OKC Thunder 2026-27 Regular Season Thread

[Devilanche]

I'd like that. but seems like Herb Jones may be a Thunder soon, too.

What do you read abt herb jones?

[OKC2008]

Russell Westbrook, someone who would provide veteran leadership and serve as a feel-good morale booster, what with his legendary past with the franchise, there are certainly a number of players OKC could choose from.

Absolutely not. Keep that selfish piece of garbage away from this team! He did enough damage the first time he was here. I don't care that he wouldn't see the floor in the playoffs he was dumped for a better player, CP3, that helped both OKC and SA become what they are as Russ destroyed Houston and sent them from contender to tankers.

After reading this, we deserve 40 minutes of Dix & Barnhizer every night

[Xatticus]

I'd run with what we have for the time being unless an opportunity presents itself. We have some young players that could benefit from more playing time and we've seen that Daignealt can get results with unconventional lineup combinations. If we get nearer to the deadline and we see an obvious hole that needs plugging, then we can work the market at that point. I'm looking forward to finally seeing Topic and Sorber getting some minutes to see what we have with them.

I take it back after watching last night's game. Barnhizer and Dix aren't suitable for substantial roles. That's really the first I have seen from Dix, so I'm willing to give him some more time, but I don't see it with Barnhizer. The effort level is fine and he is reading the game better this year, but he is still ineffectual because he lacks any plus skills on either end of the floor.

[Clav]

With SL lineups like we deployed against Dallas last night, we deserve that big loss.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I'd run with what we have for the time being unless an opportunity presents itself. We have some young players that could benefit from more playing time and we've seen that Daignealt can get results with unconventional lineup combinations. If we get nearer to the deadline and we see an obvious hole that needs plugging, then we can work the market at that point. I'm looking forward to finally seeing Topic and Sorber getting some minutes to see what we have with them.

I take it back after watching last night's game. Barnhizer and Dix aren't suitable for substantial roles. That's really the first I have seen from Dix, so I'm willing to give him some more time, but I don't see it with Barnhizer. The effort level is fine and he is reading the game better this year, but he is still ineffectual because he lacks any plus skills on either end of the floor.

Chet will be back soon. We don't know how long Caruso is out, but it shouldn't be too long. I'd guess 2 weeks on Caruso. If Topic is close to returning they'll want to give him some playing time to see how he does. Don't expect anything drastic soon.

If the Heat continue to struggle then Davion Mitchell might be an option. He'd fit in the DPE, is an expiring contract, is a good 3pt shooter and gives you ball handling which was the biggest loss from JDub and Cason. I think that is my ideal target at the moment. I think we are stuck seeing how the next 3-4 weeks play out before anything happens. Most teams are not going to be in a hurry to start unloading players at this point unless they were going into the season with the expectation of losing. The Heat pick for 2027 is lottery protected so that could be some extra incentive to add another pick, or two, and get some rookies. Giannis is probably going to opt out if they fail to make the playoffs, but if they are sitting at 5-15 they that is going to be an inevitability so preparing for the future would be their best option.

[Xatticus]

I'd run with what we have for the time being unless an opportunity presents itself. We have some young players that could benefit from more playing time and we've seen that Daignealt can get results with unconventional lineup combinations. If we get nearer to the deadline and we see an obvious hole that needs plugging, then we can work the market at that point. I'm looking forward to finally seeing Topic and Sorber getting some minutes to see what we have with them.

I take it back after watching last night's game. Barnhizer and Dix aren't suitable for substantial roles. That's really the first I have seen from Dix, so I'm willing to give him some more time, but I don't see it with Barnhizer. The effort level is fine and he is reading the game better this year, but he is still ineffectual because he lacks any plus skills on either end of the floor.

Chet will be back soon. We don't know how long Caruso is out, but it shouldn't be too long. I'd guess 2 weeks on Caruso. If Topic is close to returning they'll want to give him some playing time to see how he does. Don't expect anything drastic soon.

If the Heat continue to struggle then Davion Mitchell might be an option. He'd fit in the DPE, is an expiring contract, is a good 3pt shooter and gives you ball handling which was the biggest loss from JDub and Cason. I think that is my ideal target at the moment. I think we are stuck seeing how the next 3-4 weeks play out before anything happens. Most teams are not going to be in a hurry to start unloading players at this point unless they were going into the season with the expectation of losing. The Heat pick for 2027 is lottery protected so that could be some extra incentive to add another pick, or two, and get some rookies. Giannis is probably going to opt out if they fail to make the playoffs, but if they are sitting at 5-15 they that is going to be an inevitability so preparing for the future would be their best option.

The issue is the wings. I expected to see quite a bit more Kenrich last night. Whatever the plan is, it can't be to increase Caruso's load substantially because we know we need to manage his minutes and we know we need him healthy for the postseason.

I saw that Topic and Sorber were both removed from the injury report, but then subsequently ruled out. I don't know if that was a miscommunication or a reporting error, but we need them back soon. I don't know how versatile either of them are and I don't know whether they can fill the void created by the absences of Cason and Jalen, but we need to find out because I doubt we have a solution in house otherwise.

