OKC Thunder 2022-23 Regular Season Discussion

[Devilanche]

Obviously Shai is the story but some of the other guys look like they could fill out our rotation nicely. I'd be very disappointed if Joe wasn't starting to be seen as a longterm piece.

I would also hope that Joe impact on the team would means that we are finally looking to load up on some 3 point shooters in our future moves.

[kdthunderup]

Is there anyway we could trade for Lavine this offseason if he requests a trade? We definitely have the value to offer the Bulls but we don't have the salaries to match.

He would be a much better fit alongside Shai offensively if he we are going to build around him. Giddey just doesn't work as a secondary shot creator with Shai as they have two opposing styles and need the lineup to be setup a specific way around them.

Shai
Lavine
Dort
Williams/Dieng
Chet

Lavine would work a lot better as a secondary shot creator and provide a lot more spacing to help the offense flow a lot better. Shai prefers to play vertical and get the offense going by driving to the basket and kicking out - that doesn't really work when you have too many non shooters on the floor and a guy like Giddey who isn't athletic enough to really take advantage of a collapsing defense. Giddey needs time on ball to lead guys into their shots and he prefers to swing the ball from the strong side to the weak side to generate space.

Dort is still important the defensive scheme as a point of attack defender. Having an actual rim protector and defensive anchor in Chet will allow our aggressive wing defense style to work better.

[jake_swivel]

Is there anyway we could trade for Lavine this offseason if he requests a trade?

There is a pretty decent chance his knee is done. He’s looked real, real bad this season, and combined with his always low basketball IQ, he’s a potential disaster contract.

[slick_watts]

yeah lavine looks bad. stay away. there are a whole lot of better players to target.

[kdthunderup]

Unfortunately I don't see many other players becoming available over the next season or two that fit the mould of what we need. Lamelo Ball could be an interesting one but he doesn't seem like the type of guy Presti would want on the team.

[jake_swivel]

Unfortunately I don't see many other players becoming available over the next season or two that fit the mould of what we need. Lamelo Ball could be an interesting one but he doesn't seem like the type of guy Presti would want on the team.

We’ll find out who is available when teams see their roster’s limitations in the playoffs and decide they need a reset. And the thunder will be there with draft picks.

[BlazersBroncos]

Unfortunately I don't see many other players becoming available over the next season or two that fit the mould of what we need. Lamelo Ball could be an interesting one but he doesn't seem like the type of guy Presti would want on the team.

LaMelo will bolt a small market like OKC the second he can - I think he likely bolts CHA unless MJ's presence has some type of effect.

I like Myles Turner or Cam Johnson this offseason, then picks for another starting caliber guy.

I like Turner as a UFA and Rozier in a trade personally -

G - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander / Jalen Williams / saiah Joe
G - Terry Rozier / Jalen Williams / Aaron Wiggins
F - Josh Giddey / Kenrich Williams / Osumane Dieng
F - Chet Holmgren / Aleksej Pokusevski / JRE
C - Myles Turner / Chet Holmgren / JRE / Muscala

Think that makes some noise + retains all the valuable future FRPs (Rozier wont cost one IMO).

[jake_swivel]

I think the clippers are screwed 24-26. Even with no incentive to tank, their roster is pretty locked in with old, injury prone players. They are going to fall off a cliff next year with no assets to reset, aside from trading Paul George. And I guess norm Powell who will be 30 with $60 million on his contract and zubac. They have $200 million committed to next season and I could easily see them with a bottom 7 record.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAC.html

The 76ers are somewhat likely to fall off, too. Embiid could very well Durant them if they continue underperforming.

I’m not real optimistic about the Houston picks conveying unless they hit on a real good pick this year.

I’d be surprised if okc walks away without 3 top 10 picks. Things could easily break lucky with multiple top 5-6 picks. And this roster, despite what a lot of folks here are saying, has a lot of talent outside shai.

The future looks good. Especially 24-26. Consolidation is coming.

[ThunderBolt]

I think the clippers are screwed 24-26. Even with no incentive to tank, their roster is pretty locked in with old, injury prone players. They are going to fall off a cliff next year with no assets to reset, aside from trading Paul George. And I guess norm Powell who will be 30 with $60 million on his contract and zubac. They have $200 million committed to next season and I could easily see them with a bottom 7 record.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAC.html

The 76ers are somewhat likely to fall off, too. Embiid could very well Durant them if they continue underperforming.

I’m not real optimistic about the Houston picks conveying unless they hit on a real good pick this year.

I’d be surprised if okc walks away without 3 top 10 picks. Things could easily break lucky with multiple top 5-6 picks. And this roster, despite what a lot of folks here are saying, has a lot of talent outside shai.

The future looks good. Especially 24-26. Consolidation is coming.

Unless you have a dynasty like the warriors, teams core can fall apart quickly. I think in a few years we quit seeing teams trade unprotected picks beyond two seasons.

[Devilanche]

I think the clippers are screwed 24-26. Even with no incentive to tank, their roster is pretty locked in with old, injury prone players. They are going to fall off a cliff next year with no assets to reset, aside from trading Paul George. And I guess norm Powell who will be 30 with $60 million on his contract and zubac. They have $200 million committed to next season and I could easily see them with a bottom 7 record.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAC.html

The 76ers are somewhat likely to fall off, too. Embiid could very well Durant them if they continue underperforming.

I’m not real optimistic about the Houston picks conveying unless they hit on a real good pick this year.

I’d be surprised if okc walks away without 3 top 10 picks. Things could easily break lucky with multiple top 5-6 picks. And this roster, despite what a lot of folks here are saying, has a lot of talent outside shai.

