OKC Thunder 2023-24 Regular Season Discussion

[Bremzi]

Looking at the western conference remaining teams, Minnesota and OKC stand out defensively. OKC also has a 5 out offense at all times, so they will generally generate good shots and they’re also very solid causing turnovers and have a good fast break point amount.

Personally, I see them both in WCF. Okc with the better offense and Minnesota with the better defense. It might come down to pure rebounding. Let’s see how off I am.

[WestbrookGOATed]

Some of you need to let the KD hate go. It's been almost a decade. He's given our organization alot of praise in the last couple of years and whether we like it or not he's a Thunder legend and he helped set the ground work for what we are as an organization. I'm thankful for the memories he gave us and even more grateful for what we have now.

[slick_watts]

shai was very poor in the half court against the pelicans especially by his standards. < .700 ppp in pick and roll and only 1.000 ppp in isolation including passes. thunder offense overall was .991 ppp in the half court, about middle of the pack in the playoffs. the thunder led the league during the regular season.

jalen williams was 1.185 ppp in pnr including passes, which is #2 in the playoffs behind damian lillard. he was electric with the ball in his hands, which probably didn't happen near enough in half court possessions.

[RingoKid]

Some of you need to let the KD hate go. It's been almost a decade. He's given our organization alot of praise in the last couple of years and whether we like it or not he's a Thunder legend and he helped set the ground work for what we are as an organization. I'm thankful for the memories he gave us and even more grateful for what we have now.

Nope...what he did was gutless and disloyal.

Dude can kick rocks for life!!!

[Dadouv47]

shai was very poor in the half court against the pelicans especially by his standards. < .700 ppp in pick and roll and only 1.000 ppp in isolation including passes. thunder offense overall was .991 ppp in the half court, about middle of the pack in the playoffs. the thunder led the league during the regular season.

jalen williams was 1.185 ppp in pnr including passes, which is #2 in the playoffs behind damian lillard. he was electric with the ball in his hands, which probably didn't happen near enough in half court possessions.

Wasn't NOLA one of the best halfcourt defense in the regular season though? but yeah Shai was pretty bad and we got almost no help from the bench. Feels like last month of the regular season we limited Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace shooting for some reason I don't understand. Our bench was barely scoring except in the games without Shai and/or JDub.

[slick_watts]

shai was very poor in the half court against the pelicans especially by his standards. < .700 ppp in pick and roll and only 1.000 ppp in isolation including passes. thunder offense overall was .991 ppp in the half court, about middle of the pack in the playoffs. the thunder led the league during the regular season.

jalen williams was 1.185 ppp in pnr including passes, which is #2 in the playoffs behind damian lillard. he was electric with the ball in his hands, which probably didn't happen near enough in half court possessions.

Wasn't NOLA one of the best halfcourt defense in the regular season though? but yeah Shai was pretty bad and we got almost no help from the bench. Feels like last month of the regular season we limited Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace shooting for some reason I don't understand. Our bench was barely scoring except in the games without Shai and/or JDub.

they weren't that great. 10th. but they were better without zion, but there's no way to filter for that in synergy.

maybe it's a matchup thing, maybe it's not, but we'll need to have better half court offense moving forward. especially if we play a team that doesn't turn it over like dallas. we do lead the playoffs in transition frequency.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Nope...what he did was gutless and disloyal.

Dude can kick rocks for life!!!

So you never have and never will seek alternative employment because leaving a hostile work environment would be gutless and disloyal.

[RingoKid]

Nope...what he did was gutless and disloyal.

Dude can kick rocks for life!!!

So you never have and never will seek alternative employment because leaving a hostile work environment would be gutless and disloyal.

There was nothing hostile about Kevin's work environment.

[Kizz Fastfists]

There was nothing hostile about Kevin's work environment.

