OKC Thunder 2023-24 Regular Season Discussion

[mr570]

Can’t believe we’re going to extended and bump Wiggins into a starting role and then snag Claxton in the off season what a time to be alive!

Any source?

My own hopes and dreams.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Can’t believe we’re going to extended and bump Wiggins into a starting role and then snag Claxton in the off season what a time to be alive!

Any source?

My own hopes and dreams.

That is unfortunate. I was hopeful you had a legitimate source that Presti was getting fired.

[Bremzi]

Any source?

My own hopes and dreams.

That is unfortunate. I was hopeful you had a legitimate source that Presti was getting fired.

At this point, seeing the way OKC is playing, that would be a great start. Instead of trading away people, just add new young pieces (possibly draft a defensive big and add Claxton). He has some DPOY charisma to him and would provide what Gafford provides for Mavs.

There’s also always a chance Giddey + picks for Markanen happen at one point. Unlike Kizz, I’m confident in Presti and his decisions under the new CBA. With tougher financial limits, he did well to have cap space and a bunch of picks lined up for what seems a more trade active financial environment in the league.

[Woerzboerg]

My own hopes and dreams.

That is unfortunate. I was hopeful you had a legitimate source that Presti was getting fired.

At this point, seeing the way OKC is playing, that would be a great start. Instead of trading away people, just add new young pieces (possibly draft a defensive big and add Claxton). He has some DPOY charisma to him and would provide what Gafford provides for Mavs.

There’s also always a chance Giddey + picks for Markanen happen at one point. Unlike Kizz, I’m confident in Presti and his decisions under the new CBA. With tougher financial limits, he did well to have cap space and a bunch of picks lined up for what seems a more trade active financial environment in the league.

I'd like to draft a big wing, ideally CDub, maybe also someone like Holland or Salaun or even Tristan da Silva. Also, we could use a scoring-guard off the bench, so if we can't find a good wing, maybe someone like Dillingham could fit that profile.

[Dadouv47]

Watch on YouTube

;list=PLceUFMAk3DzGsmIx4ebitE_hoNwEFZ-rB&index=1

could only find the entire video but from min 14 to 39 they are looking at our defense against the Mavs...only one game but great to see.

[ThunderBolt]

I don't think Shai ever stood a shot at MVP over Jokic. But it feels like he was unfairly forgotten about the last month or so due to injury and a few playoff great performances by others. Guys like Ant, Brunson and Luka became the more popular pick. Two of the guys have no business being considered there yet. Ant is great but too much is being made of a few playoffs games and Shai's body of work is underappreciated. That being said, individual awards are stupid. Just win baby.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I don't think Shai ever stood a shot at MVP over Jokic. But it feels like he was unfairly forgotten about the last month or so due to injury and a few playoff great performances by others. Guys like Ant, Brunson and Luka became the more popular pick. Two of the guys have no business being considered there yet. Ant is great but too much is being made of a few playoffs games and Shai's body of work is underappreciated. That being said, individual awards are stupid. Just win baby.

He finished 2nd in voting. Only Jokic got more first place votes and SGA got the most 2nd place votes. I don't think anyone forgot about SGA they just felt Jokic deserved the award. They put five names on the ballot so Ant, Brunson, Sabonis and KD got their name mentioned. None of them had a chance to win the award. I'm not going to argue against Jokic winning. He had a great season. SGA had a great season and maybe he can win the MVP next season. If Ant or someone had won or even finished top 3 then I might see a reason to complain. The top 3 finished in what I considered the correct order for their performances this season. To me it was a coin flip between Jokic and SGA and in that situation I believe the person that played the most games should win and that was Jokic.

Luka finished 3rd, where he should have. I don't have an issue with Brunson racking up a bunch of 4th place votes and finishing 5th. I'm certainly not going to be upset, or care, that Ant, KD and Sabonis squeezed out some votes to have their name mentioned. If any of them had gotten first place votes then maybe I'd be questioning what happened. I'm curious to know who gave the 2nd place votes to Brunson and Ant, but there has traditionally been some local favoritism in voted awards so I'm going to guess they are from NY and Minny. It's definitely not worth the extreme hyperbole of saying SGA was forgotten because he finished 2nd.

