Poll: Who is the best OKC Thunder round one opponent?

The OKC Thunder enter week 25 of NBA action seeded eighth with hopes or making tweaks and improving over their final five regular season games.

If the OKC Thunder were an amusement park ride they would be a roller coaster. The club began the season 0-4 setting off early alarm bells. In truth, most fans weren’t worried by the start since Russell Westbrook was still recouping from offseason arthroscopic knee surgery and there were many youngsters on the team expected to fulfill bigger roles.

Even this current regression shouldn’t be too shocking given the OKC Thunder knew they would have the most difficult schedule of all 30 teams to close out their season. What they and we as fans couldn’t predict was such a drastic fall off or Paul George‘s injured shoulder.

Falling all the way to eighth is definitely not ideal. As of this morning that would merit a first round matchup versus the Golden State Warriors. Russell Westbrook likely licks his chops over that prospect, but even the fearless point guard is likely hoping that meeting would come in a later round.

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

The other issue is the Denver Nuggets are the one team in the top seeds who have presented the Thunder with the most issues. Analysts will point to the Nuggets lack of playoff experience and recent regression, but the fact remains the Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Mavericks have proven to be the hardest challenge for OKC.

The question is with just five games remaining precisely how much can the OKC Thunder improve their standing? Games versus the Lakers, Pistons, at Timberwolves, Rockets and at Bucks remain. Of those the Lakers and Wolves only motivation is to play spoiler and even then moving up in the lottery likely holds precedent over adding another ‘W’.

Detroit is currently seeded sixth but has yet to secure their playoff berth with five teams still in the mix to capture the final three Eastern seeds. While Houston is covetous of moving higher up the seeding ladder (currently fourth). Ironically, the toughest opponent the Thunder face (Bucks) will occur in game 82 in Milwaukee. With the Bucks experiencing their first injury adversity of the season this may be the easiest of their five contests remaining.

The good news is the Thunder tend to raise their level of play when underestimated. And, for as much Westbrook may covet this meeting, we’ll have to wait to see how things pan out.

As per the above poll – visit Thunderous Intentions Twitter and let us know what you think is the best first round scenario for the OKC Thunder.

Poll: Who is the best OKC Thunder round one opponent?