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junker-town · 5 years ago

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The ABA’s ideas have finally taken over basketball

Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“Loose Balls”, Terry Plato’s history of the American Basketball Association, documents a league whose ideas are finally coming into their own.

The American Basketball Association waged a war against the NBA throughout its nine-year history. From the beginning, it was an unfair fight. The NBA had better players, better arenas, and most importantly, a network television contract that gave it more visibility and way better funding.

But the ABA had one thing going for it. The league simply refused to play by the NBA’s rules. It cared little for the sanctity of contracts and broke the unwritten prohibition against signing college underclassmen.

The ABA opened its doors to players who had been blackballed from the NBA like Connie Hawkins, Doug Moe, and Roger Brown, and found a home for players deemed too small or just plain too weird. You can’t understand the history of pro basketball without the ABA, and you can’t be any kind of a basketball person if you don’t know Willie Wise and Bob Netolicky.

The ABA survived in spite of itself, largely because it had a keener eye for talent. That manifested itself in players like Julius Erving, George Gervin, and Mel Daniels who went on to become Hall of Famers, along with scores of players like Mack Calvin, Billy Keller, and Steve Jones who thrived in its open-ended game.

But the ABA never intended to defeat the NBA. Its goal all along was to force a merger. After nine years of players, coaches, and even refs jumping leagues, lawsuits and countersuits, the NBA finally absorbed four teams: Indiana, Denver, San Antonio, and New Jersey into the league in 1976. The war was over, even if the NBA could never bring itself to call the terms a merger. More like a conditional surrender.

That bruising battle served as the backdrop for Loose Balls, Terry Pluto’s oral history of the ABA. Published in 1990 at the dawn of the NBA’s most prosperous era, it felt like a time capsule of a mythological era filled with sex, drugs, and all the craziness that the 70s had to offer.

Reading it again now, I’m drawn to another conclusion. The ABA not only won, it’s been vindicated. As former Kentucky Colonels coach Hubie Brown put it, “We were ahead of the NBA in so many ways. The only thing they didn’t take was the red, white, and blue ball.”

Lacking franchise-caliber big men, ABA coaches like Brown innovated with forwards playing center, guards playing forward. Those non-traditional lineups served as a precursor to the modern-day game where positions are fungible and skill beats size. Then and now, the 3-point shot is the great equalizer.

The ABA prioritized the dunk to such a degree that it introduced the slam dunk contest, later adopted by the NBA and turned into the marquee event at All-Star Weekend. Desperate to get people to come to the arenas, ABA games became sideshows of giveaways and promotions. It’s impossible to walk into an arena today and not feel the ABA’s insistence on providing fans with something more than just the game.

The ABA also gave us unfettered player movement and backroom deals. When in doubt, have a draft, and the ABA had a ton of “secret” drafts with far more intrigue than any lottery drawing could ever hope to have. By going after college underclassmen, the ABA exposed the sham of amateur athletics, even going so far as to sign the first player directly out of high school in Moses Malone.

Only four ABA franchises survived, but the league afforded an opportunity for pro basketball to take root in non-traditional markets like Memphis, Utah, and New Orleans. In all, a dozen ABA cities eventually hosted NBA teams.

Most of all, the ABA gave us style and it gave us stories. Pluto collected them all in Loose Balls, crafting the definitive document of a rebel league that has stood the test of time.

One of my favorites concerns the sale of Gervin from Virginia to San Antonio. Even by ABA standards where teams were constantly in danger of going under, the Squires were notoriously short on cash. At one point the sheriff’s department was coming to repossess the team’s uniforms before a game because they owed $2,000 to the manufacturer.

Spurs owner Angelo Drossos called up his Virgina counterpart Earl Foreman with an offer: Sell us Gervin for $225,000. There was a catch. The All-Star game was scheduled to be held in Norfolk in a few months and Foreman, having already sold Julius Erving, Rick Barry, and Swen Nater, didn’t want to surrender his last remaining star.

