11/7 - POSTGAME | Oklahoma City Thunder (86) - (94) Sacramento Kings

Thabo Sefolosha · Post #1 » by **Thabo Sefolosha** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:23 am

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OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER at SACRAMENTO KINGS

• Record: 4-6
• Standing: #12
• http://www.nba.com/games/20171107/OKCSAC
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SUMMARY
BOXSCORE
OKC:

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SAC:

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Thunder Upcoming 3

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HIGHLIGHTS

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Thundershock88 · Post #2 » by **Thundershock88** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:24 am

Still early or not, I'm hitting the panic button.

Post #3 » by **ThunderBolt** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:26 am

Thundershock88 wrote:Still early or not, I'm hitting the panic button.

I don’t care enough to hit it. I’m just hoping that dononvan isn’t the coach for our rebuild.

Osirus89 · Post #4 » by **Osirus89** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:29 am

We are hitting our stride now guys. We can now lose with consistency. Progress is being made.

Post #5 » by **bondom34** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:32 am

Knrstz wrote:
Thundershock88 wrote:Still early or not, I'm hitting the panic button.

I don’t care enough to hit it. I’m just hoping that dononvan isn’t the coach for our rebuild.

I fell asleep and woke up late first half. Saw the score and shut it off. It's sickeningly ugly to watch

Post #6 » by **bondom34** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:33 am

Post #7 » by **ThunderBolt** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:35 am

bondom34 wrote:
Knrstz wrote:
Thundershock88 wrote:Still early or not, I'm hitting the panic button.

I don’t care enough to hit it. I’m just hoping that dononvan isn’t the coach for our rebuild.

I fell asleep and woke up late first half. Saw the score and shut it off. It's sickeningly ugly to watch

I didn’t think it was possible to be this bad. I question everything I thought I ever knew.

Post #8 » by **ThunderBolt** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:43 am

We now go live to Billy Donovan as he asked about his performance so far this year.

Osirus89 · Post #9 » by **Osirus89** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:50 am

Donovan needs to be sent to the glue factory. Presti probably won't do it since it was his call to bring in Donovan over the likes of Messina and others.

Guess what Presti.... you messed up :banghead:

InTheSabonus · Post #10 » by **InTheSabonus** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:52 am

I am getting some kind of schadenfreude from seeing r/thunder start to turn on Donovan. Never thought I'd see the day. I was an early pioneer of the movement there, and it didn't go down well...

Post #11 » by **dakomish23** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 5:56 am

1/8th of the season is done. Cant get these games back. Just need to settle down and run an easier offense than ISO plays

Patches Perry · Post #12 » by **Patches Perry** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 6:02 am

The trouble with Melo is that when he is playing historically bad, you can't bench him because he is a superstar. At least with Kanter, if he was getting torched in certain matchups, he was more than happy to play 10 minutes a game and be a cheerleader.

You live with Westbrook and George shooting poorly, because they do so many other things. They were still positives tonight as a whole despite shooting like crap. You cannot keep Melo out there shooting under 30% because he is a liability everywhere else on the court.

InTheSabonus · Post #13 » by **InTheSabonus** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 6:06 am

What really annoys me about the Melo situation is how we've just made him the new Kanter. The only acceptable aspect of how one sided our bench was last year was that we almost had no choice, Kanter was one of the few guys who could do anything, and our point guard was Semaj, so we were extremely limited.

But now we have the much much much better Felton, who has an iq and knows how to conduct a team. But we just force those Melo isos. It's a symptom of a greater problem in general, but still.

oken · Post #14 » by **oken** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 8:02 am

We're all witnessing the birth of a new tank

Pillendreher · Post #15 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 10:04 am

10 games in and we've already lost any resemblance to being a team. Russ continues with being just complete trash. Melo stopped hitting his pullup shots and now his game has turned to complete trash too.

Only half the team is trying on defense. After the first quarter, we gave up a 113 DRtG to the 7-game-losing-streak Kings.

On offense, nothing's happening. Nobody's moving, no plays are being run. Everybody's just standing around waiting to see what the current iso possession is gonna yield.

Regarding those calls for Donovan's head: I'm all for it. But what do you think will happen afterwards? Do you really think Presti would bring in somebody who would be an authority figure who would also know how to run an offense? Hell no. He'd just promote Cheeks and be done with it.

