Bitter, Disappointing, Too Early End To The Season

Well its over OKC Fans. The Thunder season has ended in what was a year of big ups....and big downs. The Thunder fell in another close game in Game 5 at OKC which was a heart breaker. Kevin Durant gave it his all this playoffs and all year and my hat goes off to him. I'm going to make this short and sweet but we really needed Westbrook. No disrespect to Durant because I think he went all the way until he couldn't go anymore and he even said in his interview that he drank over 4 Gatorades after the game but he knew what he had to do and sadly it wasn't enough. Although the season is over this team has a bright future. Kevin Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka are all 24 and 23 so this is still a young team with a lot of room to grow. Its not time to clean house or make serious changes all we need is a healthy #0. Personally I feel that if Westbrook didn't get hurt we were going all the way just looking how Him and Durant were jelling with the team against Houston and at the end of the season. I am going to call out ESPN's Skip Bayless who harshly criticized Durant and said he even lost some respect for him....Alright that draws the line Skip, Durant was going up against the bad boys that are the Memphis Grizzlies so it is not like he was going up against a team like Houston or a Team that by himself he should have beat. The Thunder supporting cast was not good and that is my one concern for next year is we need that third scorer. Ibaka has the potential to be that guy but I think he goes as far as Westbrook goes as that's where he feeds off and how he gets buckets in simple terms. The entire series consisted of Durant trying to score as much as the Grizzlies combined and in the end he was just simply burned out. Its a sad ending to a year that had a lot of promise but if they can retain Perkins who is still a big time defender and get Westbrook healthy then this team is still going places. Durant does concern me that maybe he differs to much which is true. He averaged around 19 shots a game and was around what it was with Westbrook only maybe a little more so I no longer believe Westbrook deprives Durant the ball so Durant needs to get bigger this off season and work on his post game in order to improve which with his skills there is not much to improve on. His defending could use some work as well but he is still a stud and its just a shame that it had to end so soon this season. Anybody still think we made the right move trading Harden and keeping Ibaka? I don't. One last problem I have in this team is Head Coach Scott Brooks. OKC should not be happy with him based on he made absolutely no adjustments to the offense after Westbrook was injured. This team was still built around how he played which put more on Reggie Jackson and even during the games when Brooks would take a timeout I just didn't see the adjustments or smart drawn up plays from him. Obviously he will still be coach next year but if it was up to me......Phil Jackson? Last thought I will leave with you for the year is that this team is not done and has a very bright future. This team is going to rally once again when Westbrook comes back and if we can progress with some more quality bench players then this team WILL win a title I can guarantee you at least one. Thank you so much for reading my articles it has been a pleasure to write for GetRealBasketball.com this season and can't wait till the draft to get back to writing but as for now Thanks so much Basketball fans.....Its been REAL.