20-21 OKC Thunder Regular Season News

Post #161 » by **slick_watts** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 7:42 pm

ThunderBolt wrote:
slick_watts wrote:lu dort is crushing D-RAPTOR again, on the boxscore portion. same way as last year, he is drawing a ton of offense fouls and his tracking data has been dominant. dort has drawn 14 offensive fouls this year so far which leads the league. what's odd is that none of those are charges. i think drawing offensive fouls is an underrated and underreported skill for defensive players. an offensive foul drawn is somewhere between a block and a steal in value. dort's ability to draw them while on the ball most of the time, and the frequency he's able to do that, is so far as i can tell a talent unique to him.

None are charges? Does it say how he’s drawing them? Off screens?

i looked into this more and now i'm dubious on the stat.nba.com numbers for 'charges drawn' in their hustle stats. i had assumed that charges were only counted for offensive fouls where the defensive player is stationary. so this drawn foul by lu dort was not counted as a charge drawn:

https://gfycat.com/weecarefreecassowary

but this one drawn by kenrich williams was:

https://gfycat.com/mistyangelicgrasshopper

and this textbook charge by roby... was not counted as one:

https://gfycat.com/tireddefiantharpseal

so whatever. the point about dort's offensive foul drawing still stands. :lol:

Post #162 » by **ThunderBolt** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:00 pm

One thing that’s significantly different about his rebuild than the previous one is we are developing the role players first. We always struggled to do that alongside ball dominant talent. We likely won’t draft as much top talent this go around but the supporting cast is likely to be much better.

spearsy23 · Post #163 » by **spearsy23** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 8:58 pm

It's very unlikely there are multiple high level role players on the roster right now. Dort for sure. Maybe two of baze/williams/roby/maledon and who knows on poku. I don't think that's as good as Jackson/ibaka/collison/thabo

Post #164 » by **ThunderBolt** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 9:21 pm

spearsy23 wrote:It's very unlikely there are multiple high level role players on the roster right now. Dort for sure. Maybe two of baze/williams/roby/maledon and who knows on poku. I don't think that's as good as Jackson/ibaka/collison/thabo

Even if we only have two, that’s a pretty good start considering how many future picks we have. One player with star potential and two good role players would be a good start to the rebuild. If we can find a player at least as good as shai in this draft, I think that sets us up with a young core that has perennial playoff potential with tons of assets moving forward. There might not be a Durant level player there, but what could the blazers have been with CJ and Dame if they would have had the assets to add a Paul George when he became available?

Post #165 » by **ThunderBolt** » Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:10 pm

This has a really nice profile on Dort if you want to learn a little about his background.

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Post #166 » by **Dadouv47** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:32 pm

If we already have Dort and another young as future role players for this team, that's already pretty good.

Challenge is to find a true superstar to help SGA.

getrichordie · Post #167 » by **getrichordie** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 3:38 pm

SGA has really surpassed my expectations thus far.

He's taking much better shots and his form continues to look better from 3.

Post #168 » by **ThunderBolt** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 3:55 pm

getrichordie wrote:SGA has really surpassed my expectations thus far.

He's taking much better shots and his form continues to look better from 3.

I think we’ll continue to see highs and lows like we’ve seen. They key difference is those highs and lows are coming with him as the number one option. Even if he were to finish with slightly worse numbers, that still shows growth. But yea, the highs are pretty fun.

thedoppelganger · Post #169 » by **thedoppelganger** » Sun Jan 17, 2021 11:07 pm

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Kinda agree at this point. Been an absolute mess and we're not even a month into the season.

Old Man Game · Post #170 » by **Old Man Game** » Mon Jan 18, 2021 3:18 am

thedoppelganger wrote:

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Kinda agree at this point. Been an absolute mess and we're not even a month into the season.

I'm not even sure they could just "acquire vaccines" at this point. Not at all clear Pfizer or Moderna would even sell them to the league and every state has some sort of eligibility criteria that does not include 20 and 30 something professional athletes. Hell, it doesn't even include healthy people in their 50s right now. And the Chinese vaccine manufacturers probably aren't keen to help the NBA at this point

Maybe if they were willing to fly to Russia and roll the dice on their Sputnik 5 vaccine they could buy someone off and get it. But I bet you couldn't field 2 teams worth of rosters of players willing take that specific risk.

spearsy23 · Post #171 » by **spearsy23** » Mon Jan 18, 2021 4:38 am

The NBA chose the most responsible realistic option. There no reason for those guys to get to jump the line. Canceled and postponed games aren't a big deal without fans in the arena

thedoppelganger · Post #172 » by **thedoppelganger** » Mon Jan 18, 2021 4:40 pm

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Not sure he's the type Presti would want to gamble on in locker room at the moment, but could probably get him with the Denver '21 2nd. Bet he ends up with the Rockets.

Post #173 » by **ThunderBolt** » Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:03 pm

thedoppelganger wrote:

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Not sure he's the type Presti would want to gamble on in locker room at the moment, but could probably get him with the Denver '21 2nd. Bet he ends up with the Rockets.

I agree with both of those statements. I would rather pass on this guy. Our point differential says we are a 4-8 team but we are at 6-6. Part of the reason we have mildly outperformed that is that they guys are buying in to the coach and playing hard. I don’t what to ruin that.

Post #174 » by **ThunderBolt** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 2:14 pm

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Post #175 » by **retrobro90** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:20 am

Hopefully GROD will absolve me of my sins because I think I've 180'd on my Roby evaluation. He had such bad feel in the preseason and now he's stunting on dudes throwing shovel passes on the interior and eurostepping for and-1 finishes. Horford can take all the time he wants to go be a father to a newborn baby.

getrichordie · Post #176 » by **getrichordie** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 7:07 am

retrobro90 wrote:Hopefully GROD will absolve me of my sins because I think I've 180'd on my Roby evaluation. He had such bad feel in the preseason and now he's stunting on dudes throwing shovel passes on the interior and eurostepping for and-1 finishes. Horford can take all the time he wants to go be a father to a newborn baby.

It's okay, man. I saved a seat for you on the Roby Rollercoaster.

Post #177 » by **ThunderBolt** » Thu Jan 21, 2021 2:21 am

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thedoppelganger · Post #178 » by **thedoppelganger** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 4:06 am

thedoppelganger wrote:

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Not sure he's the type Presti would want to gamble on in locker room at the moment, but could probably get him with the Denver '21 2nd. Bet he ends up with the Rockets.

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And there it is

Post #179 » by **ThunderBolt** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 10:22 am

thedoppelganger wrote:
thedoppelganger wrote:

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Not sure he's the type Presti would want to gamble on in locker room at the moment, but could probably get him with the Denver '21 2nd. Bet he ends up with the Rockets.

Read on Twitter

And there it is

If I’m a GM, nothing gives me confidence in helping a guys character like having John Wall and Boogie Cousins as culture setters.

Post #180 » by **ThunderBolt** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 12:24 pm

Seems odd if OKC were actually interested they wouldn't offer a fake pick. Oh well. I'm not too disappointed.

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Interesting comments on Bazley. These comments match what I'm seeing on the court. Bazley is much more assertive this year offensively.

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Mike is a good dude.

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