2024-2025 OKC Thunder Games Thread

[Devilanche]

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another bummer

Grit and grind to a result. Mavs are missing folks too right ?

[Xatticus]

Down SGA, Hart, and Holmgren on a b2b travel game and we still gave them a fight. If ever there was a scheduled loss, that was it, but I still believe this team can win those games. I’d love to see Cason expand his offensive role with SGA out, but it really hurts not having a pnr partner to work with.

[ThunderBolt]

My biggest concern for this team is we need more consistency from Jalen Williams. I’d hoped for a greater improvement this year. This team needs a bit more offensive firepower and I’m not sure how we get that without trading someone important.

[Old Man Game]

My biggest concern for this team is we need more consistency from Jalen Williams. I’d hoped for a greater improvement this year. This team needs a bit more offensive firepower and I’m not sure how we get that without trading someone important.

I've been surprised and disappointed by this too. I feel like the media is trying to will him into being an all-star this year and 100% honest I don't really feel like he deserves it. Watching that last night I just thought hey man an all star would be picking up way more slack than he is. he kind of showed up in the second half but it was not consistent enough throughout the game.

[Dadouv47]

My biggest concern for this team is we need more consistency from Jalen Williams. I’d hoped for a greater improvement this year. This team needs a bit more offensive firepower and I’m not sure how we get that without trading someone important.

I've been surprised and disappointed by this too. I feel like the media is trying to will him into being an all-star this year and 100% honest I don't really feel like he deserves it. Watching that last night I just thought hey man an all star would be picking up way more slack than he is. he kind of showed up in the second half but it was not consistent enough throughout the game.

same feeling. Part of me doesn't want him to be all star so he gets some extra motivation.

Don't think he will become that second scorer that we will need in some tough moments during the playoffs (at least for this postseason). Gotta hope Chet can do the work but it's not easy with his size.
There's a world we can win the championship without that second offensive weapon because our defense is more than elite but we are gonna rely a lot on Shai and role players hitting their 3pts.

[ThunderBolt]

My biggest concern for this team is we need more consistency from Jalen Williams. I’d hoped for a greater improvement this year. This team needs a bit more offensive firepower and I’m not sure how we get that without trading someone important.

I've been surprised and disappointed by this too. I feel like the media is trying to will him into being an all-star this year and 100% honest I don't really feel like he deserves it. Watching that last night I just thought hey man an all star would be picking up way more slack than he is. he kind of showed up in the second half but it was not consistent enough throughout the game.

Yea I agree with all of this.

[Devilanche]

My biggest concern for this team is we need more consistency from Jalen Williams. I’d hoped for a greater improvement this year. This team needs a bit more offensive firepower and I’m not sure how we get that without trading someone important.

I've been surprised and disappointed by this too. I feel like the media is trying to will him into being an all-star this year and 100% honest I don't really feel like he deserves it. Watching that last night I just thought hey man an all star would be picking up way more slack than he is. he kind of showed up in the second half but it was not consistent enough throughout the game.

same feeling. Part of me doesn't want him to be all star so he gets some extra motivation.

Don't think he will become that second scorer that we will need in some tough moments during the playoffs (at least for this postseason). Gotta hope Chet can do the work but it's not easy with his size.
There's a world we can win the championship without that second offensive weapon because our defense is more than elite but we are gonna rely a lot on Shai and role players hitting their 3pts.

Yeap that’s our narrative for this playoffs.

If SGA is somehow stopped , our defence need to choke out a result .

[Devilanche]

My biggest concern for this team is we need more consistency from Jalen Williams. I’d hoped for a greater improvement this year. This team needs a bit more offensive firepower and I’m not sure how we get that without trading someone important.

I've been surprised and disappointed by this too. I feel like the media is trying to will him into being an all-star this year and 100% honest I don't really feel like he deserves it. Watching that last night I just thought hey man an all star would be picking up way more slack than he is. he kind of showed up in the second half but it was not consistent enough throughout the game.

