Vegas Over/Under: 51.5

The Record Projection: 52-30 of fromal The Bet: Prevent but lean over
Since Kyle Wagner broke down for FiveThirtyEight, the addition of Paul George immediately vaulted the Oklahoma City Thunder back into contention in the Western Conference:
“The top-5 of Westbrook, George, Enes Kanter, Steven Adams and Andre Roberson are worth 53 wins on their own. But CARMELO thinks so little of this Thunder seat that the remainder of the roster is worth -2 wins. That seat was bad last year, but young players like Alex Abrines and Doug McDermott may improve with an additional season with the group, and this season’s first-round draft pick Terrance Ferguson has potential as a spot-up shot on the wing, which the staff desperately needed last year. However, with Taj Gibson probably leaving in free agency, the Thunder will be sparse. However, while their projection does not put the team almost at the amount of the Golden State Warriors, or even the recently minted Chris Paul Houston Rockets, acquiring George should have an outsize influence on the Thunder.”
The TL;DR variant here is that even without factoring in the upside which stems from potential internal improvement, the Thunder already should have been expected to acquire 51 games. And that was written prior to OKC inked Patrick Patterson–a power forward who matches perfectly with the other expected starting pieces–into a deal of a bargain.
Improving much past the 51-win benchmark is a challenging task as the Thunder attempt to weave in new players effortlessly. But after viewing Russell Westbrook serve as a one-man show throughout his MVP-winning campaign, they get to put so much more talent .
Expect huge things.

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