Revisiting those 35 statements, 2015-16 edition

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I’ve had a really solid record with my annual 35 statements made with extreme confidence (Serge Ibaka voice). Unofficially, over the past four years, I’ve gotten 138 out of 140 correct. (Don’t look that up to confirm.)

But this season, it went a little off. Not too much, but not quite up to my immaculate standards. Part of that was due to the crazy nature of this first season under Billy Donovan, a rollercoaster of experimentation that produced pretty big ups and downs and whatever other cliche to describe the unpredictable nature of it.

So, as we do, let’s go back over them and see what went right, and mostly wrong.

1. Kevin Durant will play at least 75 games. Really close! He played 72. And a few were due to rest. So I’m counting it. It’s like a four-foot putt that lips out but you’re totally taking in retrospect as a gimme because you didn’t line it up and were standing on one foot when you did it and we all know you totally would’ve made it if you had taken time and concentrated on it.

2. Durant won’t lead the league in scoring. Two-for-two! Durant finished third this season (28.2 ppg) behind Steph Curry (30.1) and James Harden (29.0).

3. Kyle Singler’s hair will… something. This is the most correct thing I predicted. I’m counting it as three.

4. The Thunder will break the franchise record for most 3s attempted. Another home run. They took 1,945 this season. The most the franchise had ever taken is 1,936, back in 2003-04. The most the Thunder have taken is 1,839, in 2013-14. Nevermind that I said the Thunder would get to 2,000 this season. Let’s just check the box and move on.

5. And made. Strike one. Ish. They made 678. The record is 723 by the 2003-04 Sonics. But the Thunder record was 664 in 2013-14. I said it would be 800+. Half-credit.

6. Russell Westbrook will lead the league in triple-doubles. Touchdown. He had, of course, eighteen of them. Eighteen!! I predicted he’d have… eight. But I did say, “that feels like a way low number.”

7. Kevin Durant will return to Washington D.C. This happened.

8. The Thunder will finish first in offensive efficiency. They finished second. To the greatest team off all-time (patent pending). But it was one of the best marks in offense the franchise has ever had.

9. The Thunder will finish top eight in defensive efficiency. I said there would be some slippage, and there certainly was. But they finished 12th.

10. Steve Novak will forget the orange slices one game and everyone is going to FREAK OUT. This is probably why he got traded.

11. The Thunder will have two All-Stars. They sure did. And they were both starters. For the first time.

12. Westbrook and Durant will both average fewer than 35 minutes per game. Westbrook averaged 34.4. Durant… averaged 35.8. Pretty close. It was the fewest minutes for Durant (non-restricted category) since his rookie season.

13. Billy Donovan will get 82 haircuts. Based on the eye test, I think this was true.

14. Against the Warriors, Clippers, Spurs and Rockets, the Thunder will go 9-6. They went 7-8. Wah-wah.

15. Serge Ibaka will be the first 120/150 player ever. 120 3s, 150 blocks. He hit 60 3s, and blocked 148 shots. He just needed double the 3s. No big deal.

16. Steven Adams will shower at some point. There’s no way to confirm this.

17. Enes Kanter will post 30 double-doubles — all off the bench. He had 25. And 24 of them were off the bench.

18. Kanter will finish second in Sixth Man of the Year voting. He finished third. Jamal Crawford won it. Andre Iguodala (my preseason pick) was second.

19. The Thunder’s best lineup will be Westbrook, Morrow, Durant, Ibaka and Adams. Nooooooooooope. Big swing, big miss. The Thunder’s best lineup, statistically, was the starting five. And I said I’d have this one as my starting five. The egg, it is on my face.

20. Dion Waiters won’t be terrible. I think I can count this, yes? Especially after the postseason. The numbers I guessed were 10.5 points on 41 percent shooting, 34 percent from 3 and 2.5 assists. He went 9.8 points on 39.9 percent shooting, 35.8 percent from 3 and 2.0 assists.

21. Cameron Payne will find some minutes. Here’s what I said: “But ultimately, the backup role will stay with D.J. Augustin. In the end, unless Augustin is traded at the deadline — which he very well could be — he’s going to play over Payne. That doesn’t mean Payne won’t sneak some decent minutes here and there, because I think Donovan will be fairly liberal in how he distributes them. Plus: Payne is pretty good and the organization is really high on him.” Pretty much all correct. Though the part about Randy Foye taking over at backup point guard was unforeseen.

22. Lance Thomas will start 13 games. Remember when that happened? Those were hard times.

23. Russell Westbrook will lead the team in PER. Durant and his damn efficiency. Westbrook finished at 27.6, the highest mark of his career and good for third in the league. Durant was 28.2 and second overall.

24. Waiters will yell “and-1!” a couple of times. He did this.

25. The new Rumble will finish with more airballs than Andre Roberson. The new Rumble needs some work from backwards halfcourt.

26. Mitch McGary will play more total minutes than Nick Collison. Whooooooooaaaaaaa. McGary played 72 total minutes this season. Collison, in a greatly diminished role, played 699. McGary was a huge disappointment this season. Everyone in the organization raved about him all summer, and had me thinking not only he’d play, but would be X-factor-ish material. Instead, he got a concussion in training camp, fell out of the rotation, ended up in the D-League, got out of shape, and never cracked anything close to the rotation. I still think he can play, though.

27. The first “Billy Donovan is taking the Thunder where Scott Brooks couldn’t” thinkpiece will happen by Dec. 15. It ended up happening closer to May 15. But we eventually got there.

28. The Thunder will win the Northwest by nine games. They won it by 11. And it should’ve been by 17 or 18.

29. Anthony Morrow will hit 180 3s. Whoops. He made 79.

30. Morrow will get so turnt after hitting a 3 that he spontaneously combusts. This might’ve happened in the postseason.

31. Durant will finish runner-up for MVP. This was incorrect. Durant finished fifth. And didn’t even make first-team All-NBA despite having one of his best seasons. My pick was Anthony Davis. I can’t believe I fell into that hype-train trap. I should get negative points for this one.

32. The Thunder will finish with 61 wins. They got 55. And gave away at least 10.

33. The Thunder will finish second in the West. They finished third behind two historically great regular season teams.

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

35. The Thunder will win in seven games. I’m convinced this would’ve happened. Actually, this would’ve been wrong. Because it would’ve been six games. Except that fateful Game 6 is going to haunt dreams for quite some time.