10/28 | G5: Phoenix Suns at Oklahoma City Thunder - 6PM CST

[GeorgeMarcus]

My biggest question is this performance an outlier for Noel, or can he become much more than just a minimum contract lottery pick that has washed out.

Ayton and Chandler aren’t Gobert and Favors but Noel still looked superb

Thunder fans have a lot to look forward to in Noel if he can stay out of trouble/on the court. He should be making 20M right now if he didn't act on bad advice. A lot of similarities to Clint Capela as a player.

[getrichordie]

My biggest question is this performance an outlier for Noel, or can he become much more than just a minimum contract lottery pick that has washed out.

Ayton and Chandler aren’t Gobert and Favors but Noel still looked superb

I don't know about 20 and 15, but yes, Noel has plenty of talent to stay in the league beyond this current deal.

Nah, bruh. Noel isn’t starting material. /S


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[getrichordie]

My biggest question is this performance an outlier for Noel, or can he become much more than just a minimum contract lottery pick that has washed out.

Ayton and Chandler aren’t Gobert and Favors but Noel still looked superb

Thunder fans have a lot to look forward to in Noel if he can stay out of trouble/on the court. He should be making 20M right now if he didn't act on bad advice. A lot of similarities to Clint Capela as a player.

This is why I think we move Adams. Not only to make room for Noel, but use that contract to fetch another wing.


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[Kizz Fastfists]

This is why I think we move Adams. Not only to make room for Noel, but use that contract to fetch another wing.

Assuming you trade Adams who is the center for OKC next season? Does Noel resign for the taxpayer's MLE which is the maximum OKC could offer him? Does he leave for more money and OKC find another vet minimum center? I'm not opposed to trading Adams, but is it to completely chase this year or do you have a plan for the future?

[bondom34]

Brilliant, trade Adams and have no center next season.

[RalphSampsonJr]

Man the trade Adams takes are hot and plentifuk after that one. Noel played awesome but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Ayton couldnt guard anything today and chandler is a shadow of his former self

[spearsy23]

From a team building stand point I'd still trade Adams because having a borderline all Star center on a pretty much max deal makes no sense. Adams is really good, not great.

[Pillendreher]

I also don’t understand Jerami Grant at all. Acquiring a PF who can be a rotation player seems to be just as big of a need as shooters.

Grant is a gimmick player, but the Thunder don't seem to understand that. He's an athletic freak that can't shoot and is currently without a role because he's the worst bigman on the squad and they can't play him at the 5 unless somebody's hurt. That's what his role should be though, because the only way he works offensively is as somebody attacking the rim. Ideally you'd want to pair him with another shooting big, but just like we've seen last season, the Patterson-Grant combo is not ideal because neither is good at defending Centers and they are very underwhelming on the boards.

This whole Grant thing is very similar to the Carmelo situation last year. They have this one guy on the roster that they want to give ~30 minutes to no matter what, but they're using him in a way that is hurting the team. This whole "Let's put him on the wing" thing is not going to work. stats.nba.com tracking has him at 16 drives so far: 1/9 from the field, 0 assists, 1 turnover. And he's also 3/15 on catch and shoot 3s. Once again, they're playing him as something he's not. And with him currently being 3rd (!!!) on the team in minutes, that's hurting the Thunder big time.

[Pillendreher]

A couple of quick notes on the game:

-Phoenix needs a point guard, pronto
-Nevertheless, the Thunder were active defensively most of the time. 20 deflections, 10 loose balls recovered. That's good. They need to make use of their athleticism that way.
-I think they did a good job of pushing the pace more consistently. 25 fast break points, 51 % of their shot attempts came within the first 9 seconds of the shotclock. This is something they need to do a lot more during games. They are a fast squad with guys that can't shoot, but are actually good at jumping. Use it.
-

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I think this is a key takeaway. The team didn't give as many shots to bad shooters. Just 7 combined 3PA for Westbrook, Schröder, Ferguson and Grant. They need to keep that number relative low if they want to have a chance at being somewhat efficient offensively.
-Schröder-Noel looks like it could be a nice little PnR combo going forward. They should run it even more.
-I think Noel needs more minutes than ~14 with Adams back? But can they even play together? Should they?
-Schröder needs to be more efficient though. He hasn't even cracked 50 TS% in a single game yet. Not good enough.
-I really like that little play where they're running something (a PnR most of the time) and Abrines suddenly pops out to the 3pt line at the top. I think he's gotten an open 3 that way every single time.
-Man, I'm so glad that Patterson finally played well. 9/13 from the field, 3/6 from 3, 7 rebounds since the 4th quarter vs Boston. I really hope he can build on this and that the team finally realizes that they need him and should play him 25+ minutes every night.
-These Ferguson-Grant lineups need to stop. You don't have any shooting on the floor and neither of them can actually do anything offensively besides the random drive by Grant. They can't set screens, they're not good passers. What's the **** point? 106 ORtG so far in 238 possessions. Just stop playing it. It's not working.

