Will the Thunder be the team to finally break through and become a dynasty?

[PushDaRock]

They’re positioned better than anyone else as others have stated, but they will be in the 2nd apron for the foreseeable future starting the offseason after next. Jdub is due a supermax extension this offseason. Chet is due a max contract too. Then the year after they both get massive raises, SGA will need a new supermax extension.

They can keep their current core together for another couple of seasons, but after that they’ll have to sacrifice the important depth pieces if they don’t want to be above the 2nd apron with an enormous tax bill and limited ability to maneuver. They’ll be in a similar spot to the Celtics this season in a couple of years, but they have the extra draft picks and tradable contracts to make proactive moves to get ahead of it if managed correctly.

They have a lot of options and will be able to navigate it, but it's not going to be super easy to do either.

[bucknut]

Its not clear to me how you actually improve the thunder. Maybe another scorer. If you take away the assets and the young Serbian , pacers have a easier navigation toward improvement from a roster standpoint

The path for the pacers is just add more force. They have better skill then OKC. Just add a better rebounder and perimeter drivers foul baiters.

How do you improve okc tho ?

I think I'd take the pacers future for sure

[bbms]

Its not clear to me how you actually improve the thunder. Maybe another scorer. If you take away the assets and the young Serbian , pacers have a easier navigation toward improvement from a roster standpoint

The path for the pacers is just add more force. They have better skill then OKC. Just add a better rebounder and perimeter drivers foul baiters.

How do you improve okc tho ?

I think I'd take the pacers future for sure

so you don't know how the youngest team in the league can improve?

they're not really running anything for chet, partially because he's ben out for the majority of the season. that's 1. well, i can see plenty of stuff chet can improve (offensively he's regressed from last season, he's just recovered from a big injury)

they can shoot more consistently, that's 2. they can improve internally but they can target new shooters to get into the system like cameron johnson via trade or cedric coward via draft. maybe they trade up for kon knueppel. i heard pj washington is likely going to lose space in dallas.

sga's off ball game can be more polished. he as a screener for others pretty much won the past two games, and that's something he can build on to be a more dynamic offensive player and switch hunter, that's 3.

they need better point guard skills outside of sga. that's 4. maybe topic is the solution. maybe cason and jdub take a step forward with their pg skills. maybe they trade up for jakucionis. maybe they draft nolan traore. maybe they trade for cam thomas.

they can consolidate some pieces (isaiah joe, aaron wiggins, kenrich williams, which total around 30mm in salaries) into fewer but stronger/more consistent wing/forward contributors. that's 5.

they can add a beefy rebounding pf for a long term complement to chet in his natural role, that's 6. trade up for a guy like collin murray-boyle who can also replace hartenstein as offensive hub, dho and all that stuff, but is also a potential another scoring and whistle threat. or a reclamation like jeremy sochan.

[bucknut]

Its not clear to me how you actually improve the thunder. Maybe another scorer. If you take away the assets and the young Serbian , pacers have a easier navigation toward improvement from a roster standpoint

The path for the pacers is just add more force. They have better skill then OKC. Just add a better rebounder and perimeter drivers foul baiters.

How do you improve okc tho ?

I think I'd take the pacers future for sure

so you don't know how the youngest team in the league can improve?

they're not really running anything for chet, partially because he's ben out for the majority of the season. that's 1. well, i can see plenty of stuff chet can improve (offensively he's regressed from last season, he's just recovered from a big injury)

they can shoot more consistently, that's 2. they can improve internally but they can target new shooters to get into the system like cameron johnson via trade or cedric coward via draft. maybe they trade up for kon knueppel. i heard pj washington is likely going to lose space in dallas.

sga's off ball game can be more polished. he as a screener for others pretty much won the past two games, and that's something he can build on to be a more dynamic offensive player and switch hunter, that's 3.

they need better point guard skills outside of sga. that's 4. maybe topic is the solution. maybe cason and jdub take a step forward with their pg skills. maybe they trade up for jakucionis. maybe they draft nolan traore. maybe they trade for cam thomas.

they can consolidate some pieces (isaiah joe, aaron wiggins, kenrich williams, which total around 30mm in salaries) into fewer but stronger/more consistent wing/forward contributors. that's 5.

they can add a beefy rebounding pf for a long term complement to chet in his natural role, that's 6. trade up for a guy like collin murray-boyle who can also replace hartenstein as offensive hub, dho and all that stuff, but is also a potential another scoring and whistle threat. or a reclamation like jeremy sochan.

Of course, but the tinkering for them is more incremental imo since they are pretty well rounded right now. The pacers have more obvious deficiencies and a clearer path

And I think a higher ceiling once they correct those deficiencies. Neither team is going to be changing their cores and the thunder love the cason Wallace's the dorts. But they just aren't as multidimensional as the pacers core and it limits the ceiling.

[falcolombardi]

Saying that pacers have more talent and a better future than okc is wild to me lol, and i am high on indiana