Anomaly. Defined as something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. For five seasons prior to last year, the combination of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka was a virtual lock to be playing into late May. Injuries at wrong times in the past prevented the Thunder from reaching the apex of NBA team success.

Last Season

Last year was different though. Last season was the anomaly. It started off with the news during training camp that Durant had sustained a Jones fracture and would be undergoing surgery to repair the break. That one injury seemed to open up the floodgates for what would be a season full of injuries for different players on the team. Injuries became the theme of the season. It was like the verse in Matthew I in the Bible that describes the lineage of Jesus. (Abraham beget Isaac; and Isaac beget Jacob; and Jacob beget Judah......). The Thunder version of that would have been Durant's foot beget Mitch McGary's foot; and McGary's foot beget Anthony Morrow's knee; and Morrow's knee beget Russell Westbrook's hand; and Westbrook's hand beget Perry Jones' knee; and Jones' knee beget Andre Roberson's ankle; and Roberson's ankle beget Durant's foot (again); and Durant's foot beget Steven Adam's hand; and Adam's hand beget Serge Ibaka's knee; and Ibaka's knee and so on and so forth.

In all, Durant missed 55 games, Ibaka missed 18, Nick Collison missed 16, Westbrook and Roberson both missed 15, Adams missed 12, and Anthony Morrow missed eight games. That's 139 games missed by the Thunder's top seven players. Players get injured; that is a fact of life in sports. But when multiple players get injured at the same time during different stretches of the season, it makes it extremely difficult to get any sort of rhythm going. And that ended up being the death knell for the Thunder.

It wasn't for lack of effort, though. Former head coach Scott Brooks did possibly his best job from a "coaching the players up" standpoint. In the beginning of the season, when both Durant and Westbrook were out, Brooks did a good job in keeping the Thunder in contention for most of the games. They started the season 3-12, but only lost those 12 games by an average of 9.5 points, which for a team that featured Serge Ibaka, a selfish Reggie Jackson, Nick Collison as a three-point specialist, Lance Thomas, and Sebastian Telfair, wasn't bad.

Westbrook returned on the 16th game of the season and Durant returned two games later. From that point to the 54th game of the season, the Thunder went 26-13. They were looking and acting like the team we've all grown accustomed to seeing. It was during this time that Durant's foot started acting up on him again. At first it was just a limp at the end of games. But it started to get progressively worse as he played in more and more games. The team first thought the screw that was inserted in Durant's foot was causing him irritation. So they did a surgery to shave off the head of the screw. The hope was that this would alleviate the irritation and inflammation and Durant would return to the team sometime before the playoffs were to begin.

That moment never arrived. Durant played his last game of the season on February 19th. Additional scans revealed the bone was not healing correctly and the team decided, at that point, to shut him down for the season and do a bone graft on his foot. All the while, the team, with new parts in tow (Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler, and Steve Novak) kept battling for a playoff spot. Unfortunately, Ibaka went down with a knee ailment that required surgery around the same time. The team's defense began to steadily decline from there.

Westbrook took the reins of the team and put up a season for the ages. He led the league in scoring (28.1 ppg), triple-doubles (11), and usage rate (38.4%). It was all for naught as the Thunder missed out on the playoffs on the last day of the regular season by virtue of a tiebreaker with the New Orleans Pelicans. Oklahoma City finished with the same record as the Pelicans, but New Orleans beat them in the season series 3-1. In the final game of that season series on February 6th, Anthony Davis nailed a 30-foot double clutch desperation three to win the game. Ironically, that ended up being Davis' only three of the season.

The Offseason

A week into the offseason, the Thunder had one of the more surprising moves of the summer in firing head coach Scott Brooks. It was surprising because Brooks guided this team from a 23-win outfit to one that was constantly competing for a championship. But those close to the team knew there was a growing disconnect between Brooks and Thunder GM Sam Presti. The disconnect was in how to manage the team. Brooks was more old-school in his approach and was reluctant to embrace advanced statistics and analytics. Presti was/is more forward thinking and wanted a coach that could see his vision on how to manage a team using numbers as a tool.

Several weeks later, the Thunder hired Florida University head coach Billy Donovan to be their head coach. Donovan, who had spent the last 19 years coaching in Gainesville while racking up two NCAA championships, was exactly what Presti had been looking for: a young(ish) coach with a championship pedigree and a knowledge of advanced stats. Donovan and Presti have forged a relationship through the years and it finally manifested itself in this new professional relationship.

The first move of the offseason was to trade Jeremy Lamb to the Charlotte Hornets for a second-round pick and Luke Ridnour. The shooting guard from Connecticut, who was one of the key pieces in the James Harden trade, but never panned out in Oklahoma City. Ridnour was then flipped to the Toronto Raptors for a $2.85 million traded player exception.