Drossos suggested a “delayed-delivery deal.” Cash up front for Gervin’s services after the All-Star game. Eventually the press caught on and Foreman had second thoughts. The commissioner Mike Storen got involved and suggested Drossos could have his pick of any player on the Squires’ roster except for Gervin.

Drossos said no way, he had the contract and he had Gervin already stashed in San Antonio after agreeing to indemnify Gervin and his agent. Storen then said he would forfeit every Spurs game until Gervin was back in Virginia. Drossos sent the league a telegram that read, “Fuck you. A stronger letter will follow.”

The league sued, but it went to Federal Court in San Antonio where a judge who happened to be a season-ticket holder ruled in favor of Drossos and the Spurs. The Squires were out of business just before the merger with the NBA. Gervin, meanwhile, blossomed into the Ice Man in San Antonio, cementing a love affair between the city and the sport that exists to this day.

Could you imagine any of that happening today? Take DeAndre Jordan being held hostage by the Clippers to prevent him from signing with the Mavericks and multiply it by David Stern’s Chris Paul trade-vetoing, “Basketball Reasons” and maybe it would rival the particulars of that insane story.

There would be Woj Bombs left and right, NBA Twitter would implode, a hundred think pieces would angle for clicks. In the ABA, it was merely another hilarious sidenote. The thing about the ABA was, you really had to be there. It was barely on television and it wasn’t like there were highlight shows running down Memphis Tams scores.

All that remained were the stories, and the oral history structure of Loose Balls offered Pluto the perfect vehicle. There’s no need for a narrative arc when a former coach casually recounts the time he offered a $500 bounty to any of his players who would take on legendary tough guy John Brisker.

A bench player named Lenny Chappel said he’d do it and decked Brisker on the opening tip when no one was looking. Brisker, it’s been said, disappeared after running off to Uganda to become a mercenary for Idi Amin.

Or the time Marvin Barnes missed a series of flights and wound up chartering a plane from LaGuardia. He arrived 10 minutes before the game wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a floor-length mink coat with his uniform underneath. After proclaiming, “Game Time is on time,” he went out and scored 43 points.

During the game, the pilot showed up in the team huddle demanding to be paid. Barnes sent the trainer to the locker room to fetch his checkbook and cut the pilot a check during a timeout. (Accounts varied on how much it actually cost.)

All of that would have been lost without Loose Balls. It’s served as the foundational source material for dozens of documentaries and features. Pluto, ever the gracious caretaker of the league’s history is prominent in many.

Yet, Loose Balls is more than a historical document of a bygone era. It’s a blueprint for how pro basketball finally began to find its way as a major sports entity. It would take years to fully grasp the ABA’s importance, but it’s all right there every night on League Pass and in arenas across the country. The ABA won, all hail the ABA.

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thrashermaxey · 7 years ago

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Ramblings: Bern-ing Up! (Jan 23)

10 in a row for the Avalanche! TEN!

Jonathan Bernier has been in net for nine of those and is on an astronomical roll. I still want to see what happens to his numbers when this team’s streak finally ends, but he has been awfully useful for fantasy owners. There’s also the matter of Semyon Varlamov’s return, which isn’t expected until after the All-Star break. Even if Bernier keeps bringing the heat, Varlamov is likely to eventually take over the crease.

We’ve also seen Bernier get wildly hot only to collapse, the most recent example coming last spring. If we’re talking about goalies you’ll want come March/April, I wouldn’t count on him being a strong option, but ride this as long as it lasts.

Nathan MacKinnon had scored in every game of Colorado’s winning streak until last night. He has 19 points on the 42 goals they’ve scored in this stretch, basically accounting for half of the Avalanche’s offense.

Erik Johnson is up to 18 points in 33 games since the start of November, which coincides with when Gabriel Landeskog joined MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to form that formidable top line, but also coincides with the departure of Matt Duchene. MacKinnon seemed to indicate that Duchene’s exodus has been a catalyst:

Asked if the culture of the team had improved after Duchene was traded to the Ottawa Senators as part of a three-way trade that included the Nashville Predators on Nov. 5, MacKinnon said: "It did a lot."

