OKC is dangerous as @#$%

VeggieBurger · Post #1 » by **VeggieBurger** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 6:38 am

I don't think anyone wants to play this team in play-in or playoffs. The young guys are finally starting to develop and they seem to be over the bad habit of giving teams a 15 point head start. They are doing this without any traditional big man, their likely 2nd best player never having played a minute, and their only main bigs out injured. Where the hell did this Isaiah Joe guy come from? What happened to this team tanking?

Is there any team in a more enviable position? A gazillion draft picks on top of this? Homlgren coming back next year? 2nd youngest team in the league? Lawd have mercy...

RRyder823 · Post #2 » by **RRyder823** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 7:55 am

VeggieBurger wrote:I don't think anyone wants to play this team in play-in or playoffs. The young guys are finally starting to develop and they seem to be over the bad habit of giving teams a 15 point head start. They are doing this without any traditional big man, their likely 2nd best player never having played a minute, and their only main bigs out injured. Where the hell did this Isaiah Joe guy come from? What happened to this team tanking?

Is there any team in a more enviable position? A gazillion draft picks on top of this? Homlgren coming back next year? 2nd youngest team in the league? Lawd have mercy...

Dunno. Probably the teams with legit chances to win the championship this year versus the hope of winning one in 4

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KingFox · Post #3 » by **KingFox** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 7:56 am

They scare the hell outta me

baldur · Post #4 » by **baldur** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 7:58 am

They don't need to tank this season. Clippers will do it on their behalf.

OkcSinceSGA · Post #5 » by **OkcSinceSGA** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:08 am

VeggieBurger wrote:I don't think anyone wants to play this team in play-in or playoffs. The young guys are finally starting to develop and they seem to be over the bad habit of giving teams a 15 point head start. They are doing this without any traditional big man, their likely 2nd best player never having played a minute, and their only main bigs out injured. Where the hell did this Isaiah Joe guy come from? What happened to this team tanking?

Is there any team in a more enviable position? A gazillion draft picks on top of this? Homlgren coming back next year? 2nd youngest team in the league? Lawd have mercy...

What team is younger?

OkcSinceSGA · Post #6 » by **OkcSinceSGA** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:13 am

They play the game the right way. 40 assists tonight. They play hard every night, win or lose. Love the guys like Joe, Williams, Kenrich Williams who just do the dirty work every game.

OKC is a prime example of other players taking on the personality of their leader. SGA is competitive as hell, but also a team first guy, unselfish, and stupid hard worker. These role players see that and mold themselves that way.

Deathray · Post #7 » by **Deathray** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:39 am

Haven't seen them because they're never on national TV but their box scores are very confusing. They have a Jaylin Williams and and a Jalen Williams, an A. Wiggins that's not Andrew, a T. Mann that's not Terance, another Williams, 'two guys from Arkansas and Mike Muscala.

BuddyBuckets · Post #8 » by **BuddyBuckets** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:40 am

Really hope Chet works out for them.

ShulaDon92 · Post #9 » by **ShulaDon92** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:41 am

Oh, he's not the Mann that cooked Gobert. I was confused too.

-Luke- · Post #10 » by **-Luke-** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:55 am

Deathray wrote:Haven't seen them because they're never on national TV but their box scores are very confusing. They have a Jaylin Williams and and a Jalen Williams, an A. Wiggins that's not Andrew, a T. Mann that's not Terance, another Williams, 'two guys from Arkansas and Mike Muscala.

That's part of the plan. They try to confuse other teams.

Coach: "You take on the Jaylin Williams guy.... No, not that one."
Player: "But you said Jalen Williams"
Coach: "Allright, then take on Mann"
Player: "But coach, he plays for the Clippers..."

B-easy · Post #11 » by **B-easy** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 8:57 am

They have the easiest remaining schedule. They have a good shot at 6 seed or better.

PlatinumState · Post #12 » by **PlatinumState** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 9:47 am

Imagine if they had a healthy Chet. Would add at least +5 wins

hippesthippo · Post #13 » by **hippesthippo** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:27 am

Deathray wrote:Haven't seen them because they're never on national TV but their box scores are very confusing. They have a Jaylin Williams and and a Jalen Williams, an A. Wiggins that's not Andrew, a T. Mann that's not Terance, another Williams, 'two guys from Arkansas and Mike Muscala.

