OKC Thunder 2023-24 Regular Season Discussion

[shakes0]

This loss falls squarely on my shoulders. For the past few years I've been all over PJ Washington and calling him overrated. Ever since then every time he plays vs my team (atlanta at the time) he goes out and drains a bunch of 3s as if to tell me to F off. Now I've switched to OKC and PJ has decided to follow me and continue to haunt me for having the nerve to call him overrated like 3 years ago. Really, this is making him look a little petty, like get over it already dude!

[shakes0]

I've had enough of Giddey and his terrible shooting form. I've never seen anyone shoot a basketball with spin that looks like the Earth rotating sideways on its axis. It's actually pretty impressive when you think about, like how does he even do that? But from a basketball perspective it's disgusting. Like how do you play this game your entire life and at a high level and you can't even do something as simple as shoot a basketball with correct form? Do you practice at all on your game? Or you just out wheeling underage girls in your spare time?

[Bremzi]

Okc was due for a loss after so many straight wins. Dallas played with more urgency because being down 0-2 would be fairly catastrophic for them.

Every team has to go through adversity. It’s all about the response in the next game or two. Dallas shooting 49% on threes is unsustainable and in a vast majority of the cases an NBA like that wins.

Now OKC needs to have some sense of urgency. Them being young and more rested should help with the next game. I missed Chet in the paint this game offensively and Giddey really lacks confidence vs dallas.

Maybe OKC needs to guard corners better and let Luka play his one on one game more. He might score a ton, but he’s gonna get exhausted doing it. For him, a rhythm like that probably isnt sustainable the whole game right now.

[Dadouv47]

Presti was wrong at trade deadline.

I thought Presti gifting Dallas cap space that allowed them to retool by taking Bertans was just him being a nice guy and helping a conference rival. I thought him facilitating the Gafford trade to make sure Dallas got what they needed was just his way of saying OKC winning isn't as important as Dallas winning. We can say Presti screwed up, but maybe he's just such a nice guy he is trying to help other teams win championships while being selfless.

I know you think all the time about Presti but u reached another level if u think he's the reason Dallas got rid of Bertans and traded for Gafford. They were going to find a way. If OKC ends up losing in the finals against the Knicks, are you going to blame Presti to give them 3 FRPs to draft Jalen Williams in the 2022 draft? That's nonsense. That was just OKC doing business to improve, not to help the Mavs or whoever.

Speaking of Dallas and Presti, you can blame him for not giving more than 48 millions over 3 years to PJ Washington who's a better and cheaper version of John Collins. I badly wanted PJ in OKC not because I think he's elite but the fit was obvious with the way Presti is building his roster. That was a big mistake with the amount of money we had.

btw we also made pick trades with Denver and the Clippers. Was it a bad thing to get a 2027 LAC swap to help them get Harden? I really don't think so but u can argue we shouldn't make any trade with Western conference teams.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Speaking of Dallas and Presti, you can blame him for not giving more than 48 millions over 3 years to PJ Washington who's a better and cheaper version of John Collins. I badly wanted PJ in OKC not because I think he's elite but the fit was obvious with the way Presti is building his roster. That was a big mistake with the amount of money we had.

The obvious fit of Washington was discussed in the off-season and up to the trade deadline. Presti ignored improving the roster. Olynyk, John Collins, WCJ and other similar players were also repeatedly discussed. The type of player OKC should have been adding at the deadline was obvious to many of us, yourself included, and Presti ignored it and got the corpse of Hayward instead.

[Dadouv47]

Speaking of Dallas and Presti, you can blame him for not giving more than 48 millions over 3 years to PJ Washington who's a better and cheaper version of John Collins. I badly wanted PJ in OKC not because I think he's elite but the fit was obvious with the way Presti is building his roster. That was a big mistake with the amount of money we had.

The obvious fit of Washington was discussed in the off-season and up to the trade deadline. Presti ignored improving the roster. Olynyk, John Collins, WCJ and other similar players were also repeatedly discussed. The type of player OKC should have been adding at the deadline was obvious to many of us, yourself included, and Presti ignored it and got the corpse of Hayward instead.

yeah what I meant is that I think it's unfair to blame Presti for making some valuable moves which did not involve sending good players to rivals. I would have a different opinion if we sent Wiggins or Isaiah Joe to a good team in the West. You won't complain about Hunter Tyson going to Denver with the #37 pick OKC traded for a valuable Nuggets 2029 FRP.

I have no clue if Orlando was gonna draft Cason Wallace with the 11th pick in the last draft but I don't mind the Bertans move if he thought it was a real possibility...so far Cason looks like a very good pick. Having Bertans salary was positive too but sure Presti messed up trading for Hayward, that's nothing to do with him making trades with the Mavs.

