I look at another highly touted team that also expects to make a run at No. 2 in the West this year, the Portland Trail Blazers, and wonder if the Thunder could sustain last season’s rash of Blazer injuries to players as important as Greg Oden (60 games) Brandon Roy (17 games) and Joe Pryzbilla (50 games). Portland, who many believed would make the leap to No. 2 last season, can absorb these sorts of calamities and still finish 6th in the West because Paul Allen has 416 ft. yachtfuls of money–the kind of cash necessary to launch a spaceship in your free time–and encouraged former GM Kevin Pritchard (a certifiable deal-making wizard) to make moves for insurance policies like Andre Miller and Marcus Camby. The Thunder have allowed for no such contingencies.