These guys are going to be so special. I’ve been a huge huge fan of Harper since before he was drafted and he will 100% be a star.

Russ and KD don’t get enough credit for how historically dominant they were for such a young duo. They were title contenders since Westbrook’s second or third year

I also really think San Antonio needs to get rid of Fox to address their other needs

eatmorchickin

24 | 3 hours ago

Absolutely tragic that Thunder team never got one

BasedChad69420 | Nigeria

17 | 3 hours ago

The Russ-KD Thunder were absolutely a championship level team, just got unlucky with injuries and matchups.

Whenever someone says “Russ could never be part of a championship level team” or “Peak KD couldn’t be the #1 on a title team” it instantly shows the have zero basketball knowledge

2011: First deep run, ran into Mavs

2012: Lost to LeBron Heat, every game was close

2013: Russ taken out by Pat Bev, KD loses in the playoffs without Russ

2014: Lost to all time dominant 2014 Spurs with Ibaka and Sefolosha injured

2015: KD out

2016: Were up 3-1 on 73 win Warriors, collapsed due to an all time heater from Klay and Steph

LegoTomSkippy | Spurs

6 | 3 hours ago

I’d add Brooks as part of the failure. He KILLED them with terrible lineup choices, Perkins loyalty, and clunky offensive systems.

lanfordr | Spurs

1 | 14 minutes ago

Trading Harden over $4 million right after making their first finals appearance didn’t help either. Nor did the return.

Dense-Background3676

-3 | 3 hours ago

Russ was an absolute bonehead back then. If he took his role as #2 they easily win.

Smekledorf1996

2 | 2 hours ago

No they don’t ’easily win’, you just missed the entire point of OPs comment

They were either injured or ran into all time great teams

vindictivejazz | Thunder

6 | 3 hours ago

Yeah they were contenders for 5 straight years but ran into 2 superteams and had 3 seasons derailed by injury. Just unlucky

Far-Comedian-4748 | Supersonics

6 | 3 hours ago

My personal belief is that it was basketball karma for stealing the team from Seattle

KaiserKaiba

3 | 2 hours ago

They truly played in a stacked era. KD-Russ OKC was a great team but damn the competition was tough. Like between 2010-2016 these are the teams they lost to:

2010 - Lakers (Eventual Champion)

2011 - Mavericks (Eventual Champion)

2012 - Heat (Eventual Champion)

2013 - Grizzlies

2014 - Spurs (Eventual Champion)

2016 - Warriors (Reigning Champion)

They obviously weren’t good enough to win early on but OKC got good real quick. Problem is, it was a stacked field. They took the L to Memphis but Russ also wasn’t available. Ibaka missed games against SA in 2014 as well and KD was hurt in 2015. OKC only ever lost to stacked squads.

Sucks they never won one. 2016 would have been a goated run if they got it done. Going through the 67-15 Spurs, 73-9 Warriors, and 57-25 Cavaliers would have been some historic shit.

Overkillemall | Lakers

-3 | 3 hours ago

Harden is one of the biggest playoff chokers of all time, Durant is one of the most toxic superstars who won chips only playing for 73-9 team and Westbrook is…Westbrook. Love this guy’s energy, but you ain’t winning nothing with this guy.

So I wouldn’t call it tragic, these three’s careers are more like tragicomedy

ExpressionAlone5204 | Thunder

6 | 3 hours ago

You do realize they were very close to winning a championship except it was a prime LeBron super team that edged them out, close games.

FaptainAmericaTx

11 | 3 hours ago

I don’t know if I agree on getting rid of Fox at least yet.

Their back court play with Fox/Castle/Harper along with Vassel means assuming health that’s just a never ending barrage of quality back court play that most teams would dream of.

If they didn’t have Wemby I’d be more inclined to agree with you tbh.

greatGoD67 | Spurs

1 | 38 minutes ago

They put good defender on Fox, its just that a team may get eaten alive by the rest of Ceberus

VastEagle844

-8 | 3 hours ago

Russ did so much heavy lifting to uplift KD’s career and accolades at the cost of his own production. If he was more selfish (which he should’ve been) he would have gotten the accolades KD had

vindictivejazz | Thunder

8 | 3 hours ago

This is a crazy take lmao

BasedChad69420 | Nigeria

2 | 3 hours ago

He won a MVP and averaged 32/11/10 the year KD left. It’s not crazy to say he sacrificed his individual production from 2010-16 to help the team win.

Dense-Background3676

5 | 3 hours ago

But he didn’t though…. He just no longer had to share the ball… Russ was shooting 20+ times a game vs kd 10-15 having the same amount of points and more turnovers….. you guys are delusional lmao

Unspoken | Spurs

2 | 3 hours ago

On ass efficiency. That team with only Russ was not good.. ever. Russ put up what felt like the emptiest stats in the league

Dense-Background3676

1 | 3 hours ago

The worst take of all time tbh

BasedChad69420 | Nigeria

4 | 3 hours ago

It’s so sad we only got one year of peak Russ unleashed and he had an all time great MVP season, and the next year is when his athleticism started to fade. He was going nuts in 2015 and 2016 but was nevr able to shine to his fullest

Dense-Background3676

5 | 3 hours ago

Are you on crack ????? You must have started watching basketball in 2019 lmao. If Russ would’ve took a backseat they would’ve won a chip. It’s really that simple.

Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle join Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the only duos age 21 or younger to score 25+ in the same playoff game