OKC Thunder 2023-24 Regular Season Discussion

[Dadouv47]

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Didn't think Shai would get so many votes

[shakes0]

told y'all you were getting way too ahead of yourselves talking about future rounds of the playoffs. Playoffs are a different animal and no amount of regular season success is going to matter once you get there. It's all about experience and taking your lumps and growing from them.

OKC looked every bit the part of one of the youngest most inexperienced teams in the league last night. Didn't look anything close to a #1 seed. Which is totally understandable.

Great win last night, let's be happy for any and all wins this team gets in the post season. Each one is a building block for future runs. Then again, each loss is a building block as well.

Like I said, just be happy if they get out of the first round. Anything beyond that is gravy.

[Dadouv47]

Should start cutting those Hayward minutes. He was decent on defense but he's a worse player than Wiggins so I don't get why he's playing in the first play. Joe playing only 15 minutes is bad for his rythm and we need to boost his confidence to hit his shots. I don't mind the Jwill/Kenrich minutes because u gotta rest Chet but that's obviously not ideal.

[Clav]

Nothing comes easy in the playoffs. NOLA will adjust and we got fortunate that McCollum was just a bit off on the final shot. He was moving pretty considerably but it was a clean look, I think he knocks that down if you give him it again.

Murphy was great for NOLA and BI was pretty lackluster, however they are definitely equipped to make this a very competitive series.

Thunder Up! Take the lumps from the game and lets go...

[Clav]

In other OKC news...

Coach Daigneault is up for Coach of the year
SGA is up for MVP and Clutch Player of the Year

Good luck to both of them. I can see Mark winning COTY, but Finch has a great chance. Mosley I think is a clear 3rd but no disrespect to Orlando. They had a nice season also.


SGA is probably a good choice for MVP, hope he wins it. He was essential for this team to get where it was this year and he did so much on both sides of the ball, he won us so many games. Definitely worthy. My vote would be for SGA if I had vote simply for... helping this team get to the #1 seed in the West, leading league in steals, shooting and scoring at a consistently high-clip. Regardless of my opines, Luka and Jokic both had amazing seasons. Luka for one I think had more flashy highlights that leave lasting memories in some voters and his performances were stellar. Jokic's impact and ability to control the game is as good as ever and he's probably my odds-favorite to win before they announce it.

[slick_watts]

pelicans were 1-15 from the corners. i collected all of their misses here:

Read on Twitter

real fortunate on a lot of these. dort and wallace seemed more or less locked in on contests but jdub and shai were simply lost on help a lot of the time, or got screened.

every team we face in the playoffs is going to try to get these looks exploiting our aggressive rim help. i think we have to be smarter and more locked in.

[Dadouv47]

In other OKC news...

Coach Daigneault is up for Coach of the year
SGA is up for MVP and Clutch Player of the Year

Good luck to both of them. I can see Mark winning COTY, but Finch has a great chance. Mosley I think is a clear 3rd but no disrespect to Orlando. They had a nice season also.


SGA is probably a good choice for MVP, hope he wins it. He was essential for this team to get where it was this year and he did so much on both sides of the ball, he won us so many games. Definitely worthy. My vote would be for SGA if I had vote simply for... helping this team get to the #1 seed in the West, leading league in steals, shooting and scoring at a consistently high-clip. Regardless of my opines, Luka and Jokic both had amazing seasons. Luka for one I think had more flashy highlights that leave lasting memories in some voters and his performances were stellar. Jokic's impact and ability to control the game is as good as ever and he's probably my odds-favorite to win before they announce it.

I think it's a lock that Coach D will win COY and Shai will finish 2nd or 3th (he really deserve to be 2nd, Doncic had just a better finish)

[Dadouv47]

I guess regardless of losing in the first round or going to the finals, we have 3 points to address in the offseason:
1. Find a Giddey replacement and a new home for him (it sucks, I really like him and think he will be good but not in OKC)
2. Get a better back up big (u don't play JWill only 7 minutes if u believe he's good enough, even if u like playing small with Kenrich)
3. Get a true scorer off the bench. Not sure we can afford that and pay both Joe and Wiggins though.

I think Presti will make two of those three moves (likely 1 and 2 if I had to bet) which is already good enough...less than that would be beyond stupid.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I guess regardless of losing in the first round or going to the finals, we have 3 points to address in the offseason:
1. Find a Giddey replacement and a new home for him (it sucks, I really like him and think he will be good but not in OKC)
2. Get a better back up big (u don't play JWill only 7 minutes if u believe he's good enough, even if u like playing small with Kenrich)
3. Get a true scorer off the bench. Not sure we can afford that and pay both Joe and Wiggins though.

I think Presti will make two of those three moves (likely 1 and 2 if I had to bet) which is already good enough...less than that would be beyond stupid.

Giddey will be back next season. There will be no upgrade to the big man rotation unless it is with their draft pick. There will be no players added through FA or trade that will make an impact. Presti is brilliant. He knows he doesn't have to do anything other than make the playoffs to keep the fan base happy so he will do just that. He will not push for a championship, because winning a championship could have the adverse effect of raising future expectations and that is bad for job security.

