2018-2019 OKC Thunder Regular Season Pt 1: A Renewed Hope

[slick_watts]

Seemed like nobody here wanted to hear any criticism of Westbrook’s game that year.

Nothing about usage rate, nothing about shot selection.

Loyalty to franchise, because he would soon be due for an extension, trumped everything.

WB is present in virtually all our best lineups this years. So why are we talking about WB again? We're losing games because of our bench, not WB.

Because Westbrook makes a lot of money or something

because he's been a major disappointment. our best lineups should be better. they're not because westbrook has been terrible. we can't stagger george and westbrook much because lineups with westbrook and without george can't survive. because westbrook has been terrible.

the glib 'analysis' that westbrook is present in 'our best lineups' and our 'starters are good' notwithstanding. westbrook has sucked. he deserves a lot of criticism.

[SecondTake]

Seemed like nobody here wanted to hear any criticism of Westbrook’s game that year.

Nothing about usage rate, nothing about shot selection.

Loyalty to franchise, because he would soon be due for an extension, trumped everything.

WB is present in virtually all our best lineups this years. So why are we talking about WB again? We're losing games because of our bench, not WB.

Because Westbrook makes a lot of money or something

And he's delivering on it. He's part of all our best lineups

[ThunderBolt]

WB is present in virtually all our best lineups this years. So why are we talking about WB again? We're losing games because of our bench, not WB.

Because Westbrook makes a lot of money or something

And he's delivering on it. He's part of all our best lineups

Ferguson is also part of our best lineups. Should we pay him $35 million too? Russ has to be held to a higher standard. There is nothing unfair about that.

[Old Man Game]

11:30 basketball today? Gonna have to see if I can log into the Fox Sports Oklahoma website and catch a few minutes here and there at work.

[ThunderBolt]

11:30 basketball today? Gonna have to see if I can log into the Fox Sports Oklahoma website and catch a few minutes here and there at work.

If that doesn’t work, normally you can find a stream on reddit too.

[SecondTake]

Because Westbrook makes a lot of money or something

And he's delivering on it. He's part of all our best lineups

Ferguson is also part of our best lineups. Should we pay him $35 million too? Russ has to be held to a higher standard. There is nothing unfair about that.

Fair enough. Although WB isn't playing up to his own standards, I'd say he's still playing much better (impact wise) than a bunch of others getting paid the max. I don't think he's overpaid, I think he's underachieving this year so far. My issue is that although he might be underachieving, the real reason we're losing is because of the bench and not WB. Our starters still have the best net rating of any group in the league, so although they could be even better with 'old' WB, I prefer to lay the blame at the foot of the worst bench in the NBA than the best starting 5.

[Dn4sty]

Read on Twitter

?s=21

[ThunderBolt]

Three point shooting percentages:
Paul George .386
Jerami Grant .336
Terrance Ferguson .377
Abdel Nader .414
Patrick Patterson .339
Alex Abrines .323

This ought to be enough shooting to compete. Grant has regressed as expected but if he can hover around where he’s at and knock down the corner three that will help with spacing. I dont know if Nader is really capable of keeping this up but he does appear to be a solid shooter. Patterson and Abrines are both capable of improving.

[Pillendreher]

Three point shooting percentages:
Paul George .386
Jerami Grant .336
Terrance Ferguson .377
Abdel Nader .414
Patrick Patterson .339
Alex Abrines .323

This ought to be enough shooting to compete. Grant has regressed as expected but if he can hover around where he’s at and knock down the corner three that will help with spacing. I dont know if Nader is really capable of keeping this up but he does appear to be a solid shooter. Patterson and Abrines are both capable of improving.

Per stats.nba.com, Grant is 30/84 from the corners (35.7 %) and 18/58 from above the break (31.0 %). And Patterson has been making his 3s as of late: 37.7 % from 3 since the end of November (25 games).

Generally speaking, the team has made 35.5 % of its 3s since December 1st. That's not great, but way better than what they were doing to start the season. They should still go after shooters, but this is not as pressing anymore imo.