Yea I agree with all of this.

He will be an all star though . Not sure how many will still be available for selection come all star games but he should be based on team records and Chet being out . OKC / Cleveland should be getting multiple all stars based on team records .

[Kizz Fastfists]

i think that we have been dipping into the isaiah hartenstein playmaking well a bit too often lately, which has caused the team to be more turnover prone than usual.

I think part of that is how they see the team in the playoffs. They could see IH needing to use his playmaking with the 2nd unit in the playoffs, due to a lack of playmaking on the roster, so they are working on that during the regular season. It doesn't matter if they lose a few games in the regular season as a result. They are going to be the #1 seed in the West.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

I'm also a little bit concerned about JDub. I see him more arrogant and lacking in concentration (Free-throws/silly turnovers) the last time. Perhaps he is winning too easily too much games with this team. It would be a good advice for him to com back to the basics and that he understands that he is still learning. Allstar is possibly to early this year.

[Dadouv47]

Don't care much about the draft anymore but I really hope we don't get unlucky this time with the Sixers pick. This is supposed to be a strong draft class and getting a good player under rookie contract is a big deal for our title window.

[Dadouv47]

Shai gonna win his well deserved MVP award and it's also because JDub is struggling which is not a good thing. Just praying for Chet to play as well as he did in the beginning in the season so I can see us as real title favorite.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

Wiggins playing exactly like Shai...

[Dadouv47]

Mavs always find a way to beat us and we played like ****

At least Jdub had a good shooting night...

[ThunderBolt]

Mavs always find a way to beat us and we played like ****

At least Jdub had a good shooting night...

I came here to post these exact two sentiments.

[cjmcallist]

Damn the Mavs. They definitely seem to know how to win against us. Is it too soon to say that we need to play a different defense against them? Seems like we can't get away with giving them all those threes.

I'm not down on JDub yet, but I do think he's becoming a different player than I thought. I hoped for a scoring machine, but he seems to be turning into a do-everything type of player. Not necessarily a bad thing.

[Dadouv47]

Damn the Mavs. They definitely seem to know how to win against us. Is it too soon to say that we need to play a different defense against them? Seems like we can't get away with giving them all those threes.

I'm not down on JDub yet, but I do think he's becoming a different player than I thought. I hoped for a scoring machine, but he seems to be turning into a do-everything type of player. Not necessarily a bad thing.

i think we are only going to figure it out once we can play Chet and Hartenstein but I'm less worried about defense than offense.
Mavs had an elite defense post all star break last season and it was key to prevent Chet/JDub to score in the POs. They also put a lot of pressure against 3 pointers.

It already was the match up I was the most afraid of for the postseason. They are quick and big enough to give us trouble and somehow they are the only other good team in the NBA that can play with the same intensity as us.

Btw those kind of match up questions against Mavs/Nuggets/Celtics or whatever are very interesting and I always come to the conclusion that trading a good role player (and more) during the season for Cam Johnson would be a mistake. Chet and Hartenstein played 0 games together so this team still has a ton of chemistry to build and try some different line ups...adding Cam Johnson and removing Joe or Wiggins could be a negative short term. Presti's biggest flaw might be that he doesn't want to take some big risk when needed but the timing just feels awful. Our team is good enough as it is when healthy even if I would add either a veteran scorer coming of the bench or a third big for cheap because I don't trust Jwill.

[Big nick]

So what does everyone think of Dort getting ejected last, I am on the fence of thinking it was intentional or not. What I hate about Dallas is their play dirty not just one player but several players. My wife has become a really great thunder fun and now watches the games with me and her opinion was gafford had it coming you know the wrath of a woman. In the last two Dallas games pj has tried to be a bully and so has kleber also. The one thing that sticks out this year is the lack of foul calls it’s unbelievable to me.

[cjmcallist]

Damn the Mavs. They definitely seem to know how to win against us. Is it too soon to say that we need to play a different defense against them? Seems like we can't get away with giving them all those threes.