I also doubt the Mavs wouldn't have found another trade partner if Presti didn't want to help them to get Gafford...maybe they would have paid just a little bit more and that's it so basically Presti had no influence on current mavs success and roster construction.

The main reason we can be pissed right now is that we are in a tough situation because one of our starters can barely play and we could have added a decent replacement for a decent price. This shouldn't happen in a team that finished first in the strongest conference. It will likely change this offseason and I hope Presti finds the right guy to replace Giddey but yeah it will likely cost us a trip to the WCF and that's a fair criticism.

[Dadouv47]

oh and Mark should stop playing Hayward...it's getting ridiculous. I don't care if it's for 5 minutes or less, he isn't worth being on the floor and taking some Wiggins minutes.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I have no clue if Orlando was gonna draft Cason Wallace with the 11th pick in the last draft but I don't mind the Bertans move if he thought it was a real possibility...so far Cason looks like a very good pick. Having Bertans salary was positive too but sure Presti messed up trading for Hayward, that's nothing to do with him making trades with the Mavs.

Let's assume for a moment that Cason Wallace was going to go 10th. That leaves you with Grady Dick at #11. Dick could be starting over Giddey right now and one could argue that makes the team better than having Cason coming off the bench. Even if you want to argue Cason is better than Dick the drop off was not enough for plugging the cap space instead of using that money in FA or in a trade for a useful player. It was a bad trade on draft night and still holds up as a bad trade. If Wallace had been the last option for getting a shooter then it would have been different. Given Cason's history there was no expectation of him shooting as well as he has and he projected a lot closer to Marcus Smart than JJ Reddick.

I still believe Lively would have been the better pick as a big man that pounds the glass is something the team needs. Assuming that Presti was never taking a big and was always taking a wing that could shoot there was not the drop off from Wallace to Dick to justify clogging up the cap space. It was just an unnecessary waste of cap space. If the goal was to get a defender and Cason's surprise shooting was an unforeseen bonus then Presti got lucky. Even if we assume Presti knew Cason would be a good 3pt shooter the difference in who was going to be available didn't justify clogging the cap space with Bertans where that cap space could have been used on your guy PJ Washington or some other useful stretch big.

[Dadouv47]

I have no clue if Orlando was gonna draft Cason Wallace with the 11th pick in the last draft but I don't mind the Bertans move if he thought it was a real possibility...so far Cason looks like a very good pick. Having Bertans salary was positive too but sure Presti messed up trading for Hayward, that's nothing to do with him making trades with the Mavs.

Let's assume for a moment that Cason Wallace was going to go 10th. That leaves you with Grady Dick at #11. Dick could be starting over Giddey right now and one could argue that makes the team better than having Cason coming off the bench. Even if you want to argue Cason is better than Dick the drop off was not enough for plugging the cap space instead of using that money in FA or in a trade for a useful player. It was a bad trade on draft night and still holds up as a bad trade. If Wallace had been the last option for getting a shooter then it would have been different. Given Cason's history there was no expectation of him shooting as well as he has and he projected a lot closer to Marcus Smart than JJ Reddick.

I still believe Lively would have been the better pick as a big man that pounds the glass is something the team needs. Assuming that Presti was never taking a big and was always taking a wing that could shoot there was not the drop off from Wallace to Dick to justify clogging up the cap space. It was just an unnecessary waste of cap space. If the goal was to get a defender and Cason's surprise shooting was an unforeseen bonus then Presti got lucky. Even if we assume Presti knew Cason would be a good 3pt shooter the difference in who was going to be available didn't justify clogging the cap space with Bertans where that cap space could have been used on your guy PJ Washington or some other useful stretch big.

Scouts are paid to work all year to find out the best talents. We might think prospect X and Y are in the same tier but if u have Presti's assets and cap space (at that time) u take the best player even if it's gonna cost you. Those are low risk/high reward kind of move and u seem to want to apply that for some trades (Olynyk, John Collins). JDub was in the same tier as AJ Griffin in the 2022 draft or even below and I'm glad Presti overpaid to get him. Sure, u can miss and draft busts like Dieng and Poku but at least u are giving you the best odds to get the best players. That's how we are a good team after a quick rebuild.

Cason was a more NBA ready player than Dick by a lot and it was also a good idea to think short term with Shai on superstar status. I also disagree on Cason shooting being "luck". I didn't know much from Cason before we drafted him but after watching several draft experts videos the day after we got him, most of them said that he was a good shooter. He probably shot better than expected but that was still not some pure luck for Presti.

Dick might end up being a fine/good NBA player but he's still worse than current Giddey. I'm done with the Josh Giddey experience but thinking that rookie Gradey Dick would be an upgrade is crazy.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

I don't blame Mark for saying this...it would be stupid not to support a "key" player in the middle of a playoff series. I just hope he has the balls to bench him to start the game tomorrow.