[ThunderBolt]

It's definitely not worth the extreme hyperbole of saying SGA was forgotten because he finished 2nd.

Oh the irony of this statement.

[ThunderWins]

Watch on YouTube

[Dadouv47]

I think SGA had a shot to win the MVP before Jokic played at an elite level post all star break and SGA declined a bit. Momentum is key and if Shai played late in season like he did in December, he would have won.

[bbms]

jokic has nba's crown until the end of this season at least, mvp is well deserved and i think sga understand and agrees to it too.

if sga wants that mvp award that bad, it's simple: win the ring and he'll be next season's front runner.

[ThunderWins]

I think SGA had a shot to win the MVP before Jokic played at an elite level post all star break and SGA declined a bit. Momentum is key and if Shai played late in season like he did in December, he would have won.

The schedule didn't do him any favors. He seemed exhausted frequently after ASB.
I suspect he had unreported lingering injuries.
The team shut Jdub and SGA down for several games when it looked like they were ok dropping to the third seed.
It was huge blessing that Giddey and team took responsibility to tread water until they came back.
Then Thunder got huge breaks with Nuggets/Wolves losing key games securing the one seed.

While none of the media is talking about it IMHO I really felt those 2 weeks time between four games have really helped SGA.

SGA shooting 50% on those step back 3% is probably not sustainable but very demoralizing for opposing team.
What exactly can you do with SGA?
He gets a reasonable whistle he's going to get 8-10FTs a game.
You go one on one he can beat your man and get layup floater or tough middy.
You blitz him the team is spaced for open 3s and cutting for easy layups.
How many teams have the luxury of quality setup man like JDub to start the 4th quarter?
The offense continues even when SGA is on the bench.
Then SGA can come in to close in what many players would call a basketball fever dream.
Surrounded by a TEAM of playmakers, shooters, and defenders...The dream to lead his dawgs to the next win.
The fruit of these playoff wins were bore of the fundamentals they were grinding and consistent growth the past several years.


Thank you Chip. I remember those many years were we were such a bad shooting team!

[Kizz Fastfists]

Thunder vibe is reminiscent of Memphis before The Funaki went down and the front office traded chemistry for supposed talent upgrades and to accomodate Morant's superstar extension.

It's sad to see what happened there!

What happened to Memphis is nearly impossible to happen to OKC. Memphis "peaked" in '21-'22. If we assume this season is where OKC peaks to project them out like Memphis the following would have to happen. Memphis lost a key starter to injury who was under contract for a decent chunk of cap space the following season. If Dort were go down next year before the all-star break it would be similar, but OKC could opt out and have that cap space in FA so there isn't really a direct comparison. Then Memphis lost a key player, Brooks, to FA. There isn't really anyone in OKC, except Giddey, that you could give as a potential cap squeeze. Then Ja missed this entire season. He played 9 games, but that is basically missing the season. SGA missing all of the '25-'26 season would be the equivalent. Even if SGA missed the season and OKC lost Giddey and Dort you would still have JDub, Chet, Joe, Cason, Wiggins, etc. who could lead them to the playoffs. Chet is just scratching the surface of his ability and as I expected on draft night I still expect him to end up the best player from his draft class. I wouldn't be surprised if in two years Chet is the best player on the roster surpassing SGA. That is also assuming SGA will still be a top 5 NBA player.

It's nearly impossible for OKC to end up in the same situation as Memphis. What could happen, as OKC has seen before, is that SGA and JDub/Chet could get injured and miss the majority if not a whole season and they miss the playoffs. We saw that with Russ and KD. It's also possible that Presti repeats the moves of his previous build and trades JDub or Chet like he did Harden blaming the cap then lets the quality veteran he gets in the deal who replaced the productivity, KMart, walk as an FA after one season and the team never reaches that level of performance again. Due to the number of picks OKC has makes it unlikely to be able to make moves and replace players in the draft. OKC would likely be able to move up in the draft to get another quality young player to help fill a void created if Presti felt he had to move one of his top 3 players to accommodate keeping Dort and Giddey, similar to trading Harden to accommodate Perkins and Ibaka.

