Oklahoma City Thunder Regular Season '15-'16 Part III

[KD35Brah]

Would you guys be on board for Tony Snell?

DJ and Novak?

[bondom34]

Irrational excitement about Payne now (for the moment anyway) replaced by irrational excitement that Kyle Singler might actually be a serviceable 3 and D guy.

I don't see any overexcitement about Singler. Glad he looks like he can dribble a ball w/o falling over more like it. And Payne is exciting because he's young and actually can run the bench. Augustin was a wreck, the bench is actually playable now.

I feel that. But let's not undersell what Singler could potentially bring to the table here. He was never as bad as he played since coming here (and sure as heck not as bad as he had been the first 40 games or so of this season). His first three seasons in Detroit he shot from 35% from 3 as a rookie then steadily progressed all the way to 40% last season before the trade. The guy could be really helpful for our offense.

If nothing else it could pave the way for less minutes of Dion. And less minutes for Dion is a good thing.

I agree, I thought you were trying to say he can't be any of that and to calm down on it. I think he and Payne have both been big in reducing Dion. Dion's minutes are decreasing w/ Payne being there, and Singler could do more for that. I love it.

[bondom34]

Would you guys be on board for Tony Snell?

DJ and Novak?

:nod:

[getrichordie]

Let me go off a bit about Kyle Singler. When everyone doubted Singler and thought his contract was stupid, I stood up and actually defended him and Presti giving him a contract. Long-term, people don't see it, but Kyle Singler is going to be a standout roleplayer for OKC for the next 5 years. He just needs time to adjust to Billy's system. Not everyone is a fast learner, but as soon as it clicks, it is there.

#BELIEVEINSINGLER
#SINGL3R
#SINGLER4PREZ

LETS GO!!!!

People are actually starting to see Singler's light!

Some reddit gold: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/4212xu/update_kyle_singler_is_no_longer_the_worst_player/

[spearsy23]

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

[getrichordie]

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

Singler's defense has always been there but his shot hasn't been there and now he seems to have found his rhythm. Big difference in what Dion brings to the table.

[bondom34]

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

I believe in him more than Dion? I mean that's as confident as I'll feel right now, but I don't completely cringe when he walks on court now.

[spearsy23]

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

Singler's defense has always been there but his shot hasn't been there and now he seems to have found his rhythm. Big difference in what Dion brings to the table.

His defense definitely wasn't always there. He was averaging 2.5 fouls in 14 minutes per game during his previous time in the rotation and couldn't stay in front of anyone.

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

I believe in him more than Dion? I mean that's as confident as I'll feel right now, but I don't completely cringe when he walks on court now.

He's 5/5 from three in the last 3 games, if he only hits 40% then we aren't even having this conversation. The biggest thing he has done was played tough against Gallo, outside of that it's just a hot shooting stretch. just last week Dion had a 3 game stretch where he hung 18/20/18 all on good efficiencies, even believing Singler is better than Dion (what a horribly low bar that is) requires weighting RPM/RAPM so heavily that it renders every other statistic meaningless. They both suck and need to be upgraded, but frankly from everything we've actually seen since they've been in OKC, Dion has been better.


Edit: I'm sitting here reading and re-reading this post, and even though I think all of it is completely true, I somehow can't shake the feeling that if I had to pick one that would end up being a positive rotation player I feel more confident in Singler. I literally can't think of a single reason to justify that feeling outside of 'he is more self-aware' but it is there, for whatever that's worth.

[bondom34]

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

Singler's defense has always been there but his shot hasn't been there and now he seems to have found his rhythm. Big difference in what Dion brings to the table.

His defense definitely wasn't always there. He was averaging 2.5 fouls in 14 minutes per game during his previous time in the rotation and couldn't stay in front of anyone.

Singler has had three 'good' games in a row. Even Dion has put stretches of three games in a row together. Let's see where he is in another month before getting excited about him.

I believe in him more than Dion? I mean that's as confident as I'll feel right now, but I don't completely cringe when he walks on court now.

He's 5/5 from three in the last 3 games, if he only hits 40% then we aren't even having this conversation. The biggest thing he has done was played tough against Gallo, outside of that it's just a hot shooting stretch. just last week Dion had a 3 game stretch where he hung 18/20/18 all on good efficiencies, even believing Singler is better than Dion (what a horribly low bar that is) requires weighting RPM/RAPM so heavily that it renders every other statistic meaningless. They both suck and need to be upgraded, but frankly from everything we've actually seen since they've been in OKC, Dion has been better.

I don't think Dion has been better. And if you have any belief he can play like in DET (I do), he's clearly better. He's posting a barely worse TS this season despite the start, and way better defense.

