OKC Thunder 2022-23 Regular Season Discussion

[Mr Thunder Nick]

I don't expect them to do this, but I think they should make Giddey available for draft day trades. He's the one guy who I think could move the needle in a meaningful way and I'm just not sold on him as untouchable.

I would rather keep Giddey but I don't think it's crazy to consider trading him. What would you want in a potential Giddey trade though?

My dream-target would be Franz Wagner

But Orlando won't trade him for Giddey.

What a bull...to speculate here about a Giddey trade. Josh will be one of our cornerstones for the next decade for sure.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Thanks on our young team for this unexpected good season. Thanks coach and thanks Sam Presti for your good work. Wish you a lucky hand for this summer for that the Thunder will advance to the next step

[Zagor]

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.

[ThunderBolt]

I don't expect them to do this, but I think they should make Giddey available for draft day trades. He's the one guy who I think could move the needle in a meaningful way and I'm just not sold on him as untouchable.

I would rather keep Giddey but I don't think it's crazy to consider trading him. What would you want in a potential Giddey trade though?

My dream-target would be Franz Wagner

But Orlando won't trade him for Giddey.

Yea he’d been a dream fit. I just don’t think Giddey gets moved. Sam drafts guys he wants to stay in okc and part of that is by keeping his own picks. That being said, kenrich and Muscala seemed pretty loyal.

[ThunderBolt]

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.

[Old Man Game]

I would rather keep Giddey but I don't think it's crazy to consider trading him. What would you want in a potential Giddey trade though?

My dream-target would be Franz Wagner

But Orlando won't trade him for Giddey.

Yea he’d been a dream fit. I just don’t think Giddey gets moved. Sam drafts guys he wants to stay in okc and part of that is by keeping his own picks. That being said, kenrich and Muscala seemed pretty loyal.

K-rich got injured not traded.

[Old Man Game]

A lot was made of our 'led the league in drives' thing. And at times it looked good, but last night with Minny's size clogging things up and no lob threat it really showed the limitations given our current roster. There's a chance Chet by himself clears up some of our issues. I just hate putting all our hope in him alone given he still hasn't played a single game.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda but I keep going back to passing on Jalen Duren for Dieng. I guess Duren didn't fit the skill player mold Presti's looking for at this point though.

[cjmcallist]

Great season!! Congrats to the faithful few who defended the org for the last couple of years.

Probably overachieved a bit in a down conference year, but still fun season.Good group of players. Top tier coach. Definitely one of the best franchises in the NBA.

[Dadouv47]

A lot was made of our 'led the league in drives' thing. And at times it looked good, but last night with Minny's size clogging things up and no lob threat it really showed the limitations given our current roster. There's a chance Chet by himself clears up some of our issues. I just hate putting all our hope in him alone given he still hasn't played a single game.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda but I keep going back to passing on Jalen Duren for Dieng. I guess Duren didn't fit the skill player mold Presti's looking for at this point though.

I'm legit scared because Chet's health is the difference maker between us having a good or great team. He fits all the boxes (size, blocking skills, shooting). He wasn't an hasheem tabeet kind of prospect. He might not become a star because of his frame or whatever but I doubt he's gonna be a bust if he stays healthy.

[Dadouv47]

Great season!! Congrats to the faithful few who defended the org for the last couple of years.

Probably overachieved a bit in a down conference year, but still fun season.Good group of players. Top tier coach. Definitely one of the best franchises in the NBA.

yeah we definitely overrachieved a bit with so many meh teams in the 7-12 range and a lot of tanking teams but the way our core played is really encouraging.

[Big nick]

I am just not sold on dieng maybe he improves he's got size and a decent handle but I don't see much there.

[Old Man Game]

I am just not sold on dieng maybe he improves he's got size and a decent handle but I don't see much there.

I see zero there. Strong Perry Jones vibes.

[Dadouv47]

I am just not sold on dieng maybe he improves he's got size and a decent handle but I don't see much there.

I see zero there. Strong Perry Jones vibes.

I'm super low on Dieng and pissed we drafted him but gotta give him another season. He's super young and didn't play much in the NBL.

[slick_watts]

diappointing. but, drawing the wolves was a death sentence. too much size. i thought this game was a fairly accurate depiction of the challenges presented by a dort/giddey backcourt- one of them must learn to shoot. teams will just continue to trap shai and just drop coverage on him to prevent him from getting to the paint. giddey was just terrible.

so the thunder could have probably dropped a few spots if they wanted without benching shai- i think they could have maybe actually secured the 6 seed if they tried to win all year. maybe losing kenrich derailed that completely. either way, we now have a low lottery pick in the presumptive final year of the rebuilding phase so that sucks.

a lot of hubris on thunder twitter, about chet, the youth of the team. gives me late 00's portland vibes.

[Old Man Game]

I am just not sold on dieng maybe he improves he's got size and a decent handle but I don't see much there.

I see zero there. Strong Perry Jones vibes.

I'm super low on Dieng and pissed we drafted him but gotta give him another season. He's super young and didn't play much in the NBL.

How's he play? I can't figure out what he's even supposed to be. He doesn't appear to have much if any natural scoring acumen. Doesn't look like a high motor defender type. I'm just at a loss visualizing the best case for him based on what we've seen thus far.

[Old Man Game]

diappointing. but, drawing the wolves was a death sentence. too much size. i thought this game was a fairly accurate depiction of the challenges presented by a dort/giddey backcourt- one of them must learn to shoot. teams will just continue to trap shai and just drop coverage on him to prevent him from getting to the paint. giddey was just terrible.

We played like a small ball team like a Golden State only we don't really have the elite shooters to make something like that work. So instead we got 'the most drives in the NBA.' Because, what else can we do really?

[Dadouv47]

diappointing. but, drawing the wolves was a death sentence. too much size. i thought this game was a fairly accurate depiction of the challenges presented by a dort/giddey backcourt- one of them must learn to shoot. teams will just continue to trap shai and just drop coverage on him to prevent him from getting to the paint. giddey was just terrible.

so the thunder could have probably dropped a few spots if they wanted without benching shai- i think they could have maybe actually secured the 6 seed if they tried to win all year. maybe losing kenrich derailed that completely. either way, we now have a low lottery pick in the presumptive final year of the rebuilding phase so that sucks.

a lot of hubris on thunder twitter, about chet, the youth of the team. gives me late 00's portland vibes.

why? Oden vibes?

and yeah it sucks to have such a low pick right now. Not gonna be easy to find a trade partner but Presti must be willing to ovepay a bit to move up. We hopefully won't have playing time for rookies in 2-3 years so the time is now.

[Dadouv47]

Only possible trade partners I think are Portland and maybe Houston if their pick is in the 5-6 range but we don't really have the pieces they want. Portland might want to trade for Dort but not with their 2023 FRP.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

Saric is a weirdo

[Old Man Game]

Read on Twitter

Saric is a weirdo

In light of this incredibly strained analogy, I'm going to go ahead and put that down as Dario saric struggled to come up with something good to say about the organization.