"There's nothing wrong with [Duchene] wanting to leave," MacKinnon said after the Avalanche had their morning skate at Air Canada Centre. "I think it's fair. He's eight, nine years in this League and it wasn't like a crazy breakup or anything. He went about it really good this season. But obviously we knew he wanted to leave.

"Now we have everybody here that wants to be here, which is great. If [Duchene] was here I'd think we'd be in a good spot as well. He's a really good player."

That seems less an indictment of Duchene than of the situation. And it’s worth asking whether Duchene’s desire to leave came before or after the team tried to trade him. Whatever the case, this Avalanche team offers plenty of lessons when contrasting their last two seasons: the importance of giving a coach a full training camp, the importance of dressing room harmony, importance of timing and leverage in trades, necessity for patience with youth, the value of team speed, etc.

Duchene, by the way, scored a pretty goal last night, the lone goal for Ottawa:

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Filthy stuff from Duchene for the equalizer. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoSensGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoSensGo</a> <a href="https://t.co/ozJwvMFUOu">pic.twitter.com/ozJwvMFUOu</a></p>— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) <a href="https://twitter.com/Senators/status/955629076513021958?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2018</a></blockquote>

Duchene has eight points in the last seven games.

It took some luck, but Andrei Vasilevskiy ended a five-game slide, in which he had allowed 23 goals, by shutting out the Blackhawks.

Ondrej Palat is out 6-8 weeks with a lower-body injury. I believe the plan for Tampa Bay was to give young players every opportunity to fill in the gaps before the trade deadline, but I wonder if these injuries provide some impetus for the Lightning to move ahead of the deadline.

Check out their lines from last night:

#1 26.7% JOHNSON,TYLER – KUCHEROV,NIKITA – POINT,BRAYDEN

#2 20.6% KUNITZ,CHRIS – NAMESTNIKOV,VLADISLAV – STAMKOS,STEVEN

#3 17.6% BOURNIVAL,MICHAEL – CALLAHAN,RYAN – PAQUETTE,CEDRIC

#4 11.5% GOURDE,YANNI – KILLORN,ALEX – PECA,MATTHEW

Matthew Peca was the latest prospect recalled by the Lightning. His AHL numbers are good, but not so good for a 24-year-old that I suspect he’ll have immense fantasy relevance.

Steven Stamkos has yet to score a goal in 2018, a run that has now hit nine games. I wouldn’t worry too much, his game has trended towards playmaking anyhow, but it is notable how his pace has slowed in the past month with 11 points in the last 17 games.

Auston Matthews' reaction to scoring a goal after having one previously waived off is brilliant:

{source} <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"WE HAVE A GOAL!" – Wes Matthews <a href="https://t.co/3wZQj71AML">pic.twitter.com/3wZQj71AML</a></p>— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) <a href="https://twitter.com/NHLGIFs/status/955613982013960192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2018</a></blockquote>

Taylor Hall was out last night and is expected to miss tonight’s action as well with a hand injury. It is not expected to be a long-term issue, however. He’ll be re-evaluated tomorrow. The Devils desperately need him in the lineup as they were shutout by the Red Wings without him.

Mind you, that shutout came from Petr Mrazek who has back-to-back shutouts. Mrazek’s numbers have imploded over the past season and a half so it’s easy to forget what a promising young netminder he was.

You never know what to believe when it comes to the rumour mill, but there was word of attitude issues surrounding Mrazek, enough that he has been available on the trade market, was left unprotected in the expansion draft, and went unclaimed in said draft even (although perhaps the Golden Knights just really liked Tomas Nosek who has been a lineup regular for them.) Whatever the case, you do wonder if there couldn’t be a resurrection somewhere else. We’ve seen plenty such happenings.

Andreas Athanasiou remains hot on Dylan Larkin’s wing. He is up to 11 points in his last 10 games. They seem fairly committed to keeping Athanasiou with Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, which has been effective. I’m high on Athanasiou as a strong waiver option in the second half.

