This story is NOT about the Thunder ...

[Nikolokolus]

Well, OK it technically is about the Thunder on the surface, but really it's more about the pitfalls of using the 'slow and steady wins the race' approach to roster building and just how much luck factors into team success. I found it especially relevant given the composition of our own team and all of the hopes and dreams we've pinned on this group getting to the promised land and how those hopes and dreams can sometimes get a bucket of cold water thrown on them with injuries or other setbacks.

J.A. Adande
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2010/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=thunder-100501

Everything about the franchise says stability. As incredible as it might seem, Brooks, who has a career record of 72-79 even after this 50-win season, has more job security than the 10-time champion Jackson right now.

But there's nothing to guarantee it will all work out for the Thunder. The ruthless NBA is often kinder to day traders than to long-term investors.

After his Lakers owned the 1980s, Magic Johnson predicted that the Cleveland Cavaliers would be the team of the '90s. Then Michael Jordan and a certain "Shot" happened and the Cavs were done before the decade they were supposed to rule even began.

Jordan called the Washington Bullets with the former Fab Five combo of Chris Webber and Juwan Howard the "team of the future" after his Bulls beat them in a closely contested first-round sweep in 1997. That group never made the playoffs again and was dismantled after a string of off-court incidents.

I've even seen an ecstatic group of young Los Angeles Clippers so happy that Lamar Odom was dancing on the scorers' table in front of an adoring crowd after the last home game of the 2001-02 season. That fun-loving group had Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles knocking down 3s and pounding their heads, with Elton Brand racking up double-doubles, and the Clippers could afford to dream big.

"I remember when I had my first game at the Staples Center," Odom said. "I always thought that I was going to be the first Clipper who was going to have his number retired, sitting up there amongst the Lakers [legends], there would be one Clipper jersey up there.

"But things happen," said Odom, who had a league-imposed suspension for violating the drug policy among the "things." "I was a young man, my decisions off the court weren't the best. There were a couple of trades, a couple of injuries and the team wasn't as interested in me as they were when I was a rookie or my second year."

If Durant can reach the LeBron-Kobe-Wade level and Presti can add the right pieces and none of the main pieces are lured away by bigger cities or more money, and they can remain as healthy as they did in this virtually injury-free season, then it could.

If not, then those old Cavs, Clippers and Bullets teams will have to make room at the diner counter on the boulevard of broken dreams.

All those 'ifs' and 'buts' we're all too familiar with ourselves ... maybe there's a lesson in there for KP and Paul Allen?

 

[Ed O]

Let it bake!

Ed O.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Let's get baked!

 

[e_blazer]

I'm not sure what the lesson is other than sometimes, even with the best of planning and the greatest of luck, things work out and sometimes they don't.

 

[DaRizzle]

yup.....I think he wrote a similar story last year actually...

...The Hornets with Peja, Tyson, and West balling along with Paul is another good example

Nuggets are on the verge of their window closing (if it already didnt, my god Kenyon Martin is a moron)

 

[RoyToy]

He's been reading my posts.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Adande is a hopeless Laker homer who wants to dismiss any possible rivals.