The Arrival of Paul George Still Doesn't Make OKC Contenders

When Sam Presti pried four-time All-Star Paul George away from the Oklahoma City Thunder this offseason, people immediately moved the Thunder up the standings and called them contenders. We all throw around the word “contender” on a regular basis, as if there’s some sort of locked-in definition to what it means in the NBA. There is no recipe or equation that can prove if you’re a legitimate contender, and not even a Charles Barkley rambling anecdote about contending back in his day can give you the answer you’re looking for. We may not be able to reach an agreement on an exact Webster’s Dictionary definition of what a contender is, but hopefully we can all agree that despite the addition of Paul George, OKC is not.

In today's NBA, there’s an unfortunate practice of measuring teams up against the Golden State Warriors to see if they’re tall enough to ride this ride built for those who can hoist a championship. It’s sad that we've had to compare every single move in the arms race that was this offseason against the Warriors’ roster, but just look what the Warriors have done this offseason. Steph Curry is out at weddings mocking LeBron James’ workout dance, and Kevin Durant is sitting back in his new insult sneakers while sending Twitter trolls to the burn unit of the hospital through his burner account. They’re not worried about any duo or any team, and they shouldn’t be.

That brings us to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Normally, pairing an All-NBA superstar in Paul George with an MVP who just broke the record for most triple-doubles in a season would be enough to propel a team to the NBA Finals, but we don’t live in a normal NBA anymore. We live in a world where we can actually take advice from what Kevin Durant said on his fake-Twitter and use it properly in context to describe this current Thunder team.

He may have been speaking about how there was no one on the team but himself and Westbrook back in his OKC days, but you can apply that same exact logic to this year’s team by simply plugging in George’s name. Adding him can shoot the Thunder up the standings, but the Warriors are in a different solar system at the moment.

Saying there’s no one else on OKC would just be ignorant. Khal Steven is as good as they get for the dying breed at center, Patrick Patterson fits the mold of a stretch-four in today’s NBA and Andre Roberson is an All-NBA-worthy defender. This team was one of the most underrated defenses in the league last year having finishing third in defensive rebound percentage, 10th in blocked shots, and 10th in defensive rating. They then added a three-time All-NBA defensive player in George. Somehow, it’s still not enough to take down the four-headed monster that serves as the gatekeeper of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Just look back at the 2015-16 Thunder. Individually the players still on OKC have improved since then, but that team couldn’t take down the Warriors with Durant there. George may be enough to help the Thunder pass those that were in front of them last year, but just by comparing his last Pacers season to KD’s final year in OKC, the addition simply isn’t big enough.

George’s stats are similar but clearly a downgrade. That Thunder team still couldn’t beat the Warriors before they added Durant to the mix. PG-13 might have to bump that rating up to an R and start slaughtering basketball hoops on a nightly basis like Russ did last season, which he apparently intends to do by bringing the MVP trophy back home to Oklahoma City.

People are expecting George and Westbrook to mesh together to form the closest real-life version of the morphing Power Rangers, but the two-headed attack should still fall short of the Warriors. What separates the Warriors from the rest of the league aside from the massive amount of scoring talent on their roster is their ability to use it. Nobody on the team has to dominate the ball, as they had just one player finish in the top-20 in usage with Curry at 14th overall amongst players who played in at least 40 games. The NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant finished 26th, Klay Thompson couldn’t even crack the top 40, and Draymond Green was nowhere even close, yet all four are All-Stars. No one needs to take over a game to beat you handily, which is their deadliest weapon of all.

The Thunder, on the other hand, are expected to get more usage out of George and Westbrook than Dos Equis did with the original Most Interesting Man in the World before they kicked him to the curb. Westbrook finished on top of the league with a staggering 40.3 usage % while George came in 16th at 29%. We all expect Westbrook’s usage % to take a hit, especially since he touched the ball more than Space Jam Jordan at times.

The pairing will likely help both players increase their efficiency, as they won’t be the only star on the court; but there’s still likely going to be a lot of hero ball going on in OKC. The age of hero ball-driven success is dead, at least if you want to win a championship. Paul George and Russell Westbrook might be the greatest show on hardwood at times next season and you can even throw the word "contender" around as much as you’d like as they bury defenses night in and night out. Just know that the road to contention is a one-way street to Golden State.