Give the players time to adjust

We met the new guys Monday. The tall fellows who will run and rebound, dunk and defend, and even occasionally win a game.

Seemed a classy bunch. I think you're going to like them. I think they're going to like you. But cut them some slack while they make the adjustment.

"I call it bittersweet,” point guard Earl Watson said of the move. "You become a part of the community. You develop friends.”

Watson spent four seasons in Seattle. He's a basketball junkie. Knows the hoops heritage he left behind. Even rattled off the names that once made the SuperSonics an NBA institution. Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, George Karl, Slick Watts, Downtown Freddy Brown.

Any person who ever had to move with little say in the manner — be it as kid or adult — should empathize with the Thunder.

"Personally, it's an adjustment, leaving a place I loved to be,” Collison said. "You just have to start over.

"It's kind of part of your job. When we come to the NBA, we don't have a lot of say in where we're going to be.”

But let's be honest.

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