2018-2019 OKC Thunder Regular Season Pt 1: A Renewed Hope

[ThunderBolt]

"The thunder are a poorly managed franchise. I'm going to go cheer for the kings."

[Thunder Up]

Presti should throw a fat stack at McMillan to bring him back to the organization.
I didn't think it could possibly get any worse after we rid ourselves of Brooks, and yet here we are. I am still amazed that this dumbass didn't call a single timeout during that run that felt like 30-0 by the Heat mid-way through the first quarter.

[hardenASG13]

"The thunder are a poorly managed franchise. I'm going to go cheer for the kings."

Yea I like the direction they are headed and their young guys. I'm not a member of the thunder, from Oklahoma , or a child. I like Westbrook, and liked KD when he was in okc. Why I or anyone would stay loyal to a team they no longer like makes 0 sense to me. It's not a marriage, bro. But I'd love to see Westbrook win a title as a main contributor, and will be an okc fan until that is no longer a possibility.

[ThunderBolt]

"The thunder are a poorly managed franchise. I'm going to go cheer for the kings."

Yea I like the direction they are headed and their young guys. I'm not a member of the thunder, from Oklahoma , or a child. I like Westbrook, and liked KD when he was in okc. Why I or anyone would stay loyal to a team they no longer like makes 0 sense to me. It's not a marriage, bro. But I'd love to see Westbrook win a title as a main contributor, and will be an okc fan until that is no longer a possibility.

Believe me, I’m not holding you back. Follow your heart. Why wait until next year?

[wco81]

Do you think a different coaching staff could do a 1-year turnaround like Kerr with the Warriors in 2014-15 or Budenholzer with the Bucks this year?

Of course the Bucks were a playoffs team last year, though they lost in the first round in 6 or 7 games.

The tough thing for the Thunder is that they're capped out so it would be difficult to add good role players. So you have to hope that young players like Ferguson develop and for them to find players chosen in bottom half of the first round or second round to become good rotational players.

[Dadouv47]

Do you think a different coaching staff could do a 1-year turnaround like Kerr with the Warriors in 2014-15 or Budenholzer with the Bucks this year?

Of course the Bucks were a playoffs team last year, though they lost in the first round in 6 or 7 games.

The tough thing for the Thunder is that they're capped out so it would be difficult to add good role players. So you have to hope that young players like Ferguson develop and for them to find players chosen in bottom half of the first round or second round to become good rotational players.

You pretty much answered to your question. Not enough talent and cap space to make a 1-year turnaround but obviously we would be a better team with someone like Rick Carlisle.

Our only young to develop is Ferguson so we don't have a lot of options and any margin for error (Diallo and Burton are long shots). We also probably won't have a good cheap C like Noel next year.
Roberson coming back healthy is basically the only good thing that can happen to this team (besides some crazy good trade/signing)

[JustOneFix]

Do you think a different coaching staff could do a 1-year turnaround like Kerr with the Warriors in 2014-15 or Budenholzer with the Bucks this year?

Of course the Bucks were a playoffs team last year, though they lost in the first round in 6 or 7 games.

The tough thing for the Thunder is that they're capped out so it would be difficult to add good role players. So you have to hope that young players like Ferguson develop and for them to find players chosen in bottom half of the first round or second round to become good rotational players.

Problem is, no coach can turn a non shooting team to a good or great shooting team. That's the thing. All of our points come the hard way because there are no shooters in the team. And in this day and age, where shooting is like 99% of the game, it's extremely hard and exausting to win the way the Thunder is trying to do. If this were the 90's, where most of the action was in the paint and the game was not so fast and teams couldn't bury you with 20 threes, I think this team would be phenomenal, probably at the top of the league. But in this kind of enviorement, we're toast.

[oreojenkins]

Roster needs to be overhauled in the offseason. I'll assume T-Ferg continues to improve. The way I see it there are 3 slots in a 9-man rotation that, given Westbrook's trajectory, must be good shooters. Westbrook, George, Adams, Grant, Ferguson, Noel/backup big.
That means the Schroder, Nader, and random player X slots. If Roberson is slotted into one of those, it's going to be more of the same. Rebounding and turnover battle keeps us afloat as is, and trading out those three slots for shooters won't hurt us in those two areas and can only help with our eFG/TS. Obviously would prefer if these shooters can also defend, but the constant subpar shooting from 3 and FT line is just too much to overcome right now. Houston is getting it done with a defense that, at best, is similar to ours.

