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Sports teams that remind you of OKC's roster of Harden, Westbrook, and Durant

Deleted member 31923

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Nov 8, 2017
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I was just thinking as OKC is likely to get tossed in the first round for the third year in a row what is would have been like if the OKC team that had Harden, Westbrook, and Durant had stayed together. That's actually 3 MVP winners on one team. Even Golden State "only" has 2 MVP winners. Would OKC have become a dynasty? Could they have all played together well? Would the Warriors dynasty have happened? Would my Cavs have won a championship? Lots of unknowns, but it would have been amazing to see them all stay together.

What are teams like OKC in any sport that were absolutely stacked, but due to injuries, trades, free agency, or whatever, never got to see their potential fulfilled and were cut short?
 
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mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,137
clevbrowns95 said:
I was just thinking as OKC is likely to get tossed in the first round for the third year in a row what is would have been like if the OKC team that had Harden, Westbrook, and Durant had stayed together. That's actually 3 MVP winners on one team. Even Golden State "only" has 2 MVP winners. Would OKC have become a dynasty? Could they have all played together well? Would the Warriors dynasty have happened? Would my Cavs have won a championship? Lots of unknowns, but it would have been amazing to see them all stay together.

What are teams like OKC in any sport that were absolutely stacked, but due to injuries, trades, free agency, or whatever, never got to see their potential fulfilled and were cut short?
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The one caveat is that I don't think all three of those guys win MVP if they stick together, nor do I think that they would have been all that happy. But that was a masterclass in tanking, compiling draft picks, getting out of a city, then drafting super well, like historically well.
 
Deception

Deception

Member
Nov 15, 2017
8,419
OKC traded the wrong player when they dealt Harden to the Rockets. Had they sent Westbrook instead and kept a core of Ibaka, Durant and Harden, i'm sure they'd still be together and probably have at least 1 ring/finals trip. Westbrook, for as great good of an individual talent as he is, is not a winning player.
 
EN1GMA

EN1GMA

Avenger
Nov 7, 2017
3,269
Steelers had the top WR in the game the top RB in the game and a top 5 QB.

Now they have Ben.
 
metalslimer

metalslimer

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,558
Trading harden was horrendously stupid especially with what they got, but harden doesnt become harden as a 6th man on that team.

And KD literally ran away to escape Westbrook so. I agree with the above of a duo of Harden and Dursnt could have been special
 
CopperPuppy

CopperPuppy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,636
You never know what each player's trajectory would have been if they all stuck together. Would they have been a great team? Almost certainly. Would they have been a dynasty? Debatable. Two of the Thunder's biggest problems (currently) are coaching and Westbrook's inefficiency. James Harden, to be the player he is today, similarly commands an astronomical usage rate. Durant is the best of the three but often bristled at Westbrook's decision-making. I see that as being even more of a problem had he shared the court with both a prime Westbrook and Harden. To top it all off, they have never had the coaching to make such a tricky dynamic work. That's a huge part of it.

The long-story-short is that the potential was enormous, but the execution would have been far from guaranteed.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,137
The other "what if" team that I can think of is the Magic. If Grant Hill had been healthy, he and McGrady would have been a devastating one-two punch. Then add the fact that Duncan was seriously considering joining them in free agency. Plus a young Doc coaching them.

The other one that confounds me is Dirk winning a ring after Nash left. Kind of like the Lakers finally winning after Baylor retired.

Oh I guess that's another what-if, the West-Baylor-Chamberlain trio. Celtics were just too dominant and West and Baylor had too many injuries.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

Drive-in Mutant
Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,614
2003 Lakers (lost in glorious fashion to the Pistons)
Shaq
Kobe
Payton
Malone

1998 Vikings
Cunningham
Moss
Carter

2007 Pats
Brady
Moss
Welker
Seau
Bruschi

Those 90s University of Michigan teams (Fab Five)
Chris Webber
Juwan Howard
Jalen Rose

