12/23 | G32: Minnesota Timberwolves at Oklahoma City Thunder - 7PM CST

[bondom34]

alex abrines is 7-17 in his career from three 'in the clutch'. that's 41% which seems like doing his job consistently to me within this context.

he's been a poor shooter this year and if there's reason to believe this is what he is now (i'm not sure why that would be), then sure we need someone better. but lets not pretend that abrines is somehow failing at making particular shots in crucial situation based on one or two occurrences this season. you can railroad practically any player in the league with this kind of narrow criticism.

morrow was old. abrines is not.

Hes failing to do the one thing hes there for. Its not about crucial situations, it is about being a 3 point specialist who isn't a vey good shooter and does nothing else.

Hes never been a particularly good player but this year has been basically useless.

do you think he's a 32% three point shooter moving forward?

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

[slick_watts]

Schröder needs a talking to. I can't deal with this **** any more. They had a 74 ORtG with Schröder on the floor and Russ on the bench. He's making 15 million and can't even do what Enes freaking Kanter did: Carry the bench to a reasonable offensive output.

dennis schroder is the pg version of enes kanter. he puts up some counting stats but that does not reflect his impact on the game. people will be convinced he's decent because of the points and assists he gets just as a result of being super high usage, especially when westbrook and george are not in. but the performance of the offense with him in the game with the bench and without george and westbrook tells the full story.

hopefully, schroder can keep up putting numbers on the boxscore and he can be traded in the summer for a better fit. the promise made to him about his role is going to bite the team in the rear a few times when it would be better to have a defensive role player in the game instead of him.

he's less destructive than melo with the starters, but he pretty much looks like the cancer he was in atlanta when he has control of the bench unit so far.

[Pillendreher]

In the 180 minutes of Schröder+bench with Russ off the floor since Russ came back from his ankle thing, they have managed to turn the ball over 73 times while assisting on baskets 58 times. That's a 87.6 ORtG for you for about 1/5 of every game.

[slick_watts]

Hes failing to do the one thing hes there for. Its not about crucial situations, it is about being a 3 point specialist who isn't a vey good shooter and does nothing else.

Hes never been a particularly good player but this year has been basically useless.

do you think he's a 32% three point shooter moving forward?

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

[NaturalThunder]

blaming abrines is stupid. that was a good look. he makes it maybe 40% of the time open like that. but the way you win close games is you don't get into them in the first place. several defensive breakdowns late in this game kept the wolves in it. and then you're relying basically on a coin flip at best to put yourself ahead even if everything goes right.

many bad defensive plays in the last few minutes contributed to this loss more than one missed shot.

What bad defensive plays in the final few minutes are you talking about?

Even on the Saric made three attempt, we got a near steal first, then we recovered really well to block KAT's shot at the rim, and Saric just hit a well-contested three from the corner.

that was not a well-contested three. wiggins waltzed to the rim off an adams switch and of course no thunder 4q meltdown would be complete without russ giving up a wide open three to the player we are hiding him on (covington).

this game should have been in the bag.

Leave it to you to find a way to blame this on Russ. The sequence/play I was talking about ended in a well-contested 3 made by Saric, but you'll look for anything to place blame on Russ.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same play anyway. The one I'm talking about, the one that turned our 110-108 lead into a 111-110 deficit, we deflected a pass a the beginning of the possession, then we lost KAT who slipped to the basket and had a great look at the rim that was swatted by Grant who recovered nicely; and then it ended in Saric making a well-contested three to beat the shot clock.

[slick_watts]

alex abrines is 7-17 in his career from three 'in the clutch'. that's 41% which seems like doing his job consistently to me within this context.

he's been a poor shooter this year and if there's reason to believe this is what he is now (i'm not sure why that would be), then sure we need someone better. but lets not pretend that abrines is somehow failing at making particular shots in crucial situation based on one or two occurrences this season. you can railroad practically any player in the league with this kind of narrow criticism.

morrow was old. abrines is not.

Hes failing to do the one thing hes there for. Its not about crucial situations, it is about being a 3 point specialist who isn't a vey good shooter and does nothing else.

Hes never been a particularly good player but this year has been basically useless.

Exactly. Alex isn’t good enough to be retained if he’s not around 38% from three.

retained? he's probably gone after this year regardless. i'm thinking he's a 37-38% three point shooter over the long run.

[slick_watts]

What bad defensive plays in the final few minutes are you talking about?

Even on the Saric made three attempt, we got a near steal first, then we recovered really well to block KAT's shot at the rim, and Saric just hit a well-contested three from the corner.

that was not a well-contested three. wiggins waltzed to the rim off an adams switch and of course no thunder 4q meltdown would be complete without russ giving up a wide open three to the player we are hiding him on (covington).

this game should have been in the bag.

Leave it to you to find a way to blame this on Russ. The sequence/play I was talking about ended in a well-contested 3 made by Saric, but you'll look for anything to place blame on Russ.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same play anyway. The one I'm talking about, the one that turned our 110-108 lead into a 111-110 deficit, we deflected a pass a the beginning of the possession, then we lost KAT who slipped to the basket and had a great look at the rim that was swatted by Grant who recovered nicely; and then it ended in Saric making a well-contested three to beat the shot clock.

i know the play you are talking about but i do not think that three was well contested. it was bad luck anyway. russ just got beat, like he usually does, by a role player he's supposed to be hiding on. like he got beat by crowder against utah.

[bondom34]

do you think he's a 32% three point shooter moving forward?

