NBA Oklahoma City Thunder

Kevin Durant Injury Will Cripple Thunder In Strong Western Conference

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By @TheSizzle20

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The Oklahoma City Thunder haven’t been able to get back to the NBA Finals since arriving there (and subsequently being defeated) back in 2012. Despite boasting two of the best players in the league in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, circumstances and injuries have kept the Thunder from getting near the pinnacle of the league in recent seasons.

It seems that injuries could once again hinder them, this time in a bigger way than ever before. Reports from the Thunder on Sunday say that reigning NBA MVP Kevin Durant has a Jones fracture in his right foot. This is an injury that normally requires surgery and has a typical timetable for return at about 6-8 weeks.

Listing why Durant is important to Oklahoma City is futile at this point. He’s one of a handful of irreplaceable players in the NBA right now and may be the best and most versatile scorer that this league has ever seen. It doesn’t matter who the Thunder fill his shoes with, they aren’t going to be able to impact the game in the way that Durant is able to on a relatively routine basis.

The first big takeaway from the injury, though, is the uncertainty that surrounds this particular type of injury. As stated, the typical return timetable sits at around 6-8 weeks, but it’s also an injury that has kept guys out of action for much longer than that. We also tend to forget that Durant is a seven-footer (or just short of that) because of his style-of-play, but injuries to the lower-extremities of men that size have a tendency to be more problematic than they would be to smaller players. All of that factors in to make the timetable for Durant’s return questionable at best.

More than that, though, is how terribly this injury could affect the season as a whole for the Thunder. Sure, this is a team that still boasts Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, and plenty of other talented role players. However, this is also a team that plays in the vaunted Western Conference that has gotten even stronger at the top of the standings this offseason. That’s hardly a promising notion for OKC.

Even if Durant’s return does follow the normal timetable for the fracture in his foot, that still leaves him out of action for a month of regular season play at minimum. The Thunder will still be a quality team over that stretch, but there’s a likely chance that they won’t be able to get out of the gate sitting atop the West. Getting in that kind of hole early in such a talented conference could have major implications come playoff time in terms of seeding, homecourt advantage, and so on.

Obviously the biggest blow in all of this is that we, as NBA fans, don’t get to watch one of the best basketball players in the world continue to master his craft. However, if we look at what the Durant injury means for the Thunder in their quest to finally return to the Finals, this clearly is a detriment to their plight and could once again thwart their effort to be playing in a series for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.

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