The Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder are facing each other for the first of three times this season tonight at Footprint Cente.
The Thunder and Suns are both coming off of frustrating in-season tournament losses to the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers, respectively.
This game will be an opportunity for both sides to gain some momentum back after tough losses.
Outside of the surface information, this matchup is very interesting on more than one front. The two teams couldn’t be on a more varying path as of right now, and couldn’t have built their squads more differently.
The Suns have all the pressure in the world to deliver an NBA title to Phoenix after a bevy of splash moves in the last year, while Oklahoma City is just turning the corner from the Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook era and are building for a very bright future while still being competitive.
Oklahoma City has largely built the team through the incredible volume of draft picks general manager Sam Presti accumulated, along with the Paul George trade that netted the Thunder now-superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Suns initially built much of the roster through the draft, but the trade for Kevin Durant in February was a complete 180 in terms of how the franchise looked at roster construction.
Frank Vogel, the new Suns head coach, is very accomplished in his coaching career thus far, leading many teams to the playoffs and winning an NBA title in his decade-plus of coaching.
Thunder head man Mark Daigneault has quickly become one of the more respected coaches in the league, but the former G-league head coach is still quite inexperienced compared to Vogel and is entering his fourth season with a well below .500 record.
There will surely be much to watch for between all of the contrasting factors and storylines coupled with the fact that these are just two very talented basketball teams.
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