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The lasting image of the 2014-15 NBA season is a bent Stephen Curry wrist as the ball swished through the net. Yes, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship with deadeye shooting and a flexible defense that, in the end, stifled a depleted Cleveland Cavaliers team with the superhuman LeBron James. In the off season, though, the San Antonio Spurs enjoyed the biggest coup, landing former Portland Trailblazer and double-double machine, LaMarcus Aldridge. But the biggest storyline entering the 2015-16 season is the state of the Oklahoma City Thunder…aka the former Seattle basketball team…aka the Zombie Sonics. 

The Thunder bolted from Seattle in 2008 when Starbucks ceo Howard Schultz sold the team to Oklahoman, Clay Bennet, while ownership and management gutted the roster and made it seem like Seattle didn’t care about basketball. But we do care about basketball! And the fact that there is no professional team in the city makes avid fans both sad and angry, which makes this season a potential turning point for our round, orange rubber ball-loving hearts. Here’s why: 

OKC’s three star players, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka all suffered serious injuries last year and the team missed the playoffs – an unthinkable reality. The team has continually underachieved given the celestial level of talent it has amassed over the last seven years, partially because of its asinine trade of former Thunder player James Harden to the Houston Rockets for spare parts three years ago. If the Thunder doesn’t go deep into the playoffs this year, its stars may depart for other cities (read: New York City, Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles). 

All three players are healthy this year and the team added some nice free agent talent around them. But will this be the season – after another possible playoff disappointment – that the band breaks up and the dream will end? If they don’t make the Western Conference Finals, then the answer is YES. But will they make the Western Conference Finals? Looking into my crystal ball… I say no. The Clippers, Rockets, Warriors and Spurs will be in the way and, here’s the kicker, I don’t think the big three for the Thunder want to drag their team to the finals. They want to win in general, sure. But karma has a way of coming back around, and something just doesn’t feel right in OKC. It never has. It’s always felt like everyone’s hearts aren’t in it for that team. Their underwhelming efforts have always seemed like more than just bad luck and injury. Even more than youth. They know how the team got there, and there’s no sake winning for a stolen team. The players know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. 

My prediction? OKC will disband, break up and turn into a wasteland. Great!

Now that we’re here, let’s ignore the pain from the Sonics move in 2008 and get to the rest of the league.

It’s the Cavs’ year. LeBron James is still the best player on the planet. He practically willed a team of cast-offs to a championship last summer with star players Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving injured. The Cavs have depth, too, after plenty of signings this off season. But most of all, what they have is a determined King James. Remember when the Miami Heat lost, somewhat surprisingly, in the first year of James’ arrival? It seemed like the team was going to win the championship, but they didn’t, and lost to the Dallas Mavericks. It took that team a year to gel, to figure things out, and it will only take LeBron a year with the Cavs to figure things out. The Cavs will win the NBA Championship this year. 

The west will be a battle all year and no one really knows who will emerge. This is one of the reasons why, in fact, the Cavs will win. The elite teams in the west will wear each other down, beat each other up and cause whatever team – whether it’s the cursed Clippers, the old Spurs, the unchallenged Rockets or the reigning champ Warriors – to be hobbled and tired once they enter the finals. It’s not the west’s year this year, it’s the Cavs’ year. Of course, I could be wrong, but don’t bet on it. 

Sometimes the best parts of the NBA have nothing to do with wins or losses. This is why the NBA is the best sport. There is so much going on in the league socially and with various personalities that it remains compelling even if we know the Cavs will win the title. What will career arcs of Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, James Harden and any number of other all-stars look like? Who will have the most monstrous dunk of the year? What will Anthony Davis–the rangy, athletic, uber-talented center for the New Orleans Pelicans–achieve in his third NBA season? Will he win the MVP? Will he will his team deep into the playoffs? What will the most fashionable players in the league wear before games? Who will they be seen with after hours? In a world where baseball is played at a snail’s pace and football is worrying about concussions and Roger Goodell’s awful commissioning, the NBA reigns supreme with its entertainment. 

Pick a team who didn’t make the playoffs last year and see if it rises. Many think the Utah Jazz, with lots of young talent and a young head coach, can surprise.. Others are hoping the New York Knicks can take a step forward and breathe life into the Mecca of Basketball: New York City. Maybe the Lakers will ride high in Bryant’s presumptive final season? Or maybe a team like the Milwaukee Bucks, which made the playoffs last year but want to squeak into the finals, might pull off great things for the city. Will the Philladelphia 76ers continue to tank seasons for high draft picks, or might they make the 8^th seed in the crappy Eastern Conference? Will the Boston Celtics rize from their 8^th seed last year into a top-4 seed in the east this year? What do YOU think? 

The Sonics will be back (we can only hope). This is more of a pipedream than anything now, but we have to believe Seattle will get a team back in the next handful of years. Whether it’s through expansion or if a team like the Charlotte Hornets decides to fold up shop and move. New NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has said it’s a priority for him and there’s no reason not to believe him (though it still may take years). Some in the know think the NBA is holding Seattle hostage, though, and keeping the city as a what-if threat if another team/city decides not to build a new state-of-the-art stadium. This may have been the case, but I can’t believe the league wants to keep it this way forever. Especially after they’ve seen how the town can respond to a winner like the Seahawks. 

Karma. Just wanted to mention this once more. As the Cavs are raising the banner in the summer after beating one of the many contenders in the west for a ring – and bringing joy to Cleveland (a city that could use a reason to party) – the Thunder will be trying to figure out how to keep superstar players who no longer want to be there and who question the savvy of management. Things will be changing dramatically for the Thunder in less than 12 months. You heard it here first.