[ThunderBolt]

From a team building stand point I'd still trade Adams because having a borderline all Star center on a pretty much max deal makes no sense. Adams is really good, not great.

I think part of prestis philosophy in keeping players happy is making sure they are paid at the high end of what they deserve. I love Adams but he’s grossly overpaid.

[alessandrux]

From a team building stand point I'd still trade Adams because having a borderline all Star center on a pretty much max deal makes no sense. Adams is really good, not great.

I think part of prestis philosophy in keeping players happy is making sure they are paid at the high end of what they deserve. I love Adams but he’s grossly overpaid.

I don't think Adams is overpaid. He is a (well) above average starter at the center position (there are maybe 5-6 teams where he wouldn't start), but he is also a victim of our non-shooting.
A Westbrook/Adams pairing is an amazing starting block to built around, but the other players have to be shooters.


I would love to see a starting 5 consisting of Westbrook/Abrines/George/Patterson/Adams, that would be a very good mix of athleticism, shooting and defense. Schröder and Noel of the bench, plus another player who can shoot would be great, also.

Right now, I don't like the Grant signing. He is a good player, and he even might not be overpaid, but he is exactly what we don't need, especially considering we have Roberson also.

[ThunderBolt]

From a team building stand point I'd still trade Adams because having a borderline all Star center on a pretty much max deal makes no sense. Adams is really good, not great.

I think part of prestis philosophy in keeping players happy is making sure they are paid at the high end of what they deserve. I love Adams but he’s grossly overpaid.

I don't think Adams is overpaid. He is a (well) above average starter at the center position (there are maybe 5-6 teams where he wouldn't start), but he is also a victim of our non-shooting.
A Westbrook/Adams pairing is an amazing starting block to built around, but the other players have to be shooters.


I would love to see a starting 5 consisting of Westbrook/Abrines/George/Patterson/Adams, that would be a very good mix of athleticism, shooting and defense. Schröder and Noel of the bench, plus another player who can shoot would be great, also.

Right now, I don't like the Grant signing. He is a good player, and he even might not be overpaid, but he is exactly what we don't need, especially considering we have Roberson also.

Based upon what Clint Capela got, how can you say he’s not overpaid? It doesn’t mean he’s not a very good player. If presti has waited until the end of the season to re-sign him, he would have gotten significantly less. You also don’t build contenders by maxing every good player. You have to have someone on the cheap.

Part of the reason we don’t have spacing around Russ and Adams is we don’t have the money to pay to get better players. It’s not just about what Adams is worth individually, its about what his contract prevents the team from doing.

[alessandrux]

I think part of prestis philosophy in keeping players happy is making sure they are paid at the high end of what they deserve. I love Adams but he’s grossly overpaid.

I don't think Adams is overpaid. He is a (well) above average starter at the center position (there are maybe 5-6 teams where he wouldn't start), but he is also a victim of our non-shooting.
A Westbrook/Adams pairing is an amazing starting block to built around, but the other players have to be shooters.


I would love to see a starting 5 consisting of Westbrook/Abrines/George/Patterson/Adams, that would be a very good mix of athleticism, shooting and defense. Schröder and Noel of the bench, plus another player who can shoot would be great, also.

Right now, I don't like the Grant signing. He is a good player, and he even might not be overpaid, but he is exactly what we don't need, especially considering we have Roberson also.

Based upon what Clint Capela got, how can you say he’s not overpaid. It doesn’t mean he’s not a very good player. If presti has waited until the end of the season to re-sign him, he would have gotten significantly less. You also don’t build contenders by maxing every good player. You have to have someone on the cheap.

You might be right, but I don't think he would've gotten less.(Compare his to the extensions of other players of his draft class: Porter, Olynyk, Schröder, Hill, Snell, ...).

But I get your point, waiting could've been profitable.
For me he is/was/would've been one of the very top restricted free agents of his class.

