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Ok, since we have seen plenty of underestimating, and bad mood talking about the team, I'd like to encourage everyone to express on what are they basing their optimism considering Thunder's chances going into the playoffs.

So, please, even those who are really pessimistic, try to find something that you have a glance of hope, considering Thunder and post season. We all know we have huge amount of flaws, especially after Dre injury, so try to stay away with that, even the most discouraged fans ...

STRICTLY OPTIMISTIC THREAD PLEASE

My views:

1) We finally got ourselves KD replacement, strong 1st-2nd option behind Russ, who proved he can do a lot of damage when defenses tighten, and scouting is risen to another level; he is getting reeeeally comfortable in this calendar year, we could see the best PG of his career in playoffs, on both ends of the floor ...
2) Strongest 3rd option on offense we have ever had ? Could we maybe get Denver Melo this year ?
3) Adams is finally having a breakout year, and he's really also turning his game, especially on the defensive end, when the playoffs hit.
4) I have huge faith that Grant uses these post allstar games to get his confidence and state of mind up high, and uses Dre's abscence the best he can

I’ll just see myself out.

Good luck with this thread CRO... it's a lot of debbie downer cornballs in this forum
See above

OKC goes to OZ! Donovan gets a brain, Melo gets a heart and Abrines gets courage. This results in competent coaching along with Melo and Abrines playing defense.

I think you’d need to see Abrines and Grant play at their current levels (even higher if possible), need A KCP type buyout player, and for 2Pat to get more playing time, plus Melo not taking bad shots and playing some semblance of defense

Then hope you dodge the Warriors till WCF (meaning they’d need to be 2, 3, 6, or 7 seed.

An injury to Houston or GSW wouldn’t hurt either

They have as good a 1-2 punch as anyone in the league, with the exception of golden State (barely).

The 3rd and 4th options are melo and adams. Melo is capable of double digit scoring quarters in big playoff games. Adams is the best offensive rebounder in the league, and although he is merely an extension of Westbrook on offense, can be counted on for an easy 10 plus a game.

Abrines is beginning to look like what I thought he would. Perhaps he's better with consistent minutes, and playing with guys who can generate shots for him, rather than spot minutes in the second unit?

Grant has looked great lately. Finishes inside, can score in isolation against backups, and is looking much better/stronger with his body control on drives. Anyone not acknowledging he is a fine bench piece is kidding themselves.

Felton has been as good a backup pg as they have had in some time. Patterson is a fine backup 4/5, and built to play vs. Golden state/houston

They will likely add at least 1 rotation level guard via buyout/free agency.

As underwhelming as they have been at times, they are 2 games out of the 4 spot, 3 out of the third. Only the warriors and houston would be favored over them in a playoff series.

But let's see more graphs about their net rating, or harp on how bad they were when Roberson went down....and they were switching time zones every night and starting a glorified high schooler haha. This team will be a very tough out in the playoffs!

George might re-sign still.

I kinda worry about that first round series against Minnesota. Even if we have HCA I don't think we win game 1 before we've had a chance to make necessary adjustments. Everyone writes them off as a first round exit because of their youth and inexperience but Butler is a tried and true playoff performer who's really been their best player for the second half of this season despite Towns' insane numbers/efficiency. I think Towns can be a matchup nightmare for us too because of how prolific he is as a 3pt shooter. When Adams is outside guarding him they can still have Taj boxing out our dudes for 2nd chance points. If you bench Melo and let Grant pick up Towns that could create different problems on post ups (or any situation that requires Grant to match Towns' physicality) but it might be what we end up doing. Make Towns into a playmaker by letting Adams play help in low post situations with George/Huestis?/Russ being last line of defense for closeouts/blocks. He's a good play maker but I'd rather let our defense move to force the action than to let them take advantage of an obvious mismatch. We lead the damn league in deflections and forced turnovers so we should probably encourage our dudes to do what they do best. Taj murders our 4s on post ups too so it might be better suited to take away that mismatch with Adams guarding Taj and not straying too far from the paint.

