Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook fell short again in the NBA playoffs. (GETTY IMAGES)

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have to be asking themselves, “Where would our team be now if we still had James Harden?”

Durant and Westbrook won’t say it publicly but privately they have to be frustrated at Oklahoma City owner Clay Bennett and general manager Sam Presti for allowing their good friend to leave town. Presti orchestrated the 2012 deal that sent Harden — then the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year — to Houston for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and a draft pick, which turned out to be center Steven Adams.

Adams is a nice, young player with great potential, but Harden is special.

Presti pulled the trigger on the Harden trade because Bennett refused to go over the salary cap and pay the luxury tax. From a financial standout point, it made sense. From a pure basketball standpoint, it was a disaster.

Image if the Thunder had kept Harden. They probably would have beaten the Spurs in the 2014 Western Conference finals, and it probably would have only taken them five or six games to do so. They could be off to their second trip to the NBA Finals for a rematch with the Miami Heat, which knocked them out in the 2012 Finals.

If Bennett wasn’t so frugal and Presti was created enough to pull off a Pat Riley-type move to keep three superstars, Oklahoma City could very well have a dynasty in place.

They would have the reigning MVP in Durant, the best shooting guard in Harden and the dynamic Westbrook. Those three right now are arguably three of the five best players in the world. And they’ve proven that they could co-exist on and off the court. They genuinely liked each other. Westbrook and Harden have the L.A. connection going, and Durant still calls Harden almost every week.

Add Serge Ibaka and Reggie Jackson and you have a super team — all under the age of 26.

The Spurs eliminated the Thunder on Saturday as Durant and Westbrook quite simply ran out of gas in Game 6. Durant played 52 minutes, Ibaka logged 49 minutes and Westbrook 44 minutes. They were dead tired in overtime.

It was a totally different outcome than the Spurs-Thunder series in 2012 in which the Thunder, after losing the first two games, blitzed the Spurs in four straight games to win the series.

What’s the difference? OKC had Harden.

Presti is lucky he works in a small market like Oklahoma City. If he were in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, fans, reporters, bloggers, radio disc jockeys and city officials would be calling for his resignation.

You think if Presti had to do it all over he would trade Harden? Publicly he won’t admit it was a monumental blunder. Privately, he wishes he found a way to keep Durant, Westbrook and Harden for another championship run.

The loss to the Spurs in the conference finals was yet another reminder how much the Thunder miss Harden.

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Serge Ibaka needs to be a force inside for Oklahoma City to become a legitimate title contender. (CBS SPORTS)

Last season when Oklahoma City had the devastating trio of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and James Harden the team’s rallying cry was “Thunder up!” This season, despite owning the second-best record in the Western Conference, the theme has been downgraded to “Thunder down!”

So what gives?

As good as Oklahoma City has been all season it has many flaws. Some ESPN personalities, such as Skip Bayless, harp on Westbrook’s erratic play that’s keeping the Thunder from taking the next step into becoming a championship contender. Some even suggest that Durant is way too passive and doesn’t demand ball enough. Some point the finger at head coach Scott Brooks for poor adjustments.

Because they are the leaders of the team, Westbrook and Durant are easy targets for criticism. But THE GUY who deserves the blame for OKC’s inability to jump over San Antonio and Miami is forward Serge Ibaka.

During the offseason Thunder general manager Sam Presti had a difficult decision. Who should the team keep: Harden or Ibaka? The team couldn’t afford to keep both so one had to go. Presti gave Ibaka a contract extension and shipped Harden to Houston.

It was a move necessitated by the new economic landscape in the NBA and the common prevailing thought that you would rather keep a good big man or a good perimeter player.

Presti and the Thunder rolled the dice and broke up their super trio, hoping that Ibaka would grow from his current supporting role into a starring role.

And that hasn’t happened.

Despite his immense potential, the 23-year-old forward has somewhat plateaued as a player and his tepid progress offensively is holding back Oklahoma City from becoming a legitimate championship contender.

Ibaka remains a demon on the defensive end, but he has not evolved as an offensive player. Instead of developing some kind of an inside game near the basket Ibaka has gone farther and farther away from the basket. He has often fallen in love with the 3-point shot, which teams will gladly welcome because it relieves them from having to defend him in the paint.

Ibaka has been up-and-down this season, looking like a superhero one night then looking very ordinary the next. He had a 25-17 game against San Antonio in December, but had a 6-6 game against Miami in February. In a nationally televised game against the New York Knicks on April 7, Ibaka was surprisingly absent when it counted most. Sure, he surged ahead for 11 points and five blocks in the first quarter, but he scored just one more basket and did not have a block the rest of the game as the Thunder lost, 125-120.

Ibaka’s scoring average is up from last season (from 9 to 13) but his rebounding is not where it should be (7.9). For a guy with his length, physique, and jumping ability, Ibaka could easily average 16 points and 10 rebounds in the NBA. He should be dominating the power forwards in the West.

Charles Barkley famously asked, “what do you call a power forward who averages less than eight rebounds a game … a small forward.”

For the Thunder to win the NBA title, Ibaka must challenge himself into becoming a bigger force inside. Instead of working on his 3-point shot he should be working on jump hooks and drop steps in the paint. He needs to play closer to the basket.

It’s time for Ibaka to Thunder up.

Joel Huerto is the editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo are All-Star point guards, but the similarity ends there. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti should have traded Russell Westbrook for Rajon Rondo when he had the chance. Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge was willing to trade Rondo for Westbrook, but Presti declined.

Now, a lot of people would say why make a deal? The Thunder are 29-8 and the top seed in the West. But, they have some issues. They are 27th in the NBA with just 18.1 assists per game, and ball movement is key in basketball.

A lot is placed on Westbrook’s shoulders to initiate the offense as the point guard for OKC, but there’s one problem. He’s not a true point guard. His assists have declined the last few seasons. He averaged 8.2 assists per game in 2010-11, but just 5.5 this season. In addition, he is leading the league in turnovers at 4.3 per game.

Why do I think Presti should have done it? Quite simply, Rondo is a true PG who has great court vision and would help the Thunder. Ainge would do it because it gives the Celtics a player to rebuild around with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen possibly leaving this offseason as free agents. Rondo is a pass-first player who would have no problem taking a backseat to superstar Kevin Durant. He isn’t the scorer Westbrook is, but James Harden could start at shooting guard and make up the scoring difference. Harden is having a very good season and may never achieve his full potential with Westbrook on the Thunder.

Rondo is also a relentless defender and can rebound like Jason Kidd. He just had another triple double (15 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds) after hearing more rumors about Boston shopping him around the league like a Black Friday sale. On Sunday against Jeremy Lin and the New York Knicks, Rondo had 18 points, 20 assists and a career-high 17 rebounds in a Celtics overtime win.

Rondo won’t have a problem deferring to Durant, who has the ability to be a 35-point scorer. The game against the Magic on March 1 was an excellent example. He made 12 of 21 field goals (including all nine free throws) and finished with a game-high 38 points.

Durant might praise his teammate Westbrook, but it has to be eating him up inside. Twice in the last year they’ve had confrontations. It reminds me of the Kevin Garnett-Stephon Marbury dynamic when the two butted heads in Minnesota.

Darren Jacks is a contributor to OneManFastBreak.net. Send him an email to djroxalot@hotmail.com.