GeorgeSears wrote:Mavrelous wrote:Infinite Llamas wrote:All this talk of “OKC with the better record” has been silly because it’s never been more than 1-2 games more and they are tied right now. Standings can have an impact but when teams are so close that they flip flop every other day, it’s sort of useless to use in a guys favor.
OKC exceeded expectations, significantly, went from lottery to top seed in an instant, and SGA in THE guy there.This is a very close 2 man race, and will stay like this till the end.
That has A LOT to do with Chet Holmgren. SGA is having a better season than last and he was top 5 last season. But it's really the Chet Holmgren factor on the offensive end that has made this team lethal. You take him out, and replace him with someone like Banchero, and they're nowhere near as good.
It's a crude measure, of course, but the on/off net ratings paint a clear picture for OKC.
SGA ON, Chet ON: +10.6 (1306 minutes)
SGA ON, Chet OFF: +14.3 (726 minutes)
SGA OFF, Chet ON: +2.1 (503 minutes)
SGA ON, J-Dub ON: +11.5 (1119 minutes)
SGA ON, J-Dub OFF: +12.3 (915 minutes)
SGA OFF, J-Dub ON: -1.0 (608 minutes)
And just to really hammer the point down:
SGA ON, Chet OFF, J-Dub OFF: +12.3 (545 minutes)
SGA OFF, Chet ON, J-Dub ON: -2.6 (438 minutes)
Chet's arrival has clearly helped propel OKC, as has Williams' improvement. But by far the biggest driver of OKC's success is SGA and his ability to elevate all line-ups they throw out there. Success has many fathers and no single player deserves all the credit for it (that holds true for Jokic as well) but there are obviously levels to this and SGA is up there with anyone this season.