It was if his objective was winning. He was being forced to work with someone who was the antithesis of winning basketball. A player that turned the ball over repeatedly in the final two minutes of a winnable game 6 KD was desperately trying to carry his team to victory in, but he couldn't overcome the hostility he was facing from some of his "teammates". KD had been told and shown for years that if he wanted a ring it would have to come elsewhere and so he did what was in his best interests. There is a reason that until this year no OKC team had made it out of the first round without KD. He was the one carrying the team and that joke, Russ, was destroying the concept of winning because he doesn't understand how to play winning basketball. Presti's biggest mistake with the KD/Ibaka teams was trading Harden instead of Russ, unless you want to argue the biggest mistake was drafting Russ in the first place over someone that would have been good for winning and not a selfish stat chasing piece of trash that would rather jack early shot clock 3s than play winning basketball.

[RingoKid]

There was nothing hostile about Kevin's work environment.

It was if his objective was winning.

Kevin was winning with russ and were 1 game away from ending a dubs dynasty before it began but he choked and ran, end of story.

He's proven so many times that he can't carry a team and is not the guy.

Dude sold out and weakened OKC while strengthening the dubs and guaranteed himself 2 rings by doing it.

Great, he's a champ but he's still a weak, insecure, disloyal, mercenary chump.

There's no way you're gonna convince me otherwise so just let it go...

[Dadouv47]

Russ has many flaws but he won us several playoff series when KD disappeared. He was the best Thunder player during the 2012 finals IMO. Russ was great during our 2016 playoff run...KD couldn't face the pressure in game 6 at home. Revisionism history is stupid.

[ThunderBolt]

Some of you need to let the KD hate go. It's been almost a decade. He's given our organization alot of praise in the last couple of years and whether we like it or not he's a Thunder legend and he helped set the ground work for what we are as an organization. I'm thankful for the memories he gave us and even more grateful for what we have now.

I'm not still mad at him but I don't want him on this team.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Kevin was winning with russ and were 1 game away from ending a dubs dynasty before it began but he choked and ran, end of story.

He's proven so many times that he can't carry a team and is not the guy.

Dude sold out and weakened OKC while strengthening the dubs and guaranteed himself 2 rings by doing it.

Great, he's a champ but he's still a weak, insecure, disloyal, mercenary chump.

There's no way you're gonna convince me otherwise so just let it go...

You might want to watch that game again and watch Russ hand the ball to GS repeatedly in the closing minutes when OKC needed those possessions to close out the game. Giving an open 3 point look to Klay that put GS up for good off a Russ turnover then Russ gives it right back to them. Russ proved repeatedly he couldn't carry a team. Even PG13 couldn't carry Russ out of the first round. KD carried Russ out of the first round repeatedly and even made it out of the first round when Russ went down.

I hope OKC doesn't sign any FAs. Those would be disloyal players that couldn't be relied on. How dare someone leave the team that drafted them because they want to win and they are stuck with a GM and teammates fighting against them. How dare anyone change job because of terrible coworkers, worthless management and a desire for better things in life. Presti sold out OKC by giving Kanter a max contract, trading Harden, keeping Russ and refusing to hire a coach that would put Russ in his place and bench his worthless ass every time he pulled a low IQ team hurting move. KD left because Presti drove him away by telling him that winning didn't matter.

[Dadouv47]

Kevin was winning with russ and were 1 game away from ending a dubs dynasty before it began but he choked and ran, end of story.

He's proven so many times that he can't carry a team and is not the guy.

Dude sold out and weakened OKC while strengthening the dubs and guaranteed himself 2 rings by doing it.

Great, he's a champ but he's still a weak, insecure, disloyal, mercenary chump.

There's no way you're gonna convince me otherwise so just let it go...

You might want to watch that game again and watch Russ hand the ball to GS repeatedly in the closing minutes when OKC needed those possessions to close out the game. Giving an open 3 point look to Klay that put GS up for good off a Russ turnover then Russ gives it right back to them. Russ proved repeatedly he couldn't carry a team. Even PG13 couldn't carry Russ out of the first round. KD carried Russ out of the first round repeatedly and even made it out of the first round when Russ went down.

