Let's take the Thunder to get a little pespective. They are the poster child, after all, for a stupendous success of building with youth. In other words, I'm taking the absolute extreme of success in a youthful program for this analysis, even though we know they are tons of other programs with young rosters that haven't done nearly as well over such short a time frame. In other words, to all those anti-Westphal-this-team-should play-a-lot-better crowd, I'm giving you major points by using this example.
So let's go back to 2008-2009 season. Without detailing everybody on the roster, here are some of main cogs:
Durant - 1 year of experience
Green - 1 year of experience
Westbrook - rookie
Not a bad, trio, wouldn't you say? Do the Kings have a comparable trio?
Tyreke - 1 year of experience
Cousins - rookie
But who is the Kings' Green? I leave it to you to pick from our cast of characters who is as talented as Green. My choice: Nobody on our team is as talented once you get past Tyreke and Cousins. But you might choose Landry, so we'll go with that.
Now let's continue to look at the OKC roster in 2008:
Sefolosha - 4 yrs of experience. I'm trying to think of anybody on our roster who comes close to being a defensive stopper as Sefolosha. Any ideas? If you want, you can put Dalembert in that genre.
Ibaka - rookie. Extremely athletic shot blocker. Do you think Casspi or Greene is comparable to Ibaka? Personally, I think Ibaka is more talented than either one of them, but hey, I'll grant you that maybe Casspi or Greene might be comparable.
Now we go to some of the middle of the road vets on OKC:
Earl Watson - 7 yrs (Beno for Watson? Again, I like Watson over Beno, but I'll "give" you Beno as comparable to Watson
Nick Collison - 4 yrs
Joe Smith - 13 years. (Garcia fits in here somewhere)
So I'm chosing the team with the most talented youthful players I can find and the one that has actually showed last year they could win 50+ games with virtually the same roster. And each step of the way, I've bent over backwards to give you the point that the Kings are as talented now as OKC was back then (Even though I don't believe it for a minute).
So, how many games did this quite talented Thunder team win in the 2008-09 season? TWENTY-THREE.
And for the heck of it, how many games do you think they won from the beginning of the 2008 season through the end of December 2008? FOUR.
I can hear it now: Oh, but they played better from Oct - Dec of 2008 than the Kings are playing now. Sure they did. I'm sure they looked just great as they were pursuing their four wins over two months. Must have looked a finely tuned machine....?
No doubt their fans were cooing over how great their coach was during that time period also.
So let's go back to 2008-2009 season. Without detailing everybody on the roster, here are some of main cogs:
Durant - 1 year of experience
Green - 1 year of experience
Westbrook - rookie
Not a bad, trio, wouldn't you say? Do the Kings have a comparable trio?
Tyreke - 1 year of experience
Cousins - rookie
But who is the Kings' Green? I leave it to you to pick from our cast of characters who is as talented as Green. My choice: Nobody on our team is as talented once you get past Tyreke and Cousins. But you might choose Landry, so we'll go with that.
Now let's continue to look at the OKC roster in 2008:
Sefolosha - 4 yrs of experience. I'm trying to think of anybody on our roster who comes close to being a defensive stopper as Sefolosha. Any ideas? If you want, you can put Dalembert in that genre.
Ibaka - rookie. Extremely athletic shot blocker. Do you think Casspi or Greene is comparable to Ibaka? Personally, I think Ibaka is more talented than either one of them, but hey, I'll grant you that maybe Casspi or Greene might be comparable.
Now we go to some of the middle of the road vets on OKC:
Earl Watson - 7 yrs (Beno for Watson? Again, I like Watson over Beno, but I'll "give" you Beno as comparable to Watson
Nick Collison - 4 yrs
Joe Smith - 13 years. (Garcia fits in here somewhere)
So I'm chosing the team with the most talented youthful players I can find and the one that has actually showed last year they could win 50+ games with virtually the same roster. And each step of the way, I've bent over backwards to give you the point that the Kings are as talented now as OKC was back then (Even though I don't believe it for a minute).
So, how many games did this quite talented Thunder team win in the 2008-09 season? TWENTY-THREE.
And for the heck of it, how many games do you think they won from the beginning of the 2008 season through the end of December 2008? FOUR.
I can hear it now: Oh, but they played better from Oct - Dec of 2008 than the Kings are playing now. Sure they did. I'm sure they looked just great as they were pursuing their four wins over two months. Must have looked a finely tuned machine....?
No doubt their fans were cooing over how great their coach was during that time period also.
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