For the majority of the NBA, the All-Star break ends on Tuesday. Many of the league’s teams will report and practice for two days before beginning post-break competition on Thursday.
Oklahoma City is one of the few teams that won’t play until Friday when they host the Western Conference’s second-place team, the Denver Nuggets. Few could have predicted that they’d be preparing for a high-stakes game in mid-February.
With only 27 games remaining in their season, the 33-22 Thunder will enter play on February 18 tied for the seventh seed with the Dallas Mavericks and trail the Houston Rockets for sixth by just 1.5 games. After abruptly agreeing to trade both Russell Westbrook and Paul George this past summer, it was impossible to imagine the club being in this situation. Yet here they are.
For context, after 55 games last season, the Thunder was 36-19 — only three games better than their current pace. In many ways, Chris Paul deserves credit.
Paul has managed to pass the All-Star break still wearing a Thunder jersey — a bit of a surprise considering the fact that he didn’t appear to “fit in” with the team’s long-term vision. Aside from helping defy the expectations that most outside of the organization had for the young club, though, Paul has provided something quite valuable — a real-life illustration of being a winner.
Sure, as he closes in on his 35th birthday, Paul knows that he doesn’t have much time left in the league, but judging by his numbers (as well as his alley-oop dunk during this Sunday’s All-Star game), he probably has more left in the tank than many have given him credit for. Even at his fairly ripe age, the one thing that’s been a constant in his career is that he’s led his teams to mostly defying expectations. Thus far, not even in Oklahoma City has that trend ended.
In 31.8 minutes per game for Billy Donovan’s club, Paul’s scoring is up from last season, going from 15.6 points in Houston to 17.4 points in Oklahoma City. And although he is averaging a career-low 6.4 assists per game, that’s easily explained by him effectively splitting point guard and ball-sharing duties with both Dennis Schroder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
While trading Westbrook and George was certainly difficult, somehow, simultaneously, general manager Sam Presti managed to get a young prize in Gilgeous-Alexander, corral a whopping 13 first-round picks over the next seven years and remain competitive in the Western Conference.
Paul probably shouldn’t be credited for all of this, but without his leadership and his productive play, it’s safe to say that the Thunder wouldn’t be flirting with the postseason. They’ll enter play on February 18 leading the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies by 4.5 games in the standings — a fairly safe cushion with less than 30 games to play.
From his switching to a plant-based diet to his never bristling at being given the task of leading the rebuilding Thunder, many within the Thunder organization have cited Paul’s willingness to embrace the franchise as a major catalyst for their success. It’s difficult to imagine a toiling team succeeding if their best and highest-paid player was a malcontent.
In the end, it was a win-win. Paul has managed to improve his standing across the league and at least somewhat quell the concerns that he was too far gone and over the hill to fully earn the $85 million due to him over the two seasons following this one. He certainly wants to be competing for a championship, but instead of issuing a trade demand, he’s done all that he can to help Oklahoma City compete. That’s not something every player is capable of.
Moving forward, any team that’s within striking distance of being a championship contender could be put over the top by acquiring a player of Paul’s caliber, assuming he can keep healthy. He is currently on pace to play at least 78 games for just the sixth time in his career, and for the first time in the past five years.
In other words, Sam Presti has somehow managed to get the very best version of Paul he could have hoped for. About seventh months after puling off a pair of blockbuster trades — one dealing the franchise’s favorite son away to Houston — one thing has become clear about Paul.
For the Thunder, at least to this point, he’s been the best-case scenario.