OKC 2025-2026 Games Thread; "The Title Defense"

[Kizz Fastfists]

Hate the "championship or bust" mentality and we may never win another title but gotta be honest that we should win if we are healthy. That being said the Nuggets are scary good too and match up pretty well against us.

If the Spurs get and stay healthy they will be a dangerous playoff team this year and perennial contender going forward. Wemby, Fox, Castle and Harper are all very good.

[Dadouv47]

Hate the "championship or bust" mentality and we may never win another title but gotta be honest that we should win if we are healthy. That being said the Nuggets are scary good too and match up pretty well against us.

If the Spurs get and stay healthy they will be a dangerous playoff team this year and perennial contender going forward. Wemby, Fox, Castle and Harper are all very good.

they are a big threat but not for this year. Rockets can still be a threat if they add another piece.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Getting CP3, two FRPs and two swaps for Westbrook was way more impressive.

That is true. CP3 was a better player than Russ at that point and Presti got picks on top of it. I think spending a season with CP3 is a very underrated aspect of SGA's development. I believe CP3 is going to be a great coach if he wants to be. I believe the Spurs having CP3 on their roster last year was a great move by them as it let him teach Castle how to be a NBA PG. Castle reminds me of a young SGA and if Castle develops a 3pt shot he is going to be a all-NBA player.

[slick_watts]

no team in the league should be a threat to a healthy thunder in the playoffs if they played to their potential. even shai himself acknowledged how lackluster the playoff run was. okc just has so much more talent than any other west team. houston is the only team that i think could be a problem, we'll see how that defense holds up and where their 3pt shooting settles (if they keep shooting 40%+ on threes they will be extremely tough). denver, even with all hands on deck, needs a jamal murray bubble hoax series to beat a healthy thunder team. spurs and everyone else are too far to even be notable imo.

getting taken to seven by denver and indiana last year hopefully is a wake up call for this year's thunder.

[falcolombardi]

no team in the league should be a threat to a healthy thunder in the playoffs if they played to their potential. even shai himself acknowledged how lackluster the playoff run was. okc just has so much more talent than any other west team. houston is the only team that i think could be a problem, we'll see how that defense holds up and where their 3pt shooting settles (if they keep shooting 40%+ on threes they will be extremely tough). denver, even with all hands on deck, needs a jamal murray bubble hoax series to beat a healthy thunder team. spurs and everyone else are too far to even be notable imo.

getting taken to seven by denver and indiana last year hopefully is a wake up call for this year's thunder.

Indiana i agree, they were on fire with some insane shot making from 3 and matched us punch for punch through 6 games

Denver less so, its a bit of a miracle we let that series go 7 games with two choked leads and denver game winners, in a vacuum minnesota and denver performed similarly vs okc, but minny lost their close game 4 (would have made the series go 6 or 7) and denver "stole" two buzzerbeater wins which id historically rare

[Dadouv47]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

Presti got a tattoo after the Dallas stomping, errr, series:

"Chet needs a legitimate center starting next to him" - Kizz Fastfists

Presti then lived up to it and signed IH and then OKC wins a championship. You're welcome.

[Clav]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

Presti got a tattoo after the Dallas stomping, errr, series:

"Chet needs a legitimate center starting next to him" - Kizz Fastfists

Presti then lived up to it and signed IH and then OKC wins a championship. You're welcome.

if Dadouv is paying for a tattoo I'll take one, but not on my head please.

[bbms]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

Presti got a tattoo after the Dallas stomping, errr, series:

"Chet needs a legitimate center starting next to him" - Kizz Fastfists

Presti then lived up to it and signed IH and then OKC wins a championship. You're welcome.

i find it amusing how you find yourself making bizarre statements on a absolutely undeniable sentence

"hartenstein is valuable"

but no, you gotta make a wild innacurate statement that is mutually ambiguous and all ambiguous meanings are wrong

congratulations buddy, you are innovative

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

that's how we improved on offense. Dort would have taken a bad shot 100% of the time in the past.

[bbms]

i felt really bad for chet yesterday, he was really feeling the bad game he was having and hesitating

[falcolombardi]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

Presti got a tattoo after the Dallas stomping, errr, series:

"Chet needs a legitimate center starting next to him" - Kizz Fastfists

Presti then lived up to it and signed IH and then OKC wins a championship. You're welcome.

"Stomping" 6 game series with the same points scored by both teams, game 6 lost by 1 possesion

That is a wild statement to make

[slick_watts]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

Presti got a tattoo after the Dallas stomping, errr, series:

"Chet needs a legitimate center starting next to him" - Kizz Fastfists

Presti then lived up to it and signed IH and then OKC wins a championship. You're welcome.

you post like a 2008 edgelord.

harteinstein was a great signing but the thunder were 10pp100 better in the playoffs with chet on the court alone v. chet on the court with hartenstein. double big has more often hindered the team especially against better competition.

[Dadouv47]

Isaiah Joe is really improved and became more than just a good 3 pt shooter. I still don't trust him in the postseason but he's playing better defense and making smarter plays on offense.

[Dadouv47]

Read on Twitter

[bbms]

Isaiah Joe is really improved and became more than just a good 3 pt shooter. I still don't trust him in the postseason but he's playing better defense and making smarter plays on offense.

in soft games he's more than a spot up 3s threat. he's really skilled

i dont trust him in hard games overall might be a close postseason game, might be a nba cup deathmatch, or any hard fought game

he always shrinks. hope he can take a new step but i lost faith

the opposite of wiggins imo. much less skilled but more dynamic and always shows on tougher games

[Dadouv47]

Isaiah Joe is really improved and became more than just a good 3 pt shooter. I still don't trust him in the postseason but he's playing better defense and making smarter plays on offense.

in soft games he's more than a spot up 3s threat. he's really skilled

i dont trust him in hard games overall might be a close postseason game, might be a nba cup deathmatch, or any hard fought game

he always shrinks. hope he can take a new step but i lost faith

the opposite of wiggins imo. much less skilled but more dynamic and always shows on tougher games

I do agree with you 100% but still worth pointing out that he's more committed to defense and passing than he used to. I don't have much hopes about him being able to help us in the postseason but we never know. We are gonna have to trade him in the offseason anyway if somehow we have a shot at keeping our core (don't think it's possible though).

[Devilanche]

Kizz deserves to have Presti's head tattooed on his forehead for everything he wrote on this forum in the last 5+ years.

Presti got a tattoo after the Dallas stomping, errr, series:

"Chet needs a legitimate center starting next to him" - Kizz Fastfists

Presti then lived up to it and signed IH and then OKC wins a championship. You're welcome.

you post like a 2008 edgelord.

harteinstein was a great signing but the thunder were 10pp100 better in the playoffs with chet on the court alone v. chet on the court with hartenstein. double big has more often hindered the team especially against better competition.

Current Chet frame , there’s still value in ensuring he doesn’t play as the sole big for the whole season.

[bbms]

hartenstein has had an fantastic run in okc but there's a reason his mpg was reduced to 20mpg in the playoffs while starting in both finals and wcf.

it's hard to play defense with two 7fters nowadays and a rehabbed chet is a better player.

mark has stated enought times about how chet+ihart lineups have nothing to do with a dogmatic 2 bigs view, he just want to have his best players together on court and he views hartenstein as one of his top5 players, and that's very reasonsble.

still the thunder's two bigs play isn't optmized on defense and im afraid never will

i do love the caruso+cason super sub in the first and third quarter so i live with that unless we can find a fitting 4 to chet (i do like boozer in that mold and liked cmb in the past)