Anthony Beauvillier’s hot streak continues. The winger now has eight goals in his past seven games. He has been up over 14 minutes of action in each of those seven games. I don’t suspect that he’ll be relevant all the way until game 82, but he certainly offers value in the short term, especially with the exposure he provides alongside Mathew Barzal.

Matthew Tkachuk’s offense has taken off since grabbing the net-front gig on Calgary’s top power play unit with 12 points in his last 12 games. Half (6) of those points have come with the man-advantage highlighting how important these top PP minutes are. He has potential to be one of the best multi-category options out there with this top PP deployment.

The Professional Hockey Writers Association is doing mid-season awards, and they have opened it up to fan voting as well! You can do so here. My ballot for the awards I care about:

Hart – Nathan MacKinnon, John Tavares, Nikita Kucherov

This top three is solid, so only mild apologies to Taylor Hall, Brad Marchand, Johnny Gaudreau, Alex Ovechkin and Henrik Lundqvist.

Norris – PK Subban, Victor Hedman, Seth Jones

Apology to Mark Giordano. No apology to Drew Doughty, who already has his lifetime achievement award.

Calder – Mathew Barzal, Brock Boeser, Charlie McAvoy

There are other awesome rookies, but none in the same league as these three.

Selke – Patrice Bergeron, Sean Couturier, Aleksander Barkov

Apologies to Anze Kopitar and Mikael Backlund.

Vezina – Henrik Lundqvist, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Mike Smith

Apologies to Sergei Bobrovsky, Connor Hellebuyck and Jonathan Quick.

Matt Murray is back practicing with the Penguins, which is good to hear. Safe to assume he’ll make at least one of the two starts this week. If I’m a Murray owner, I probably want to keep Tristan Jarry around all the same. For one, Jarry has been good in relief of Murray. For two, Murray has been maddeningly injury prone and inconsistent. We all fully expect the Penguins to go on a run in the second half. It could be either of those two who leads them on that run.

It also sounds as though Bryan Rust is closing in on a return. Rust only has utility in deeper leagues counting hits and SOG, but has some value. The greater impact is that his return will likely push Daniel Sprong, and perhaps Dominik Simon out of the lineup. Those two have flashed potential, but ultimately have not been solutions.

Sprong, by the way, was sent back to the minors. He’ll be a solution eventually, but not this season.

What we are all hoping is that improved winger depth with Rust returning and Carl Hagelin finally producing that they might find a way to get Jake Guentzel and Conor Sheary back onto Sidney Crosby’s line. Crosby’s 5-on-5 results have still been miserable with a 4.47% on-ice shooting percentage. However, Crosby has been beasting over the past few weeks. Anecdotally, he looks ready to pop, which will benefit whichever winger is skating with him when the goals do start to come.

Jaden Schwartz has been cleared to play, but is not expected to return tonight for the Blues. There’s a decent chance he’s back on Thursday, but I’m still guessing he doesn’t return until after the All-Star break.

Disconcerting news on Charlie McAvoy as the rookie had a procedure to correct an arrhythmia in his heart. Assuming this rectifies the issue, there will be no long-term effects, but we have seen heart issues derail careers before. I’m leaning towards optimism on this. McAvoy is expected to be out for two weeks of action, and perhaps he’ll be rusty for a week or two beyond.

Carey Price was reportedly suffering from chronic fatigue, which may explain his early struggles this season:

“We realized after taking blood samples that he had deficiencies – mostly in vitamin D and B12.”

It was at the beginning of November that Price began a new nutritional regimen that included taking supplements.

Before he was hurt on Nov. 2 in a game against the Minnesota Wild, Price had a record of 3-7-1 and a save percentage of .877.

“It took me three weeks to see a major difference in my energy level,” said Price.

Since his return on Nov. 25, Price has gone 10-8-3 with a .923 save percentage.