[Bremzi]

It was straightforward that Jokic would win MVP. He got robbed of one last year when they gave it to Embiid, only to disappear in the playoffs and Jokic getting the ring and Finals MVP. Something extraordinary would have to happen not to do justice to Jokic this year. Like it was said, get a rinf a finals MVP this year and you’re definitely the frontrunner for next year.

Considering current PO play, I fear Anthony Legwards is the newly found USA phenom. He really does look amazing on both sides and has the athleticism to be unstoppable. Similarities in various aspects with MJ’s game help him too.

While SGA might be more efficient and rely more on finesse, once Edwards improves in this area his ceiling is the highest in the NBA right now. If all goes well vs Dallas, we will see their head to head soon and I cant wait for it.

[ThunderWins]

The wolves will have cap issues when ANT's extension kicks in and will have to make tough choices similar to the Thunder
So if Thunder/Wolves meet I hope the Thunder can surprise the Wolves so their front office makes some mistakes out of fear.

[Dadouv47]

Watch on YouTube

no clue if this is keep working but that's a well coached team

[ThunderBolt]

Edwards and Brunson are the shiny new toys that the media is now infatuated with. The media has been hyping Edwards as the face of the league since last summer. Ant is very good and may very well become the best player in the league. But based upon the total body of work and not a six game sample size, shai is the better player.

[slick_watts]

Watch on YouTube

no clue if this is keep working but that's a well coached team

i think it makes a lot of sense when they have p.j. washington and derrick jones in the corners, they are 35% and 33% respectively career from the corners. in the feb. 10 blowout, the mavs were getting whatever they wanted at the rim. it was the first game they played with their new toys, so i don't think our defensive gameplan was sound. the way are playing chet in drop and tagging pnr from the corners, it penalizes the mavs for having these plus defenders in the game.

if they bring in THJ and josh green for DJJ and p.j. washington, they face a problem on the other end. so long as we're turning them over it's a viable risk to leave their shooters open. it'll be interesting to see how or if we change things up if some of their guys start making shots.

[RingoKid]

Thunder vibe is reminiscent of Memphis before The Funaki went down and the front office traded chemistry for supposed talent upgrades and to accomodate Morant's superstar extension.

It's sad to see what happened there!

What happened to Memphis is nearly impossible to happen to OKC.

Memphis "peaked" in '21-'22. If we assume this season is where OKC peaks to project them out like Memphis the following would have to happen. Memphis lost a key starter to injury who was under contract for a decent chunk of cap space the following season...

That starter was their centre around whom Memphis whole identity and style of play revolved.

They cratered after Adams went down. If OKC lost its starting centre in Chet i believe Thunder would crater too.

Thunders saving grace is that it has an elite GM, a great coach and a franchise player who doesnt wannabe a thug.

When it comes time to max Chet and J-Dub OKC will probably find itself in the same dilemma of having to trade away its depth on the bench like Grizz did to max Bane and JJJ.

Losing the chemistry/vibe in a team isn't something that a GM can recreate easily.

Grizz losing Tyus, DeMelton, Slomo and now Adams and Brooks gutted their depth and destroyed the vibe.

It'd be like Thunder losing Chet, Dort, Wallace, Wiggins and Joe.

Could that happen ? Maybe. Could Thunder continue as a topseed with just SuGA, Homegrown and J-Dub with low paid vets, rookies and journeymen ?...i doubt it.

But maybe, given that SuGA ain't Ja, Chet ain't JJJ, J-Dub ain't Bane, Presti ain't Kleiman and Dags ain't Jenkins...they're far superior.

Still it's all about chemistry. Memphis had it in 2022. Thunder has it now.

[Dadouv47]

I knew PJ Washington was gonna punish us for not signing him