[Pillendreher]

Well, Adams did get his extension in the same summer that Allen Crabbe got 18 million a year. If his contract had been up this summer, his salary would have been comparable to Capela's. It's unfortunate because he is indeed overpaid.

[slick_watts]

Brilliant, trade Adams and have no center next season.

adams for otto porter. anything less than that sort of return and it would be idiotic.

[slick_watts]

I think part of prestis philosophy in keeping players happy is making sure they are paid at the high end of what they deserve. I love Adams but he’s grossly overpaid.

I don't think Adams is overpaid. He is a (well) above average starter at the center position (there are maybe 5-6 teams where he wouldn't start), but he is also a victim of our non-shooting.
A Westbrook/Adams pairing is an amazing starting block to built around, but the other players have to be shooters.


I would love to see a starting 5 consisting of Westbrook/Abrines/George/Patterson/Adams, that would be a very good mix of athleticism, shooting and defense. Schröder and Noel of the bench, plus another player who can shoot would be great, also.

Right now, I don't like the Grant signing. He is a good player, and he even might not be overpaid, but he is exactly what we don't need, especially considering we have Roberson also.

Based upon what Clint Capela got, how can you say he’s not overpaid? It doesn’t mean he’s not a very good player. If presti has waited until the end of the season to re-sign him, he would have gotten significantly less. You also don’t build contenders by maxing every good player. You have to have someone on the cheap.

Part of the reason we don’t have spacing around Russ and Adams is we don’t have the money to pay to get better players. It’s not just about what Adams is worth individually, its about what his contract prevents the team from doing.

adams was in the right place at the right time for his extension, immediately post-kd sam wanted to make splashes and did with him and oladipo. oladipo turned out to be the better value and i think at the time that's the one sam really wanted to get done. but there was a lot of hubbub surrounding those two extensions and the word 'loyalty' post-kd.

capela was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was negotiating with a gm who doesn't give a crap about optics. it is what it is. i think capela is more of a steal than adams is overpaid though.

[slick_watts]

My biggest question is this performance an outlier for Noel, or can he become much more than just a minimum contract lottery pick that has washed out.

Ayton and Chandler aren’t Gobert and Favors but Noel still looked superb

I don't know about 20 and 15, but yes, Noel has plenty of talent to stay in the league beyond this current deal.

Nah, bruh. Noel isn’t starting material. /S


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noel is definitely much better than his salary and is obviously a talented player. but he has warts, and those warts are why he is in the situation he is in and not playing on a big contract. he might not be starting material. he couldn't be in dallas because of all the dumb things he kept doing, and rick carlisle is the anti-thunder when it comes to doing dumb things. all the highlight plays he tends to make, there are all the 'misses' that don't often get accounted for. and he's fouling at a super high rate that would preclude starting, at least playing like the way he is at the moment.

[Bergmaniac]

Most positive sign in this game apart from Noel's play is that Westbrook went two whole quarter without taking a jumpshot after he missed badly on his first two jumpshots. Now, if only he could resist the impulse to chuck more often against teams who don't give him wide open lanes to the baskets as often as the Suns...

[Old Man Game]

noel is definitely much better than his salary and is obviously a talented player. but he has warts, and those warts are why he is in the situation he is in and not playing on a big contract. he might not be starting material. he couldn't be in dallas because of all the dumb things he kept doing, and rick carlisle is the anti-thunder when it comes to doing dumb things.

What specifically are you referring to? I thought he got a weed suspension and that was it. Was there something else?

An aside, I think the league eventually stops even testing for weed. The wokest league will eventually come around and get with social & political trends on this issue.

[slick_watts]

noel is definitely much better than his salary and is obviously a talented player. but he has warts, and those warts are why he is in the situation he is in and not playing on a big contract. he might not be starting material. he couldn't be in dallas because of all the dumb things he kept doing, and rick carlisle is the anti-thunder when it comes to doing dumb things.

What specifically are you referring to? I thought he got a weed suspension and that was it. Was there something else?

An aside, I think the league eventually stops even testing for weed. The wokest league will eventually come around and get with social & political trends on this issue.

nah not off the court stuff, he's just not a disciplined player (to put it lightly). jumps at every fake, slips early on every screen, goes for every ball. it's the kind of style that is great for a backup big who if he gets in foul trouble who cares, not for a 30+ mpg starter.

noel is like brandan wright.