OKC Thunder: 2 players that could exceed expectations in 2020-21

Though fans may be coming into the 2020-21 season with low expectations for the OKC Thunder, there are a few individual players that could have themselves nice campaigns.

After a surprise 2019-20 season that saw the OKC Thunder embark into the postseason for the fifth consecutive season, it appears the franchise, and their fanbase, are content with letting the streak stop there and, in turn, embrace a full-on rebuild.

Based on the moves in which general manager Sam Presti has made thus far during the offseason — shipping off Chris Paul to the Phoenix Suns, Steven Adams to the New Orleans Pelicans, and sign-and-trading Danilo Gallinari to the Atlanta Hawks — it would seem as though the word “tank” has been pinned to every wall within the Chesapeake Energy Arena, just as a reminder for the team that 2020-21 is going to be a rough one filled with very low expectations.

That said, just because many are expecting the Thunder as a whole to be bad, this is not to say there won’t be some surprises to come out of this year’s campaign.

From the performance that Mark Daigneault will give during his first season as Oklahoma City’s head coach to the way Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will produce during his first-season as top-dog, for fans of the organization there will still be many storylines to follow as the year goes by.

For us here at Thunderous Intentions, one of the biggest things we’ll be on the lookout for are players who wind up outperforming expectations. Today, we present to you two players on the OKC Thunder that we believe could wind up outshining preseason predictions: