To show how quickly the NBA can change, Mark Daigneault is one of the veteran coaches. It wasn't that long ago he was introduced as the new Oklahoma City Thunder head coach with confusion and skepticism.

There's also the Russell Westbrook factor. For the first time since being traded in 2019, the 36-year-old will play at OKC in front of a playoff crowd on Monday for Game 1. He was robbed of that opportunity with the Houston Rockets in 2020 due to The Bubble.

But OKC has five perimeter defenders (Alex Caruso, Jalen Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Cason Wallace and Lu Dort) who ranked in the 89th percentile or higher in defensive estimated plus-minus (one of the most trusted catch-all metrics in NBA front offices). And all five will get their shots at Murray.