OKC Thunder 2022-23 Regular Season Discussion

[1bigfan13]

I honestly don't get why fans get so hung up on being stuck with a late lottery pick. Drafting 11th or lower is not a death sentence. The league is littered with All-Stars and top-tier role players who were drafted outside the top 10.

If the Thunder were in the running for top 3 lottery odds I could understand being caught up in positioning yourself for the draft. But since they weren't, I'll take letting my guys get some postseason experience and extra real game reps over protecting the 8th seed.

[Devilanche]

Spoiler:

Too many mental errors. Nobody had a great game.
I think we really missed Kenrich in this game, his effort and toughness.

They probably were emotionally exhausted after win over Pelicans, and it was obvious that they are not calm like they were against Pelicans.

Most important thing: This team played with J-Will as starting center. He is not even good to be back-up center, let alone starting center.
Chet will change that, but it would be unwise to depend only on lanky center who is coming from big injury. We need bigger body who can defend.

Dereck Lively would be ideal to draft. He can be back-up center and you can play him and Chet together sometimes.
Just like Cavs play Mobley and Allen, or Minnesota Towns and Gobert.

A lot of veteran players will try to wear down Chet next season, to teach a lesson that hyped rookie. Presti should prepare for this and draft a C/big PF.

[tweet][/tweet]

This game was like the college football national championship . New Orleans was our Michigan win. Getting smacked by Minnesota is a good learning experience moving forward.

I don’t think we draft a center for the same reasons you are concerned about Chet, inexperience and fatigue. Finding a good experienced center to mentor Chet shouldn’t be that hard.

I’m with you on this . If we are looking for center help, the solution should be signing someone like Naz Reid or even someone like Noel, just to absorb some big minutes.

Whoever we take from the draft will probably take some time to get used to the nba . Unless we can pick this draft Kessler.

[Devilanche]

Read on Twitter

Saying all the right thing. If he cut like 50% at first of his wild shots and and we play more wiggins into the regular rotation, we definitely have a better product out there next season.

[Old Man Game]

This might just be me an average person trying to watch pros, but I wonder if Giddey's really strong enough. Just how much he tries to flick the wrists to get the momentum when he shoots it from three like his arm strength isn't sufficient. Or maybe it's just that he's not fluid enough in the stroke and so it just looks weird. I don't know. It just makes me wonder.

I also wonder if there's anything you can do in his offseason training regimen to try and help his vertical. For a guy as big as he is it's kind of nuts to me how below the rim he is with most of his stuff. All those crap floaters and stuff that bounce off the rim.

[slick_watts]

I honestly don't get why fans get so hung up on being stuck with a late lottery pick. Drafting 11th or lower is not a death sentence. The league is littered with All-Stars and top-tier role players who were drafted outside the top 10.

If the Thunder were in the running for top 3 lottery odds I could understand being caught up in positioning yourself for the draft. But since they weren't, I'll take letting my guys get some postseason experience and extra real game reps over protecting the 8th seed.

they'll have 8% or 8.5% chance of a top four pick. just three spots lower and we'd have 29%. pretty significant.

[Dadouv47]

SGA superstar season killed our chances for a high pick. I badly wanted to tank but we can't ask him to sit with play in chances while he was also trying to go as high as possible in the MVP ranking and lock first team all NBA. If this season wasn't a fluke we should look to improve via trades/signings because we won't get a very high pick anytime soon (at least not our own).

[ThunderBolt]

I honestly don't get why fans get so hung up on being stuck with a late lottery pick. Drafting 11th or lower is not a death sentence. The league is littered with All-Stars and top-tier role players who were drafted outside the top 10.

If the Thunder were in the running for top 3 lottery odds I could understand being caught up in positioning yourself for the draft. But since they weren't, I'll take letting my guys get some postseason experience and extra real game reps over protecting the 8th seed.

There are always a few posters that try to maintain an appearance of objective viewpoints by harping on something negative about us while assuming every other team always has five players on the court with a positive net rating with a smarter, more honest gm.

[Devilanche]

This might just be me an average person trying to watch pros, but I wonder if Giddey's really strong enough. Just how much he tries to flick the wrists to get the momentum when he shoots it from three like his arm strength isn't sufficient. Or maybe it's just that he's not fluid enough in the stroke and so it just looks weird. I don't know. It just makes me wonder.

I also wonder if there's anything you can do in his offseason training regimen to try and help his vertical. For a guy as big as he is it's kind of nuts to me how below the rim he is with most of his stuff. All those crap floaters and stuff that bounce off the rim.

I think athletically he will just show marginal improvement but the strength part is probably conditioning and how young he is . I got a feeling he’s still growing to his body.

