The OKC Thunder had one of the most impressive runs in professional sports from their initial season in Bricktown (2008-09) through the surprising 2019-20 NBA season. For the majority of that era of Thunder basketball, Russell Westbrook was a key cog playing 11 seasons, 821 games, for the franchise from 2008-19.
In that span, the Thunder surrounded Westbrook with a ton of high-end talent, from Kevin Durant and James Harden to Paul George and what was left of Carmelo Anthony. The OKC Thunder made a trip to the NBA Finals back in 2012 while routinely landing themselves a spot in the Western Conference finals during the Westbrook era.
For all the success the OKC Thunder had at that time as one of the winningest franchises in professional sports during that span, there were some holes in the team’s starting lineups for various reasons.
Ranking the seven worst starters for the OKC Thunder during the Russell Westbrook era in Bricktown.
Russell Westbrook not only saw a ton of roster overturn during his Oklahoma City tenure but some coaching changes as well, playing for three different bench bosses during his team with the franchise, from the short-lived P.J. Carlesimo stint to the at times stubborn Scott Brooks, and wrapping up his time with Billy Donovan. All of them had some faults, and all of them put out some shaky starting lineups.
To qualify for this list, said player must have made at least 18 starts during said seasons with the OKC Thunder. This list will progressively cover worse and worse players. For such a successful run, putting together a list like this was incredibly hard, and it had to include some pretty productive players.
Number 7: Desmond Mason
During the 2008-09 season, the OKC Thunder started Desmond Mason in 19 games, playing a total of 39 for the franchise. Mason earned a spot on the inaugural Thunder roster with a lot of ties to Oklahoma. The Waxahachie, Texas native played his college ball up the road in Stillwater, Oklahoma, for the Cowboys while playing professionally in Oklahoma City for the Hornets during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
With the OKC Thunder, Mason averaged 2.5 points, four rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 stocks per game, turning in shooting splits of 43/00/54. Of all players to start at least 18 games as a member of the Thunder, Mason holds the record for the worst win shares at -0.3. The reason for Mason to only rank seventh is partly due to the expectation level of that initial Thunder team. His lack of production that season did not cost OKC anything. Seeing a familiar face as professional sports debuted in Bricktown was cool.
Number 6: Domantas Sabonis
It pains me to put Domantas Sabonis on this list. This is more so a timing issue than a skill issue. If you ask anyone with the Thunder or who follows the OKC Thunder, they immediately saw his potential to be a really good player in this league. However, during the 2016-17 season, Sabonis was just not ready for the bright lights.
The Gonzaga big man was selected 11th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic. He was shipped to OKC with Victor Oladipo just weeks before Kevin Durant would leave the Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors. He was then thrust into the league playing 81 games as a first-year player, starting 66 of them.
With the Thunder trying to recover from losing a future Hall of Famer, and an all-time great player, Russell Westbrook, went on an absolute tear on the way to winning the Most Valuable Player award despite the OKC Thunder finishing with a 47-35 record, good enough for sixth in the tough Western Conference. Of course, Westbrook averaged a triple-double, and without him, the OKC Thunder would have been one of the worst teams in the NBA, so there was no questioning how valuable he was in that season.
Domantas Sabonis averaged six points, 3.6 rebounds, and an assist while posting 0.9 STOCKS per game. He shot 32 percent from three-point land, 40 percent from the floor, and 65 percent at the line. Sabonis turned the ball over once per game and was just a young big that made a few too many mistakes.
While his potential was made clear, he seemed to have a hard time getting up to speed alongside Russell Westbrook. A common opinion back then was that Sabonis was a bit timid playing next to the league’s MVP.
Sam Presti quickly shipped Sabonis and Oladipo out of town to land Paul George that Summer. Since then, Sabonis has become one of the league’s top big men with three All-Star selections, a league-leading rebounder, and an All-NBA selection.
Number 5: Kendrick Perkins
The OKC Thunder made a trade with the Boston Celtics on February 24th, 2011, to acquire Champion big man Kendrick Perkins. The Thunder shipped Jeff Green, Nenad Krstic, and Nate Robinson to the Celtics to beef up their big-man position.
The Oklahoma City Thunder needed help down low defensively and could help the Boston Celtics land the depth they craved. There is no denying that Kendrick Perkins helped the OKC Thunder, from boosting their organization with leadership and internal development to his production on the court during his first three seasons with the Thunder.
You could argue Scott Brooks made the wrong decision to keep Perkins on the floor during the 2012 NBA Finals, but that can also be dismissed as revisionist history with the hindsight of what is commonly accepted in the modern era of basketball.
Ultimately, Kendrick Perkins lands on this list due to his 2013-14 season in Bricktown. His final full season as a member of the OKC Thunder lasted 62 games, getting the start in each one, on his way to averaging 3.4 points, five rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.9 stocks per game. Perkins shot 45 percent from the floor and 55 percent at the free-throw line.
From 2008-2019, Kendrick Perkins owned the 6th worst win share season of anyone who made 18 or more starts, turning in 0.8 win shares for that OKC Thunder group.
The next season Oklahoma City shipped Perkins out of town after 51 games (3 starts) to acquire Enes Kanter in a three-team trade that sent Reggie Jackson to Detroit, Perkins to Utah, and Kanter to Oklahoma City.
Number 4: Dion Waiters
The OKC Thunder fanbase rallied around Dion Waiters in a big way during his time in Bricktown. The eight-year veteran, who eventually captured an NBA Championship during the 2020 season, ended up with Oklahoma City during the 2014-15 season before playing the entire 2015-16 campaign in OKC.
