FIO Preview: Oklahoma City Thunder

2008-2009 Oklahoma City Thunder season preview and fantasy impact, courtesy of Fantasy Insider Online. Read the team preview here in the Yard, and then visit the FIO link for the rest. - Zach Harper Last Season Recap: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly The mantra in show business is to always leave the audience wanting more. Well, Clay Bennett and his Okie Cronies left the city of Seattle wanting anything and everything. In what ended up being the final season in the great basketball city of Seattle, the Sonics front office managed to put together a team that not only had the worst season in franchise history, but also justified moving this team to Oklahoma City thanks to some fraudulent actions by the ownership group. It was a scene straight out of the movie Major League with the owner trying to put a terrible team out there in the hope that the fans wouldn't care about the franchise being moved to another city. The only thing missing was a naked cutout of Clay Bennett for Kevin Durant to reveal. The first thing that went right for the Sonics was that they won the second pick in the NBA Lottery behind the Portland Trailblazers. This took all the pressure off of them in the draft because now they just had to select the young, budding star that the Blazers didn't want. They ended up with Kevin Durant, who would go on to score 20.3 points per game on 43% shooting from the field. The fifth pick in the draft, Jeff Green, also showed flashes of a promising future, as he contributed 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game after being the centerpiece of the deal for Ray Allen. Other than those two guys and Nick Collison's 9.4 rebounds per game, the Sonics were a complete embarrassment to the fans and history of Sonics basketball. They were a team built to fail in the hope of relocating and they succeeded in that. What went wrong for the Sonics, other than their ownership group, was the fact that they gutted the team to rebuild. The rebuilding pieces were never going to be good enough to compete in this league on a nightly basis, either. Not only did Chris Wilcox miss 20 games of the season, he also failed to grab 8 rebounds per game or score 15 points per game. His potential has quickly dwindled with every year that he continues to under-perform compared to expectations. Luke Ridnour missed 21 games because of injury and was terrible when he did play, averaging 6.4 points and 4.0 assists per contest. And the worst, the previous first-round picks, who all happened to be centers (Robert Swift, Johan Petro, and Saer Sene), continued to be complete busts. None of the three has been able to contribute and all look to become the biggest valet parkers in the world. 2008 Draft Impact (Very High) The Oklahoma City franchise (at this point, they were no longer the Seattle Supersonics) was the busiest team on draft night, considering they ended up with six drafted players. Of the draftees who won't be with the Thunder next season, Serge Ibaka is probably the most noteworthy. He's an uber-athletic power forward who is a determined scorer and tyrant on the boards. He won't be with the Thunder for a couple of years (he's only 18-years-old), but he will be a major piece to the puzzle when he comes over to the NBA. Also joining the organization but not playing in the NBA next season is Sasha Kaun, the big backup center from Kansas who will be playing in Russia for the next couple of years. He will be a good backup center in the NBA when he decides to come over. This was a great selection at No. 56 in the draft. Two guys who will spend a lot of time in the D-League this year but figure to get a shot at contributing to this club in the near future are Devon Hardin and Kyle Weaver. Hardin is a first-round talent who wasn't able to put together enough consistency to get teams to take a chance on him earlier in the draft. He went in the second round at No. 50 and could be the steal of the second round. Kyle Weaver was the 38th pick in the draft to Charlotte and was later acquired by Oklahoma City. Weaver is a good defender and a decent playmaker who can probably challenge for the backup point guard position someday. Finally, you get to the Thunder's two drafted players who will get a chance to make an impact on this team from training camp to next April. D.J. White was acquired from the Pistons for two second round picks (Walter Sharpe and Trent Plaisted). White is a tireless worker in the paint and a player who can be effective on the offensive side of the ball. Many teams were worried about his knee injury from last season, but he's healthy and ready to be the backup power forward. But Russell Westbrook is the prized draft pick for OKC. Westbrook is one of those athletes who have the potential to wreak havoc on the NBA. He will assume the point guard duties at some point when P.J. Carlesimo is confident that Westbrook is a better fit to start than incumbent Earl Watson. Westbrook should be a lock for the All-Rookie First Team and Top 7 voting for Rookie of the Year. Off-Season Impact Moves During the NBA Draft, the Thunder really added talent to their rosters. In terms of the rest of the offseason, they were involved in one big trade, and other than that they are standing pat with a roster that can get them another high lottery selection in 2009. The big trade for the Thunder was the three-team deal that sent Maurice Williams to the Cleveland Cavaliers and a lot of bad or expiring contracts around to the Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks. For the Thunder's end of the deal, they finally gave up on Luke Ridnour and added some expiring contracts. Ridnour and Adrian Griffin were sent packing to the Milwaukee Bucks, and in turn, OKC acquired Desmond Mason (from the Bucks), Donyell Marshall (from the Cavaliers), and Joe Smith (also from the Cavaliers). Mason, Marshall, and Joe Smith all have expiring contracts so the Thunder have no ties to these players after April is over. The only player who will regularly contribute in this deal is Joe Smith. Assuming Smith isn' traded somewhere for a draft pick, he can come in and give some veteran tutelage to Nick Collison and D.J. White. Smith always finds a way to contribute on the court and earn more playing time than expected. He's had a nice career as a journeyman and a role player, and if he stays in OKC, that tradition should continue. As for the other players, Mason is third on the depth chart at shooting guard and Donyell Marshall was waived. It was a good move for the Thunder to make because they gave themselves some extra cap relief for next offseason. Preview for the 2008-2009 Season Team MVP: Kevin Durant, G/F - There isn't any doubt that personnel decision-maker Sam Presti is building this roster around Kevin Durant. KD is one of those players who should be able to lead his team deep into the playoffs based solely on personal talent. Durant will be the best player and the player that means the most to their success for the next 10 years (assuming he doesn't opt for a city other than OKC). Breakout Player: Jeff Green, F - Jeff Green showed plenty of promising flashes toward the end of last season when P.J. Carlesimo allowed him to work through mistakes and stay on the court. In the month of April, he scored 15.9 points per game and grabbed 6.3 rebounds per contest while playing 36.9 minutes every night. I think you can expect him to play close to that caliber for the entire upcoming season. Bust Player: Damien Wilkins, SG - Between the Kevin Durant experiment at shooting guard and Russell Westbrook's taking minutes as a combo guard, Damien Wilkins minutes are bound to decline as the youth movement continues. Wilkins is a good outside shooter and a solid scorer in the half-court sets, so he?ll continue to get some time, but he still will lose out on playing major minutes. Shouldn't be too long until he's asking for a trade. Playoff Contender or Pretender? This team is nowhere close to being a contender for the next couple of years. They are in the stage of the rebuilding process where teams stockpile young assets to eventually move for a proven veteran (much like Boston did to acquire Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett). They will continue to tank this season and gear up for a 2009-2010 season in which they will have a transformed roster (roughly only $20 million committed in contracts going into this offseason). That will be the season when they vie for the playoffs, not this one.