[Source](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3nryDgk3Vz5xHAWLROd6yX?si=JRvBYdfpTj26xuHDDPNaDQ&context=spotify%3Acollection%3Apodcasts%3Aepisodes&t=3061&dd=1)
>I‘ve always put it this way: If the Oklahoma City Thunder — who drafted Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Serge Ibaka all in a short span — had been the New York Thunder, the San Francisco Thunder, the Los Angeles Thunder, that team might have never been broken up.
by lopea182
31 Comments
If ownership was still cheap, then it wouldn’t have mattered.
I always thought OkC didnt didnt want to pay all of them but ok.
In other news, water is wet
What about Seattle Thunder?
Did we not see the KD and Harden nets break up in New York? Lol
The 2012 Thunder are one of my favorite teams that never won the title
That’s not even true.
We drafted the equally impressive combo of Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina and we weren’t able to retain either of them. It’s just really hard to retain elite players sometimes.
Warrior fans based in Oakland, how do you feel about this weird level of erasure?
Aunt, wheels, bike.
You can’t complain about playing in a small market when you stole the team from a big market
Na, they would have. Please show me the examples of superstars staying together and not having egos, outside of the warriors. You can’t.
Why is San Francisco listed here with NY and LA? What about, I dunno, Chicago
Do we not shit on Clay Bennett enough for not wanting to pay Harden?
What about if they were the Seattle Supersonics?
Maybe I have amnesia, but wasn’t it Presti who broke up their “big 3”, and then the management excessive support of Russ drove KD away? Or we are rewriting history now?
Management choosing not spend while being one step away from a championship is on the management. Last time I checked Milwaukee is nothing necessary known as Monaco of the midwest
Durant and Westbrook were drafted by the Seattle Supersonics, not the Thunder.
If the Oklahoma City Thunder had been the New York Thunder, the San Fransisco Thunder, the Los Angeles Thunder, they would have never had picks good enough to draft Kevin Durant, Russell Westrbrook, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka.
This is why you shouldnt use wild hypotheticals as analysis.
They traded Ibaka
People are forgetting OKC liked the trade they could’ve kept harden for another year without paying him to run it back
It’s not the city so much as the wealth of the owner.
If Bennett still owns the team in a bigger city, he’s still one of the “poor” owners.
Likewise if Balmer owns the Thunder in Oklahoma City, he doesn’t blink at paying.
That’s the inherent problem with luxury tax in a nutshell – some owners can afford to go deep into luxury tax to try to win, some can’t.
Total aside – Harden probably doesn’t become the James Harden MVP we know him as if he stays in OKC playing 3rd banana. People forget it took him 4-5 years in Houston before he really understood how to play PG and be an elite passer – he wouldn’t have ever even had that opportunity in OKC and would have been a permanent SG.
Those egos would not have survived each other
If they were the New York Thunder at that time they would have all been traded for over the hill overpaid vets.
Well yeah, but that’s because OKC has a small town mentality. “oh no! Our 6 man likes titty bars! Must mean his heart isn’t in the game. Better trade him for someone who loves Oklahoma city for the lush hills and ample wildflowers!”
“Oh you know what else we need? A hard nose college coach who can whoop these entitled stars into shape! No, let’s not ask KD who he wants as coach because he’ll probably just pick someone who will let him off easy. Billy Donovan come on down!”
The ownership certainly deserve ridicule for the stupid Harden trade, but I think the team would’ve been broken up a year or two later.
A ton of reporting since the infamous trade had speculated Harden wanting his own team and had outgrown his 6th man role.
The Lakers would have traded them all for proven stars.
“If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike.” https://youtu.be/A-RfHC91Ewc
I would t want to live in OKc for half the year either tbh
This was said a decade ago. Brilliant insight here.
The lakers had Kobe and Shaq and still eventually traded one, Jordan said I’m gonna retire if you don’t keep Phil Jackson and did. The heatles broke up only after 4 years
And if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bike.
Two of those three guys have left places multiple times for minimal reasons, so it’s hard to believe this