With the Oklahoma City Thunder just a game away from the NBA Finals, the "OKC Plan" is sifting into the minds of more than just those of us who pore over trade machines and salary pages. Building through the draft is absolutely the most reliable of all the options through which a team can become legitimate. The Thunder is the best example of this. So with a similar progression, it led Grantland to ask if the Sixers are the next OKC.
The deflating reality is that the Sixers are nothing like the Thunder. Win or lose, Oklahoma City squints into a future brightened by a core of young stars. Philly has no such promise. And for a young team ostensibly on the upswing, the Sixers are surprisingly entering an offseason where everything is in flux.
Kevin Durant is really, really good. Just because the Sixers beat the Bulls without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah (they WERE NOT going to win if they were healthy - stop thinking that) and took an extremely obvious Boston Celtics team that was just asking to be upset to 7 games -- breathe -- does not mean that they're on the upswing. Andre Iguodala will likely be moved, Louis Williams should be gone, Spencer Hawes will be gone (otherwise, The Plague), and Elton Brand could be amnestied. Things are going to be happening.
I certainly don't agree with everything in the article, but it adds to a lot of what we've been saying about the state of this team for a while. Give it a read, then watch the Thunder and pine for the next Kevin Durant to fall in our laps.