2025-26 NBA Season Discussion

[LA Bird]

Not sure if this is some record but OKC has won 22 consecutive games without Jalen Williams.

[parsnips33]

Not sure if this is some record but OKC has won 22 consecutive games without Jalen Williams.

'72 Lakers did 33 straight without him to be fair

[falcolombardi]

Man ajay mitchell has been big for OKC. Second year, second round pick player, considerable role coming off of the bench and especially w/o jdub. Another presti slam dunk

He has to be the draft GOAT, or at the very least the best as far I can remember (even if we didn't pick Mitchell ourselves).

Zero misses, clear vision of the BPA no matter the consensus, tons of late steals. Keen eye for talent.

FWIW CraftedNBA did a study on this (although they are not evaluating picks drafted 2021 and beyond which is a massive caveat ) and Presti graded out suprisingly mediocre. https://craftednba.com/draft/gm-study

Harden and westbrook were huge draft hits as they were not actually seen as surefire stars at all despite being high lottery, ibaka was a hit, jalen was a hit, ajay was a hit, aaron wiggins was a hit, giddey was a hit albeit for another team lol

Hr has his missed swimgs like dillon jones but so does everyone else

[parsnips33]

Yeah no reason OKC can't do 72 wins this year. Would advise them to stay away from 73

[Dr Positivity]

The Thunder's 76-14 last two regular seasons when they've been quite injured :

[eminence]

Feels like it's been a long time since Jazz fans have gotten any good news

[bigboi]

It'd at least be a top 4 seed if Jrue and Porzingis were still there (as well as if the front office didn't encourage tanking). Tatum is not that good.

Also, Derrick White's shooting will regress to the mean. I'm sure.

flat out don’t know wtf you’re talking about. Porzingis barely played. And Jrue was on the verge of getting benched for Holiday. People like you don’t get it. Tatum is that good. There have only been 2 constants on the Celtics: Brown and Tatum. The coaching staff doesn’t matter, the rest of the supporting cast can be whoever, the Brown and Tatum duo is all that matters. Derrick White is a scrub that was getting hyped up as an all star level talent. Tatum is the reason why any of these players look better than they really are.

Jrue Holiday was on the verge of getting benched by…himself?

For Pritchard. If you actually watched Celtics games, you'd know who I was talking about despite the typo but you don't. Try again though.

[Jaivl]

Man ajay mitchell has been big for OKC. Second year, second round pick player, considerable role coming off of the bench and especially w/o jdub. Another presti slam dunk

He has to be the draft GOAT, or at the very least the best as far I can remember (even if we didn't pick Mitchell ourselves).

Zero misses, clear vision of the BPA no matter the consensus, tons of late steals. Keen eye for talent.

FWIW CraftedNBA did a study on this (although they are not evaluating picks drafted 2021 and beyond which is a massive caveat ) and Presti graded out suprisingly mediocre. https://craftednba.com/draft/gm-study

God that's a horrible methodology. Josh Huestis is a better pick than Jalen Williams. Yeah.

[Peregrine01]

7 games into the season and Jokic has a +18 on/off. Was really hoping that the Nuggets would be better without him this year with the addition of Jonas but it hasn’t turned out that way so far. The issue again is the lack of creation and at this point it’s clear that Murray really can’t do much without Jokic at all.

[Dr Positivity]

Man, the Hawks got screwed getting #1 in the years in between Wemby and Flagg. Just a very unappealing draft to have #1 and it doesn't appear they helped themselves with pick that felt meh from the start. Now I know what the Bargnani pick felt like from other teams perspectives.

[lessthanjake]

7 games into the season and Jokic has a +18 on/off. Was really hoping that the Nuggets would be better without him this year with the addition of Jonas but it hasn’t turned out that way so far. The issue again is the lack of creation and at this point it’s clear that Murray really can’t do much without Jokic at all.

It’s actually a +28 on-off. The +18 is the net rating with him on the court.

[Top10alltime]

Wemby is the BITW, and getting most defensive attention out of anyone so far. Worst support in the league, and he's getting this sorry squad to a 5-2 record and a +8.3 NRTG, along with being elite offensively (worked on that middy and post game). Much better in handling post players and stronger too. It's over for the league, he was top 3 in 2025, and now is BITW.

Next is Shai and Luka I guess. Maybe Jokic. But has been only a couple games

[Doctor MJ]

Man, the Hawks got screwed getting #1 in the years in between Wemby and Flagg. Just a very unappealing draft to have #1 and it doesn't appear they helped themselves with pick that felt meh from the start. Now I know what the Bargnani pick felt like from other teams perspectives.