[spearsy23]

Singler's defense has always been there but his shot hasn't been there and now he seems to have found his rhythm. Big difference in what Dion brings to the table.

His defense definitely wasn't always there. He was averaging 2.5 fouls in 14 minutes per game during his previous time in the rotation and couldn't stay in front of anyone.

I believe in him more than Dion? I mean that's as confident as I'll feel right now, but I don't completely cringe when he walks on court now.

He's 5/5 from three in the last 3 games, if he only hits 40% then we aren't even having this conversation. The biggest thing he has done was played tough against Gallo, outside of that it's just a hot shooting stretch. just last week Dion had a 3 game stretch where he hung 18/20/18 all on good efficiencies, even believing Singler is better than Dion (what a horribly low bar that is) requires weighting RPM/RAPM so heavily that it renders every other statistic meaningless. They both suck and need to be upgraded, but frankly from everything we've actually seen since they've been in OKC, Dion has been better.

I don't think Dion has been better. And if you have any belief he can play like in DET (I do), he's clearly better. He's posting a barely worse TS this season despite the start, and way better defense.

See my edit.


The Ts% difference is larger than between Dion and Jarrett Jack and Singler benefits from having pretty much never been the primary offensive option, If Dion was asked only to do what Singler does he might actually be serviceable (well, assuming he would actually just stick to that role). just looking at the per 36 numbers Dion is better at everything except rebounding, and positionally he is better at that. Defense is the argument to be made, and Singler looks significantly better by every metric, but he has also only played 359 minutes, many of them against end of bench guys in blowouts. When he was actually in the rotation he didn't look like he could guard anyone, and every time a player took him off the dribble it was either a foul or layup. Stats and eye test definitely don't match up on Singler, heck even the advanced metrics vs box score defensive stats don't match up, obviously one of them is wrong and when in doubt I generally go with the advanced stats. Even with all of That said it really comes down to- would you rather have garbage or trash?

[bondom34]

His defense definitely wasn't always there. He was averaging 2.5 fouls in 14 minutes per game during his previous time in the rotation and couldn't stay in front of anyone.


He's 5/5 from three in the last 3 games, if he only hits 40% then we aren't even having this conversation. The biggest thing he has done was played tough against Gallo, outside of that it's just a hot shooting stretch. just last week Dion had a 3 game stretch where he hung 18/20/18 all on good efficiencies, even believing Singler is better than Dion (what a horribly low bar that is) requires weighting RPM/RAPM so heavily that it renders every other statistic meaningless. They both suck and need to be upgraded, but frankly from everything we've actually seen since they've been in OKC, Dion has been better.

I don't think Dion has been better. And if you have any belief he can play like in DET (I do), he's clearly better. He's posting a barely worse TS this season despite the start, and way better defense.

See my edit.


The Ts% difference is larger than between Dion and Jarrett Jack and Singler benefits from having pretty much never been the primary offensive option, If Dion was asked only to do what Singler does he might actually be serviceable (well, assuming he would actually just stick to that role). just looking at the per 36 numbers Dion is better at everything except rebounding, and positionally he is better at that. Defense is the argument to be made, and Singler looks significantly better by every metric, but he has also only played 359 minutes, many of them against end of bench guys in blowouts. When he was actually in the rotation he didn't look like he could guard anyone, and every time a player took him off the dribble it was either a foul or layup. Stats and eye test definitely don't match up on Singler, heck even the advanced metrics vs box score defensive stats don't match up, obviously one of them is wrong and when in doubt I generally go with the advanced stats. Even with all of That said it really comes down to- would you rather have garbage or trash?

Pretty much, your edit is exactly how I feel. I just trust Singler to not do dumb things.

[spearsy23]

I don't think Dion has been better. And if you have any belief he can play like in DET (I do), he's clearly better. He's posting a barely worse TS this season despite the start, and way better defense.

See my edit.


The Ts% difference is larger than between Dion and Jarrett Jack and Singler benefits from having pretty much never been the primary offensive option, If Dion was asked only to do what Singler does he might actually be serviceable (well, assuming he would actually just stick to that role). just looking at the per 36 numbers Dion is better at everything except rebounding, and positionally he is better at that. Defense is the argument to be made, and Singler looks significantly better by every metric, but he has also only played 359 minutes, many of them against end of bench guys in blowouts. When he was actually in the rotation he didn't look like he could guard anyone, and every time a player took him off the dribble it was either a foul or layup. Stats and eye test definitely don't match up on Singler, heck even the advanced metrics vs box score defensive stats don't match up, obviously one of them is wrong and when in doubt I generally go with the advanced stats. Even with all of That said it really comes down to- would you rather have garbage or trash?

