It might only be the preseason, but Richard Jefferson isn't holding back his punches.
During Sunday night's preseason match between the Thunder and Bucks, the prominent ESPN voice made some rather harsh comments about the state of OKC basketball, stating that he was only talking about the team because it's part of "his job."
“And because it's our job we're going to talk about Oklahoma City here for a little bit. They're in a rebuilding phase here, everybody knows that. But they do have pieces, they do have some young talent that they should be excited about..."
After some words about how Giannis was a mismatch against the Thunder, RJ threw his second jab.
"...'ll be really honest, there's probably a mismatch in four out of the five spots on this floor."
Over the past decade or so, the Thunder have actually been a pretty good team. What started out as Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden eventually became Westbrook and Paul George and, throughout both eras, they were a force in the Western Conference.
But after a failed campaign with PG and Russ, OKC opted for a complete rebuild and pretty quickly got rid of those who remained of their veteran core.
Now, the organization is just a shell of itself, reduced to building up young talent and hoping one of them develops into a star. So far, only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has proven to be an above-average player.
The hope is that, with time, the Thunder can get themselves out of the hole and become a team to fear once again.
In the meantime, though, they aren't going to be very exciting, and Richard Jefferson isn't afraid to say it.
Here's to hoping that, one day soon, the Thunder can prove to RJ that they should be a team everyone wants to keep an eye on.
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