2024-2025 OKC Thunder Games Thread

Post #221 » by **Dadouv47** » Sun Jan 5, 2025 10:50 pm

Shai is special.

Great win even if we lose if Boston get an average shooting performance.

Just worried JDub can create his own shot when it matters. Gonna need him or Chet to be able to do it in the postseason.

bbms · Post #222 » by **bbms** » Sun Jan 5, 2025 10:56 pm

hell of a campaign and hell of a game

that block by sga on tatum was a statement

Post #223 » by **Dadouv47** » Sun Jan 5, 2025 10:57 pm

It's Shai's MVP to lose now. Don't care about MVP at all but I want my franchise player to be happy and sign his extension next offseason.

Devilanche · Post #224 » by **Devilanche** » Sun Jan 5, 2025 11:09 pm

Dadouv47 wrote:
Just worried JDub can create his own shot when it matters. Gonna need him or Chet to be able to do it in the postseason.

this has been worrying me for some time as well. Who else can create for themselves if SGA is slowed down.

Big nick · Post #225 » by **Big nick** » Sun Jan 5, 2025 11:21 pm

It’s a big game because we want to let the league know we are real. That play by white looked like a green type of play very dirty. Can’t believe a flagrant was not called. Thunder sure doesn’t get the whistle very much.

Post #226 » by **Dadouv47** » Sun Jan 5, 2025 11:52 pm

Devilanche wrote:
Dadouv47 wrote:
Just worried JDub can create his own shot when it matters. Gonna need him or Chet to be able to do it in the postseason.

this has been worrying me for some time as well. Who else can create for themselves if SGA is slowed down.

I don't think it's going to be fixed this season tbh so we are gonna rely a lot on making the 3 pts and scoring from inside with Chet/Hartenstein

good teams were not paying enough attention on JDub last season but he got exposed during the POs.

Post #227 » by **Dadouv47** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 12:17 am

Cason Wallace impact on this team is underrated. He was the second best Thunder player today behind Shai. I thought he was just gonna be another Dort but he brings a lot to this team.

I have no clue if Hartenstein is worth 28-30 millions / year in a vacuum but he's worth every penny to us. Chet's injury help of course but I didn't want to overpay for a big and I was definitely wrong.

Xatticus · Post #228 » by **Xatticus** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 12:52 am

I don't know what Mazzulla said to his team at half-time, but he probably won't give that speech again.

bbms · Post #229 » by **bbms** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 1:34 am

jdub is still crushing the nba, it's just his scoring repertoire that is questionable. i won't overreact to it. he is still a pure max contract player.

Devilanche · Post #230 » by **Devilanche** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 4:24 am

Xatticus wrote:I don't know what Mazzulla said to his team at half-time, but he probably won't give that speech again.

Dag need to repeat his speech for rest of season though . That kind of scoring clampdown is unprecedented.

Devilanche · Post #231 » by **Devilanche** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 4:25 am

bbms wrote:jdub is still crushing the nba, it's just his scoring repertoire that is questionable. i won't overreact to it. he is still a pure max contract player.

Not much criticism on him or his max. End of day he did outperform his draft position easily and quickly .

Just that if we want to win a ring, someone need to step up and be consistent as well, whether that’s him , Chet or anyone else on the roster right now or by trade deadline.

Post #232 » by **Dadouv47** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 10:21 am

Devilanche wrote:
bbms wrote:jdub is still crushing the nba, it's just his scoring repertoire that is questionable. i won't overreact to it. he is still a pure max contract player.

Not much criticism on him or his max. End of day he did outperform his draft position easily and quickly .

Just that if we want to win a ring, someone need to step up and be consistent as well, whether that’s him , Chet or anyone else on the roster right now or by trade deadline.

yeah of course but now he's an all star consideration player and one of the best young players in the league. He might end up not reaching his current hype but it's fair to have high expectations. He's gonna earn his rookie max extension regardless but you still want your number 2 or number 3 player to be able to improve his scoring ability.

Post #233 » by **Dadouv47** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 11:57 am

Are opponents tired in the 3rd and 4th quarter against us because of our defensive intensity? Gives me Golden State vibes that were too good in second half and opponents just could no longer keep up against Curry/Klay all game. Still a long way before being as good as GSW but gotta believe there's something pretty similar but because of our defense and overall playing style.

