Stacked NBA Western Conference  

Oklahoma City is my darkhorse team in the West (Charlotte and Milwaukee in the East). Oklahoma City is the team in the West who's got the better chance of staging an upset, especially if they face the Phoenix Suns. What they lack in experience, they make it up with their determination, youth, and energy. Kevin Durant is simply a phenom and Oklahoma City is for sure a team to watch next season.

Nice observation too and I'd love to give a lot of credit to the Phoenix Suns bench. The Suns started the season virtually with about 6 reliable players in their roster namely Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Grant Hill, Jason Richardson, Leandro Barbosa, and Channing Frye. Along the course of the season and with some injuries along the way, Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley, Robin Lopez, and Louis Amundson have stepped up big time to help the Suns for their cause. The better part? The Suns have developed a good defensive game which really helps a lot in their high octane offense. Though the Suns bench aren't as known as the bench players of the Lakers, Mavericks, and Nuggets, they are as equally effective. As Charles Barkley have pointed out in his analysis, with the current showing of the Suns, they are arguably the second best team in the West after the defending champions and the Lakers is the only team that could beat the Suns. Such a bold statement from Barkley but it says a lot about the Suns.

With LeBron James sitting on the sidelines and just a few more games left to play, it seems that Kevin Durant have the scoring title in the bad already. Saying that, Durant and the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder are now focusing on the playoffs. With their consistent showing all season long, the Thunder is a very big threat in the West. What remains to be seen is Durant's tenacity. Could he continue his impressive showing? Or will the higher playoffs intensity get the best of them?

OKC reminds me of the Golden State Warriors three years ago or four years ago -- the same team that played small ball and upset the no. 1 seed Dallas Mavericks.

During that time they had Baron Davis manning the point and young guys such as Andre Biedrins and the talented Monta Ellis (my favorite). In addition they have so much depth in Captain Jack (Stephen Jackson) and Al Harrington.

That was the "We Believe" era and that I have a feeling that OKC has what it takes to "Believe"

I believe that this Oklahoma Thunder team is better than that team. It was really not expected from the Golden State Warriors even though they were a decent team then. It will certainly be interesting to see what will happen.

Talentwise it's a tough call to say that the OKC of today is better than the GSW of the small-ball era. The GSW during that time was loaded with offensive weapons unlike OKC which has a scoring machine in Durant.

Durant is OKC, he's bigger than the franchise in comparison in the 2006-2007 season Davis isn't GSW.

If you'll ask about chemistry, the GSW of that time has more of it than OKC.

Between Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors that massively upset the Dallas Mavericks way back, I think Oklahoma City has the edge because of Kevin Durant. Durant is basically the face of the team and is among the top players in the NBA this season. The Warriors edge on the other hand over the Mavericks was Don Nelson. Even before the playoffs, the Warriors swept the season series against the Mavericks who at that season finished with a 67-15 record. Nelson was the Mavericks' former coach and was simply familiar with the Mavericks' system who was coached by his assistant Avery Johnson. Nelson just plainly outsmarted the Mavericks despite of the fact that the Warriors were playing small.

Mavericks or Thunder? Should the Thunder face any team in the playoffs this season, they'd be a serious threat (maybe excluding the Lakers) while the Warriors was only a threat to the Mavericks and really had a hard time with the Utah Jazz the next round. It was Don Nelson who made the difference, not really the players. If the Warriors were playing under a different coach against the Mavericks, they'd end up losing, and could even be swept in the first round.

In my own observation, the Thunder has the capability of staging an upset. But with the lack of experience, the most that the Oklahoma City could finished is in the 2nd round of the playoffs,depending on the team that they will face in the first round. If they will land to the number 8th spot, facing the Lakers, then, it would be a very difficult tasks for them of staging an upset as the Golden State Warriors did it to the Dallas Mavericks on the 2006 - 2007 NBA season. Youth, talent and the eagerness to play and win the game will place the Thunder in a formidable position of giving other teams in the playoffs a hard time.

David Stern would not make the Lakers go through a seven game series. If the Lakers did beat Portland in a seven games series it would be because they were the better team.

I beg to differ!!

If ever the Lakers and the Cavaliers cross paths come June, I'm sure Stern Inc. will do everything to make it a seven-game series.

Lakers and Thunder would be the greatest first round match. It would showcase a duel between Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. Durant is having a phenomenal season and he surely deserves a match against nothing but the best.

It would be fun to see Kobe and Durant light up the scoreboard. Durant can go toe to toe with Kobe but apart from their duel it's going to be awful for the OKC. Anyway if they do meet in the first round which is the most likely scenario considering that OKC just lose moments ago against Portland, I predict a 4-2 LAL victory.

I could see Durant's numbers go down a bit come playoffs time. Ron Artest or Kobe Bryant will be all over him and his and the whole Oklahoma City's inexperience would be too costly, especially against a team like the Lakers. Looking long term, Durant, Russell Westbrook, and most of the Thunder are still young and would pretty much invest for the future. Pretty sure the Thunder would keep it's core players and probably Scott Brooks too and build around them. Probably a season or two will do for Oklahoma City and they would be among the serious contenders in the West.

I'm just thinking about Steve Nash playing for Oklahoma maybe just for a season before he retires. For sure he'll be a very big help for the Thunder (hoping that would not disrupt the flow of Westbrook as a point guard and probably move him up as a 2-guard).