Minus Durant, can Russell Westbrook lead the Thunder back to the playoffs while winning a regular-season MVP award?
Just one game shy of an NBA Finals return, this off-season irrevocably shifted the future of Oklahoma City basketball. A draft day trade of former cornerstone Serge Ibaka served as a benign precursor to the fateful morning of July 4, 2016.
It was on this very morning that Kevin Durant, franchise pillar, jilted the only professional team he'd ever known. In an unforeseen turn of events, the 2014 MVP joined the 73-win juggernaut he'd just been edged by for Western Conference playoff supremacy.