[ThunderBolt]

Three point shooting percentages:
Paul George .386
Jerami Grant .336
Terrance Ferguson .377
Abdel Nader .414
Patrick Patterson .339
Alex Abrines .323

This ought to be enough shooting to compete. Grant has regressed as expected but if he can hover around where he’s at and knock down the corner three that will help with spacing. I dont know if Nader is really capable of keeping this up but he does appear to be a solid shooter. Patterson and Abrines are both capable of improving.

Per stats.nba.com, Grant is 30/84 from the corners (35.7 %) and 18/58 from above the break (31.0 %). And Patterson has been making his 3s as of late: 37.7 % from 3 since the end of November (25 games).

Generally speaking, the team has made 35.5 % of its 3s since December 1st. That's not great, but way better than what they were doing to start the season. They should still go after shooters, but this is not as pressing anymore imo.

I’ve said I really like Vonleh but I don’t see how it could happen. He can play the 4/5 but if they are really going for it this year I would say a guy that can play the 3/4 and hit threes might be more of a necessity. I dont know who is a good fit.

Edit: Taurean.

[Dn4sty]

I think another playmaking bigger 3-4 type player would be massive for this team.

[slick_watts]

Three point shooting percentages:
Paul George .386
Jerami Grant .336
Terrance Ferguson .377
Abdel Nader .414
Patrick Patterson .339
Alex Abrines .323

This ought to be enough shooting to compete. Grant has regressed as expected but if he can hover around where he’s at and knock down the corner three that will help with spacing. I dont know if Nader is really capable of keeping this up but he does appear to be a solid shooter. Patterson and Abrines are both capable of improving.

the whole thing is brought down by westbrook's 24%.

[ThunderBolt]

Three point shooting percentages:
Paul George .386
Jerami Grant .336
Terrance Ferguson .377
Abdel Nader .414
Patrick Patterson .339
Alex Abrines .323

This ought to be enough shooting to compete. Grant has regressed as expected but if he can hover around where he’s at and knock down the corner three that will help with spacing. I dont know if Nader is really capable of keeping this up but he does appear to be a solid shooter. Patterson and Abrines are both capable of improving.

the whole thing is brought down by westbrook's 24%.

Ideally you put enough shooting around him to help with that like Philly does with Simmons. Adams lack of range makes that tough.

[Dn4sty]

So is Nader a guy for this team going forward?

[ThunderBolt]

So is Nader a guy for this team going forward?

I dont know what to think of him. Mitchell Robinson is lime Jerami Grant in a centers body and Nader was hitting layups over him. I think he’s a decent three point shooter.

[Pillendreher]

Three point shooting percentages:
Paul George .386
Jerami Grant .336
Terrance Ferguson .377
Abdel Nader .414
Patrick Patterson .339
Alex Abrines .323

This ought to be enough shooting to compete. Grant has regressed as expected but if he can hover around where he’s at and knock down the corner three that will help with spacing. I dont know if Nader is really capable of keeping this up but he does appear to be a solid shooter. Patterson and Abrines are both capable of improving.

the whole thing is brought down by westbrook's 24%.

Meh. He's responsible for not even every 6th 3PA. If you remove him from the equation, our 3P% climbs by 1.4 % points. It's not like Westbrook by himself is dragging us down.

[Old Man Game]

11:30 basketball today? Gonna have to see if I can log into the Fox Sports Oklahoma website and catch a few minutes here and there at work.

If that doesn’t work, normally you can find a stream on reddit too.

Well a bunch of stuff blew up at work so I didn't get to see any of it. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

[Old Man Game]

So is Nader a guy for this team going forward?

I don't think so personally. If he figures out his defense maybe.

[slick_watts]

ten games ago the thunder defense was -7.3pp100 relative to league average. this would have been a top 10 defense since 1979. after the last ten games they are now -4.7pp100, barely in the top 75.

[Pillendreher]

Somthing I forgot to mention after yesterday's game: We didn't get Westbrook+Schröder with the bench in the 2nd quarter last night. It looked like the minutes shifted more towards Westbrook+Schröder with the starters and Adams playing some minutes with the bench:



I don't know what to think about that. It's good that it more of a mix up then straight up playing the bench by itself, but I don't want to see even more Schröder minutes with the starters.