What if: The Thunder stayed to together?

In the year 2012, The rockets were able to trade for their future star James Harden. With this trade the rockets were able to form a team around him and fight in the west. On the other hand the Thunder decided to move on from James Harden for 4.5 million. The owner did not want go over the luxury cap and pay taxes. Later on Kevin Durant would leave to make his mark on Warriors. The last key factor that left the team was Serge Ibaka being trade to the raptors. The only member of the four core players is westbrook. But what if They did the opposite actions were taken to preserver the team?

The first effect I believe that would need to change is James Harden either taking less or the thunder paying all he wants.I believe he would still leave after the contract ends so for this to work the thunder would have to pay him. the pros of Harden is having three great scorers on one team. Also i believe he would've have finally started full time. The ball would have to be passed around a bit but Harden has shown he is more then willing to pass when he needs too. Also the thunder natural play maker was James. The finals they lost to the heat was very hard but one key factor for the heat was to make sure Harden off his game. the reason was very simple Keven and Russel could make lots of buckets but James was the x-factor. If he scored then they would need the big three to score equally well. Also they would have been to many more finials and the Warriors  team we have now would have never been so strong. harden would have been able to fight off the offensives power that the Warriors held over the thunder when they came back from 3-1 lead against the thunder. Plus the experience off the many years would have made battle ready. The pure talent of the team would have epic like what we see with the Warriors.

The second act that I think would have been Avoid is that Kevin would have been a team with championship already. The team would have at least one and they would have the top ten talent in there starting line up. the term winning cures all comes to mind. When your winning you would sacrifices more for more victory. They would no needing to feel like your loosing because the front office likes one player over another. James would counter balance all that because it would be another impotent voice. The team would be crazy to just listen to one player of a big three made from the daft. The Thunder would have been a power house with all players. This would have also changed the big three in the Miami Heat. The heat would have had at least one more finals with this this team and potently lost. also the spurs would have been more challenged and Tim would have one less ring.

The final piece is Ibaka. He may not be the most talent on offense but he is the defense you need in clutch game. He would have been the Draymont Green or Chirs Bosh role down the line. the problem that thunder had in real life is the third option was never truly there. the thunder would have solved it and Serge wouldn't have had to try to become a offense player taking him out of his game. The overall chemistry would work because the roles would fit him so well. The team with Serge could cover all bases with not trading him.

Overall this maybe situation is a crazy idea on paper because you would have to fight contracts and such. But if you look at how the league plays the game, the thunder would've been the best of both words fast paced with scoring  and big down low with other players they had. the real reason this amazing is because all the three members are in fact top 5 in the league right now. The league was changed by the warriors but the league could have changed it to a whole new way. teams would still try to push for the daft harder. Again this is a what if, the legend will always be there because once you see the picture of all three of them in the same Jersey at the same time. it will hard to believe that this happened and people will wonder what happened.