Scheduling Benchmarks for Thunder to Gauge Rebuild Progress

The Thunder are entering year three of the full rebuild of their roster, the upcoming season is full of benchmarks which will show how far the Thunder have come.

Oklahoma City's rebuild continues to take steps forward in the progress toward being competitive in the NBA again, at least on paper.

Oklahoma City won 44 games in 2019-20 with the help of Chris Paul. The last two seasons haven’t been smooth. OKC hasn’t won more than 25 games in either of those seasons. The Thunder have a combined record of 46-108, which is less wins than each individual season from 2015-2019.

However, the mood around the team is higher than it has been since the beginning of the rebuild. With three new lottery selections, a surging Shai Gilgeous- Alexander the Thunder should be on the track forward.

Chet Holmgren, the highest selected of the three lottery, will be out for the season with a Lisfranc injury. But the Thunder’s expectations are higher than last season, but certain benchmarks will tell more clearly their progress throughout the season. 

Benchmark 1: Pistons and Rockets

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The Thunder, Pistons and Rockets have been active in their rebuilds in recent seasons, each taking steps forward to being competitive teams.

The Rockets and Thunder have had a competitive series which has brought about a sense of rivalry amongst the teams.

The series against these two teams will set a benchmark for the Thunder to see how they fare against other teams near the bottom of the league.

OKC and Detroit face each other twice this season, and one additional time in the preseason. The regular season games are spaced out enough, the first Nov. 7 and the second March 29. 

Benchmark 2: Pelicans

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The Pelicans are a team who finished 36-46 last season and earned the eighth seed in the Western Conference.

A team with a loaded roster who added two more first round picks this off-season, including Dyson Daniels. With growing optimism around Zion Williamson the four games between the Thunder and Pelicans will tell a lot about where the Thunder are as a unit.

In the previous two seasons the Thunder are a combined 3-3 against New Orleans. The Thunder don’t have to win the season series to prove they’ve gotten closer to competing with playoff team’s but a win or even a split will speak volumes, especially without Holmgren. 

Benchmark 3: The contenders

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The Thunder play the Warriors and Suns four times each and play the Celtics and Bucks twice.

These sets of games will prove an uphill battle for the young Thunder roster against teams with title hopes.

While the Thunder may not be to the point of winning season series against the teams, the tests and how well they play against them will be good checks of the progress the team has made both overall and throughout the season.

Playing title-contending level opponents double-digit times over the course of a grueling 82 game schedule is crucial to the development of the OKC youthful core. 

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