What's going wrong with the Oklahoma City Thunder? 

#3 Roster Depth

OKC Thunder introduce Raymond Felton and Patrick Patterson (Image courtesy: nba.com)

If you want to contend, let alone win a championship, you got to have a reliable deep bench. Last season's Houston Rockets played a short eight-man line-up and they eventually fizzled out, losing in the Conference Semifinals despite having a reliable three players off the bench. Forget deep, right now, the Thunder don't even have a reliable bench.

At the end of the day, teams win when they outscore their opponents. OKC's bench ranks 28th in the league, in terms of points scored with an average of 25.1 per game. That's not it. They rank in bottom ten in almost every other major offensive category: field goal shooting (41.6% - 22nd), 3-point shooting (32.2% - 23rd), and assists (5.0 - 29th). In a team bench, the aim has to be, to have at least two players, who can create for themselves and others. OKC doesn't have that.

The reserves are going to be the players that are expected to extend a lead when the team has one or cut the deficit when the team is trailing. With this offense, the OKC starters aren't receiving a lot of help. Being top-heavy is not a reliable formula to contend in the league.