Tramel: Why the Thunder U. team of Durant, Harden and Westbrook was ahead of its time

James Harden — remember him? — played maybe the best game of his playoff life Monday night.

Then about an hour later, across the country, Jeff Green drove for a stunning dunk, considering Green is 36 years old.

And it made me think about timing.

The Thunder U. team of 13 years ago, that green OKC team that staged a 27-win improvement over the previous season and went 50-32 in 2009-10? That team featuring 21-year-olds Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the 23-year-old Green and 20-year-olds Serge Ibaka and Harden?

That team was ahead of its time. It came along too early.

That Thunder team was perfect for the 2020s. Not so much for the early 2010s.

Sam Presti eventually traded Green and center Nenad Krstic to Boston for Kendrick Perkins, giving the Thunder toughness, maturity and post defense, which a Western Conference team had to have to combat Lakers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler, Grizzlies Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, and Spur Tim Duncan.

The trade was solid. The trade worked. The Thunder made four Western Conference finals in a six-season span.

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Early 2010s Thunder team was made for these times

Then the NBA started changing, and now, that beefier, bigger Thunder team would be out of place in the faster, spread-out NBA.

But timing is everything. Put that 2010 Thunder roster in this NBA, and you’ve got a dang near perfect roster.

“It's funny, because if you took that team and put it now, people would be saying different things about it,” Presti said. “They wouldn't be saying, ‘you're too small.’ They'd be saying, ‘this is a really good modern team.’

“But we played certain teams, and that team, as good as it was as a 50-win level team, it just had limitations against certain teams.”

Picture that Thunder team, with a couple more years of seasoning, in this Air Raid NBA.

Ibaka playing center as a switchable defender and rim protector, spreading the floor because improving his outside shooting became his passion.

Green as a power forward who was undersized then but would be perfect now. A ballhandler, a versatile defender, an all-around scoring threat who also would space the floor.

Durant, Westbrook and Harden you know well, and think about the driving lanes available to a young Westbrook and Harden with defenses spread, which they most certainly were not 12-13 years ago.

Toss in Thabo Sefolosha, a premier defender who had his moments as an outside shooter (35 percent on 3-pointers for his career).

And add even Krstic, who was a much better player for this era than his own. Krstic was a 7-foot center who wasn’t particularly physical but who could stretch the floor. Krstic played 419 NBA games and launched just 14 3-point shots in his career. But Krstic was a good outside shooter; in 2009-10, his lone full season with OKC, he took 560 shots. Almost 50% (46.8) of those shots were long 2’s — 16-22 feet. And Krstic made 45.4% of those long 2’s. For his career, Durant, an exquisite mid-range shooter, has made 45.1% of long 2’s. Krstic easily could have transitioned to 3-point shots.

I’m telling you. That Thunder roster would have been perfect for the NBA if the league had been playing the way it’s playing now.

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Sam Presti: 'You have to be adaptable' in today's NBA

In his post-game press conference a couple of weeks ago, Presti talked at length about that circa 2010 team and compared it in some ways to the 2022-23 situation, when the Thunder made a 16-win jump, to 40-42.

“It's so early,” Presti said. “I think when we were at that point where we were a 50-win team organically on our own volition and the other teams were kind of composed to a certain degree, we were less known than those teams were, I think, compositionally, because we were still so young.

“No one knew how good we'd be. But we were threatening you. We were 18 games over .500. It was a big improvement.”

But Presti said the landscape of the league is always a variable in how to move forward with a roster. For instance, he’s still preaching patience.

“I don't think you can look and say, ‘Oh, well, the West is down.’ I mean, because the West was not down, and then Kevin Durant just parachuted into the West (with the Suns),” Presti said. “If you're waiting for the seas to part for you, it will never happen.”

Presti pivoted in February 2011 with the Jeff Green trade, believing the landscape called for it. And he was right. The Thunder was better poised to navigate the Western Conference from 2011-16, and only Durant’s exodus to Golden State dropped OKC from contention status.

Presti said the current landscape calls for perseverance.

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“If you become impatient or reckless, you can storm the beach, but it may not be very wise to do that until you really are prepared to take on those types of teams, especially if you're going to expend a lot of assets to do that,” Presti said.

“I wouldn't say we're looking at that, because the one thing about the NBA, and it's happened more and more, is things are changing very quickly, and that's why I think you have to be adaptable.”

Oh well, there are no time tunnels. The Durant/Westbrook/Harden teams — and the post-Harden era, too — was glorious in its own right, albeit it without a title.

We focus on Durant and Westbrook a lot. But Harden remains a lightning-rod player.

Monday night, the 76ers upset the Celtics 119-115 in Game 1 of the East semifinals as Harden scored 45 points on 17-of-30 shooting, 7-of-14 from deep, with six assists and only three turnovers. Playing without superstar teammate Joel Embiid, Harden swished a 26-foot 3-pointer to put the 76ers ahead with eight seconds left.

And out in Denver, “Uncle Jeff” Green played 15½ minutes for the roster-thin Nuggets, who beat Durant and the Suns 97-87 to take a 2-0 lead in the West semifinals.

A night to remember what the Thunder once had. A fabulous team that came around at the wrong time.

Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Thunder era of Kevin Durant, James Harden ahead of its time in NBA