Here I assumed that NHL teams would be on top of this stuff as part of their annual physicals, but apparently not. Whether or not this was the actual cause of Price’s early struggles, it does highlight how we will never have all the information necessary to make proper assessments.

Consider that we just found out that Kevin Shattenkirk has been playing with a torn meniscus all season, which no doubt explains his struggles over the past month. Now the defenseman may be out for the rest of the season.

This John Tortorella quote is something else:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Torts on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CBJ?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CBJ</a> players having fun in Vegas “I want them to go out. Playing guilty is a big part of being a really good player in the [NHL]. We don’t do that anymore. Heaven forbid! We have agents, and their whole entourage making sure u drink that carrot juice, and all this stuff"</p>— Steve Gorten (@sgorten) <a href="https://twitter.com/sgorten/status/954807168162725891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2018</a></blockquote>

If you haven’t stumbled upon it yet, DobberProspects released their first consensus Fantasy Rankings for the 2018 NHL Entry Draft with thoughts from nine different prospect watchers. This is must-read stuff for folks in keeper leagues. I cannot stress this enough.

Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @SteveLaidlaw.

from All About Sports http://www.dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-bern-ing-up-jan-23/

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omcik-blog · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on OmCik

New Post has been published on http://omcik.com/gop-tries-to-regroup-on-affordable-care-act-change-as-trump-lashes-out/

GOP Tries to Regroup on Affordable Care Act Change as Trump Lashes Out

President Donald Trump (Photo: White House)

(Bloomberg) — Republicans in Congress were reeling Tuesday from the failure of their latest Affordable Care Act change bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act bill, as President Donald Trump said he’s willing to let Obamacare fail and called on the Senate to change one of its central rules.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the chamber will vote on a straight repeal — with a two-year delay — a plan that likely faces even steeper hurdles than his replacement bill.

(Related: Cruz Pushes ACA Repeal Gambit That Could Roil U.S. Senate)

Trump said on Twitter that the Senate, controlled by Republicans 52-48, should eliminate the 60-vote threshold for advancing bills that don’t use a special fast-track procedure.

“Even parts of full Repeal need 60. 8 Dems control Senate. Crazy!” the president said on Twitter. Trump also said he was willing to “let Obamacare fail” before moving forward on a replacement.

House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters he would like to see “the Senate move on something.” The House passed its own version of a replacement bill in May.

“I’m worried that Obamacare will continue to stand and the law will continue to collapse and hurt people in the process,” said Ryan of Wisconsin.

The inability to deliver on seven years of GOP promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would be the biggest failure yet for Trump and Republicans since they won control of Congress and the White House.

McConnell’s move came after two more Republican senators announced their opposition to the Republican leader’s plan, which he drafted largely in secret. The defections by Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, in addition to previous opposition by GOP Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, were enough to sink the measure.

Lee and Moran said in statements they wouldn’t support McConnell’s bill because it didn’t go far enough to address the rising cost of health care.

When talking about legislation for changing the Affordable Care Act, Republican congressional leaders generally do not define the term “Obamacare.” Up till now, the Republican bills that have received active consideration, including the Better Care bill, would repeal some Affordable Care Act taxes but would not repeal much of the Affordable Care Act.

“We should not put our stamp of approval on bad policy,” Moran said in a statement on Twitter. He criticized the way the health care bill was written through a “closed-door process” and said the Senate must “start fresh” with open hearings and debate.

Lee said the latest version didn’t repeal enough Obamacare taxes and regulations or lower premiums.

Republicans are expected to discuss how to pick up the pieces on Tuesday, when they gather for their regular policy lunch, which is often attended by Vice President Mike Pence. Several senators have made clear that they want GOP leaders to pursue an alternative that would require working with Democrats.

Others embraced the repeal-first strategy.

“I think that’s a prudent step,” Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said on Newsradio 102.9 in Little Rock. Even if that fails, he said, lawmakers need to keep working on the issue of health care. “It’s too important to too many Arkansans to simply walk away from it.”

