Hardwood Paroxysm Thunder season preview: Thunder will embrace their inner outlaw

With the NBA season now only weeks away, no doubt you're being flooded with various previews (including our own). We do this in part because we're all NBA dorks and we love to consume this stuff, but also because what we aspire to do here at WTLC, and no doubt you've found elsewhere, is add our personal insights and contributions to the NBA narrative. How great it is then that the NBA loves it when we do this and is willing to allow us to peer through the looking glass, so to speak, where we have access to all sorts of player, team, and game information that gives us a full and exciting picture of what we're watching.

To continue with my Lewis Carroll analogy, the NBA has invited us to an enticingly elusive (or elusively enticing) potential conceit - to forever chase the white rabbit down the rabbit whole with the hope and expectation that the next piece of analysis and innovation will satisfy every curiosity and need our basketball-addled brains could ever want. It is the magic number. To be sure, this number likely does not exist, but the mere hope of it is what drives us all forward.

Why am I writing all this? Because we at WTLC and SB Nation have worked to hasten the chase, and many other parties have as well, groups of high-IQ men and women who help us see the tapestry more clearly. One group of those 'smart guys' is our friends at the Hardwood Paroxysm network. Their editor-in-chief Ian Levy and I have been friends for the past five years as we have worked and witnessed our respective products grow in size, scope, and impact, and it is exciting to see what the HP network has become. They have taken their next step forward and created a beautiful NBA and Thunder season preview by, as they state, very biased individuals. One of those smart guys is WTLC's very own Kevin Yeung, who contributed on the previews for the Grizzlies, Raptors, and Bucks.

Here is a taste of the Thunder preview, from Dan Lewis:

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook should be offended that Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are on top of the world right now. The glory of championships was supposed to belong to them, a pair of young All-Star teammates growing up together in the league as champions, not as a runner-up year after year. The Curry family basked in the glow of the limelight, with Sonya and Dell Curry looking proud from the stands. Everyone forgot about Wanda Pratt, whooping it up near the court as her little Kevin unleashed soul-shattering dunks on opponents. Little Riley Curry grabbed the microphone during post-game conferences and the hearts of millions. Post-game conferences used to belong to Russell Westbrook, who took the stage after games and redefined what "suit up" meant for the players in the league.

That changes this year.

All this to say, you should go read HP's NBA season preview. While you might find it odd that I'd promote another site's work in this space, and for a paid preview to boot, I'd argue two things. One, the preview is nearly 400 pages of great writing and analysis. Two, the more we can promote and encourage each others' work, the greater the collection of work becomes, and the closer we get to catching the white rabbit.

At the end of the day, it's $5. For that price, you can either gain several hours worth of reading great content, making you a better and smarter NBA fan, or you could go buy a Big Mac. Me? I prefer to get smarter.