The future looks good. Especially 24-26. Consolidation is coming.

So long as clippers keep spending , that pick will probably be in the 10-20 range at worst.

When you mention 3 top 10 picks is that from now and include our own ? Or just those that we get from other teams ?

[Devilanche]

I so want a Naz Reid for Bazely+ 2nd trade but I’m not entirely sure what it will do for our minutes if we do that trade .

I do think next season Chet will be a PF first and hopefully as he fills out he will be the C but Reid is worth a flier until that happens .

[slick_watts]

I so want a Naz Reid for Bazely+ 2nd trade but I’m not entirely sure what it will do for our minutes if we do that trade .

I do think next season Chet will be a PF first and hopefully as he fills out he will be the C but Reid is worth a flier until that happens .

chet was playing gobert pnr drop in summer league. i think they view him as a center.

naz reid will be ufa this summer so no reason to trade for him now

[ThunderBolt]

I scour other teams rosters regularly. I would love to make a trade from a player that speeds up the rebuild but I have no idea who that player is. Maybe a PJ Washington or John Collins fills a need but those guys are only making a difference if J Dub takes a leap and Chet is everything we want him to be.

[jake_swivel]

So long as clippers keep spending , that pick will probably be in the 10-20 range at worst.

When you mention 3 top 10 picks is that from now and include our own ? Or just those that we get from other teams ?

I think Kawhi is done. He was a part time player just with his degenerative quad stuff, and throwing a torn ACL on a guy on the wrong side of 30 is gonna be too much. George has played 48, 54, and 31 games the last 3 years. Their main contributors are all old aside from zubac who isn’t a difference maker. They are capped out and have no assets. They can spend all they want, but they don’t have flexibility. They have overachieved for two years and they can only keep that up for so long. Overachieving teams fall hard, and everyone starts pointing fingers when their limitations become obvious. It’s going to become a cesspool. Mark my words.

[Devilanche]

I so want a Naz Reid for Bazely+ 2nd trade but I’m not entirely sure what it will do for our minutes if we do that trade .

I do think next season Chet will be a PF first and hopefully as he fills out he will be the C but Reid is worth a flier until that happens .

chet was playing gobert pnr drop in summer league. i think they view him as a center.

naz reid will be ufa this summer so no reason to trade for him now

Part of the reason Naz will be available cheaply and willing resign with whichever team has him I guess. He needs the opportunity . We need someone to absorb some center minutes and not let Chet play against the big center on his recovery.

Of course the big target for me is Myles turner in free agency via an overpay but not sure how realistic with how he’s playing .

[Devilanche]

So long as clippers keep spending , that pick will probably be in the 10-20 range at worst.

When you mention 3 top 10 picks is that from now and include our own ? Or just those that we get from other teams ?

I think Kawhi is done. He was a part time player just with his degenerative quad stuff, and throwing a torn ACL on a guy on the wrong side of 30 is gonna be too much. George has played 48, 54, and 31 games the last 3 years. Their main contributors are all old aside from zubac who isn’t a difference maker. They are capped out and have no assets. They can spend all they want, but they don’t have flexibility. They have overachieved for two years and they can only keep that up for so long. Overachieving teams fall hard, and everyone starts pointing fingers when their limitations become obvious. It’s going to get become a cesspool. Mark my words.

While that is true . It wouldn’t take much for them to not be a bottom 7-8 team when other team start tanking .

For one they don’t have their pick so they won’t be resting their players
For another , they can always sign MLE or vet min players that wants minutes etc .
Lastly, their second round buys has been decent to good relative to expectation of where they are picked.

I will be ecstatic if we got a top 5 pick from them in one of the future years but I’m not going hope for it from way before , it’s not even at that season start or trade deadline …

[Big nick]

We really need to upgrade the roster with a trade because we are to good to tank. Or we need to put sga on a shelf after the all star break but I believe it will be to late to get a top 10 pick then.

[QPR]

Giddey has been really good of late.

[Woerzboerg]

I think the clippers are screwed 24-26. Even with no incentive to tank, their roster is pretty locked in with old, injury prone players. They are going to fall off a cliff next year with no assets to reset, aside from trading Paul George. And I guess norm Powell who will be 30 with $60 million on his contract and zubac. They have $200 million committed to next season and I could easily see them with a bottom 7 record.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/LAC.html

The 76ers are somewhat likely to fall off, too. Embiid could very well Durant them if they continue underperforming.

I’m not real optimistic about the Houston picks conveying unless they hit on a real good pick this year.

I’d be surprised if okc walks away without 3 top 10 picks. Things could easily break lucky with multiple top 5-6 picks. And this roster, despite what a lot of folks here are saying, has a lot of talent outside shai.

The future looks good. Especially 24-26. Consolidation is coming.

Even if they are dead-last, there is a 50 % - chance of this Pick conveying, like in 2021 (although we lost at that time). I think the chances are not bad getting the 2024 Rockets pick.

[Dadouv47]

I scour other teams rosters regularly. I would love to make a trade from a player that speeds up the rebuild but I have no idea who that player is. Maybe a PJ Washington or John Collins fills a need but those guys are only making a difference if J Dub takes a leap and Chet is everything we want him to be.

Feel the same. Need some kind of borderline all star to be available and Presti to send a package of 4-6 FRPs. Not sure I want to overpay for middle tiers players that are getting a lot of money (I used to love John Collins but many on the court and off the court questions marks).
I would rather try to be agressive on draft night to move up 4-5 spots if we can't get a very good player via trade.
No idea what Presti is going to do but we definitely need to make at least one big move in the offseason..just drafting a guy in the 7-10 range hoping our roster will improve miraculously would be stupid.