Can Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook get the help they need to beat the Warriors?

The Oklahoma City Thunder are back in the Western Conference Finals for the fourth time in six years. Because the Thunder have gotten this far just twice since the 2012 NBA Finals run -- and since the team traded James Harden for draft picks and the flexibility to sign Serge Ibaka while keeping Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook -- it feels as if Oklahoma City has underachieved in recent years.

This is a wild misnomer. In an ultra-tough West that has featured the revival of the Spurs, the rise of the Warriors and some quite strong teams in Memphis, Los Angeles and Houston, that OKC is back in the penultimate playoff series again is a testament to its strength.

Consider that all that kept the Thunder from the Western finals in 2013 was a late injury to Russell Westbrook. (No offense to the Grizzlies). Last season was a total loss due to Durant’s unending injury issues. Setting aside those two anomalies, the Thunder have made it this far as many times since trading Harden as they did with him.

Of course, those anomaly seasons could have been helped had the Thunder retained a third nuclear scorer to fill in the gap opened up by the absence of one of the team’s two permanent nuclear scorers. But all else considered, Harden was superfluous. He’s an offensive master; OKC is still an elite offensive team. The Thunder were, in fact, No. 1 in offense in the season after Harden’s trade and No. 2 this season. There isn’t much room for improvement.

The fact remains that, in a difficult situation, Thunder GM Sam Presti made the right choice in trading Harden instead of Westbrook or Ibaka. Whether he did so for the right package -- future picks whose potential big salaries were staggered and deep into the future -- is unknowable, because we can’t know for sure what other packages were on the table. But we know the Thunder were essentially hard-capped by those who write the checks. With Durant and Westbrook in tow, the offense was in great shape. The Thunder could continue their greatness and potentially bring a ring to OKC by getting the defense to that level. Hence, Ibaka.

(Meanwhile, while Harden’s defense might have been better in Oklahoma City because he wouldn’t be required to take 20 shots a game, the downgrade from Thabo Sefolosha prior and Andre Roberson now on that end would be highly noticeable.)

Presti couldn’t truly know that the salary cap would explode, or that his bosses would be more amenable to high salary levels. The success of the league’s TV deal negotiations was a shock to everyone when it was announced; to have presumed such a rise in revenue back in 2012 would have been impossible. The Thunder can now fit Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka and a highly paid supplemental scorer onto the cap sheet. That player is just Enes Kanter instead of Harden.

Had Presti known what was coming and received permission to exceed the luxury tax threshold for a year or two in the interim, perhaps he would have kept Harden. Harden on a max deal is preferred to Kanter on a max deal, after all. But it just wasn’t in play in 2012.

But again, offense has never been OKC’s macro problem. Durant is simply incredible as a high-efficiency, high-volume scorer. Westbrook is less efficient at sometimes unreasonable volumes, but his ability to create clean looks for Durant, for himself and for others is met by only one other top-10 scorer (LeBron James). Westbrook is also, for all his shooting warts, one of the best one-man fast breaks ever, a F1 racer competing against mopeds. If you turn the ball over against the Thunder, chances are high you’re getting two put on you by Number Zero.

All the Thunder’s offense ever needs is a little bit of help. It can sometimes be a mystery as to from where that will come. When one of the two megastars are missing -- as in the 2013 playoffs or most of the 2014-15 season -- it becomes a crisis. Otherwise, it’s less dramatic and consuming, but still important.

In the stunning series win over the Spurs, the answer to that riddle was alternately Steven Adams (feasting on Westbrook pick-and-roll deliveries), Dion Waiters and Kanter (who ate up the Spurs’ interior defense). Adams and Kanter are better bets than Waiters in the series with Golden State; the Thunder big men can punish small lineups, while Waiters has a tendency to get big eyes and the Warriors have a plethora of solid wing defenders. The Thunder should be looking for lots of Kanter post moves on Marreese Speights, not Waiters dribble-drives against Shaun Livingston.

Defense is what ultimately writes the Thunder’s fate. The good news is the OKC resistance was phenomenal late in the series against San Antonio. The Spurs were No. 4 in offense in the regular season, behind Golden State, OKC and Cleveland.

However, San Antonio’s attack is not as potent as what the Thunder will see in the next round. The Spurs offense was conventionally great this season, with LaMarcus Aldridge in the post, Kawhi Leonard taking open threes and standard pick-and-roll play with extra ball movement. The Warriors are another beast entirely. Ibaka, in particular, will be asked to do so much to hound Draymond Green and disrupt Stephen Curry. Roberson will be run ragged, and Westbrook won’t be able to take many defensive possessions off without it costing the Thunder dearly.

Ibaka’s slide in effectiveness over the past couple seasons could come to roost in this series. He shows glimpses of past brilliance now and again, and can still rocket out and up to block shots from the other side, but Aldridge put the wood on him early in the Spurs series.

There seems to be a destructive negative synergy between Ibaka’s diminished role on offense and his defensive intensity. This is natural, as has been described by big men repeatedly over the years. When you aren’t required to be fully engaged on offense because you know you aren’t getting the ball, you aren’t as locked in on the other end. The body and brain do not, unfortunately, have switches we can flip on and off.

The Thunder just don’t need much from Ibaka on offense: Hit enough open shots to keep them honest, pull the designated defender (Green, Andrew Bogut or Harrison Barnes) away from the paint, be ready to get back to slow the inevitable fast break. The rest of the OKC attack will take care of itself, even with Green, Barnes and Andre Iguodala chipping away at Durant and Klay Thompson shadowing Westbrook. If the Thunder can pour buckets on San Antonio -- one of the best defenses in decades -- they can certainly do it to the Warriors.

But on the other end, the Thunder need Ibaka to be as good as ever. The odds of that happening, based on how Ibaka has looked over the past two seasons, are not great. Ibaka went from an automatic first team All-Defense honoree to an afterthought, an afterthought even on his own team. He’s only 26. This shouldn’t be happening. It’s up to Ibaka (and to Billy Donovan’s schemes) to reverse the slide and maximize the impact of someone who should be Oklahoma City’s best defender and best chance at blowing up the Curry-Green screen-and-roll.

This is Ibaka’s best chance to prove Oklahoma City made the right decision by keeping him instead of Harden. It’s the best chance to prove that faith in his prowess should be restored. It’s one helluva test for him -- the toughest test in basketball. But that doesn’t matter. All that’s left is to take it.