NBA Hall of Fame: What Thunder players could one day be inducted?

The 2020 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has been inducted. Kobe Bryant, Time Duncan and Kevin Garnett led a group of basketball legends who joined the Hall of Fame this weekend.

Those three were inducted as NBA players. Tamika Catchings was inducted from the WNBA. Eddie Sutton, Rudy Tomjanovich, Kim Mulkey and Barbara Stevens were inducted as coaches and FIBA executive Patrick Baumann was inducted as a contributor to the game.

With that group in the Hall, let’s take a look at players who have been on the Thunder who have a shot at making it into basketball’s highest honor.

Long-time Thunder players

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Russell Westbrook

If the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame operated the same way as that of the MLB, Russell Westbrook is the one player that you can say with certainty would be inducted in an Oklahoma City Thunder jersey. The all-time NBA leader of triple-doubles has now been on three teams, but his 11 years with the Thunder that included eight All-Star appearances, eight All-NBA nods and an MVP award was the best part of his career. Westbrook may have a chance to crown his legacy with a championship at some point in the coming years, but even if he does win one, he will be remembered most for his Thunder days.

Kevin Durant

When Kevin Durant retires, we'll be able to look back on his Thunder career with a little more appreciation and nostalgia. Over nine years, Durant led the league in scoring four times, won the MVP award and helped the Thunder enter a new city and almost immediately become a championship-caliber team. With two Finals MVPs with the Golden State Warriors and the chance to win more championships on the Brooklyn Nets, Durant will go down as one of the best forwards and NBA players of all time.

Short-term Thunder locks

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Chris Paul

Chris Paul continues to make his case as one of the five best point guards of all time. He broke out on the New Orleans Hornets, made serious playoff runs with the Los Angeles Clippers, very nearly got to the NBA Finals with the Houston Rockets and then forced the Thunder to postpone their rebuild by a season because the team couldn't lose games with him playing crunch time. He's worked his magic again, helping the Phoenix Suns get back to the playoffs. Carmelo Anthony This season, Carmelo Anthony rose to 10th on the all-time NBA scoring list. He's 49 points away from catching Moses Malone and 1,236 from Shaquille O'Neal. Anthony scored more than 900 points this season; if he remains in rotations over the next two years, he would almost certainly retire with the eighth-most points of all time. Zooming out to view Anthony's career in totality, one remembers how dominant of a scorer and a basketball player he was as he led the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks to the playoffs year-in and year-out. Tack on his Olympic gold medals, and he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

James Harden

The James Harden trade is one of the biggest what-ifs in not only Thunder history but recent NBA history. He turned into a perennial MVP candidate with the Houston Rockets, creating a step-back that revolutionized basketball play, and only fell short of a championship because he ran into the Warriors. With the Brooklyn Nets, he has the chance to etch a new chapter of a career that is already Hall of Fame-worthy.

Any others?

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Paul George Paul Goerge is a category below those other three, but he has a good chance of getting into the Hall. If he continues this dominant style of two-way play for the next three or four years and can reach an NBA Finals -- maybe even win one -- it would be tough to argue that he's not deserving of a nod. Al Horford Al Horford has been a mix of a do-it-all center, able to score, defend, pass and generally play at a high level with a greater variety of talent than most centers. With that said, he was never dominant enough to merit real consideration. When he retires, there may be a couple of think pieces about his candidacy, but he's in the Hall of Good.

The future

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Rising stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Domantas Sabonis It's far too early to speculate on these players, but Sabonis played in multiple All-Star games before turning 25 years old and Gilgeous-Alexander posted a stat line comparable to All-NBA talent this season as a 22-year-old. They're on a positive trajectory. The Future Thunder I'm not going to start listing rookies and second-year players here, but you can feel free to daydream about what happens if any of them hit their peak potential.

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