I hope OKC doesn't sign any FAs. Those would be disloyal players that couldn't be relied on. How dare someone leave the team that drafted them because they want to win and they are stuck with a GM and teammates fighting against them. How dare anyone change job because of terrible coworkers, worthless management and a desire for better things in life. Presti sold out OKC by giving Kanter a max contract, trading Harden, keeping Russ and refusing to hire a coach that would put Russ in his place and bench his worthless ass every time he pulled a low IQ team hurting move. KD left because Presti drove him away by telling him that winning didn't matter.

PG13 was TERRIBLE in both the Jazz/Blazers series. Russ had already his knees issues so he wasn't great but somehow PG13 was even worse (PG13 was injured against Portland if i'm not mistaken)

we were up 2-0 against the 8th seed in 2013 with Russ so closing in 6 games was not much of a factor. That's stupid narrative.

Russ had some low BBIQ decisions even during his prime but let's not act like he wasn't a great player until 2017...after that he went down physically with knees issues and couldn't hit a shot anymore. Dude went from being a 82%+ free throw shooter to 60's.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Russ had some low BBIQ decisions even during his prime but let's not act like he wasn't a great player until 2017...after that he went down physically with knees issues and couldn't hit a shot anymore. Dude went from being a 82%+ free throw shooter to 60's.

Let's not pretend that Russ could ever shoot. He's a career 30% 3pt shooter with 3.6 attempts per game for his career and that number was 4 during the final three years KD was in OKC with two of those seasons under 30%. He FT% dropped off right after KD left. Maybe KD knew Russ was starting to have knee issues. Russ is a career 44% shooter from the field despite being a great finisher at the rim and having the athleticism to get there when he wanted. He just liked jacking up low percentage shots too much to actually be the type of player a championship team needed him to be.

Josh Giddey gets ripped on for his shooting, but he's a better shooter than Russ ever was. If Giddey took 20 shots a game and held the ball enough to rack up a 30% usage there would be a large portion of the fan base demanding he be traded, benched or cut, but he would just be following the blueprint for losing that Russ showed OKC.

[Bremzi]

KD thought he was THE guy and was done being second all the time. He never proved it though (failed in OKC, failed in Brooklyn, failing in Phx). He won those rings by joining the team with the best record ever attained in regular season.

I saw a video where a guy compared adding him can take you from the Moon to the Mars, if you’ve got a great squad already. But other than that, he’s a booster on his own that cant leave the atmosphere.

With that said - he could take OKC to Mars considering OKC already has the 1st seed this year.

[slick_watts]

Josh Giddey gets ripped on for his shooting, but he's a better shooter than Russ ever was. If Giddey took 20 shots a game and held the ball enough to rack up a 30% usage there would be a large portion of the fan base demanding he be traded, benched or cut, but he would just be following the blueprint for losing that Russ showed OKC.

this is so stupid and disingenuous. russell westbrook, who attempted so many more difficult shots than josh giddey, still has a higher rTS than him for his career. apm metrics all have russell westbrook close to kevin durant in impact during their best seasons together. he wasn't perfect and had a lot of issues but i don't think i've read a dumber post on realgm since i joined this site 20 years ago.

[slick_watts]

Even PG13 couldn't carry Russ out of the first round. KD carried Russ out of the first round repeatedly and even made it out of the first round when Russ went down.

what reality do you live in?

lets take a look at the 2016 1st round series against the mavs.

kevin durant: 26/6/3 on 48% ts
russell westbrook: 26/7/11 on 57% ts

who was carrying who in this first round series?

or 2nd round 2011 against the grizzlies? russ was also better than kd in that series. and there were a few where they both dominated.

kevin durant was a better player, so he often was better, but not always. the failure of these thunder teams wasn't the performance of westbrook or durant but their poor selection of role players and roster degradation over time.

[Kizz Fastfists]

kevin durant was a better player, so he often was better, but not always. the failure of these thunder teams wasn't the performance of westbrook or durant but their poor selection of role players and roster degradation over time.

So it was Presti's incompetence that destroyed the potential OKC had. I'll agree you there.

[Dadouv47]

I just don't know if Kizz is a Thunder fan or if he loves to hate the Thunder. I really wonder if he's gonna celebrate the day OKC wins a title because he won't be able to justify his Presti hate anymore.