.  The Thunder need an offensive scheme, and need it quickly.  No longer will simply rolling out the ball to KD and Russ be enough.  They need Ibaka to play the entire next season like he played this one in spurts.  He's the guy they chose over Harden; he needs to start playing up to his potential.  They need to let KMart go in the off season, as its clear he can't be the consistent 3rd option that Harden could be.  They need to know what they have in Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb - they are the "generation next" for the Thunder and its time to find out what they've got.  With a new offense, I think they need a new head coach as well.  I like Scott Brooks and he's brought this young Thunder team a long way - but I think they've gone as far as they can go with him, and its time to move in a new direction.  A team with the Thunder's talent shouldn't be at the bottom of the league in assists, shouldn't look lost or stagnant in the half court, and shouldn't be viewed as the shakiest #1 seed in the playoffs BEFORE Russ went down.

What is means is a lot of change.  And change isn't easy.  But believe me when I tell you its easier than dealing with losing one of your best players to a freak accident...and easier then watching your teams hopes go out way before they should have.