Stunning Blow

The defections of Moran and Lee, two Tea Party-backed senators, is a stunning blow to McConnell and Trump, who campaigned on a promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which the president repeatedly called a disaster.

“Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!” Trump said on Twitter on Monday night.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio (Photo: Jordan)

That won’t be easy. While Congress last year passed a repeal bill, they did so knowing it would be vetoed by President Barack Obama. This year, now that it could become law, such a proposal has drawn little support among Republican senators, with the exception of those in its most conservative wing.

Such a defeat may be part of a plan by a Republican leadership team that has expressed a desire to begin moving on to other matters, including an overhaul of the tax code, a boost in the nation’s debt ceiling and next year’s spending bills.

No Clear Path

On the health bill, McConnell was left facing an increasingly narrow path, with no apparent way to win over conservative and moderate holdouts seeking to pull the bill in opposite directions.

A sizable group of Republicans from Medicaid expansion states had yet to commit to the bill either, and Lee’s push for a broader repeal of Affordable Care Act insurance regulations risked pushing away the votes of senators like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who have been among the most vocal in pushing to continue providing protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

A straight repeal bill could look even worse for them. The Congressional Budget Office in January said repealing the Medicaid expansion and exchange subsidies while keeping other Affordable Care Act regulations intact would cause many insurance markets to implode. That would result in an additional 32 million uninsured and premiums roughly doubling, with 75% of the country lacking insurers entirely in the individual market in a decade.

Some Republicans said they were ready to redouble their efforts to repeal Affordable Care Act.

“We can because we must. This is kind of a no-fail moment,” Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, said Tuesday on Fox News. “Let’s get all the people that disagree in one room and let’s hammer this all out.”

House Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan of Ohio told CNN Tuesday that he supported voting on a straight repeal of Obamacare and dismissed the idea that such a bill lacked enough votes.

“If you just went with the conventional wisdom, the underdog would never win,” he said. “So let’s actually put it out there and see what happens when the roll call is really called.”

Democrats immediately blasted the idea. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called it “a humanitarian disaster of incomprehensible scale.” Writing on Twitter, he said, “Full repeal with no replacement will cause markets to fail. No insurer will stay in an exchange that is disappearing in 24 months.”

Other GOP senators have been talking about a new approach to health legislation, with Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeting again Monday about his latest proposal with Cassidy to keep most of the Affordable Care Act’s taxes in place but give states far more freedom on what to do with the money.

McConnell’s plan already was teetering on the brink after Sen. John McCain’s unexpected surgery late Friday left him one short of the votes needed to start debate this week. The majority leader had said the bill wouldn’t be considered until McCain returned.

McCain, in Arizona to recover from the operation, issued a statement saying the GOP shouldn’t repeat Democrats’ strategy of passing the Affordable Care Act without any votes from the other party.

Congress must “hold hearings, receive input from members of both parties, and heed the recommendations of our nation’s governors” to pass a health care plan, McCain said.

House conservatives Monday immediately renewed calls for both chambers to enact a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and leave the replacement debate for later.

‘Full Repeal Bill’

“Expect growing calls from conservatives for Congress to take up full repeal bill that passed under Obama,” Alyssa Farah, a spokeswoman for the conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on Twitter.

Lee’s and Moran’s statements came shortly after Trump met privately to discuss strategy with a small group of Republican senators, including other members of McConnell’s leadership team. Trump said in a July 12 interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson that if the measure didn’t pass the Senate, “It would be very bad. I will be very angry about it and a lot of people will be very upset.”

McConnell spoke of the potential of moving to a scaled-back, bipartisan version of health legislation last month when an earlier version of his GOP-only bill collapsed because it lacked enough support.

He told a Rotary Club in Glasgow, Kentucky, that if Republicans can’t “agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur.”

— Read 5 Tips for ACA Change Binge Watchers on ThinkAdvisor.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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How the Thunder can rebuild without tanking

The new-look Thunder are full of possibilities.

The Thunder can be competitive even in a rebuild.

