Revisiting those 35 statements

USATSI

Oh man.

As I stupidly do, I made 35 statements with extreme confidence back in October. This was after Kevin Durant had his first foot surgery, but before he had his second foot surgery and before he had his third foot surgery. It was before Russell Westbrook broke his hand, and before we knew that Sebastian Telfair and Lance Thomas would be starting games.

So, safe to say, I didn’t have much success this season with these here statements. Let us look back at them and laugh/cry.

1. Russell Westbrook will lead the league in triple-doubles. Off to a great start! I’m so smart! Could I possibly be about to nail all 35???

What I said then:  “When he gets into his I’m-gonna-kill-everyone mode, he becomes a nightmare on the offensive glass and just by process of elimination, he’s going to be running almost the entirety of the offense for at least a month. It’s going to become routine he has seven rebounds and nine assists heading into the fourth quarter.”

Man, this is going so well already.

2. Serge Ibaka will win Defensive Player of the Year. Noooooooooope. But you could make the case Ibaka was still the most valuable defensive player in the league this season based on the impact of his absence alone.

After Ibaka had knee surgery, he missed the final 18 games of the season. The Thunder allowed 109.3 points per 100 possessions in those 18 games, which was 28th in the league over that time, only better than the Lakers and Timberwolves.

3. The Thunder will have to play a game with three players at some point in November. The sad thing is, we could all laugh a little at the injuries back in October. But then is became reality that it was a season-long thing.

4. The Thunder will have three All-Stars. They had two! That’s only one off! I’m counting this one as correct.

5. Steven Adams will start opening night. Nailed it. Nailed it so hard.

6. Westbrook will set a new game career-high… in assists. He not only did that, but he set a new career-high and tied it two other times.

I said this: “He’ll have a game where his dishes out 17 or 18 dimes and then he’ll show up post game wearing a a sleeveless Starter jacket and a hardhat.”

Westbrook had 17 assists against the Nuggets, 17 against the Raptors and 17 against the Heat. All in a 30-day span.

7. Okay, and points too. Got ’em. Broke his 45-point mark with a 54 piece against the Pacers.

8. Andre Roberson will start all 82 games. He only started 65, but only because he missed 15 games from two different injuries. The two games he played and didn’t start were as a result of coming back from injury.

9. Anthony Morrow will hit 200 3-pointers. This was ambitious. Actually, just dumb, really. But Morrow still ended up with 141 this season, and did it in 74 games. That means if he had played all 82, he only would’ve needed to hit 7.4 a game in those eight games he missed. Totally would’ve happened too. I’m sure of it.

10. Steven Adams will finish with 10 double-doubles. He finished with… 10. Adams had two in his rookie season, and clearly made major leaps this season. He even had double-doubles in five straight games at one point.

11. Kevin Durant will return Dec. 14 against the Suns. Durant’s first game back was Dec. 2, against the Pelicans. No, he didn’t not rush back or return early. He came back within his timetable for recovery.

12. Kendrick Perkins will forget to wear shoes one game. Remember when times were good and we could all share a laugh about ol’ Perk?

13. The Thunder won’t finish in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Playing without your best offensive and defensive players for large stretches of the season will make things like this difficult. The Thunder still finished 11th in offensive efficiency, their first time out of the top 10 in six years.

They finished 16th in defensive efficiency, the first time out of the top five in two years, and top 10 in four.

14. Durant won’t win the scoring title. I KNEW IT.

15. Adams will foul out 11 times. He only fouled out three times. And that’s with playing 11 minutes more per game. That’s an underrated development.

16. Adams will force four ejections and two suspensions. I think he forced one ejection this season, right?

17. Durant will make an All-Defense team. Honorable mention this season. In our hearts.

18. The Thunder will let 18 trade exceptions expire. WRONG. They used one! (To get Dion Waiters) but they used one!

19. Scott Brooks will use 15 different starting lineups. He used 16. And not because of flexibility and creativity. But just out of necessity. Lance Thomas started 13 games. Perry Jones started 13. Jeremy Lamb started eight. Sebastian Telfair started one, and at a point was a critical piece to the team.

20. Mitch McGary will set a Twitter record for emoji use. You know what was a majorly disappointing aspect of the Thunder’s season? Missing the playoffs, Kevin Durant’s three surgeries, the frustrating losses? No, no and no. Mitch McGary’s Twitter. I thought we were going to have something special here. All we got was pictures of his car and World Star retweets.

21. Steven Adams will pop a basketball pulling down a rebound. That’s how he broke his hand, right? I’m pretty sure that’s how he broke his hand.

22. Westbrook will be suspended a game because of technicals. Stupid NBA, rescinded two of his last three. I’m counting this one.

23. Reggie Jackson will win Sixth Man of the Year. Oooooooooooops.

24. Sometime around March, Scott Brooks will finally learn he’s been saying “flustrated” instead of “frustrated.” It never happened. And it never will. So flustrating.

25. The Thunder won’t make a significant trade deadline move and there will be griping. I said this: “Something to read into here: I don’t think the Thunder are trading Reggie Jackson this season, regardless of his contract situation. They’ve never let anyone reach restricted free agency, and while they sure as heck don’t want him to now, they’re going to ride the year out and see what happens. Jackson’s not too important to lose, but he probably is this season.”

Whifffffff. Before the season, that was the Thunder’s thinking, though. They truly wanted to keep Reggie Jackson. But it became pretty apparent, just two games into the season, that Jackson did not want to remain part of the Thunder. And that started a downward spiral that resulted in him being traded. Good thing too, because in the end, the Thunder appear to have come out better from it all.

26. Durant will have his minutes slashed by two a game. They were actually slashed by 4.7 a game. Details as to why are unimportant.

27. Nick Collison’s hair will average a double-double. Got this one wrong. Because it was a triple-double.

28. The Thunder will lose to the Wizards in Washington D.C. “The one thing you can be absolutely sure of this season. This will happen.”

The Thunder won in overtime on a Westbrook game-winning layup. This was our championship.

29. Jeremy Lamb will do just enough to buy more time in a Thunder uniform. Well, he made it through another season. Somehow. I don’t know if by his own doing, but by sheer coincidence.

But, I still think Lamb is going to get a shot at some point. One of the most ecstatic people about Brooks’ firing has to be Lamb, who can now try and start over with a new coach. Lamb has potential — he showed it in that impressive five-game stretch back in November/December where he averaged 15.2 points on 74.3/75.0/85.7 shooting splits — but he just has never been able to consistently nail down time. Because of defense, because of apparent disinterest, because of consistency. Still, he returned to the rotation against the Lakers on March 1 and dropped 14 points hitting some big shots, leading many to wonder why he was such a lock ahead of Dion Waiters.

30. When the Thunder play the Knicks on Nov. 28, Derek Fisher will inexplicably play 10 fourth quarter minutes for the Thunder. He probably would have, but that was the game Westbrook returned and there just weren’t enough minutes to go around that night.

31. Durant will finish third in MVP voting. I meant to say Westbrook. Just a typo here is all.

32. The Thunder will finish with 58 wins. Only 13 off.

33. The Thunder will finish second in the West. Only seven off.

34. The Thunder will play the Cavs in the Finals.

35. The Thunder will win in six games. Only a season off. Maybe?