Bismack and his subtle improvement

[Wi11iWii]

The Thunder won 50 games in their second season in Oklahoma City. They were bad for two years, including Durants' rookie year in Seattle. That's what happens when you hit on Durant, Jeff Green, Westbrook, Ibaka, and Harden over the course of three consecutive drafts and do a smart job of keeping/adding low-cost veterans.

They sucked 3 years before Durant's rookie season and struggled with their draft picks getting some busts during that span. Even Cho admits that hitting on all of those draft picks had a ton of luck involved. I mean they drafted 3 all stars and a DPOY candidate in 3 drafts. And just so happened to be garbage when KD declared for the draft. Doesn't seem likely to happen again. But who knows, hopefully we are on that track with MKG, Kemba, and Biz. But this year marks our third draft. So we'll see next season I guess.

[Bogg]

They sucked 3 years before Durant's rookie season and struggled with their draft picks getting some busts during that span.

3 years before Durants' rookie year they won 52 games and made it to the second round of the playoffs.

[Wi11iWii]

Yeah I meant to put 2 years.

[Bogg]

Yeah I meant to put 2 years.

Yea, but it's not like they put together a garbage roster and couldn't get out of their own way. In '05-'06 they returned the core of that 52-win team and were supposed to be a pretty decent squad but underperformed on their way to a 35-win season (which isn't exactly catastrophically bad). Management tried to retool and hoped it was just a down year, but Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis both missed big chunks of the '06-'07 season to injury and the team fared slightly worse, as teams without their best two players are prone to doing.

As far as "busts" go, they did fine in the 2003 draft, picking up Nick Collison and Luke Ridnour in the early teens. Robert Swift obviously didn't pan out in 2004, but it's hard to fault Seattle too much for Johan Petro in '05, considering he was just a project big man they took a swing on in the mid-twenties. Mouhamed Sene was a bad pick at ten in an overall bad draft in 2006 - half that class' top ten is already out of the league.

All that's kind of beside the point, though, because the OKC ownership group bought the team in 2006-2007, bringing in Sam Presti in June of 2007 - right after they jumped up to number 2 in that draft. You can't really hold Presti responsible for the record of the previous front office, as he's essentially been knocking it out of the park since day one.

[Wi11iWii]

Not once did I mention Sam Presti or even hint that he hasn't done a great job in OKC. I was referring to the franchise as a whole. He did a great job with trades and drafting. He kinda messed up by giving away Bledsoe to the clippers for what turned out to be a 22nd overall pick but that isn't monumentally bad. Johan Petro is a bust, Nick Collison hasn't lived up to his potential, Ridnour is a great back up in the league and Sene is a huge mistake but I didn't say that was on Presti. My point is that it takes time to turn a team around. You have to have a plan and then stick to it. The Bobcats have a plan in place and are obtaining a young nucleus so with a little luck they'll be in the right direction in 2-3 more seasons.

[Felton for Prez]

Just goes to show you what a little luck does. OKC could very easily have drafted Greg Oden had the Blazers taken Durant. Kudos to the Blazers for not cratering after that pick.

A little luck and we have the Unibrow and we aren't all freaked out about how bad our front court is.

Drafting isn't all that different than investing. You do your homework, you make sure you understand the risks and you try to hedge (or develop in this case) where needed. Only a few investors are constantly right. Most professionals have almost as many bad years as good.

Luck luck luck.

[Bogg]

My point is that it takes time to turn a team around. You have to have a plan and then stick to it. The Bobcats have a plan in place and are obtaining a young nucleus so with a little luck they'll be in the right direction in 2-3 more seasons.

It does take time to turn a team around, but OKC didn't start tearing the team down until the 2007 draft when they traded Ray Allen. They had a veteran, fringe playoff team that simply underperformed due to injuries and some bad luck - it would have been very easy to just add Durant to Allen and Lewis and call it a day.

[Wi11iWii]

May be easy but not wise. Presti was smart for trading away Lewis and Allen. Just drafted a new star so build the team around him as he, Allen, and Lewis at that time wouldn't work unless you plan on letting the other team shoot 2's while you hit 3's because none of them could play defense. If they had kept Allen and Lewis I don't believe they would have gotten Westbrook and Harden. It's kind of different in Charlotte being that we got a defensive stopper like Ibaka and a scoring point like Westbrook first. They had a star from jump street to build around.

We've yet to get one to build around. I mean Kemba will be great and an all star in a few years but I don't believe he is a superstar. And MKG will be a great all around player but I don't think he is a superstar either. Our superstar will probably be a 2 imo. Bazz or Mclemore.

[SJackson1]

our scouts need to do a great job in picking their favourite in this years draft, wide open

[Bogg]

May be easy but not wise.

That's the point.