In early July, Paul George was two months removed from his 29th birthday and had just wrapped up the best season of his career when he requested a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was one season into a four-year deal. Overnight, Oklahoma City’s immediate championship goals died.

Russell Westbrook was dealt to the Houston Rockets one week later, and even though Sam Presti’s combined return was held in high regard, it also helped create two new superpowers in Los Angeles and Houston that instantly showed how wide the gap between the Thunder and a title is. It reminded him, a general manager who’s acquired and lost James Harden, Kevin Durant, George, and Westbrook, how easy it is for carefully laid plans to implode.

Oklahoma City just lost two All-NBA players in their respective primes. They’re set up for a rebuild. But instead of tanking towards ground zero, the Thunder should go the other way, be as competitive as possible, fight for a playoff spot (a long shot but FiveThirtyEight currently gives them better playoff odds than the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs), and reassemble on the fly.

In an NBA that seemingly changes every month, the Thunder can (ironically) take a big-picture page from the pre-Harden Rockets, tread water, and stay in the perpetual hunt for whichever young star next wants out, be it Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, whoever. Until then, they can afford to endure middling outcomes, knowing they already have one 21-year-old blue-chip guard and a larger collection of trade assets than anybody else.

Tanking isn’t in their best interest, particularly when it’s unknown how their fanbase will react to a first dip into irrelevance

Before we go on, let’s summarize what the Thunder actually received this summer: Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, three unprotected first-round picks from the Clippers (in 2022, 2024, and 2026), two first-round picks from the Miami Heat (unprotected in 2021 and lottery-protected in 2023), and two top-four-protected first-round picks from the Houston Rockets (in 2024 and 2026). As a cherry on top, there are four additional pick swaps, with LAC in 2023 and 2025, and Houston in 2021 and 2025. There’s also a top-10 protected first-round pick in 2020 from the Denver Nuggets, who traded it for Jerami Grant.

That’s three quality players, eight first-round draft picks, and four pick swaps spread out over seven years. Not bad! For reference, the Boston Celtics received three unprotected first-round picks, one pick swap, and Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, Kris Joseph, MarShon Brooks and Keith Bogans for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry.

The Celtics wisely used those draft picks as a safety net. They were bad and had no choice but to build themselves back up through the draft, but eventually they made moves to get better in the short-term and straddle two separate timelines. The Thunder can aspire to do the same thing, but—even in a Western Conference that’s never been so punishing—the difference is they may already be good enough to avoid an intentional nosedive.

Assuming they hang on to their veterans, Oklahoma City can be the type of team that rarely beats itself, with more shooting than its recently had, and emboldened contribution from supporting pieces. Most of them are, to varying degrees, established, confident, proud, and growing. Much of their success will ultimately depend on Paul—who’s 34 and hasn’t made an All-Star team since 2016—and how the organization adjusts to such a stark stylistic modification at the point guard position. The downshift from Westbrook’s merciless house fire to Paul’s methodical slow burn may do good for a group that’s viewed chaos as a savior over the past few years.

If Paul ran a successful pick-and-roll while simultaneously typing an email into his iPhone, nobody watching would blink.

The argument for flipping Paul, a psychotically competitive Hall of Famer who’s entering his 15th season, is pretty straightforward. He’s guaranteed $124 million through 2022 and the only player set to earn more money this season is Steph Curry. It’s a bloated salary on a bloated cap sheet. But it’s hard to see any team taking that contract off Presti’s hands without some sort of compensation. (Remember, the Rockets surrendered two first-round picks to get off it.) Also, if winning as many games as they possibly can is the mandate—which it should be—keeping Paul is common sense.

Even though that contract doesn’t align with Paul’s current status, this dude isn’t exactly washed up. Now detached from Houston’s unique, isolation-obsessed approach, there’s an opportunity for Paul to conduct an offense that makes better use of his vision. Three years ago, over half his possessions were finished as a pick-and-roll ball-handler. Last season, they dropped down to 36 percent. Existing as second-fiddle to a perennial MVP candidate will do that, but it’s still a shame to see such blinding skill be underutilized. If Paul ran a successful pick-and-roll while simultaneously typing an email into his iPhone, nobody watching would blink.

