National Basketball Association (NBA) rightly says – Where Amazing Happens! and the current NBA Season has been nothing short of an amazing season. Can say a roller-coaster ride. A few expected guests heading the Conference Standings and a few unexpected guests stranded at the lower half of the table, notably the NBA Finalists of last season – the Western Conference Champions – Golden State Warriors. Plenty of reasons to be at that position as Kevin Durant left for Brooklyn Nets and Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson ruled out for the season.
Coming back to the Surprise package of the year-Oklahoma City Thunder. This team was considered to have a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs this season and is currently sitting on No.6 seed at a stacked Western Conference.
DENVER, CO – July 11 : The Denver Nuggets introduce Jerami Grant on July 11, 2019 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images) 
A complete shift started when they traded their longtime franchise player – Russell Westbrook to Houston Rockets where he reunites with his longtime friend and ex-teammate James Harden, Paul George was then moved to the LA Clippers where he joined hands with Kwahi Leonard, Traded Jerami Grant to the Western Conference giants Denver Nuggets, released Raymond Felton and many more. It was a direction towards a lottery pick for the upcoming season for a rebuild. Every trades were questioned by the NBA Legends, Pundits, ESPN, even the fans were clueless what was up.
Being a longtime OKC follower myself, I was still analyzing how and what were they up-to. 75% of the starting 5 from 2019-19 season was traded leaving Terrence Ferguson and Steven Adams only ones left from the starting 5 of the previous season.
Now, what did they receive – one of the promising rookie of 2018-19 season Shai Gilgeous -Alexander a 21-year-old sophomore from the LA Clippers and Danilo Gallinari as a part of Paul George Trade. Chris Paul enters OKC as a part of Westbrook’s trade to the Houston Rockets. OKC keeps their big man Steven Adams, 6th man Dennis Schroder, Terrance Ferguson and resigns Nerlens Noel.
This team still looks like a lottery team on paper. It seems like entering a new decade with a clueless intention and hell loads of lottery picks. Billy Donovan, OKC’s head coach was unable to guide OKC post 1st round of Playoffs post-Kevin Durant era had a lot to prove here about his coaching capabilities. The only notable player of an All-Star Caliber left in the squad was Chris Paul who was entering the 15th year of his career where he was almost successful in knocking out GSW in the conference semi-finals the past season.
But the story had a different conclusion, Billy Donovan has created heroes amongst the stacked Western Conference. Let us not focus on CP. Here’s a look at Shai Gilgeous -Alexander stats for the season – 19.3 pts, 6.2 rebs, 3.3 assists (all career highs), Contender for 6th Man of the Year Dennis Schroder stats of the bench – 19.3 pts,3.8 rebs,4.0 assists. Danilo Gallinari who himself was questioning his trade to OKC is himself having a career year – 19.3pts, 5.6reb,2.2 assists.
Chris Paul was selected for his 10th All-Star Game in his career making a comeback post-2016 and is currently the cluchest player for the season. The bench has come up strong this season where the average 39.3 points per game which is significantly higher than the Utah Jazz at 31.7, Houston Rockets at 27.4 and Philly at 30.3
As the playoffs are nearing, it won’t be a surprise if they could upset the higher seeds namely the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz where they could be the possible 1st round match-ups.
Selfinator 
Very informative. An easy 5star.
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