NaturalThunder · Post #16 » by **NaturalThunder** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 11:35 am

We lost to the bleeping Kings? I went to bed in the second quarter. I wasn't watching the game, but I checked the score two times. Once we were up 25-13, the second time we were down 37-35.

We lost to the bleeping Kings?!?! The Kings whose best player is...Zach Randolph?!?! And we only scored 86 points?!?! That's three straight games not scoring 100 points. That's three straight losses. We added Paul George and Carmelo Anthony and we're actually worse this year than we were last year.

I'm done.

Post #17 » by **ThunderBolt** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 11:45 am

Last year Donovan let Russ do what he wants. This year he’s trying to coach and we see the results.

Pillendreher · Post #18 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 12:19 pm

Knrstz wrote:This year he’s trying to coach

I'm sorry, but I highly doubt that. I'm all for holding players accountable and not letting them off the hook just by always blaming the coach, but this is Donovan's 3rd season with the team and I've yet seen anything resembling coaching.

Answer me this: Would there have been a real difference to our game over the last 3 years if our head coach position had been vacant? Sure, there have been nuances here and there. But honestly? He has been reyling on Russ to carry his offense, on Kanter and then Melo to carry the bench and on Roberson and Adams to carry the defense.

I saw this on r/Thunder (you know you're playing like trash once that place turns on you) and think it's quite fitting:

Donovan literally disguises his isos. The play just starts off with a bunch of cuts and screens, which don't even lead to mismatches and the ball just floats into the hands of either Melo, PG or Westbrook. Its so obvious that they force the ball into their hands rather than just playing naturally and finding the open man. I would legit rather watch Raymond Felton lead then bench as he actually finds the open man when the defense rotates, rather then giving the ball away and camping behind the 3 point line.

That's 100 % true. We start the play with some movement on the wing, make one, maybe two passes, and then just iso one of our guys. That's it. The same thing with the bench: We have two plays which result in a Melo isolation on the right or the left elbow. That's it.

Somebody mentioned it on WTLC and it's true as well: Adams is the only guy moving on offense. He's either setting a High PnR screen for Russ or a backdoor screen for either Melo or George. And that's it. We're not cutting, we're not setting screens, we ain't doing ****. A lot of this is on Russ because he prefers (and I think that's safe to assume) these 'one action possessions' with either him taking the shot or him making the pass which leads to a shot. But on the other hand: Why are we still not moving? If Russ is so insistent on making the pass, let him make the pass, but don't just stand around and take yourself out of the play.

I don't know what happened in that Boston game, but over the last 10 quarters, we have looked like a broken team. And that just being 10 games into the season and with all this offseason talk about being a contender. That to me is very, very worrisome. And this is not the first time either, mind you. We had the same problem last season as well and, hell, even in 2015-2016. Since Donovan's arrival, we seldomly looked like a team that was a cohesive unit and a squad that was having fun.
With all the roster turnover over the last 3 years, this either points to Russ just being a massive malcontent under Donovan or Donovan just not being a good motivator. At some point, this has to be addressed, or we'll go down as the biggest waste of talent his league has ever seen.

sleestak33 · Post #19 » by **sleestak33** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 12:24 pm

I guess this is the new state of the NBA with all of these 3s being jacked up and frankly I hate it. Between our big3 they shot 28 of them and most them were contested, stupid shots taken from isolation sets with everybody else just standing around and watching. I just don't see how having your 3 best players jack up 9 3 pointers each is good basketball. Their offense is stagnant and there's no movement, screening or anything and it looks just like Brooks all over again. It's just funny to me that almost everybody they play has some sort of an organized offense and they get a lot of easy shots yet almost everything OKC does is one-on-one isolation plays. They had better get things figured out pretty quick.

Pillendreher · Post #20 » by **Pillendreher** » Wed Nov 8, 2017 12:40 pm

sleestak33 wrote:t's just funny to me that almost everybody they play has some sort of an organized offense and they get a lot of easy shots yet almost everything OKC does is one-on-one isolation plays.

It's somewhat of an overreaction, but I have to say I feel the same way. I think the main difference is: We're winning games by talent, other teams are winning by execution and gameplanning. Truly great teams combine both aspects. We never have under Donovan tbh. He relies on individuals carrying him.

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