Last year, he finished third in assists and averaged 22.5 points and 12.5 assists per 36 minutes when he did not share the floor with Harden. If he’s able to deep-pressure massage the game’s tempo as he has in the past, the Thunder can temporarily make themselves over with a floor general who props those around him up instead of it being the other way around.

Oklahoma City has finished top-five in transition frequency five years in a row—in their entire existence their lowest ranking was seventh—but this year their possessions will be timed with an hourglass. They won’t rely on frenetic pace induced by a rabid, turnover-forcing defense that was addicted to scrambling.

A leisurely approach that defies the rest of the league’s desire to operate at warp speed can be beneficial, for the sake of developing a sensible identity, if nothing else. Instead of crashing the offensive glass, they can be more conservative, hustling back in transition and letting Steven Adams settle into a more natural drop coverage against pick-and-rolls. Attempts at the rim—of which the Thunder have historically surrendered far too often—will drop and long twos will rise. Their quickness and versatility on the wing is convenient, too, particularly if Andre Roberson looks like his old self. (Don’t sleep on them as an Andre Iguodala suitor, either.)

On offense, more ball movement and a steady half-court hand, something Oklahoma City hasn’t employed since Kevin Durant left, won’t be taken for granted by the Thunder’s coaching staff. By finally implementing a new system that better reflects their personnel, shots can be delineated with care. While Paul memorizes every one else’s lines, Westbrook crumples the script into a ball and tries to swallow it. Both are control freaks who like to place their hands around the neck of a possession and squeeze until it turns blue, but Paul does it with a certain charm. He empowers those around him in a way Westbrook does not, and has immediate value off the ball, thanks to his three-point stroke .

Beyond Paul, this team has a few useful players who’ve peaked at a rung just below All-Star consideration, and none overlap. Last season, Gallo solidified himself as an appealing stretch four who 1) plays defense, and 2) draws fouls. He’ll space the floor beside Adams and create his own shots whenever plays break down.

And as someone who, in many ways, is the most important player on the roster, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — the No. 11 pick in the 2018 draft — will nestle in as more of an active participant than subtle observer. As a 20-year-old rookie he pulled off the impossible last year, cementing himself as member of Doc Rivers’ regular and postseason rotation, averaging 10.8 points, making over half his two-point shots, and appearing in every single game. (He was one of 21 players in the entire league to do that.) Gilgeous-Alexander is a 6’6 rubber band whose herky-jerky, meandering drives (often with his left hand) tend to confuse help defenders even more than his own man. Will he skip to the rim, pull back and settle into a pull-up jumper, or fire a cross-court pass?

He needs to be more of a threat behind the three-point line, but his first season was filled with promising samples of a player wise beyond his years, taking what the game is willing to offer. It’ll be interesting to see how much his growth raises the Thunder’s floor and ceiling, considering he’ll have the ball in his hands far more than he did on the Clippers. (Gilgeous-Alexander may also be someone other players—really good ones!—will want to run with someday.)

Depth is an issue, as Mike Muscala and Nerlens Noel are one-dimensional in contrasting ways, while Terrance Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo are absurd athletes who provide more questions than answers. Dennis Schroder is a nightly wild card but also a possible trade chip, should the Thunder want to add more size. And even though first-round pick Darius Bazley is a project, the organization is high on what he brings to the table.

If none of this works, and Oklahoma City falls far behind Sacramento, Dallas, and Minnesota before the All-Star break, Gallo’s expiring contract will be shopped around. But before any games have been played, this intriguing underdog deserves some respect. Tanking isn’t in their best interest, particularly when it’s unknown how their fanbase will react to a first dip into irrelevance. They already have assets. They already have good players. The West is a monster, but for the time being it makes sense for the Thunder to try and slay it.

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