“I have no idea what their plan is.”
That’s a line about the Oklahoma City Thunder that stands out in Zach Harper’s “too early” NBA power rankings for The Athletic.
The Thunder are No. 18 in these power rankings, down from their No. 9 finish last season. Harper doesn’t know what their plan is, but there is some optimism that they won’t bottom out after head coach Billy Donovan left and speculation that point guard Chris Paul is out the door.
Harper wrote:
Fleece a team for Chris Paul and hire a coach. The Oklahoma City Thunder are still looking for a coach, and they’ll likely make a good hire. Sam Presti is pretty trustworthy with his decisions.
The Thunder were ranked as the No. 11 team in the absolutely loaded West, ahead of just the Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Danilo Gallinari is expected to sign elsewhere, and a Paul trade would drastically change how the team looks — and that’s if they do trade him, which is not an absolute guarantee.
There are plenty of angles the Thunder could take. So Harper played it safe, which he acknowledged:
I’m hedging a bit. Going into last season, I figured they’d fall off once they traded CP3. They never traded him and they exceeded expectations. I guess I’m expecting them to sink into that rebuild a bit more, which would then drop them in the West for a short time. This is simply a guess on them though without much confidence.
Our gif on the beat (shoutout Zach Harper for including these):