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pipfan wrote:I was just wondering what Thunder fans thought of the Caruso addition. We miss him in Chicago
I guess OKC is enjoying his play
OkcSinceSGA wrote:Not saying you're disagreeing on drives but just sharing some data for others.
I think when it's all over SGA is going to be mentioned with Jordan, Kobe, Wade as the best SGA ever.
It's almost tragic that he's in an era where there are several top 10 all timers playing. If he wasn't playing with Jokic/Giannis he would be getting compared to Michael Jordan right now. It's just that the league has never been more stacked.
OkcSinceSGA wrote:BodieB wrote:They were a top seed that lost in the second round last reason and no one was surprised. Feels like the exact same thing could happen this season with them. We'll see.
Do you have any examples of younger teams that won it all in their first playoff run? The Celtics have literally been at a wall for 5+ years before breaking out last year.
OkcSinceSGA wrote:Magic_Johnny12 wrote:What’s even scarier they’re not even at full strength.
What’s even scarier than that is that they’re literally the youngest team in the league.
What’s even scarier than that is they have one of the best front offices AND coaches in the league.
What’s even scarier than that you ask? THEY HAVE ENOUGH ASSETS TO ACQUIRE A TOP 5 PLAYER IF THEY SO CHOOSE
You got to give credit where credit is due, their entire franchise from top to bottom is masterclass.
All the assets to get a star, yet it's hard to think of stars that wouldn't disrupt their team and growth of young players. Only guy I keep coming back to is Bam Adebayo. He doesn't need a ton of touches, can dominate games in several ways, is still young enough to get a 5-6 year title window out of. When Chet returns and you slide Jalen to 3 ideally. I'm thinking the best course of action may be to keep drafting over and over taking big risks for a star like Giannis in the middle of 1st round.
BodieB wrote:OkcSinceSGA wrote:BodieB wrote:They were a top seed that lost in the second round last reason and no one was surprised. Feels like the exact same thing could happen this season with them. We'll see.
Do you have any examples of younger teams that won it all in their first playoff run? The Celtics have literally been at a wall for 5+ years before breaking out last year.
They're still a young team and will be for some time. Would you fall back on that if they lost before the finals this season? Is it a disappointment if they don't advance this season?
Dacost wrote:What have they done ??
Beat the pelicans in the first round?!?!
I'm not trying to be a hater but the amount of flowers this guys are getting is ridiculous.
OKC is a juggernaut in the regular season wooooooo do you get parade for that ?
All this stats and celebrating mean nothing come playoff time.
tsherkin wrote:OkcSinceSGA wrote:I agree it's not a big threshold, especially when comparing two elite 30+ ppg scorers to begin with. But I do think when we look back on their entire prime in a few years, you'll agree that SGA was the harder problem to solve for defenses.
I immediately disagree, because if it was so simple to deal with him, everyone would be stopping Giannis, and that is very much not what has been happening.ps... it's not just getting a jumper. SGA crushes Giannis in drives the last 3 years I'm pretty sure.
NBA.com thinks so. Not sure how accurate that is given that it is the staple of Giannis' game, but I guess if you mix some of them into post-ups, then it makes some sense. I don't know that it's meaningful to their scoring, though, because Giannis gets to the rim like an animal.Lo Wang wrote:
I don't want to use stats in this argument.
That's nice.I want to use the eye test.
SGA is more skilled than Giannis and Jokic at scoring is my premise.
You said your eye test is saying they are more skilled.
Explain please.
Jokic I'm not even going to start with. You'd have to be a lunatic to argue skill between those two, it's clearly Joker. With Giannis, my contention was that he was the better scorer, not that he had a broader array of skills. That's a strawman.
tsherkin wrote:Lo Wang wrote:
I don't want to use stats in this argument.
That's nice.
AreLo Wang wrote:[img]/photo/1[/img]
The only team with a better relative defensive efficiency than the Thunder is the Bill Russell led Celtics. This measures the defensive rating gap between the two best defensive teams.
They are the first team in history to have more steals (292) than turnovers (282).
Defensive rating - 1st
Stocks - 1st
Forced Turnovers - 1st
Shots contested - 1st
The Thunder is the best team in the NBA. I don't understand why the Celtics and Cavs are ranked higher. The East is incredibly weak. If the Thunder played in the East, they would essentially be playing 80% of their games against teams that are 8 seeds and lower (the 4th best team in the East would be ranked 8th or lower in the West). The Thunder have not lost to a lottery team yet. If they played in the East, they would easily be 23-1 (the one lost coming from the Cavs or Celtics).
Luka vs Shai
We need to talk about last night's game against Luka. Shai outplayed both him and Kai. Ironically, we had a small Luka vs Shai discussion where a bunch of Mavs fans said Shai wet the bed in the playoffs and got outplayed by Luka (complete lie).
Look I'm a fan of Shai, but if Luka beats my team, I will take the L and respect his game. I am not going to distort my reality to rationalize why I lost.
Shai has always dominated Luka because, no offense, for a 26 year old, he moves like a grandpa (Mavs fans like to call it "calculated;" I'm just calling it slow). Last night's game is a statement game. It is a statement to the Mavs fans SGA is a better player: Doncic has the better offensive stats, but SGA is the leader of a historic defensive team along with being the best scorer since KD. Last I checked, defense is just as important as offense.
Luka: 16/5/11 -14
SGA: 39/5/8 +22
This is not just 1 game. This has been consistent. SGA is simply the better player in head to head matchups against Luka (people who defend Luka are only going by stats that don't measure defense).
Discuss.
Disclaimer* I have no life, so I will respond to every comment. This might be misconstrued as trolling.
OkcSinceSGA wrote:I think we can see a similar two way juggernaut in OKC for their first title this year. I just don't see any individual player outside of Jokic outplaying SGA in a close out type scenario, and they have so much depth.
I think they would beat Boston in 6. I said that before the season started.
giberish wrote:BodieB wrote:OkcSinceSGA wrote:
Do you have any examples of younger teams that won it all in their first playoff run? The Celtics have literally been at a wall for 5+ years before breaking out last year.
They're still a young team and will be for some time. Would you fall back on that if they lost before the finals this season? Is it a disappointment if they don't advance this season?
IMO this is the biggest challenge for OKC this season. It's VERY rare for a team to win a title without previously having made at least the conference finals (or at least having some core players with experience at that level). Since 1980 I think 2015 GSW is the only exception.
So it would actually be normal for OKC to lose in the WCF to Dallas or NBA finals to Boston this season before breaking through for a title next year.
Statlanta wrote:I'm going to be mad if they pull a 1995 Orlando Magic in the playoffs after all this praise and adoration from everyone pundits and experts alike.
Get it done.
BodieB wrote:giberish wrote:BodieB wrote:They're still a young team and will be for some time. Would you fall back on that if they lost before the finals this season? Is it a disappointment if they don't advance this season?
IMO this is the biggest challenge for OKC this season. It's VERY rare for a team to win a title without previously having made at least the conference finals (or at least having some core players with experience at that level). Since 1980 I think 2015 GSW is the only exception.
So it would actually be normal for OKC to lose in the WCF to Dallas or NBA finals to Boston this season before breaking through for a title next year.
See, this is what we need to set straight now. They can't both be the favorites and too young to advance.