In the draft, the Thunder selected point guard Cameron Payne out of Murray State with the 14th pick. Payne's name had been attached to the Thunder since the beginning of the workout/draft process. They really liked his scoring ability, ball handling skills, and ability to play on or off the ball.

In the second round, they drafted Kentucky big man Dakari Johnson. A defensive specialist, Johnson will likely spend a season or two in the D-League as the Thunder figure out their big man rotation in the next two seasons.

As the Thunder headed into free agency, the first move they made was to lock up Kyle Singler to a five-year, $24.3 million contract. The signing was initially panned, but as the reality of the new TV money became more and more apparent, the signing of Singler began to make more and more sense.

A smaller signing that may have future ramifications was the signing of Michael Qualls to a training camp contract. The former Arkansas guard was going through his pre-draft workouts when he tore his ACL. Qualls, who was slotted to be a mid-to-late second-round pick, went undrafted due to the injury. The Thunder signed the guard to a training camp contract, with the intention he would rehab with the Oklahoma City Blue this season. The 6'5" guard is an athletic specimen with a 7'0" wingspan. If he recovers, he could be a defensive role player for the Thunder in the future.

The Thunder traded Perry Jones to the Boston Celtics for a highly protected future second-round pick. With that trade, a roster spot opened up for Josh Huestis. Huestis was the Thunder's first-round pick in 2014 who eschewed his guaranteed rookie contract for an entire season while he worked on his game with the team's D-League affiliate. Huestis signed his rookie contract this offseason, and will likely spend much of the year in the D-League to continue working on his game.

The bigger offseason move was the re-signing of Enes Kanter. The Thunder tried signing Kanter to a lesser than max deal, at around $15.5 million per season, but Kanter and his agent went around the league looking for a max contract. The Portland Trail Blazers gave Kanter that max deal (4 yrs/$70 million) and loaded it with poison pills (player option in the final year and a 15% trade kicker bonus). The Thunder, who had been saving for this moment since they arrived in Oklahoma City, matched the offer and retained Kanter.

2015-2016 Outlook

The success of the upcoming season depends entirely on two things: health and overcoming distractions. Not enough can be said for the importance of health on this team. For three seasons, from the 09-10 season to the 11-12 season, the word injury never even crept into the Thunder's vernacular. It was a given that most of the players on the Thunder would play about 80 games per season. That all changed the minute Patrick Beverly crashed into Westbrook's knee in the 2013 NBA playoffs. From that point on, the Thunder's seasons have been crushed by injuries to key players at wrong times. Completely healthy, this team wins at a .700 clip and waltzes to the Western Conference Finals. The depth on this team is great, but depth means nothing if Durant, Westbrook, or Ibaka miss significant time.  

The second thing this season depends on is avoiding distractions. The big, white, unicorned elephant in the room this season is Durant's impending free agency at the end of this season. Every loss will be dissected, every frown at a teammate for not passing him the ball will be micro-analyzed, and every armchair psychologist available will have their input on how Durant feels at different points in the season. Durant has given the standard, "I'm not even thinking about that" answer that every big-time free agent gives heading into the season before his free agency. Will that stop the distractions? Probably not. Will that prevent reporters from asking teammates about his future? Nope. It's just something the team will have to deal with for this season, and possibly beyond.

Durant's future is not the only possible distraction this team may face. The Thunder are one of the deepest teams in the league. They could literally go about 13 deep on any given night. While that is a problem most teams in the league would enjoy having, it also has the possibilities of having its pitfalls. Players like Kanter and Dion Waiters may find that their roles on this team don't necessarily coincide with their abilities. Waiters is entering a contract year, but because of the depth on this team, he may not get the necessary minutes to put up "contract year" type numbers. Kanter made his money this offseason, but because of his defensive deficiencies, may not get the playing time to justify the contract. As the Thunder saw last season with Reggie Jackson, these types of things can become distractions throughout the year.

With all that said, the Thunder will be a lot more cognizant this season on rest for their top players. Durant will likely be on a minute's restriction for the first half of the season. Westbrook will likely see his minutes decreased in response to the work load he put in last season. And Ibaka will likely see a reduction in minutes to preserve his knees. The depth on this team will help this out immensely. In addition, the depth on this team will likely lead to many games where the starters sit out the final quarter due to it being a blowout (in the Thunder's favor, of course). Look for the Thunder to finish with 57-plus wins and a top-three seeding in the Western Conference. Of course, this depends on that all important caveat....."if healthy."

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About the author
Alex Roig
Jordan introduced me to the love of the game. Civically connected to all Oklahoma teams (yes, even you, OSU). If there's a ball and a court/field, I'm playing. Hoping to turn this blogging thing into a profession.