There’s no sugarcoating it, losing Paul George and Russell Westbrook severely hurt the Oklahoma City Thunder’s shot at contending for a title in 2020. But, the loss of the superstars didn’t fully ruin Oklahoma City’s chances of making the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
If Chris Paul stays with the Thunder throughout the 2019-20 season, combined with Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari, Dennis Schroder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and (a healthy) Andre Roberson, plus a few other pieces, Oklahoma City could still host a couple of playoff games in 2020.
The Basketball Index’s Jacob Goldstein recently ran the numbers through a simulator to figure out the entire league’s chances at a postseason berth. Despite the current roster construction, the simulator wasn’t so kind to the Thunder.
After running 10 thousand simulations, Oklahoma City is projected to win 36 games and has a 20 percent chance at making the 2020 playoffs. Surprisingly, in accordance with the projections, the Thunder have a four percent chance at winning in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs. After that, they have less than a one percent chance of winning an additional postseason series in 2020.
