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Steven Adams, the stalwart center of the Oklahoma City Thunder, produced yet another underrated yet terrific season last year in his sixth season in OKC.
Beyond that, Adams also survived the purge of some of his most well-known teammates in rapid succession, including his longtime running mate Russell Westbrook. Beyond Westbrook, though, Adams has lost Enes Kanter, Kevin Durant and Paul George in recent years – yet the hirsute Kiwi continues to just produce on a night-to-night basis for the Thunder, despite being featured in myriad trade rumors during the offseason and ahead of last year’s trade deadline.
In a recent interview with the New Zealand Herald, Adams outlines the difficulty that arose from being featured in so many trade rumors:
“It ain't this thing where you just read about it and you're just surprised that it happened to you. If it's happening to someone else there's a chance it could happen to you – it's common sense,” Adams said in the story. “It still affects you in some way, because you're human. Obviously, I care about the organization here but, again, we're here to support the organization and the organization needs to do well and you have to keep that in mind.”
Last season, Adams produced career-highs in points per game (13.9), rebounds per game (9.5), assists per game (1.6) and steals per game (1.5) on the way a career-high 4.0 defensive win shares.
Now, with new teammates around him, including the Point God himself, Chris Paul, Adams will likely find himself in a position of sole leadership on a team that had long been fashioned in the image of triple-double machine Russell Westbrook.
