The Oklahoma City Thunder's frustrating start to the season continued on Monday night when the team lost by 13 points to the lowly Charlotte Hornets. OKC dropped to 12-14 on the season, and would miss the playoffs if the season ended today.
Unsurprisingly, the players are starting to get annoyed by the fact that they haven't been able to figure things out despite having three All-Stars, including last season's MVP, on the roster. Speaking to reporters after the game, Paul George said the team is going to "remain optimistic," but added the team's struggles have to end at some point. Via ESPN:
"For the talent that we have, obviously this is not where we want to be," Thunder forward Paul George said. "But we're going to remain optimistic, though, about the future and what we can do. Once we can find a way to really do it night in and night out, it's no panic mode, but we have to start playing better. It's getting to a point where we can't allow ourselves to be at this point. We can say we're going to figure it out, we can say all that. But at some point it's gotta stop."
While everyone expected the Thunder to have some growing pains, no one expected them to still be two games under .500 at this point in the season.
It does still seem likely that given all of the talent the Thunder have -- and the fact that they still have the 11th-best net rating in the league at plus-1.2 points per 100 possessions -- they'll figure things out well enough to make the playoffs. But at this point it's safe to say that their experiment of bringing in George and Carmelo Anthony has been a big disappointment.