retrobro90 wrote:I kinda worry about that first round series against Minnesota. Even if we have HCA I don't think we win game 1 before we've had a chance to make necessary adjustments. Everyone writes them off as a first round exit because of their youth and inexperience but Butler is a tried and true playoff performer who's really been their best player for the second half of this season despite Towns' insane numbers/efficiency. I think Towns can be a matchup nightmare for us too because of how prolific he is as a 3pt shooter. When Adams is outside guarding him they can still have Taj boxing out our dudes for 2nd chance points. If you bench Melo and let Grant pick up Towns that could create different problems on post ups (or any situation that requires Grant to match Towns' physicality) but it might be what we end up doing. Make Towns into a playmaker by letting Adams play help in low post situations with George/Huestis?/Russ being last line of defense for closeouts/blocks. He's a good play maker but I'd rather let our defense move to force the action than to let them take advantage of an obvious mismatch. We lead the damn league in deflections and forced turnovers so we should probably encourage our dudes to do what they do best. Taj murders our 4s on post ups too so it might be better suited to take away that mismatch with Adams guarding Taj and not straying too far from the paint.

If the spurs lose in Denver tonight, and okc wins, they are 1.5 out of 3rd. It's also tight behind them all the way to the 9 spot. The current seeding is far from final.

melo's ankle injury nags him through the rest of the regular season so he's given a reduced role off the bench, he gets right before the playoffs but we keep him benched because it's worked out better. melo gets bitter and exercises his ETO in the summer, but paul george stays on the 1+1 anyway.

hardenASG13 wrote:If the spurs lose in Denver tonight, and okc wins, they are 1.5 out of 3rd. It's also tight behind them all the way to the 9 spot. The current seeding is far from final.

If OKC loses to Memphis tomorrow night they could be in the 9th spot at the all-star break.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

hardenASG13 wrote:If the spurs lose in Denver tonight, and okc wins, they are 1.5 out of 3rd. It's also tight behind them all the way to the 9 spot. The current seeding is far from final.

If OKC loses to Memphis tomorrow night they could be in the 9th spot at the all-star break.

No, they can't. Mathematically impossible. Clippers only play one more game.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

hardenASG13 wrote:If the spurs lose in Denver tonight, and okc wins, they are 1.5 out of 3rd. It's also tight behind them all the way to the 9 spot. The current seeding is far from final.

If OKC loses to Memphis tomorrow night they could be in the 9th spot at the all-star break.

Unless my math is off (it may be), 8th is the worst. They are 1.5 up on 9th.

Yeah 8th is possible. Which is still horrible. We might legit miss the Playoffs.

With one of the best starting lineups in the NBA. Better than GSW and Houston when healthy.


What a sad bench.

Pillendreher wrote:Yeah 8th is possible. Which is still horrible. We might legit miss the Playoffs.

That right there is my reason for optimism. Maybe we luck out and get a good pick. It doesnt even necessarily need to be the top pick.

Knrstz wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:Yeah 8th is possible. Which is still horrible. We might legit miss the Playoffs.

That right there is my reason for optimism. Maybe we luck out and get a good pick. It doesnt even necessarily need to be the top pick.

With Presti's track record since 2013, he'd just pick some scrub who's out of the league in a couple of years.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

hardenASG13 wrote:If the spurs lose in Denver tonight, and okc wins, they are 1.5 out of 3rd. It's also tight behind them all the way to the 9 spot. The current seeding is far from final.

If OKC loses to Memphis tomorrow night they could be in the 9th spot at the all-star break.

They also lost no ground on 3rd or 4th......very tight after the top 2.....maybe if I showed it in graph form, or highlighted the standings itd make it more clear

hardenASG13 wrote:

Kizz Fastfists wrote:

hardenASG13 wrote:If the spurs lose in Denver tonight, and okc wins, they are 1.5 out of 3rd. It's also tight behind them all the way to the 9 spot. The current seeding is far from final.

If OKC loses to Memphis tomorrow night they could be in the 9th spot at the all-star break.

They also lost no ground on 3rd or 4th......very tight after the top 2.....maybe if I showed it in graph form, or highlighted the standings itd make it more clear

They're 3-6 since Robes went down. They're not trending upward.

Pillendreher wrote:

Knrstz wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:Yeah 8th is possible. Which is still horrible. We might legit miss the Playoffs.

That right there is my reason for optimism. Maybe we luck out and get a good pick. It doesnt even necessarily need to be the top pick.

With Presti's track record since 2013, he'd just pick some scrub who's out of the league in a couple of years.

Either Presti or Hennigan gets credit for Sabonis.