[Dadouv47]

I guess regardless of losing in the first round or going to the finals, we have 3 points to address in the offseason:
1. Find a Giddey replacement and a new home for him (it sucks, I really like him and think he will be good but not in OKC)
2. Get a better back up big (u don't play JWill only 7 minutes if u believe he's good enough, even if u like playing small with Kenrich)
3. Get a true scorer off the bench. Not sure we can afford that and pay both Joe and Wiggins though.

I think Presti will make two of those three moves (likely 1 and 2 if I had to bet) which is already good enough...less than that would be beyond stupid.

Giddey will be back next season. There will be no upgrade to the big man rotation unless it is with their draft pick. There will be no players added through FA or trade that will make an impact. Presti is brilliant. He knows he doesn't have to do anything other than make the playoffs to keep the fan base happy so he will do just that. He will not push for a championship, because winning a championship could have the adverse effect of raising future expectations and that is bad for job security.

I understand and share some of your criticisms about Presti but I really really don't understand your idea that he wouldn't want to win a championship. You explaining it just here but it doesn't make any sense. Presti could find a GM job in 20+ franchises tomorrow if needed. I'm pretty sure Lebron is gonna offer a huge amount of money once he becomes an owner. I also don't get how a championship would be bad for his job securty...winning ONE championship in a small market team like OKC would be big enough. Failing with a very good big 3 another time and a ton of assets is worse for his job security. Presti will be fine regardless of the outcome, so why not win?

[Kizz Fastfists]

I understand and share some of your criticisms about Presti but I really really don't understand your idea that he wouldn't want to win a championship. You explaining it just here but it doesn't make any sense. Presti could find a GM job in 20+ franchises tomorrow if needed. I'm pretty sure Lebron is gonna offer a huge amount of money once he becomes an owner. I also don't get how a championship would be bad for his job securty...winning ONE championship in a small market team like OKC would be big enough. Failing with a very good big 3 another time and a ton of assets is worse for his job security. Presti will be fine regardless of the outcome, so why not win?

He doesn't understand what it takes to win. The propaganda today is that OKC is young and that is why they struggled. The reality is that Presti created this and everyone who understand basketball knows it. We had the discussions here about how the lack of size and rebounding was going to be an issue and needed to be addressed last off-season. We talked about it leading up to the deadline. Everyone was disappointed that Presti left a glaring hole in the team for inferior opponents to exploit. NOLA exploited it and created a game that went to the wire. It won't be successful exploited that bad every game by inferior opponents, but a team like Denver or Minny will crush you with that weakness. If the Clippers can knock off Dallas OKC might get to the WCF. Then you'll hear Presti telling you about internal growth and other nonsense and how there is no need for FAs or big trades.

Presti is risk adverse to the point of it being detrimental to his own good and the Thunder. He built another big 3. He once again had a top 3 player in the NBA on his roster. He once against sold off at the deadline instead of making moves to shore up weakness and try to win. He either is afraid of success, incapable of achieving it or petrified by the opportunity for failure. I don't understand the excuses the fans make for him. It's as if Presti had nothing to do with running off KD, but the whole reason KD left was because of Presti's incompetence in team building. People want to blame Perkins and Kanter for OKC postseason failures, but those were the people Presti brought in to play significant roles, including giving one of them a max contract. Presti is great at drafting in the top 5 and he is awesome when picking #2 and the team picking #1 should have taken the player they dropped in his lap at #2. When it comes to filling out a roster around the top picks he has hit on there is a lot of issues.

[Devilanche]

On the flip side , deliver just one title and he’s probably have a job for the next 20-30 years . He just need to get competitive and that’s an auto discount for .

- he done it before , it’s extremely tough to get a small market team over the hump.
- this x iteration of the team is just unlucky. They have the talent to compete but just missing that final 1-2 piece or luck.

[Dadouv47]

I understand and share some of your criticisms about Presti but I really really don't understand your idea that he wouldn't want to win a championship. You explaining it just here but it doesn't make any sense. Presti could find a GM job in 20+ franchises tomorrow if needed. I'm pretty sure Lebron is gonna offer a huge amount of money once he becomes an owner. I also don't get how a championship would be bad for his job securty...winning ONE championship in a small market team like OKC would be big enough. Failing with a very good big 3 another time and a ton of assets is worse for his job security. Presti will be fine regardless of the outcome, so why not win?

He doesn't understand what it takes to win. The propaganda today is that OKC is young and that is why they struggled. The reality is that Presti created this and everyone who understand basketball knows it. We had the discussions here about how the lack of size and rebounding was going to be an issue and needed to be addressed last off-season. We talked about it leading up to the deadline. Everyone was disappointed that Presti left a glaring hole in the team for inferior opponents to exploit. NOLA exploited it and created a game that went to the wire. It won't be successful exploited that bad every game by inferior opponents, but a team like Denver or Minny will crush you with that weakness. If the Clippers can knock off Dallas OKC might get to the WCF. Then you'll hear Presti telling you about internal growth and other nonsense and how there is no need for FAs or big trades.