I wouldn't compromise our flexibility going forward to address the problem, but we need someone to eat some minutes and keep lineups afloat so that we aren't overburdening our core to remain competitive.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

A question: Does the Thunder have to pay JDub's salary, now where he is out for nearly the season, or is there any insurance who takes over for the franchise?

[Kizz Fastfists]

A question: Does the Thunder have to pay JDub's salary, now where he is out for nearly the season, or is there any insurance who takes over for the franchise?

Yes they insurance. They are required to by the league. The insurance will cover a decent chunk of his salary, but not all.

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/basketball/2025/nba-injured-stars-salary-insurance-1234861718/

The insurance does not have any impact on JDub's cap number.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

https://thunderousintentions.com/okc-thunder-taking-strong-swing-on-budgeted-upside-with-ochai-agbaji-signing

The Thunder have signed Ochai Agbaji at the 15' roster spot.

[Thabo Sefolosha]

Read on Twitter

[Devilanche]

Read on Twitter

Everyone is out!

[Clav]

It's going to be a weird few months for us. I'm excited with one half... to see other players get to show us their game... the other half is not so sure we're going to be that good at all.

If we position to return to playoffs with recovering players and a non-HCA bid, gonna be very difficult to win it all. So something for me will become apparent in the next months -- specifically regarding Topic and Sorber who need to play to have any sort of projection up or down (for better or worse). They would do their careers and our team a major boon by playing well and we can survive a stretch without 3 starters for a while, and give us confidence in upcoming seasons, or at best a solid chance to compete during playoffs. However they aren't playing and are accruing negative asset status until they show us what they can bring. If they play poorly we're gonna feel it for sure.

Our Rookies -- Stirtz is not a PoA defender but he has a great chance to put up shots and try to improve as an all court player. Mara has minutes now readily available to soak up if he can also stay healthy. There's so many chances now for our team but it really is a toss up how we perform with our collection of champion roster and basically green recruits. Here's to hoping we can show some good performances. Rough times for sure. We do get HOU on a b2b so we have a rest adv., would be nice to get this one.

[cjmcallist]

Ridiculous. What do we even do now?

It’s all about Shai now. Does he want to waste a year? Does he want to risk more future years with a core that can’t stay healthy?

It hurts to say this, but Chet and Dub need to be on the table for trades when they return.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

It hurts to say this, but Chet and Dub need to be on the table for trades when they return.

Especially as both have max contracts. With Mara on the roster, we can get rid of Chet's Monster contract and the salary-cap problem is closed.

[Kizz Fastfists]

It hurts to say this, but Chet and Dub need to be on the table for trades when they return.

Were you saying the same thing about Russ and KD when they were missing playoff games and almost full seasons injured?

[cjmcallist]

It hurts to say this, but Chet and Dub need to be on the table for trades when they return.

Were you saying the same thing about Russ and KD when they were missing playoff games and almost full seasons injured?

Interesting question. I was not. Young Westbrook and Durant were substantially more available than Chet and Jalen have been:

* Westbrook vs. Chet: 100% versus 56% of possible games. Even excluding Chet’s missed first season, he’s at about 74%.
* Durant vs. Jalen: 96% versus 75% of games.

After this year, the comparison will look even worse for Dub and Chet.

It’s really not a fair comparison since KDs injury didn’t happen until year 8.

But those numbers are a bummer. At the end of this season the Dub Chet combo will have only been available for 59% of total possible games. Projecting of course.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Interesting question. I was not. Young Westbrook and Durant were substantially more available than Chet and Jalen have been:

* Westbrook vs. Chet: 100% versus 56% of possible games. Even excluding Chet’s missed first season, he’s at about 74%.
* Durant vs. Jalen: 96% versus 75% of games.

The timing of the injuries also matter. Russ went down in what was OKC's best chance to win a championship until the SGA/JDub/Chet era. That is worse than JDub going down in the playoffs last year since this group actually got a championship. KD missed the majority of the following year and OKC missed the playoffs, similar to what could be happening this year, but again when the team was expected to make their first championship run instead of already having won a championship. They were then relatively healthy, but could never get back to the Finals after injuries had destroyed their window. You aren't still chasing that first championship so I'd keep the team together.

Did you hate trading for Paul George? He had a very similar leg injury to what JDub just suffered. They both suffered the injury in their 5th NBA season. Why haven't you been screaming to trade Caruso who has always had trouble staying on the court? IHart has only topped 70 games played twice in his 8 NBA seasons so they should dump him too, right? Let's not forget that Shai played less NBA games in his first four seasons than JDub so get that injury prone bum out of here too, right? Chet and Shai have the same number of 82 game played seasons and they both only did it as rookies.

[Devilanche]

Read on Twitter

Guess he’s salary matching now

[Mr Thunder Nick]

That seems logical to me. Sorber is still ?????

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Is it realistic that the Thunder are in the mix to trade for T.Murphy or H.Jones. Their salary are 27 Mio and 15 Mio . I don't understand how it could be possible from the salary-cap side.......Chet for Murphy and Jones ?