[Big nick]

You know we all were on dort last year the consensus was to trade him but look how he turned out let's give giddy some slack here.

[ThunderBolt]

You know we all were on dort last year the consensus was to trade him but look how he turned out let's give giddy some slack here.

Once a team becomes a contender the clock starts ticking. Be patient with Giddey comes at a price.

[Big nick]

You know we all were on dort last year the consensus was to trade him but look how he turned out let's give giddy some slack here.

Once a team becomes a contender the clock starts ticking. Be patient with Giddey comes at a price.

This is true but I believe we will see a much different giddy next year if he's still here.

[RunOKC]

Some thoughts from being at the game

-Ticket prices were crazy. Hardly any tickets to be found outside the arena. Had to bite the bullet and pay 350~ to get in a club baseline section.
-Ed Malloy/James Williams made at least 8-10 horrendous calls from my POV (Ed Malloy accounted for most of them). I was in the club section so not close enough to see everything; did it look as bad on TV as it did in game? Scott Foster called a fair game in my opinion outside of not overturning the challenge. Felt like that should have been a no call in general as DJJ kind of avoided JWill, but JWill was just standing there. OKC could have overcame the officiating though with better play imo.
-The Luka sucks chants were just stupid. Let's pivot to a crybaby chant for accuracy next time he's whining at the refs..
-Chet's timing was off and Dallas did a good job crowding him when he put it on the floor. In general Dallas made a lot of decisive reads on defense which helped them quite a bit. We still seem to be a little lost on offense hunting the perfect shot or waiting for SGA to bail us out at the end of the clock.
-Josh Giddey really has to hit his open shots or he's useless. We knew this, but damn it's soul crushing seeing him brick over and over with his flat arcing shots.
-Hopefully PJ Washington isn't going to turn into a Thunder killer for the rest of the series. He made some tough shots. Josh Green probably put up hundreds of corner 3's between game one and two as well..
-Still think we have a good shot to bring this back to OKC at 2-2.

[Dadouv47]

Shai had his best game of the playoffs IMO despite struggling in the 4th quarter so that sucks to lose. I really hope JDub can step up...I was expecting more from him during this series.

[ThunderBolt]

Shai had his best game of the playoffs IMO despite struggling in the 4th quarter so that sucks to lose. I really hope JDub can step up...I was expecting more from him during this series.

Shai has been pretty good but not really had many attention getting moments outside game 1 of the pelicans. Today would be a nice time to have a big game in front of a national audience.

[Xatticus]

Some thoughts from being at the game

-Ticket prices were crazy. Hardly any tickets to be found outside the arena. Had to bite the bullet and pay 350~ to get in a club baseline section.
-Ed Malloy/James Williams made at least 8-10 horrendous calls from my POV (Ed Malloy accounted for most of them). I was in the club section so not close enough to see everything; did it look as bad on TV as it did in game? Scott Foster called a fair game in my opinion outside of not overturning the challenge. Felt like that should have been a no call in general as DJJ kind of avoided JWill, but JWill was just standing there. OKC could have overcame the officiating though with better play imo.
-The Luka sucks chants were just stupid. Let's pivot to a crybaby chant for accuracy next time he's whining at the refs..
-Chet's timing was off and Dallas did a good job crowding him when he put it on the floor. In general Dallas made a lot of decisive reads on defense which helped them quite a bit. We still seem to be a little lost on offense hunting the perfect shot or waiting for SGA to bail us out at the end of the clock.
-Josh Giddey really has to hit his open shots or he's useless. We knew this, but damn it's soul crushing seeing him brick over and over with his flat arcing shots.
-Hopefully PJ Washington isn't going to turn into a Thunder killer for the rest of the series. He made some tough shots. Josh Green probably put up hundreds of corner 3's between game one and two as well..
-Still think we have a good shot to bring this back to OKC at 2-2.

The officiating was absurdly poor. It decided the game. People are praising Dallas, but they scraped a win after benefiting from numerous egregious officiating errors.

I don’t know how they overturned the foul call on PJ Washington. He hacked Dort across the left arm and somehow that got erased. Lively wiped out Dort with an awful screen that should’ve erased a Luka three. Luka ran over Dort and was gifted free throws.

We didn’t play well. The 4th quarter turnovers were uncharacteristic for this team. They just have to play to the level they established over the course of the season to win this series.

[mr570]

GIddey starting again. I can't imagine how this might turn out.

[mr570]

Quick 6 point swing.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Giddey will continue to be a starter as long as he is in OKC. Dallas won’t shoot from 3 like they did game 2 again. OKC will close it out in 5.