I find myself thinking about who the Hawks should have drafted instead of Risacher, and honestly, I'm not sure. Probably Risacher won't end up the top player from the draft, but there's no one I'd feel comfortable saying "Absolutely should have been X".

I think the natural choice right now is Castle, but honestly, I'm still holding my breath to see how things shake out with guards of Wemby.

[eminence]

I would've gambled on Sarr, but yeah, nobody too promising so far.

[Special_Puppy]

I had Reed Sheppard as the best prospect in the draft and yeah he’s not been exactly lighting the world on fire

[dcstanley]

Man, the Hawks got screwed getting #1 in the years in between Wemby and Flagg. Just a very unappealing draft to have #1 and it doesn't appear they helped themselves with pick that felt meh from the start. Now I know what the Bargnani pick felt like from other teams perspectives.

Hoping they get a top pick next year and draft one of the potential studs. Their front office has done a fine job since the ill-advised Murray trade.

I feel for Pels fans though

[Doctor MJ]

He has to be the draft GOAT, or at the very least the best as far I can remember (even if we didn't pick Mitchell ourselves).

Zero misses, clear vision of the BPA no matter the consensus, tons of late steals. Keen eye for talent.

FWIW CraftedNBA did a study on this (although they are not evaluating picks drafted 2021 and beyond which is a massive caveat ) and Presti graded out suprisingly mediocre. https://craftednba.com/draft/gm-study

Harden and westbrook were huge draft hits as they were not actually seen as surefire stars at all despite being high lottery, ibaka was a hit, jalen was a hit, ajay was a hit, aaron wiggins was a hit, giddey was a hit albeit for another team lol

Hr has his missed swimgs like dillon jones but so does everyone else

Yeah, my sympathy to CraftedNBA because I like seeing the analytical attempt, but I find that you can't really match how impressive a given pick was analytically.

Case in point from the Warriors: Was it more impressive that they picked Draymond Green in the 2nd round with their 3rd pick than it would have been to draft him with their 1st pick (where they took Harrison Barnes)? If I come up with an algorithm based on how good Green was and what was expected given where he was chosen, them getting him so deep in the draft would make it seem more impressive. But the reality is that they didn't know no one else would pick him and just didn't seem to view taking him as that big of a deal, and thus it doesn't actually impress me quite as much as if they'd have taken him higher. Technically it was better this way for the Warriors, but in terms of how impressed I am by what they "knew, not quite.

Back in OKC, both Westbrook & Harden were guys that I expected to go lower and Presti & his FO team seemed to zero in on them and have no qualms about taking them early. And they were right. I might quibble about some of the details in what they did or did not think through as they made the mistake of letting Harden go, but I'll never be unimpressed by the drafting there - and that's without even mentioning an Ibaka like figure who was obviously a massive steal.

And as impressiveness goes, to some degree, it hits me hard when it's not the first or second time, and so while I doubt JDub is ever as good as Westbrook or Harden, seeing the Thunder once again identify a guy and go after him hard in the same draft where they already had a top pick which they used appropriately (I see Chet as the big talent in that draft over anyone else), it just speaks to a continued trend of drafting method that is on a different level than the vast majority of franchises have ever been able to claim.

Now I will push back against the idea of "zero misses" primarily because no one can make that claim. Great they got Harden, but they never actually fully appreciated Harden's abilities and could have selected Curry, and when they were drafting Huestis, Jokic was literally on the board available to the be snatched up. I'm not looking to knock Presti for a lack of omniscience, but nobody's perfect.

[Dr Positivity]

That he's never had a Wiseman pick is pretty impressive, even Giddey is going off now. Another thing about Presti is being Thunder GM since 2007 is incredibly long time and has managed to not hit that washed Dumars/Ujiri/Ainge zone and if anything has been better than ever recently.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Man ajay mitchell has been big for OKC. Second year, second round pick player, considerable role coming off of the bench and especially w/o jdub. Another presti slam dunk

He has to be the draft GOAT, or at the very least the best as far I can remember (even if we didn't pick Mitchell ourselves).

Zero misses, clear vision of the BPA no matter the consensus, tons of late steals. Keen eye for talent.

Nikola Topic, Dillon Jones, Tre Mann, Mitch McGary, Terrance Gerguson.

He has some clear misses.

[jalengreen]

Man ajay mitchell has been big for OKC. Second year, second round pick player, considerable role coming off of the bench and especially w/o jdub. Another presti slam dunk

He has to be the draft GOAT, or at the very least the best as far I can remember (even if we didn't pick Mitchell ourselves).

Zero misses, clear vision of the BPA no matter the consensus, tons of late steals. Keen eye for talent.

Nikola Topic, Dillon Jones, Tre Mann, Mitch McGary, Terrance Gerguson.

He has some clear misses.

Does Topic really count as a miss?