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

Relative to an NBA rotation player. Hes not worth his contract

[Dn4sty]

Russ looked much better tonight. I know he missed two FTs in the 4th, but he looked far better scoring around the basket. I was very much encouraged by that

[Pillendreher]

What bad defensive plays in the final few minutes are you talking about?

Even on the Saric made three attempt, we got a near steal first, then we recovered really well to block KAT's shot at the rim, and Saric just hit a well-contested three from the corner.

that was not a well-contested three. wiggins waltzed to the rim off an adams switch and of course no thunder 4q meltdown would be complete without russ giving up a wide open three to the player we are hiding him on (covington).

this game should have been in the bag.

Leave it to you to find a way to blame this on Russ. The sequence/play I was talking about ended in a well-contested 3 made by Saric, but you'll look for anything to place blame on Russ.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same play anyway. The one I'm talking about, the one that turned our 110-108 lead into a 111-110 deficit, we deflected a pass a the beginning of the possession, then we lost KAT who slipped to the basket and had a great look at the rim that was swatted by Grant who recovered nicely; and then it ended in Saric making a well-contested three to beat the shot clock.

That was when Towns assaulted Grant iirc.

[Lalouie]

i couldn't watch the game of course...
why was schroder not in the game in the end and only got in because westy fouled out??

[slick_watts]

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

Relative to an NBA rotation player. Hes not worth his contract

he might not be. i don't think any of this changes how i feel about the shot attempt he got. it was a great look they would be lucky to continue to get in those situations.

you won't find argument from me that the thunder could use better players on their bench, or the players they do have performing to their career levels (abrines, patterson). i just think this is a different conversation than whether or not abrines should be slammed for missing one shot.

[bondom34]

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

Relative to an NBA rotation player. Hes not worth his contract

he might not be. i don't think any of this changes how i feel about the shot attempt he got. it was a great look they would be lucky to continue to get in those situations.

you won't find argument from me that the thunder could use better players on their bench, or the players they do have performing to their career levels (abrines, patterson). i just think this is a different conversation than whether or not abrines should be slammed for missing one shot.

It never was for one shot. Hes consistently failed at his single job

[Dn4sty]

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

Relative to an NBA rotation player. Hes not worth his contract

Yep. At this point a player on a vet minimum contract is better than Abrines.

[NaturalThunder]

do you think he's a 32% three point shooter moving forward?

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

You keep moving the goalposts to the point where you don't have to admit you're wrong.

No, we don't have any better 3P options on the roster. Everyone else's point this whole time has been that you cannot play Abrines if he's shooting this poorly from the 3P line (33% over, roughly, the last half of the season) because he's bad at everything else. We've reached a point where we might as well try TLC or Burton (as long as we have him).

[slick_watts]

Relative to an NBA rotation player. Hes not worth his contract

he might not be. i don't think any of this changes how i feel about the shot attempt he got. it was a great look they would be lucky to continue to get in those situations.

you won't find argument from me that the thunder could use better players on their bench, or the players they do have performing to their career levels (abrines, patterson). i just think this is a different conversation than whether or not abrines should be slammed for missing one shot.

It never was for one shot. Hes consistently failed at his single job

so you're venting that a guy who has been decent at these things for awhile just hasn't been effective at it this season so far? am i reading this correctly?

[Dn4sty]

Kinda random thought. Why does the NBA not put a 4th official on the court

[slick_watts]

If hes a 35% shooter (career average is 37), hes still useless. He was a bad player at 38.

bad relative to what? i don't think we have any better options on the roster, do we?

You keep moving the goalposts to the point where you don't have to admit you're wrong.

No, we don't have any better 3P options on the roster. Everyone else's point this whole time has been that you cannot play Abrines if he's shooting this poorly from the 3P line (33% over, roughly, the last half of the season) because he's bad at everything else. We've reached a point where we might as well try TLC or Burton (as long as we have him).

we're really advocating tlc or burton over abrines? lol. come on. take a nap.

[bondom34]

he might not be. i don't think any of this changes how i feel about the shot attempt he got. it was a great look they would be lucky to continue to get in those situations.

you won't find argument from me that the thunder could use better players on their bench, or the players they do have performing to their career levels (abrines, patterson). i just think this is a different conversation than whether or not abrines should be slammed for missing one shot.

It never was for one shot. Hes consistently failed at his single job

so you're venting that a guy who has been decent at these things for awhile just hasn't been effective at it this season so far? am i reading this correctly?

I'd rather have Schroder shoot that. I'd rather George, and honestly feel just as good if Westbrook did. Get Brewer back at this point.

[berlioz]

that was not a well-contested three. wiggins waltzed to the rim off an adams switch and of course no thunder 4q meltdown would be complete without russ giving up a wide open three to the player we are hiding him on (covington).

this game should have been in the bag.

Leave it to you to find a way to blame this on Russ. The sequence/play I was talking about ended in a well-contested 3 made by Saric, but you'll look for anything to place blame on Russ.

I'm not sure we're talking about the same play anyway. The one I'm talking about, the one that turned our 110-108 lead into a 111-110 deficit, we deflected a pass a the beginning of the possession, then we lost KAT who slipped to the basket and had a great look at the rim that was swatted by Grant who recovered nicely; and then it ended in Saric making a well-contested three to beat the shot clock.

i know the play you are talking about but i do not think that three was well contested. it was bad luck anyway. russ just got beat, like he usually does, by a role player he's supposed to be hiding on. like he got beat by crowder against utah.

I'm pretty sure this didn't happen. Also, the Crowder play (as was pointed out to you) happened because Russ had to go down and get a body on Gobert, which left Crowder open to get the rebound. Not really his fault...