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The Oklahoma City Thunder are a team that has many good players. There aren’t more than five players who are better than Russell Westbrook or Kevin Durant. Serge Ibaka is a very good shot blocker and he can spread the floor as a shooter. Enes Kanter comes off the bench and always is a threat around the basket. Andre Roberson is one of the better defenders in the league.
So how come the Thunder aren’t mentioned in the same class as the San Antonio Spurs, the Golden State Warriors or even the Cleveland Cavaliers? The reason that Thunder aren’t praised as much as those other teams is because they lack mental toughness. And that is one issue the team needs to address before the playoff run.
Westbrook has improved as a point guard this season. He is averaging a career-high 10.4 assists per game and he is shooting less this season than last season. But when the game is close and within the last five minutes, he starts going back to being the erratic Westbrook who everybody has criticized for years. He is the best competitor on the team, but sometimes he gets too competitive and out of control.
Durant is usually okay with playing turns with Westbrook in regards to who is the main focus of the offense. But that is a problem in itself. There is no flow or strategy to the offense. It works against the lower level teams because Durant and Westbrook are great offensive talents. But against the better teams, that won’t work.
Durant also needs to improve his decision making late in games. Twice this season he has been a key reason why the Thunder lost to the Warriors when the team should have won the game. He always plays well against the Warriors, but he also makes costly turnovers.
The Thunder have the potential to win a championship, but it starts with the improvement of each player’s basketball intellect. If each player can just improve a little bit and think about what they are doing to make better basketball plays, the Thunder will be a wild card to prove everybody wrong this postseason.
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