5 Reasons to Be Optimistic After OKC Thunder's First NBA Game

The Oklahoma City Thunder must have been nice this past year. The Thunder's 97-89 win over the Orlando Magic was exactly what any team would want for Christmas. It also gave Thunder fans what they wanted for Christmas: optimism for their team.

Each player seemed to perform his role very well, from superstar Kevin Durant leading the team to guys like Nazr Mohammed and Nick Collision doing the dirty work for the second team.

The game left Thunder fans with many things to be optimistic about. Here are the five you should be the happiest about going forward.

Players Are Improving Individually

The ultimate positive about having a young team is that the team has great potential to grow. The Oklahoma City Thunder players have been doing just that.

Thabo Sefolosha contributed eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, including shooting 2-of-2 from the three. That's a major improvement for Sefolosha, a guy who has been a very good defender but an offensive liability in the past.

Kevin Durant also looks like he's improved. His scoring game is as potent as ever, and he appears to have worked more on his post repertoire. The Thunder got the ball down low to him, and he did some good things. He also looks like he's gained some bulk, which is something he has desperately needed for years. His play was very balanced as well, with 30 points, six assists and six rebounds.

Everyone looks to be more comfortable in his role, which is always good for a young team. More on that later.

The Bench Is Back

The Oklahoma City Thunder is returning one of the best benches in the NBA. It lived up to that billing on Christmas night against the Orlando Magic.

At halftime, the Thunder bench had outscored the Magic bench, 25-6. The Thunder only had 55 points at halftime and were down when the second unit started subbing in. The bench was clearly a big part of the Thunder's large lead before halftime. They continued that dominance, outscoring their Magic counterparts, 39-25, for the game.

Each guy on this bench has a clear role. James Harden leads the unit by scoring and handling the ball. Eric Maynor runs the offense and hits the occasional three (eight points, three assists). Daequan Cook is a sharpshooter that stretches the defense (six points, 2-of-4 from three). Nazr Mohammed and Nick Collison play tough defense and do all the little things (six points, nine rebounds and two blocks combined).

The Thunder bench is clearly one of the best in the NBA.

Kendrick Perkins Is Who He Needs to Be

One of things that many were looking forward to was how Kendrick Perkins would look and play after losing over 30 pounds during the offseason. He didn't disappoint.

Perkins was understated but great on the defensive end. He did his thing by setting the tone for the game with his mean and rough play with Dwight Howard. That was big part of why Howard scored just 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting and why backups Nick Collison and Nazr Mohammed played Howard tough as well.

Perkins also did better on the offensive end. He will never be a gang buster offensively, but he was extremely efficient (shot 2-for-2 in the field) and set very good screens. He's clearly much more mobile now that he's healthy and in good shape.

This new Perkins will be huge for the Thunder moving forward.

James Harden Looks Like the Best 6th Man in the League

James Harden has clearly settled very nicely into his role as the Oklahoma City Thunder's sixth man. He played very well, well enough to look like the second-best offensive player on the team.

At one point in the game, Harden had seven points on just one shot, which is about as ridiculous as it comes in the NBA. But it gets more so: He had missed that one shot. Later on in the game, his stat line was at 14 points on 2-of-5 shooting. His final stat line was 19 points, six rebounds and three assists. The guy is amazingly efficient.

If Harden continues to play as he did against the Orlando Magic, he'll run away with the Sixth Man Award.

This Is the Same Team

This is the biggest advantage the Oklahoma City Thunder have heading into this season.

While teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and others have undergone major personnel shakeups during the offseason, the Thunder enter the season largely unchanged.

The team's 10-man rotation is completely unchanged, and the only changes are the addition of Lazar Haywood and the trade of Byron Mullens. Neither of those looks to be very important.

Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, James Harden and the rest are all playing basically the same roles they did last season, which is just fine considering that they were Western Conference Finalists last season.