Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It was evident in the playoffs this year that the Oklahoma City Thunder were not as good when Russell Westbrook went down with an injury. Him coming back healthy will be huge for the 2013-14 NBA season. Regardless, the team has a lot of young talent at the center position.
There is Daniel Orton, Steven Adams and Hasheem Thabeet. There is also Kendrick Perkins, who will likely continue to receive a lot of playing time.
If Thabeet ever met expectations, he would easily be the starter on this team, but that has yet to happen. Orton didn’t quite have the expectations when joining the league, but he is still a young big man on the team.
I am sure fans are hoping that Adams will be the answer at center. Perkins is a decent player, but he does not score the ball that much, averaging 4.2 points per game this past season.
Adams was one-and-done in college and he had a pretty good freshman year for Pittsburgh. Despite only playing 23.4 minutes per game, Adams was able to score 7.2 points per game and he averaged 6.3 rebounds and two blocks per game. Those numbers aren’t completely amazing, but Adams has a lot of potential and it always helps when a player is 7’0”.
Kevin Durant and Westbrook will continue to lead this team to victory, but having a center that can score more on top of playing good defense, would be a huge bonus.
Luckily for the team, it has plenty of talent at the center position. Now it is time to see that talent being put to work.
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