I'm not down on JDub yet, but I do think he's becoming a different player than I thought. I hoped for a scoring machine, but he seems to be turning into a do-everything type of player. Not necessarily a bad thing.

i think we are only going to figure it out once we can play Chet and Hartenstein but I'm less worried about defense than offense.
Mavs had an elite defense post all star break last season and it was key to prevent Chet/JDub to score in the POs. They also put a lot of pressure against 3 pointers.

It already was the match up I was the most afraid of for the postseason. They are quick and big enough to give us trouble and somehow they are the only other good team in the NBA that can play with the same intensity as us.

Btw those kind of match up questions against Mavs/Nuggets/Celtics or whatever are very interesting and I always come to the conclusion that trading a good role player (and more) during the season for Cam Johnson would be a mistake. Chet and Hartenstein played 0 games together so this team still has a ton of chemistry to build and try some different line ups...adding Cam Johnson and removing Joe or Wiggins could be a negative short term. Presti's biggest flaw might be that he doesn't want to take some big risk when needed but the timing just feels awful. Our team is good enough as it is when healthy even if I would add either a veteran scorer coming of the bench or a third big for cheap because I don't trust Jwill.

It's valid to think that Chet/Hart will change the matchup. But I don't think that it changes it in space where Dallas keeps beating us. I suspect there's something systemic about how we play vs. how Dallas plays that hurts us.

I'm on board with a Cam J. addition now. My expectations are low since Presti clearly thinks adding players in-season is hard for this team. I don't think that he's the key to unlock a championship but I think he's a step or two above Wiggins, Joe, Kenrich.

[Dadouv47]

Damn the Mavs. They definitely seem to know how to win against us. Is it too soon to say that we need to play a different defense against them? Seems like we can't get away with giving them all those threes.

I'm not down on JDub yet, but I do think he's becoming a different player than I thought. I hoped for a scoring machine, but he seems to be turning into a do-everything type of player. Not necessarily a bad thing.

i think we are only going to figure it out once we can play Chet and Hartenstein but I'm less worried about defense than offense.
Mavs had an elite defense post all star break last season and it was key to prevent Chet/JDub to score in the POs. They also put a lot of pressure against 3 pointers.

It already was the match up I was the most afraid of for the postseason. They are quick and big enough to give us trouble and somehow they are the only other good team in the NBA that can play with the same intensity as us.

Btw those kind of match up questions against Mavs/Nuggets/Celtics or whatever are very interesting and I always come to the conclusion that trading a good role player (and more) during the season for Cam Johnson would be a mistake. Chet and Hartenstein played 0 games together so this team still has a ton of chemistry to build and try some different line ups...adding Cam Johnson and removing Joe or Wiggins could be a negative short term. Presti's biggest flaw might be that he doesn't want to take some big risk when needed but the timing just feels awful. Our team is good enough as it is when healthy even if I would add either a veteran scorer coming of the bench or a third big for cheap because I don't trust Jwill.

It's valid to think that Chet/Hart will change the matchup. But I don't think that it changes it in space where Dallas keeps beating us. I suspect there's something systemic about how we play vs. how Dallas plays that hurts us.

I'm on board with a Cam J. addition now. My expectations are low since Presti clearly thinks adding players in-season is hard for this team. I don't think that he's the key to unlock a championship but I think he's a step or two above Wiggins, Joe, Kenrich.

I'm really afraid of Dallas too. They are the team I want the least to face in the POs after Boston. Still think there's a small chance Chet/Hartenstein turns this from a losing playoff series to a Win...last season series was very close despite losing in 6 and it's not crazy to think that we would have won with Hartenstein on the floor instead of Jwill.

I really think their physicality/versatily is a big problem to us. I see the same issue to some extent when we play Houston (they are very versatile and physical too IMO). Of course the talent gap is just too big for Houston to be a concern to us but that's just the kind of playing style we are struggling against.