Thunder is scary good

[Lo Wang]

[img]

Read on Twitter

/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]

Yep. People kept saying Boston was historically good last year (and they are correct), but OKC is matching those metrics in SRS/net rating in a tougher conference, being a much younger team. I think we can see a similar two way juggernaut in OKC for their first title this year. I think a year of experience losing in the playoffs is going to be a huge boost. 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.

[EmpireFalls]

Jokic and Giannis are the best scorers since KD, not Shai

[Woodsanity]

Give me back Ihart.

[Dacost]

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.

[Lo Wang]

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 whooooooo do you get parade for that ?

All this stats and celebrating mean nothing come playoff time.

Stop living in the past.

They evolved.

[Mavrelous]

SGA outplayed Luka yesterday, but with the defensive schemes on both ends expecting similar outputs isn't grounded in reality, one was blitzed and doubled and one was played single coverage even with drops.
Mavs halfcourt game was good, they were more effecient despite SGA going supernova, they failed on turn overs and rebounding, which killed them SGA could have done the same and Mavs limit turnovers and win the rebounding battle and it would be different result, like what happened in May.

[Lo Wang]

Jokic and Giannis are the best scorers since KD, not Shai

Shai is more skilled. The man has 100 moves. KD is considered a goat scorer because of skill. Shaq is better at getting buckets, but KD has 100 ways to score, so he's always been considered the best scorer since Jordan.

Based on this logic, Shai is more skilled than Giannis and Jokic (along with stats and efficiency), so he is the better scorer.

[tsherkin]

We're at the quarter mark of the season, so we'll see where they're at once we hit the finish line, but it HAS been a fantastic start.

[SlimShady83]

Gonna keep on saying It until they're no more and sticking to my guns from b4 the season, Knicks/Dallas Finals.

[BodieB]

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.

[tsherkin]

Shai is more skilled. The man has 100 moves.

Independent of Shai's place as a scorer, it cannot be said enough that VARIETY of moves is entirely irrelevant. It's how well you do with them. Carmelo Anthony had a billion moves, but he was far less special than his aesthetic or his PPG because he didn't finish them very well and killed ball movement with his century-long isolations. Chris Bosh was very efficient but also took a year and a day to perform 80,000 jab steps, which limited his total utility as a volume scorer.

Sometimes, it's better to have a smaller set of moves and just be really good at them.

KD is considered a goat scorer because of skill. Shaq is better at getting buckets, but KD has 100 ways to score, so he's always been considered the best scorer since Jordan.

KD is a wonderful shooter. His move is "pull up jumper because HAH!!! I'm 7' tall and have a high release." It helps make him a fantastic scorer, yes.

But it's worth remembering that he's a billion feet tall, used to be staggeringly athletic, and is one of the best shooters in the history of the game. His dribble game is okay, but it's really his ability to stop on a dime and splash pull-ups from everywhere which kills you, even as an old man. There is also that he has played more and more at the 4 as he has aged, and a lot of PFs are really unprepared to deal with his skillset. And even at 36, he is still pretty mobile.

Sidebar, now that I am on the wrong side of 40, talking about guys in their mid-30s as aging out or otherwise declining due to age hurts so much, lmao.

Based on this logic, Shai is more skilled than Giannis and Jokic (along with stats and efficiency), so he is the better scorer.

That, of course, would be asinine, so we shouldn't really go there.

[Clav]

The defensive pressure OKC puts on point of attack is difficult, they get after guys and make other teams work harder. It isn't a foolproof strategy in the playoffs as we saw with Dallas last season, they adjusted well to traps and pressure defense, double-teams, etc. What I see is that, at full strength with Hartenstein and Holmgren, they will be less susceptible to defensive breakdowns near the rim. If the team continues to play at this level, no team will get an easy out facing OKC in the playoffs. Great start, but the hardest parts of its schedule are coming up.


BTW more steals than turnovers is kind of crazy, NBA.com's power rankings also mentioned it, this hasn't happened in like over 40 years or something

[Lo Wang]

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.

Basing on what happens in the past without understanding the context of the moment is a fallacious line of thinking.

I see this all the time with realgmers. It's almost as if they've only seen a Thunder game in last year's playoffs, and they are contextualizing their reasoning based on that lone game without understanding that the Thunder have put in countless hours of improvement along with the additions of Hart and Caruso.

Yo guys.

Watch the games!

Sorry mods, I already have 2 strikes. Don't ban me for screaming.

[OkcSinceSGA]

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.

I think this badly needs context. Last year... most had them winning around 42 games and being an 8 seed. They won 57. The year before they were predicted to be the worst team in the league at 23 wins or so, instead won 40+. It's not that they are getting too much praise, it's the reverse. They've been slept on bad every single year by most analysts and Vegas. This is the first year where expectations have caught up to reality, which is tier 1 contender.

So really they aren't getting much flowers at all until NOW. This idea that they have been praised constantly is false.

[Lo Wang]

Based on this logic, Shai is more skilled than Giannis and Jokic (along with stats and efficiency), so he is the better scorer.

That, of course, would be asinine, so we shouldn't really go there.

I want to go there.

Why do you think Shai is not more skilled than Giannis and Jokic at putting the ball in the bucket? I am strictly talking about offense.

[tsherkin]

I want to go there.

Why do you think Shai is not more skilled than Giannis and Jokic at putting the ball in the bucket? I am strictly talking about offense.

Mostly because I have eyes, and the stats agree.

[Dacost]

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.

Basing on what happens in the past without understanding the context of the moment is a fallacious line of thinking.

I see this all the time with realgmers. It's almost as if they've only seen a Thunder game in last year's playoffs, and they are contextualizing their reasoning based on that lone game without understanding that the Thunder have put in countless hours of improvement along with the additions of Hart and Caruso.

Yo guys.

Watch the games!

Sorry mods, I already have 2 strikes. Don't ban me for screaming.

We all understand that but you can't ware the crown without becoming king yet.

Are the favorites ?
Yes
But they can also can lose in second round again nothing is guaranteed.

[OkcSinceSGA]

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.

[Woodsanity]

Jokic and Giannis are the best scorers since KD, not Shai

Shai is more skilled. The man has 100 moves. KD is considered a goat scorer because of skill. Shaq is better at getting buckets, but KD has 100 ways to score, so he's always been considered the best scorer since Jordan.

Based on this logic, Shai is more skilled than Giannis and Jokic (along with stats and efficiency), so he is the better scorer.

Jokic scores more points on higher efficiency than SGA....