[cjmcallist]

This might just be me an average person trying to watch pros, but I wonder if Giddey's really strong enough. Just how much he tries to flick the wrists to get the momentum when he shoots it from three like his arm strength isn't sufficient. Or maybe it's just that he's not fluid enough in the stroke and so it just looks weird. I don't know. It just makes me wonder.

I also wonder if there's anything you can do in his offseason training regimen to try and help his vertical. For a guy as big as he is it's kind of nuts to me how below the rim he is with most of his stuff. All those crap floaters and stuff that bounce off the rim.

I think athletically he will just show marginal improvement but the strength part is probably conditioning and how young he is . I got a feeling he’s still growing to his body.

Right or wrong, I chalk anything about his shot up to the changes he made this year with Engelland. For a while I’d forgotten that Engelland joined at the beginning of the year, so I’m actually pleased with his shot improvement.

He probably does need more strength. He’s so young.

The floater thing bothered me at first but I’ve come around to the idea of it. If he can punish mismatches down low, plus shoot high 30’s from three - that’s a big win I think.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

[Balkman32]

The Thunder actually moved up from 50 to 35 in the 2nd round w/ these coin flip results.

Second Round picks #35 & #38 will probably be two of our 3 two way guys next year.

1.5% chance at Wenby
86% chance at pick #12 (Jalen Williams & Steven Adams were also selected with the 12 overall pick)

[Balkman32]

SGA superstar season killed our chances for a high pick. I badly wanted to tank but we can't ask him to sit with play in chances while he was also trying to go as high as possible in the MVP ranking and lock first team all NBA. If this season wasn't a fluke we should look to improve via trades/signings because we won't get a very high pick anytime soon (at least not our own).

Not gonna hear me complain about a player breaking into all nba status. As the great Herm Edwards once said you play to win the game.

Presti can build a team drafting at the end of the lottery. There are players there and we can develop the correct way to ensure a greater success rate.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

use this graph and trade Dort and picks for Portland FRP

[mr570]

Read on Twitter

use this graph and trade Dort and picks for Portland FRP

Imagine? There's no one in FA I could see the Thunder going for so a draft day trade makes the most sense, especially with Hendricks and Walker both potentially there.

[Big nick]

If zack eddy comes out of college his size would help us 7 4 and near 300 lbs is a big load.

[Devilanche]

But would it be a playable size though ?

[ThunderBolt]

Read on Twitter

use this graph and trade Dort and picks for Portland FRP

Imagine? There's no one in FA I could see the Thunder going for so a draft day trade makes the most sense, especially with Hendricks and Walker both potentially there.

Who are the teams likely to draft above us that want a win now player instead of a draft pick? Portland? Washington? Dallas?I think those teams teams are looking for bigger pieces than Dort. His reputation seems to be greater than his true impact so that’s good for us.

[ThunderBolt]

This might just be me an average person trying to watch pros, but I wonder if Giddey's really strong enough. Just how much he tries to flick the wrists to get the momentum when he shoots it from three like his arm strength isn't sufficient. Or maybe it's just that he's not fluid enough in the stroke and so it just looks weird. I don't know. It just makes me wonder.

I also wonder if there's anything you can do in his offseason training regimen to try and help his vertical. For a guy as big as he is it's kind of nuts to me how below the rim he is with most of his stuff. All those crap floaters and stuff that bounce off the rim.

Giddey getting stronger seems like a good idea. Suggesting he lacks strength arm strength to get the ball to the basket would mean he has the strength of a teenage girl. I think it’s just a shooting stroke issue. To me he shoot’s like a kid that never adjusted his shot as he grew up and became stronger.

Verticality I’m less optimistic about. The answer to solve Giddey’s below the rim issues is simple, guaranteed to work but no player on earth has been smart enough to use this obvious weapon in decades, the sky hook.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

use this graph and trade Dort and picks for Portland FRP

Imagine? There's no one in FA I could see the Thunder going for so a draft day trade makes the most sense, especially with Hendricks and Walker both potentially there.

Who are the teams likely to draft above us that want a win now player instead of a draft pick? Portland? Washington? Dallas?I think those teams teams are looking for bigger pieces than Dort. His reputation seems to be greater than his true impact so that’s good for us.

pretty much those 3 teams but we don't have the right pieces. I think we could easily get 10 now if we swap picks with Dallas and take on Bertans contract but that's a lot of money for 2 spots...worth it if Presti's guys if available though but Dallas will probably trade that pick before the draft.

Pretty unlikely too but Houston could be a trade partnr if they end up with 5 or 6 and Harden is committed to sign with them.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

wow.