90s Buffalo Bills
Jim Kelly
Thurman Thomas
Bruce Smith
Andre Reed
James Lofton

OKC still dealing with that Sonics curse.
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,684
clevbrowns95 said:
Not quite 3 ball hogs, but people questioned whether the Lebron Heat would work out, and I would say it went pretty well. You don't have to work out long term to knock out a few championships like they did.
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Don't see Westbrook ever playing nice with both of them. Lebron took an ego hit to win a championship, Westbrook would never do that and thats why he is all alone now.
 
rsfour

rsfour

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,720
mrmoose said:
The other "what if" team that I can think of is the Magic. If Grant Hill had been healthy, he and McGrady would have been a devastating one-two punch. Then add the fact that Duncan was seriously considering joining them in free agency. Plus a young Doc coaching them.

The other one that confounds me is Dirk winning a ring after Nash left. Kind of like the Lakers finally winning after Baylor retired.

Oh I guess that's another what-if, the West-Baylor-Chamberlain trio. Celtics were just too dominant and West and Baylor had too many injuries.
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Or if McGrady stayed with Carter.
 
RavFiveFour

RavFiveFour

Banned
Dec 3, 2018
1,721
Good question OP I got news for you though, plenty of teams and it doesn't take science to figure it out that team chemistry is significantly better than having 3 MVPs on your team.
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,950
The 1998-1999 Manchester United team. They should have dominated more.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,137
clevbrowns95 said:
Not quite 3 ball hogs, but people questioned whether the Lebron Heat would work out, and I would say it went pretty well. You don't have to work out long term to knock out a few championships like they did.
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That's a little different, though. Bosh sacrificed the most and Wade gave his team over to Lebron, but both of them had already had individual success on their own, with Wade even winning a championship. This would be three guys in their primes, two of which would want control of the ball and the third would still be the best scorer of the bunch and should have the ball in his hands the most. Plus Harden was coming off the bench because the team played better like that, no way that could have continued.
 
BringBackSonics

BringBackSonics

Member
Oct 27, 2017
44,942
Seattle
clevbrowns95 said:
I was just thinking as OKC is likely to get tossed in the first round for the third year in a row what is would have been like if the OKC team that had Harden, Westbrook, and Durant had stayed together. That's actually 3 MVP winners on one team. Even Golden State "only" has 2 MVP winners. Would OKC have become a dynasty? Could they have all played together well? Would the Warriors dynasty have happened? Would my Cavs have won a championship? Lots of unknowns, but it would have been amazing to see them all stay together.

What are teams like OKC in any sport that were absolutely stacked, but due to injuries, trades, free agency, or whatever, never got to see their potential fulfilled and were cut short?
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Click to shrink...


Good.

Edit: yes I'm still bitter.
 

Books

Alt account
Banned
Feb 4, 2019
2,180
Clippers had Griffin, Jordan, CP3 poised to take over.

A few years before that they had Miles, Richardson, and Odom and all the Youngblood poised to take over.

A few years after that they had Cassell, Mobley, and Brand poised to take over.
 
NinjaScooter

NinjaScooter

Member
Oct 25, 2017
54,065
Ken Griffey Jr
Edgar Martinez
Randy johnson
Alex Rodriguez

4 Hall of Famers (and Jay Fucking Buchner!) were all on the same team at one point in Seattle.
 
Grouch Douglass

Grouch Douglass

Banned
Nov 9, 2017
3,777
Westbrook showed last night how his game is not that impressive when compared to the other two. His stat/triple double chasing style of play doesn't really translate into playoff wins. Would much rather have Dame on my team than Russ. Russ had a -27 plus/minus last night, worst on the team
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,137
Books said:
Clippers had Griffin, Jordan, CP3 poised to take over.

A few years before that they had Miles, Richardson, and Odom and all the Youngblood poised to take over.

A few years after that they had Cassell, Mobley, and Brand poised to take over.
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As a clips fan, those last two weren't poised to take over. They were poised to make the playoffs and win a round but they weren't going to go toe to toe with Shaq/Kobe or anything.

