The Oklahoma City Thunder locker room has heard the noise. The expectations came from the outside, as those around the country saw the team trade most of its core. It came from inside as management explained its offseason moves.
It’s a rebuild, management and outsiders agree. The Thunder subtracted payroll and added more draft picks to their collection at the likely expense of this coming season.
Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who the team is building around, said he’s not worried about the expectations for the team.
“I’m not worried about nothing outside of this building and what we’re trying to achieve, and that’s getting better every day,” he said.
That improvement is another piece of the rebuild in management’s eyes. Guys such as Gilgeous-Alexander will play a bigger role and learn how to be the go-to player of a team. Second-year players Darius Bazley and Lu Dort will not be able to take a backseat to the veteran leaders on the court.
“We’re not worried about our expectations or nothing like that, we’re just worried about ourselves,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Low expectations aren’t just due to trading away Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder and Steven Adams while losing Danilo Gallinari in a sign-and-trade. The Western Conference is as strong as it has ever been, and it feels as though 14 teams are going into the season with internal hopes of either grabbing a playoff spot or getting into the play-in tournament.
The Thunder, that 15th team, can still make this season successful by improving.
“Every team that I’ve been on so far in my career, that’s been the main goal, and the outcomes take care of themselves, as long as we take care of the little things every day,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
[lawrence-related id=439987,439860]