Key players lost<\/strong> \u2013 Etan Thomas, Mustafa Shakur<\/p>\nKevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder enjoyed their official NBA coming out party last season, winning 50 games and making the playoffs. Of course, even 50 wins was only good enough for the eighth seed in the competitive Western Conference, so this team can\u2019t rest on its laurels and assume more good times are coming. But with such a strong core of young talent in the fold, it\u2019s hard not to get excited about the team\u2019s vast potential.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s team returns completely intact. Durant was an absolute beast, leading OKC in points (30.1 per game) and rebounding (7.6 per game). The budding superstar is also coming off a fantastic effort at this year\u2019s World Championships, and it\u2019s entirely possible he\u2019s ready to move into Kobe Bryant\/Dwyane Wade\/LeBron James territory.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no shortage of talent surrounding Durant, either. Russell Westbrook really came into his own last season. The third-year point guard posted 16.1 points per game in 2009-10 but, more importantly, improved as a distributor, finishing with eight assists per evening. Forward Jeff Green returns after another solid campaign; he\u2019s not going to be a dominating force on the court, but he doesn\u2019t need to with Durant and Westbrook carrying the load. ![\"Online](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_41\")
<\/p>\n
Center Nenad Kristic and guard James Harden should hold down the other two starting spots. It\u2019d be nice to get a little more out of Kristic, in particular, as he hauled in just five rebounds per game; you\u2019d certainly like a little more production out of your starting center.<\/p>\n
If Kristic doesn\u2019t improve, rookie Cole Aldrich could find himself in the mix. The former Kansas Jayhawk 9.8 rebounds per game last year and 11.1 the year before. Despite not having a single stand-out player on the glass, the Thunder ranked third in rebounding last season.<\/p>\n
A very sneaky signing by Oklahoma City is swingman Morris Peterson. Peterson\u2019s best days are behind him\u2014he hasn\u2019t averaged more than 8.9 points per game since 2005-06\u2014but he\u2019s a reliable back up who has taken some big shots in big games (well\u2026 as big as they ever got in Toronto). \u201cMoPete\u201d will provide a good, steady leadership presence in the locker room for a young team trying to break through in the West.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the Thunder aren\u2019t going to enjoy another 27-game improvement, but they should be better in 2010-11 simply through natural progression. Durant\u2019s improvement should be enough alone, but Westbrook and Green should be better as well. Oklahoma City isn\u2019t a legitimate championship contender yet, but last year was just the first in a long string of playoff appearances.<\/p>\n
Surprising stat<\/strong>: OKC was better on defense (11th<\/sup>) than offense (14th<\/sup>).
\nStrengths<\/strong>: A wealth of young talent\u2014Durant and Co. have nowhere to go but up.
\nWeaknesses<\/strong>: A wealth of young talent\u2014these guys are too green to compete with the West\u2019s elite powerhouses\u2026 yet.
\nPlayoffs?<\/strong> 75-80 percent. Unless Durant is hurt, the Thunder will be there.
\nWin total projection for 2010-11<\/strong>: 53 games.<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO JOIN SPORTSBOOK.COM – ONE OF OUR TOP RATED ONLINE SPORTSBOOKS – 50% SIGN UP BONUS FOR NBA BETTING ONLINE<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick article by Ian Van Den Hurk detailing the Oklahoma City Thunder 2010 Season win total odds for over under nba betting futures and a season wins prediction\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":27658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[36131,36280,28378,8267,3936,6908,17906,3925,36283,36284,12419,14495,36281,18271,18272,18273,18274,18275,36282,36135],"class_list":["post-27656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-2010-nba-basketball-future-lines","tag-2010-thunder-season-win-total-odds","tag-28378","tag-gambling-picks","tag-nba-basketball-futures","tag-nba-future-odds","tag-nba-over-under-betting","tag-nba-predictions","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder-betting-odds","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder-predictions-2010","tag-overunder-season-win-totals","tag-season-win-total-odds","tag-thunder-2010-prediction","tag-thunder-odds","tag-thunder-odds-to-win-nba-title","tag-thunder-picks","tag-thunder-predictions","tag-thunder-win-total-lines","tag-thunder-wins-2010","tag-win-total-projection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27656"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107291,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27656\/revisions\/107291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}