Griffin/Jordan/CP3/Reddick/Crawford are intriguing if only because of the dramatic ways they found to lose... from the racism of the owner taking a spotlight to completely falling apart against the Rockets and the three point shooting of Josh Smith, to both CP3 and Blake getting constantly injured; they never really had a shot.

I still don't get why CP3 didn't take more criticism for joining the team that destroyed them in the playoffs. Maybe because it wasn't the year after.
 
Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday

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Oct 27, 2017
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'27 Yankees were GOAT
80s Lakers had Magic, Kareem, and Worthy
Lebron/Wade/Bosh was ridiculous on paper.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

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Oct 25, 2017
41,614
NinjaScooter said:
Ken Griffey Jr
Edgar Martinez
Randy johnson
Alex Rodriguez

4 Hall of Famers (and Jay Fucking Buchner!) were all on the same team at one point in Seattle.
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I had repressed that memory until now. 16 year old me was in tears when they got beat by the Yanks. I was more crushed by that than I was the Ms losing in the divisional playoff round after winning 116 games.
 
Bronx-Man

Bronx-Man

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,351
Might be too soon, but this year's Cleveland Browns look stacked star-wise. Baker Mayfield, OBJ, Nick Chubb, etc.
 
Superpupperbabysassy

Superpupperbabysassy

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Oct 29, 2017
12,643
Deception said:
OKC traded the wrong player when they dealt Harden to the Rockets. Had they sent Westbrook instead and kept a core of Ibaka, Durant and Harden, i'm sure they'd still be together and probably have at least 1 ring/finals trip. Westbrook, for as great good of an individual talent as he is, is not a winning player.
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Also remember that OKC turned down a trade for Klay Thompson. He would have helped them.
 

ZiggyPalffyLA

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
4,504
Los Angeles, California
People always forget about the 2002 Red Wings. That team was STACKED:

Chris Chelios*
Pavel Datsyuk**
Sergei Federov*
Dominik Hasek*
Brett Hull*
Igor Larionov*
Nicklas Lidstrom*
Luc Robitaille*
Brendan Shanahan*
Steve Yzerman*

*Hall of Famer
**Future Hall of Famer

And many other solid players like Kris Draper, Manny Legace, and Tomas Holmstrom
 
Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,392
Durant and Curry both have very high USG% on a fairly loaded starting 5 right now. That OKC team would still be competing for championships right now...if Westbrook accepted a diminished role. He's by far the least efficient of the three but his usage rate has remained the highest throughout his career.

USG % 2019 (Career avg in parenthesis):

Curry - 30.4 (27.9)
Durant - 29.0 (30.1)
Klay Thompson 25.6 (24.7)
Harden - 40.5 (30.2)
Westbrook - 30.9 (32.6)
Paul George - 29.5 (26.3)

USG % 2016 (Warriors 73 win season, Curry MVP season, pre-Durant)

Curry - 32.6
Durant - 30.6
Westbrook - 31.6

USG % 2014 (Durant MVP season)
Durant - 33.0
Westbrook - 34.4

USG % 2012 (year of the OKC finals team, Lebron MVP season):

Durant - 31.3
Harden - 21.6
Westbrook - 32.7
Lebron James - 32.0 (31.5)
Dwyane Wade - 31.3 (31.4)
Chris Bosh - 24.2 (24.6)

TLDR having multiple high USG% guys on the same team isn't new or even a bad thing. You want the ball in the hands of highly skilled players the majority of the time, forcing teams to react as they score consistently. But even coming off the bench in 2012, Harden was a much more efficient scorer than Westbrook, with a TS% of 66% compared to Russ' 54%. Anyone who was paying attention could tell you that trading him for garbage (sorry Kevin whoever) was a bad move. Westbrook has had a usage rate as high as, or higher than, the best players in the league every year, even when they're on his team. OKC could have easily had a contender for half a decade by building around Durant and Harden. They thought they had the better player in Westbrook and have gone all in on catering to his play style, which after this season and current playoffs should show isn't a way to win consistently.
 

mrmoose

Member
Nov 13, 2017
21,137
Sho_Nuff82 said:
Durant and Curry both have very high USG% on a fairly loaded starting 5 right now. That OKC team would still be competing for championships right now...if Westbrook accepted a diminished role. He's by far the least efficient of the three but his usage rate has remained the highest throughout his career.

