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Oklahoma City Thunder Could Become The Utah Jazz Of The 1990s

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By @courtzierk

USA TODAY Sports - Mark D. Smith

USA TODAY Sports – Mark D. Smith

June 14, 1998. It was game six of the NBA Finals, with the Chicago Bulls up in the series 3-2. The Utah Jazz held a 86-85 lead with about 25 seconds remaining on the clock. Karl Malone received an entry pass from John Stockton and had the ball on the left block, preparing to back down Dennis Rodman for a shot that would force a decisive game seven back in Chicago. Seemingly out of nowhere, Michael Jordan snuck up and stripped the ball from Malone’s unexpecting grip, giving the Bulls the final possession of the game.

What happened next is captured in one of the most legendary basketball photographs of all time, as Jordan crossed over Bryon Russell to take, and make, what would end up being his final shot as a Bull, giving them their sixth NBA Title in eight years.

This would also end up being the last NBA Finals appearance for the Jazz, capping off what was amounted to more than a decade of dominant basketball from the iconic pairing of Stockton and Malone. That isn’t to say this was the duo’s last season in Utah — they would both go on to play five more years in a Jazz uniform — but it did mark their best opportunity to walk away with the Larry O’Brien trophy. The two would never make it past the second round as teammates again.

But, looking back at the Jazz teams of the 1990s, what is the one thing that comes immediately to mind? For me, it’s not the fact that Stockton and Malone may have been the most impactful duo in NBA history, or how they elevated a team from one of the smallest markets in the country to yearly prominence. Maybe those are the things I should remember, but they aren’t. All that comes to mind for me is the fact that they came close, but never won a championship.

Fast forward to 2014, and this appears to be the same unfortunate plight the Oklahoma City Thunder are up against. The similarities between the two franchises are eerie once you begin to compare them. Both small-market teams with two transcendent superstars leading their respective franchises. Both consistently elite teams that annually compete for championships. And both haunted by their failure to get past the elite team/s of their era.

Since moving to Oklahoma City, from Seattle, the Thunder have made the playoffs six out of seven years, once making it to the NBA Finals, only to run into a buzzsaw in the LeBron James-led Miami Heat. Twice, they made it to the Western Conference Finals, losing to the eventual NBA champions in the ‘10-’11 Dallas Mavericks and the ‘13-’14 San Antonio Spurs.

Last season’s loss to the Spurs, while not especially surprising given how they played in the previous rounds, may end up being the seminal moment that fans reflect upon when they look back on the legacy of this team.

Throughout their playoff run, the holes in the Thunder’s armor became painfully apparent, which makes their offseason that much more puzzling — I will get to that in a bit. No other game epitomized this team’s flaws more than game six in the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs.

The Spurs played 11 different players that night, and of those that played, 10 of them showed up in the box score with at least two points. The only player who didn’t score that night for the Spurs was Patty Mills, who as we know, contributed significantly in other ways.The Thunder however, who also played 11 players that game, only saw five of them put the ball into the basket that night. Only Russell Westbrook (34 points), Kevin Durant (31), Reggie Jackson (21), Serge Ibaka (16) and Derek Fisher (5) scored any points at all. And Fisher is now coaching for the New York Knicks.

That is a microcosm of what is wrong with how this Thunder team is constructed, and it is strangely reminiscent of those Jazz teams that couldn’t get past the Bulls in the ’90s. The 1997-1998 Jazz had five players that made up around 70% of their total scoring output. Last year’s Thunder had five players that made up 75% of their output. Obviously both teams’ scoring was centralized primarily to their starters, and really only among a handful of players.

Which is why the strangest development of the offseason was actually the lack of any development at all. How the Thunder failed to do anything to address what is so obviously broken with their team is utterly mind-boggling to me. There were plenty of opportunities available to them in free agency, and they neglected virtually all of them, only adding Anthony Morrow and Sebastian Telfair to bolster their bench.

Despite playing in the Western Conference Finals last year, this was a team that was never a real threat to make it back to the NBA Finals. I know that sounds odd, but it is entirely accurate. They were thoroughly outplayed, and their flaws were put on display for the world to see — well, everybody except for the Thunder’s personnel department that is. Their failure to see those flaws and to make any moves of note this summer could wind up sealing their fate as this generation’s version of the 1990s Utah Jazz.

Durant only has two years remaining on his current contract, and after this season, his impending free agency decision could be enough for the Thunder to explore possible trade scenarios if they feel he is unlikely to return. And with the talent situation shaping up the way it has for the upcoming season, the likelihood that Durant returns to OKC should decrease by the day.

This could be this team’s final realistic shot at making a push for an NBA championship, and it appears as though they are willing to see if this team can complete what the Jazz were never able to. There is always a chance when you have two of the best players on the planet on the same team, but we have all seen the results of leaning too heavily on such a small fraction of the team.

As long as the Spurs can trot out 10 legitimate NBA players on a given night, the Thunder’s road to their first NBA championship may end in much the same way as the Jazz’s, left to wonder what could have been.

Court Zierk is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @CourtZierk, “Like” him on Facebook or add him on Google.

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