Devilanche · Post #234 » by **Devilanche** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 1:20 pm

Dadouv47 wrote:
Devilanche wrote:
bbms wrote:jdub is still crushing the nba, it's just his scoring repertoire that is questionable. i won't overreact to it. he is still a pure max contract player.

Not much criticism on him or his max. End of day he did outperform his draft position easily and quickly .

Just that if we want to win a ring, someone need to step up and be consistent as well, whether that’s him , Chet or anyone else on the roster right now or by trade deadline.

yeah of course but now he's an all star consideration player and one of the best young players in the league. He might end up not reaching his current hype but it's fair to have high expectations. He's gonna earn his rookie max extension regardless but you still want your number 2 or number 3 player to be able to improve his scoring ability.

Yea but he just need longer to reach a higher level that none of us realised was there previously ? Or he still getting used to the higher usage ?

Post #235 » by **Dadouv47** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 1:39 pm

Devilanche wrote:
Dadouv47 wrote:
Devilanche wrote:Not much criticism on him or his max. End of day he did outperform his draft position easily and quickly .

Just that if we want to win a ring, someone need to step up and be consistent as well, whether that’s him , Chet or anyone else on the roster right now or by trade deadline.

yeah of course but now he's an all star consideration player and one of the best young players in the league. He might end up not reaching his current hype but it's fair to have high expectations. He's gonna earn his rookie max extension regardless but you still want your number 2 or number 3 player to be able to improve his scoring ability.

Yea but he just need longer to reach a higher level that none of us realised was there previously ? Or he still getting used to the higher usage ?

Don't think it's a usage issue...he isn't used to get double team or to be the one that needs to create his own shot and dealing with a defense that really pay attention to him. He was able to score coming off the bench early last season and I think defenses were not giving him much credit at that point. That's probably something he tried to improve last offseason but so far no results

He's still very young though and I don't think he ever was the focal point on offense in College so it might just take a while for him. I still believe in him.

Need to look at the market but trading for a vet PG/SG that can make his own shot would be nice...a weaker player than Cam Johnson but that could impact our team a lot when SGA is on the bench.

bbms · Post #236 » by **bbms** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 2:08 pm

Dadouv47 wrote:Are opponents tired in the 3rd and 4th quarter against us because of our defensive intensity? Gives me Golden State vibes that were too good in second half and opponents just could no longer keep up against Curry/Klay all game. Still a long way before being as good as GSW but gotta believe there's something pretty similar but because of our defense and overall playing style.

i suspect there's something like that happening, but i don't think it's necessarily defensive intensity, but defensive intensity coupled with speed/pace

Post #237 » by **slick_watts** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 5:44 pm

the thunder now have the fourth best opponent eFG% and opponent turnover rate relative to league average since the merger. they've relied on those two factors defensively- a product of the defensive style will always be high foul rate. but hartenstein's presence has shored up defensive rebounding, making the defense as a whole a lot more stable imo. thunder are actually better than league average now at defensive rebounding when hartenstein is in the game.

@cleveland is the toughest test they will face defensively this year.

Big nick · Post #238 » by **Big nick** » Mon Jan 6, 2025 5:47 pm

I also believe that our deep bench just wears teams down in the 3rd and the 4th. I still believe in Jdub but like any young player he needs to keep putting in the work just like sga did. Sam has done a great job building this team we are stacked and in a great position for years. I still believe dieng is not going to pan out he needs to go if for nothing else make room for draft picks. Fun time for thunder fans. Sga should win the mvp he’s the real deal.

Post #239 » by **Dadouv47** » Tue Jan 7, 2025 1:54 pm

Read on Twitter

always good to remember how bad we were before drafting JDub/Chet and signed Isaiah Joe.
I was the first one to think that Shai might consider a trade and wasn't 100% honest on this video and I'm glad I was wrong.

Xatticus · Post #240 » by **Xatticus** » Wed Jan 8, 2025 12:16 am

Dadouv47 wrote:

Read on Twitter

always good to remember how bad we were before drafting JDub/Chet and signed Isaiah Joe.
I was the first one to think that Shai might consider a trade and wasn't 100% honest on this video and I'm glad I was wrong.

And this really wasn't all that long ago.