Don't even get me started on the influx of Jalen, Jaylin, Jaylen, and Jaden's into the league. It's impossible to keep track of them all, even for those of us who obsess over rosters and have every player name memorized along with any relevant history. What makes it even worse is that among this particular subset of players they all seem to share the same 3 or 4 last names. Then you add in all of the Josh's who also share those same 3 or 4 last names and it's made trawling box scores into an absolute nightmare.

I get it though, it's a cool name and at one point was relatively unique. The meaning behind the name according to most baby books --something along the lines of "tranquil," or, "calm," or, "healer"-- is also quite pleasant. Even if the current popularity behind the name can be linked back to Jalen Rose whose parents simply combined the names James and Leonard.

For what it's worth, Jalen Williams [#8] is the one worth most of your attention on the Thunder among the group of players you've listed. He has all-star potential. Isaiah Joe looks like a rotation-worthy player. I've hardly seen Jaylin Williams, so I can't really comment on him. Tre Mann and Aaron Wiggins both look like replacement level players to me.

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Back on topic, OKC is 7-4 since Poku went out with injury. He could still be a guy, but he has a ton of developmental work in front of him even after getting his percentages up. The team just seems to function much more smoothly when he's off the floor.

Darius Bazley is another player I'd be fine with moving on from. He's in his 4th year and still hasn't shown anything on offense and his defense is nothing more than flashes. He's had plenty of time to develop; it just isn't happening for him.

slicedbread2 · Post #14 » by **slicedbread2** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:55 am

It's impressive to watch this young team grow. I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to see the thin towers(Holmgren and Pokusevski) in action as you'd be getting a lot of marketing out of that.

As far as differentiating Jalen and Jaylin Williams it's simple: Jalen went to Santa Clara and Jaylin went to Arkansas. A little interesting tidbit: Jaylin is the first NBA player of Vietnamese descent(Mom's side) to play in the league so expect the Thunder to do a possible Vietnamese cultural night for him at some point.

Strokin Joe has been a revelation. Dude couldn't get playing time in Philadelphia due to Harden, Melton and Maxey being in the rotation and Shake Milton was outplaying him. He needed a fresh start and the crazy part is his next 2 years he signed with the Thunder are team options at 2mil/yr. Steal of a deal.

Thankfully they outsourced their tanking to the Clippers and they have managed their cap very well as all their dead cap will be off the books at the end of this year. They could possibly consolidate depth+their boatload of picks to find a guy to pair with their young core. Presti has been killing it and the coaching staff under Mark Daigenault has been phenomenal.

Mickey8 · Post #15 » by **Mickey8** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:58 am

Too young and inexperienced, if they make it to the play offs they will be the first round exit.

hardenASG13 · Post #16 » by **hardenASG13** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 12:45 pm

I've caught some glimpses of them lately. Their young guys really seem to have stepped it up and played with a lot more confidence since that Boston game when they dropped 150 without SGA.

hauntedcomputer · Post #17 » by **hauntedcomputer** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 12:56 pm

Remember last week when RealGm wanted to dump Giddey for a late-first-rounder?

Post #18 » by **ThunderBolt** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:07 pm

hauntedcomputer wrote:Remember last week when RealGm wanted to dump Giddey for a late-first-rounder?

Most of the OKC fan base had given up on Giddey fitting alongside Shai 15 games in to the season despite the fact they barely played together last year. :nonono:

Post #19 » by **ThunderBolt** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:09 pm

The team is still super young. Any playoff experience no matter how little will be good for future development. I can't imagine a best case scenario of winning any more than a play in game. For the record, I'm very ok with that.

Post #20 » by **Dadouv47** » Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:22 pm

Going from a bottom 5 record in the NBA last season to the playoffs (even if we get swept) without our #2 pick and with only Isaiah Joe as a free agent signing would be pretty good. I wanted a high lottery pick but at this point it's very unlikely to happen so I just hope we can keep playing that well.