Say Durant and Ibaka do come back healthy for the playoffs. The Thunder would crash the party as a seventh or eighth seed. Their starting line-up has played only a handful of games together. New acquisitions Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin, and Dion Waiters have added depth but they've also changed the chemistry of the team. And while the team has proven it can win games without Durant or Westbrook, no one believes that the Thunder can win a championship down one superstar. I don't think anyone wants them to, either. The Thunder may be under constant scrutiny but they're also almost impossible to dislike (except for disgruntled Sonics fans).

What's most frustrating about the Thunder's run of bad luck is that we never get a chance to see just how good this team can be. They're never allowed to hit their stride or put together a legit playoff run. We've got two of the best players in the league on the same team and yet we've barely gotten to see what this looks like. Forget Harden—just Durant and Westbrook together is an embarrassment of riches. If the Thunder got to regularly be themselves, they might even inspire resentment. Instead, they're met with pity.

What's more, there's always the distinct possibility that the team's window is closing or that its core might not remain intact for long. Durant is a free agent in 2016 and Westbrook is under contract until 2017. There have long been rumbles that Russ will want a team to himself and his bombastic KD-less season will do little to quiet them. This season, Presti has a done a lot to make the Thunder into a team worth sticking with. But a dynasty of hope isn't the same thing as a real dynasty and even if the Thunder's problems are largely out of their hands, there might be too many unpleasant memories. KD and Westbrook might just want to start fresh somewhere else. After a point, fault becomes irrelevant and all that's left is that sinking feeling of wasted prime.

All of which brings us back to Ibaka. The sixth-year forward may not have developed as expected—at one point, he was thought to have star potential—but the Heat and Cavs have shown us that two superstars are enough. It's also makes the most sense to complement two high-scoring wings with a stretch four. Ibaka, who grew a three-pointer this year, also happens to be an elite shot-blocker. When the team was thin, their entire defensive strategy consisted of forcing opposing players toward him. The Thunder can survive without Ibaka for a little while but in some larger sense, they shouldn't have to.

The NBA season is long. It might be too long. No one has felt this quite like the Thunder. The glut of minutes KD played last season might have contributed to this year's injury; maybe Ibaka would've stayed healthy with fewer games taking a toll on him. Westbrook, it's often said, is always one reckless play away from ending his career. Then again, if the season were shorter, this year the team might not have had any chance of making the playoffs. We also wouldn't have such compelling proof that the Thunder deserve a proper shot at a title.