USG % 2019 (Career avg in parenthesis):

Curry - 30.4 (27.9)
Durant - 29.0 (30.1)
Klay Thompson 25.6 (24.7)
Harden - 40.5 (30.2)
Westbrook - 30.9 (32.6)
Paul George - 29.5 (26.3)

USG % 2016 (Warriors 73 win season, Curry MVP season, pre-Durant)

Curry - 32.6
Durant - 30.6
Westbrook - 31.6

USG % 2014 (Durant MVP season)
Durant - 33.0
Westbrook - 34.4

USG % 2012 (year of the OKC finals team, Lebron MVP season):

Durant - 31.3
Harden - 21.6
Westbrook - 32.7
Lebron James - 32.0 (31.5)
Dwyane Wade - 31.3 (31.4)
Chris Bosh - 24.2 (24.6)

TLDR having multiple high USG% guys on the same team isn't new or even a bad thing. You want the ball in the hands of highly skilled players the majority of the time, forcing teams to react as they score consistently. But even coming off the bench in 2012, Harden was a much more efficient scorer than Westbrook, with a TS% of 66% compared to Russ' 54%. Anyone who was paying attention could tell you that trading him for garbage (sorry Kevin whoever) was a bad move. Westbrook has had a usage rate as high as, or higher than, the best players in the league every year, even when they're on his team. OKC could have easily had a contender for half a decade by building around Durant and Harden. They thought they had the better player in Westbrook and have gone all in on catering to his play style, which after this season and current playoffs should show isn't a way to win consistently.
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All that analysis but you're forgetting one factor... the coach. Plus the fact that OKC is notoriously cheap and would've cheaped out well before they reached dynasty phase (probably after one championship).

This is the team that decided who they were going to draft in the late first round by asking who was willing to play overseas for a year or two.
 
Deception

Deception

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Nov 15, 2017
8,419
Superpupperbabysassy said:
Also remember that OKC turned down a trade for Klay Thompson. He would have helped them.
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But then Harden would have been on the Golden State. Oh boy, can you just imagine how different NBA history would be if they trade had happened? LeBron probably has 4-5 rings right now and signs with a contender instead of choosing LA to chase Jordan's 6. Curry probably never becomes the stud he did. Who knows what would have become of Durant and if they would have stood together this long. Hell, maybe we'd have seen the Thunder vs Cavs/Whatever team LeBron was on in the finals for 3 years instead.

Brb, inventing the what-if machine to see how this played out.
 
Violence Jack

Violence Jack

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Oct 25, 2017
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How about that vaunted Eagles "dream team" back in 2011?

Vick
Vince Young
McCoy
Ronnie Brown
Asomugha
Rogers-Cromartie
Desean Jackson
Jeremy Maclin
Assante Samuel

Didn't even make the playoffs.
 
MikeRahl

MikeRahl

Member
Oct 27, 2017
419
2003-2004 Lakers were one year out of their 3-peat. Load up with Gary Payton and Karl Malone, make it back to the finals but get worked over by the Pistons. Kobe and Shaq have their beef and Shaq gets traded. Didn't have 3 concurrent MVPs but Malone was... 4? years out of his second and Shaq was a bit more recent.

Also in that year, the Avalanche loaded up with Kariya and Selanne to go with Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, and Peter Forsberg. They were undone with Kariya and Forsberg being injured and poor goaltending.
 
Lunchbox-

Lunchbox-

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Nov 2, 2017
11,843
bEast Coast
Every Peyton Manning team

GMs stacked that choking hgh abusers line ups his entire career with hall of fame receivers ....and he struggled to get 1/3 of Brady's haul
 
Vestal

Vestal

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
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Oct 26, 2017
2,297
Tampa FL
The original Big 3..

TMC.

Tim Hardaway
Mitch Richmond
Chris Mullin
 
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