OKC Thunder: Raymond Felton, Paul George say team embraces underdog role

Following practice on Monday, April 1st OKC Thunder superstar Paul George and veteran Raymond Felton spoke to the media and delivered messages of optimism.

Although the OKC Thunder have secured their post season berth they are in the unenviable last seed (eighth) and have an uphill battle to move higher with just five games remaining. But, if you speak to the players on the Thunder there isn’t any panic and some even suggest this position behooves this iteration of the Thunder.

Following practice on Monday Paul George and veteran Raymond Felton spoke to the media and their insights might surprise you.

Paul George speaks of calmness and professionalism:

George touched on the internal belief in the day by day approach of the club. PG spoke of the fun the team has working together. Additionally, PG said the group is committed to improving and cited how many of the players remain after practice to get up additional shots. PG hints that the current malaise isn’t something the team ignores, but they just have a belief in themselves.

George said the greatest foundation for the team right now is “staying with it and working through it”. The star further said regardless of the situation “this group is as tight as it can get”.

Felton loves being underestimated:

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Veteran Raymond Felton has seen it all and knows every season will have ebbs and flows. Each team is different and there is no way to pre-determine when adversity will hit. He called the current malaise growing pains.

Felton cited the underdog role the team is in and further went on to say he likes how everyone is underestimating the Thunder as that tends to be when they perform at their best.

“When everyone is counting us out, that’s when we are at our best.” “So I like it, I like the fact we are struggling right now. Nobody is talking about us. Everybody thinks that you know, we can’t do this, we can’t do that. I love it. That’s when we are at our best.”

In truth, Felton could be channeling a bit of Russell Westbrook who could easily use that (don’t underestimate me) as his mantra instead of Why Not?

Taking from both players it’s not overly surprising the team isn’t panicking. Essentially they’ve played all the playoff teams well except for the Nuggets. The issue, however, isn’t aligning with the Warriors, it’s when they would play.

At this stage, it’s unlikely to believe the Thunder could catch up to the Clippers to capture the sixth seed. That in itself is disappointing given how well the Thunder match up the Blazers and landing in the sixth seed would mean avoiding the Warriors until the Conference Finals should both teams win in their respective brackets.