In January of 2015, Waiters was shipped from Cleveland to OKC as part of a three-team trade that saw the Thunder part with Lance Thomas, a first-round pick in 2016 (Furkan Korkmaz), to net Waiters, and saw Cleveland land Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to eventually lift them to a Championship.
Dion Waiters was fearless on the court; he provided some perimeter shooting for an era of Thunder basketball that severely lacked in that area and even had a massive playoff series in 2016 against the Dallas Mavericks, where he averaged 11 points, three rebounds, and two assists per game while shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc, and did not miss a free throw during the five-game series.
To show how good the OKC Thunder were in this era of basketball, Waiters holds the fourth worst win shares season of any player to start at least 18 games. In 2014-15, Waiters turned in 0.7 win shares while playing in 40 games, making 27 starts. He averaged 12.7 points, three rebounds, two assists, and 1.2 STOCKs per game while turning in shooting splits of 39/32/62 to land him on this list.
Number 3: Nenad Krstic
Nenard Krstic was an interesting player for the OKC Thunder, playing seven NBA seasons, including appearing in three campaigns for the Oklahoma City Thunder, totaling 169 games. In his time with the Thunder, Krstic started in 152 games after starting 201 of 226 games for the New Jersey Nets from 2004-08.
Krstic played on the inaugural OKC Thunder team, playing in 46 tilts, making 29 starts, before seeing his role increase each of the next two seasons. Eventually, as mentioned previously, the Oklahoma City Thunder needed an upgrade at the center position and flipped Nenard Krstic and Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins.
During the 2008-09 season, Krstic turned in just 1.7 win shares which lands him tenth worst from 2008-2019 for the OKC Thunder, but the season to highlight was a little better for the big man. Given that the 2008-09 season had no expectations attached to it, there is no reason to worry about win shares that season. However, as this young core was rounding into form, Krstic had the 13th worst win-share season of that span in the 2010-11 seasons (2.0).
Nenard Krstic was a liability on the defensive end of the floor which hurt the OKC Thunder’s ability to get stops in critical moments. While he did provide value on the offensive end for his position, it was not enough to offset the defensive drop-off as the team’s center that season, starting in all 47 games that he played a part of, which is why the team shipped him off in the middle of that season for Kendrick Perkins.
While Perkins could be considered a slight downgrade on the offensive end, he was a massive upgrade defensively for a team that was driven by Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and an elite scoring option off the bench in James Harden.
Number 2: Daequan Cook
The OKC Thunder faithful also rallied around Daequan Cook during his time in Bricktown for similar reasons to the aforementioned Dion Waiters, his shooting ability. Cook played two seasons for the OKC Thunder. He totaled 100 games for the franchise and made 22 starts, all coming during the 2011-12 season.
In his career with the Thunder, Daequan Cook posted five points, two rebounds, half an assist, and 0.5 STOCKS per game while shooting a career-best for a single franchise, 37 percent from beyond the arc on three attempts per night.
However, during the 2011-12 season, Cook started 22 games at age 24 and posted 1.6 win shares, ranking ninth worst for this era of Thunder basketball and fifth worst if you take out the inaugural 2008-09 season.
That year, the Ohio State product averaged five points, two rebounds, and 0.6 STOCKS per game while shooting 34 percent from beyond the arc on four attempts a night. That was quite the drop-off from his career-best year of 43 percent for the 2010-11 Thunder. Still, Daequan Cook was valuable for the OKC Thunder and cracks this list due to how difficult it is to find “bad” pieces in this era that started enough games to qualify.
Number 1: Kyle Singler
This was the easier ranking of the entire list to hammer down; of course, Kyle Singler had to be considered the worst starter of the Russell Westbrook era. Singler has not played for the OKC Thunder franchise since the 2017-18 season (12 games), and the Thunder did not stop paying his contract until July 1st…as in July 1st, 2023!
His lack of on-court production was one of many problems for Singler in OKC; it was also the dead money owed after the Thunder waived the Duke product.
Kyle Singler’s NBA career lasted six seasons, split between the Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder. He was traded to the Thunder in February of 2015 from Detroit for Reggie Jackson.
Kyle Singler played in 136 games for the OKC Thunder, averaging 3.2 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.4 assists, and 0.6 STOCKS per game while shooting a lackluster 30 percent from beyond the arc (Down from his 37 percent clip with the Pistons),
If you take away the inaugural 2008-09 season, Kyle Singler owns the worst win-share season of any player to make 18 or more starts during the Russell Westbrook era. In 2014-15, Singler started 18 games while turning in a lowly 0.4 win share. During that season, Kevin Durant only played in 22 games, and the OKC Thunder won just 45 games finishing second in the Northwest Divison but failing to make the playoffs in the competitive Western Conference thanks to a buzzer-beating bucket by Anthony Davis.
It is safe to say the 2014-15 season was a mess of a year and, for uncontrollable reasons, one of the worst of the Russell Westbrook era, but it still lands Kyle Singler the top spot and the honor of being the worst starter in OKC Thunder history from 2008-2019.
The OKC Thunder were one of the most successful franchises in sports during this era, so being on the list for their worst starters in that span is not the embarrassment it would be for other franchises. Now, the Thunder once again rosters one of the best young cores in the NBA, and I hope this era of Thunder basketball can match (and maybe surpass) the Westbrook era.