Oklahoma City Thunder Tickets

This is the season where the Oklahoma City Thunder wanted to take a big step forward and make a legitimate run at the playoffs, and so far they have done just that.

The Thunder are hovering around the .500 mark, which is good enough to be within striking distance in the topsy turvy Northwest Division. The team is also right in the thick of the playoff hunt in the Western Conference.

Kevin Durant continues to emerge as a superstar and is clearly the leader of the team. He is still working on developing his all-around game, but you can't argue with the fact that he is averaging more than
27 points per game. That's good enough to be among the league leaders in points scored.

Maybe more impressive is the fact that he leads the team in steals, which shows that he isn't just working hard on the offensive end of the floor. He leads the team in rebounds with just over seven per game, but that says more about the team's glaring weakness than Durant's aggressiveness on the boards.

Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook are two other young players who are having an impact on a nightly basis. Green is one of the best all-around players on the team while Westbrook is starting to get a better grasp on the point guard position.

Rookie James Harden has been solid, averaging 10 points per game. The team was criticized for taking Harden so early after the way he played in the NCAA tournament, but it looks like they knew what they were doing.

Kyle Weaver, Nick Collison and D.J. White are three other youngsters who could at least emerge as solid reserves off the bench.

The bottom line is that the Thunder still has a huge hole in the low post and is still very much a perimeter oriented team. Losing Chris Wilcox left the team without any established inside presence.

The Thunder was hopeful that Etan Thomas could possibly resurrect his career in the heartland, but that hasn't come even close to happening.
They aren't getting any type of scoring threat on the inside, no one to intimidate teams driving to the basket and through the heart of their defense, and no one to clean the glass.

Oklahoma City has plenty of talent and much of it is still in the maturation process, but that's not what's holding them back. If the team can somehow pick up a big man through a trade, they could make a run at a playoff spot. I think it's pretty doubtful, but you never know. Finding an inside presence is going to cost the Thunder big time, and they should make it their biggest priority in the offseason.