The OKC Thunder appear to be at somewhat of a crossroads coming into this offseason. With $150 million on the books for next season, Paul George coming off what at one point appeared to be an MVP-caliber year, and Russell Westbrook’s decline growing more imminent by the day, they have enormous pressure to do something they haven’t done in this Westbrook era: make a deep run into the playoffs.
And on the surface, 2019-2020 looks like the best year to try and do it. All the top contenders from last season face serious questions about how they’ll come back next year and at least a few of them are going to drop out of the title race.