Pretty much, your edit is exactly how I feel. I just trust Singler to not do dumb things.

And while we're discussing this we're missing the bigger picture where it's not Singler or Dion, it's Singler and Dion at the expense of A-mo, who has been bad but still the best of the three

[bondom34]

See my edit.


The Ts% difference is larger than between Dion and Jarrett Jack and Singler benefits from having pretty much never been the primary offensive option, If Dion was asked only to do what Singler does he might actually be serviceable (well, assuming he would actually just stick to that role). just looking at the per 36 numbers Dion is better at everything except rebounding, and positionally he is better at that. Defense is the argument to be made, and Singler looks significantly better by every metric, but he has also only played 359 minutes, many of them against end of bench guys in blowouts. When he was actually in the rotation he didn't look like he could guard anyone, and every time a player took him off the dribble it was either a foul or layup. Stats and eye test definitely don't match up on Singler, heck even the advanced metrics vs box score defensive stats don't match up, obviously one of them is wrong and when in doubt I generally go with the advanced stats. Even with all of That said it really comes down to- would you rather have garbage or trash?

Pretty much, your edit is exactly how I feel. I just trust Singler to not do dumb things.

And while we're discussing this we're missing the bigger picture where it's not Singler or Dion, it's Singler and Dion at the expense of A-mo, who has been bad but still the best of the three

I'm actually not sure, the drop off defensively is decent there, and I'd take him over Dion for sure, but I haven't had an issue w/ Singler, I've loved the rotations of late

[spearsy23]

Pretty much, your edit is exactly how I feel. I just trust Singler to not do dumb things.

And while we're discussing this we're missing the bigger picture where it's not Singler or Dion, it's Singler and Dion at the expense of A-mo, who has been bad but still the best of the three

I'm actually not sure, the drop off defensively is decent there, and I'd take him over Dion for sure, but I haven't had an issue w/ Singler, I've loved the rotations of late

The drop off between Singler/Dion and Morrow offensively is larger than the defensive one. And depending on how heavily you're weighting RPM defensively Morrow has been better than Dion. And the rotations are okay right now because we're winning, but why play worse players over a better one at the same position?

Cam takes Dion's, Morrow takes Cam's, Singler gets the leftovers. There's no question Cam is the best backcourt player on the bench, and no question Morrow is better than Dion, so why be okay with feeding Dion minutes? It's like we've developed Stockholm syndrome 'yeah, these guys suck, but it could always be worse.'

Oh, and I'm making this my told you so moment about DJ

[bondom34]

And while we're discussing this we're missing the bigger picture where it's not Singler or Dion, it's Singler and Dion at the expense of A-mo, who has been bad but still the best of the three

I'm actually not sure, the drop off defensively is decent there, and I'd take him over Dion for sure, but I haven't had an issue w/ Singler, I've loved the rotations of late

The drop off between Singler/Dion and Morrow offensively is larger than the defensive one. And depending on how heavily you're weighting RPM defensively Morrow has been better than Dion. And the rotations are okay right now because we're winning, but why play worse players over a better one at the same position?

Cam takes Dion's, Morrow takes Cam's, Singler gets the leftovers. There's no question Cam is the best backcourt player on the bench, and no question Morrow is better than Dion, so why be okay with feeding Dion minutes? It's like we've developed Stockholm syndrome 'yeah, these guys suck, but it could always be worse.'

Oh, and I'm making this my told you so moment about DJ

I think I'm more OK w/ the rotation because they have shored up the defense, which I don't know what that would be like w/ A Mo. Though having said that, Dion is awful defensively so I'd probably rather his minutes go to Morrow, Singler and Cam stay where they've been the last few games. I'm hoping for a Dion trade still.

[spearsy23]

I'm hoping for a Dion trade still.

Good luck, I'm just gonna hope we don't re-sign him.

[bondom34]

I'm hoping for a Dion trade still.

Good luck, I'm just gonna hope we don't re-sign him.

My only reason for hope is Royce keeps saying it.

[spearsy23]

Oh, and I haven't given Donovan props for this yet, but the rotations are working a lot better because he is finally staggering all the starters so there is almost always one on the floor. He sticks to things way longer than he should, but at least he eventually catches up to the changes everyone is suggesting.

[bondom34]

Love hes doing that too.

[Old Man Game]

Oh, and I haven't given Donovan props for this yet, but the rotations are working a lot better because he is finally staggering all the starters so there is almost always one on the floor. He sticks to things way longer than he should, but at least he eventually catches up to the changes everyone is suggesting.

Just hope Serge doesn't break down somewhere along the line before the playoffs. Dude looks 3/4ths spent a lot of nights.