Oklahoma City Thunder

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09-10 season                                                          Cap Room: 7,189,414                                  Best Bench Player: James Harden

12th place Overall                                                   Luxury Tax: No                                               Power Rankings: 6

8th in Conference                                                    Best Player: Kevin Durant                             Owner: Clay Bennet  

First Round of playoffs                                             Coach: Scott Brooks                                     Team Value: 300 million

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 Starting 5

                                                 PG  Russell Westbrook PR#7                              SG Thabo Sefolosha PR#29                                                                                                                                               

                                                   SF Kevin Durant PR#2                          C Nenad Kristic PR#28                     PF Jeff Green PR#16                                                                                                                                                     

Bench Grade: A

PG Royal Ivey, Eric Maynor SG Daequan Cook, Morris Peterson SF James Harden PF Nick Collison, Serge Ibaka, D.J. White C Byron Mullens, Cole Aldrich,

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 What is keeping the Thunder from beating the Lakers?

Probably the team with the most promise in the NBA. Westbrook and Durant are as scary as one two punches come and James Harden might finally be ready to play a bigger role. But where this team really lacks is in the front court. And every one knows it. They did their best drafting centers left and right in this years draft but none of which will be able to fill the whole in the middle they need filled. They need to make a trade. Either a dominant 4 or 5 is needed to fill the gap inside. The most likely trade bait seem to be Jeff Green, James Harden, Eric Maynor all guys who could play much bigger roles on other teams. No team is truly in all out rebuild mode at right now the only true player that can be dominant right now is Hasheem Thabeet. And what Memphis needs is a point guard. Eric Maynor is young and has a lot of promise. It’s not great for either side but it’s an option. Another choice is to wait. There are 3 bigs on their roster fighting for the starting job. Mullins, Kristic and Aldrich. None of them are great shot blockers or athletic but they are all big. It’s tough to say where they would go. Tyson Chandler would be a great fit but I doubt Dallas would give him up. Right now this team is tough for anyone to play because of the likely MVP of 2010-2011 Kevin Durant but they are still missing pieces and not everything can come through the draft.