Presti is risk adverse to the point of it being detrimental to his own good and the Thunder. He built another big 3. He once again had a top 3 player in the NBA on his roster. He once against sold off at the deadline instead of making moves to shore up weakness and try to win. He either is afraid of success, incapable of achieving it or petrified by the opportunity for failure. I don't understand the excuses the fans make for him. It's as if Presti had nothing to do with running off KD, but the whole reason KD left was because of Presti's incompetence in team building. People want to blame Perkins and Kanter for OKC postseason failures, but those were the people Presti brought in to play significant roles, including giving one of them a max contract. Presti is great at drafting in the top 5 and he is awesome when picking #2 and the team picking #1 should have taken the player they dropped in his lap at #2. When it comes to filling out a roster around the top picks he has hit on there is a lot of issues.

okay so that's already different than what u previously said about him not willing to win. I can understand some arguments about the fact that he doesn't know how to win (even if he was close to do it already).

I do agree about some of your takes..I wish he would take more risk sometimes. Just some Morey craziness in Presti could be great if it succeed (the same Morey that can ruin a franchise though).

i do think that Presti kind of changed his view about modern basketball in general and this current team is showing it. Ball movement, 3 point shooting, etc. Yeah, I'm pissed we didn't make any trade at the deadline but we are so ahead of schedule too that we can't complain too much. Next offseason gonna be another story. We finished 1st in the West regardless of what happens in the playoffs and pressure for next season gonna be huge.

I think saying Presti is just good at drafting in the top 5 is a bit unfair. I think he's great at drafting in the lottery while he's terrible with late FRPs. His only real lottery bust so far has been DIeng. I don't view Giddey as a bust and it was a tough call between him, Franz and Kuminga at the draft.

[RingoKid]

No Zion should make for an easy series win.

If OKC win 4-1 or 4-0, that is an easy series win.

I'll marinate some crow for good eating when alls said and done.

[bbms]

Presti is risk adverse to the point of it being detrimental to his own good and the Thunder. He built another big 3. He once again had a top 3 player in the NBA on his roster. He once against sold off at the deadline instead of making moves to shore up weakness and try to win.

is he risk adverse or the opportunities that appeared were not that good? also, i know you have a strong opinion that adding markannen to this roster = a ring. i don't think that's even close to being true.

i've seen way more managers and boards making god awful mistakes trying to fix things that are not broken, or overrating a traded player impact only for it to end a lateral or worse move at best, or even frivulous attempts to trying to fill an arena. not just in the nba, but in all sports.

presti included in that days where he traded for kanter, waiters, george, melo... the blow up trading the guys that sells tickets... all of them had high risk factors.

presti is this close to being in that realm of pep guardiola/man city wealth of assets without ffp breach allegations, to leave this kind of position for marginal returns is firing material.

one thing i can assure you. the scouting/analysis prowess of a pro sports franchise on a billion dollar industry is no joke, the player you want is probably very well evaluated.

[The Servant]

I guess regardless of losing in the first round or going to the finals, we have 3 points to address in the offseason:
1. Find a Giddey replacement and a new home for him (it sucks, I really like him and think he will be good but not in OKC)
2. Get a better back up big (u don't play JWill only 7 minutes if u believe he's good enough, even if u like playing small with Kenrich)
3. Get a true scorer off the bench. Not sure we can afford that and pay both Joe and Wiggins though.

I think Presti will make two of those three moves (likely 1 and 2 if I had to bet) which is already good enough...less than that would be beyond stupid.

Giddey will be back next season. There will be no upgrade to the big man rotation unless it is with their draft pick. There will be no players added through FA or trade that will make an impact. Presti is brilliant. He knows he doesn't have to do anything other than make the playoffs to keep the fan base happy so he will do just that. He will not push for a championship, because winning a championship could have the adverse effect of raising future expectations and that is bad for job security.

You had me for a little bit in that I feel Presti will continue to be obtuse when it comes to the roster problems.

Then you said winning championships is bad for job security. What.

But yeah, get a back up big already or just become a scout instead of a GM.

[RingoKid]

Watching LeBron and the Lakers lose in crunchtime never gets old !

Long may he continue doing that...

[Big nick]

I can't stand lebron the cry baby I hope he retires soon so I don't have to see him anymore that's all the news channels talk about.

[Clav]

Watching LeBron and the Lakers lose in crunchtime never gets old !

Long may he continue doing that...

It was a really good game overall. I am not a big James fan of any kind but he had a great game for sure, until the final shot did them in. It was as good of a shot as he could ask for, but I do believe with the time remaining he should have used the space to drive to the rim anyway.

Nuggets are a problem, thank goodness they are a WCF match up for us if the time comes.

[Dadouv47]

I think we will win easily tonight.

This is not a good news because I'm terrible at sports betting