With Durant Decision Looming, Thunder's Main Men Bond Amid Calm of Home

OKLAHOMA CITY — It is the calm before what will be, as surely as Kevin Durant's contract is set to expire, a season of storms.

The final tornado could be a whirlwind NBA championship parade, creating unprecedented civic pride for a place perceived to be just a minor league city.

Or it could be the absolute downpour that would be Durant's departure from Oklahoma City.

To call on this town now means picking up more on excitement than awkwardness. That's largely a product of how immaterial last season was with Durant's foot injury sidelining him so long that the Thunder didn't even make the playoffs.

The promise of this season, after the group didn't get a fair shot at it last time, is something fundamental to anticipate.

Yet, it's surprising in another sense that tension doesn't already lurk around every red-bricked corner.

You can be certain that in a more bustling, high-anxiety metropolis—with this caliber of superstars and a rookie NBA coach brought in to save the day—pressure would be palpable on a daily basis even now.

On Friday night, though, Billy Donovan coached his first Thunder home game…and it was altogether unremarkable.

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It was an early indication how the small setting for this very big story can affect how it all turns out: It's just so much easier for characters to grow together without outside distractions.

So it was that the Thunder outclassed Turkish team Fenerbahce in the exhibition game Friday night. And after they finished their postgame interviews, Russell Westbrook and Durant wound up back on the court to mingle with various friends and family of the players…and still managed to gravitate toward each other.

There was good-natured trash talk about the NFC East, where it's still early enough (and the division altogether average enough) for Westbrook to hype the Cowboys and Durant to believe in the Redskins.

The proud football teams are legendary rivals, but even with Durant remaining clearly open to free agency, it's difficult to envision him and Westbrook being at such odds and imploding this Thunder team.

Perhaps the pressure of outside expectations in a bigger media market would've made it impossible for Durant and Westbrook to stay in the friend zone after seven years toiling together without a title.

Or maybe it would've benefited them to have their weaknesses picked apart or pitted against each other to create an edgier, must-do environment: Why do you insist on standing so separate on the periphery of the pregame huddle, Russ?! You think "Mr. Unreliable" is the most mean-spirited, let's-motivate-you banner headline we can come up with, KD?!

All we know is this is their reality—slow-paced, wind-swept Oklahoma City, with all these unrealized, injury-undercut dreams.

Into the scene now walks Donovan, a big shot from his own small pond of college basketball and Gainesville, Florida.   

The oversized gray patterned jacket, black slacks, leather loafers with the metal bar and clunky patterned tie would not fly for a head coach in a more fashion-forward city on his opening night. But let this be known early on about Donovan: When his eyes light up, it is when he's talking hardcore basketball, explaining why Andre Roberson's long arms getting into passing lanes is far less critical than Roberson keeping his feet aligned with the team defense to prevent driving gaps.

Donovan is not here to be a master manager of egos. If he simply succeeds in upgrading the Thunder's basketball execution, there is little doubt that the egos will be ecstatic.

The game Friday night was a peek at what Donovan can offer.

When Donovan made his first specific play call midway through the first quarter, it was for a unique "Big Three" thrust on the right side with Westbrook dropping the ball to Durant at the elbow before Durant moved the ball to the corner for Serge Ibaka's three-pointer.

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The next time down, the Thunder used the same alignment with different application: Because the defense played it straighter after Ibaka hit the previous shot, Westbrook just kept the ball and darted left away from Durant and Ibaka to drive it himself.

This is Donovan's main goal: to put the players in better position to make their own basketball reads and seize easier opportunities.

In the third quarter, Donovan verbally urged Westbrook to make a personal run of post-ups; Westbrook later called it "a huge part of my game" he intends to exploit. The coach was even louder in stressing the key to Westbrook's isolation opportunities succeeding.

"Space! Space!" Donovan yelled to the other Thunder players on the floor around Westbrook.

Donovan is planning a specific package of personnel to complement Westbrook when he operates as a deeper scoring threat alongside point guard D.J. Augustin. There figures to be another package to help Durant when he bumps up to play power forward.

Although Donovan has been taken aback a bit by how often he has to meet with reporters, per the duty of an NBA head coach, the established Durant-Westbrook friendship and the seclusion of the OKC community are going to help him concentrate on where he must add value: teaching basketball.

"The one thing that makes this place really, really special, in my opinion, is the people," Donovan said. "That's the one thing I would say now. They're very, very competent in their job[s], and they're really, really, really great people—people you enjoy going in and seeing every day.

"That's very, very important. It was important to me with the relationships I was leaving in Florida. I enjoyed seeing the people I had to see every single day, and I can say the same thing's true here. I enjoy going in and not only dealing with our players, but dealing with the people that I'm working with every single day."

That's the warmth you get to feel in a small pond.

If Durant chooses to leave it, he'll obviously be searching for something more.

If he winds up staying alongside his longtime co-star and this newfound coach, the neighborhood-watch comforts of his adopted Oklahoman home will have played a part, too.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.