I don't think Westbrook is necessarily in decline, but his game looks to have changed. I have zero hope for him to ever return to even competent shooter status. Give me three dudes who can shoot and let's go.

Just a mini stream of consciousness rant after tonight. Looking at this box score is a joke. Absolutely murdering them on the offensive glass and breakeven on TOs... but 44/24/46 on 14 more shots and 6 more FTA. GTFOH. I was open-minded about Schroder, and still would make that trade as it both made us marginally better and put us in a better (or at least more flexible) financial situation, but we can't afford to let him use 25% of possessions at 50% TS while being a total zero on D. Not opposed to moving Diallo for a rotation piece that fits, either.

I'm not positive Donovan is a good coach, and I'm also not positive he's the problem. I think the general consensus is this roster is more talented than it actually is. It's just so top-heavy.

Back to lurking.

[oreojenkins]

Now imagine if they weren't shooting 33% from 3 and 50% from the FT line. Easy win.

[ThunderBolt]

Read on Twitter

?

Uh...not really.

[Dadouv47]

Less than 3 weeks to get an healthy Paul George. Don't know if playing is a good thing for him to recover. Anyway it won't matter if we play Gs or Houston in the first round

[ThunderBolt]

Less than 3 weeks to get an healthy Paul George. Don't know if playing is a good thing for him to recover. Anyway it won't matter if we play Gs or Houston in the first round

The only way major changes might actually happen is if we get bounced quickly with a healthy team. If George still has a sore shoulder, Adams rolls and ankle or something else then we can expect Presti to start selling excuses so that he can run back the same roster next year.

[Pillendreher]

Something we haven't really talked about is this: What is the ownership's stance on the team's success? What if "this" is good enough for them because they're selling tickets and making money?

[ThunderBolt]

Something we haven't really talked about is this: What is the ownership's stance on the team's success? What if "this" is good enough for them because they're selling tickets and making money?

Typically rich guys don’t get rich by spending money stupidly. There are plenty of owners that are really bad but how many of them go over the salary cap and pay the tax year after year with a poor ROI without making changes?

[Dadouv47]

Something we haven't really talked about is this: What is the ownership's stance on the team's success? What if "this" is good enough for them because they're selling tickets and making money?

Typically rich guys don’t get rich by spending money stupidly. There are plenty of owners that are really bad but how many of them go over the salary cap and pay the tax year after year with a poor ROI without making changes?

Well OKC isn't spending money stupidly. They are paying a lot in taxes but we don't know how much they win from other revenues. We have one of the biggest fan base in the NBA right now (thanks to Westbrook, Paul George and past with Durant/Ibaka) and they are probably winning a lot of money from that
Short term it makes more sense financially to keep being a mediocre playoff team with 2 superstars than trading them and rebuilding. Long term it's a disaster though

[SecondTake]

Now imagine if they weren't shooting 33% from 3 and 50% from the FT line. Easy win.

Well yeah, but that wouldnt be OKC. Everyone knows this team cant shoot, so you have to win in other ways. Like defense. We seem to be playing some 2018 cavs level defense since January.

[Thunder Up]

should’ve signed bum boy Jimmer, at least he can shoot as it can’t get worse than it currently is with the production of Nader, Schroeder wing play off the bench

[Thunder Up]

actually I take that back... jimmer would probably cash three straight 3pt and the opposing coach would call a timeout and Billy would bring Ferguson or Schroeder back into the game for him after 4 minutes of play

[JustOneFix]

should’ve signed bum boy Jimmer, at least he can shoot as it can’t get worse than it currently is with the production of Nader, Schroeder wing play off the bench

I was mentioning him 3 months ago.

Can't belive the worst shooting team in the league who aspires to be a contender wasn't interested in such a low risk move.

[wco81]

Something we haven't really talked about is this: What is the ownership's stance on the team's success? What if "this" is good enough for them because they're selling tickets and making money?

Typically rich guys don’t get rich by spending money stupidly. There are plenty of owners that are really bad but how many of them go over the salary cap and pay the tax year after year with a poor ROI without making changes?

Well OKC isn't spending money stupidly. They are paying a lot in taxes but we don't know how much they win from other revenues. We have one of the biggest fan base in the NBA right now (thanks to Westbrook, Paul George and past with Durant/Ibaka) and they are probably winning a lot of money from that
Short term it makes more sense financially to keep being a mediocre playoff team with 2 superstars than trading them and rebuilding. Long term it's a disaster though

Thunder seems to have great support. They're at or near full capacity in attendance this year.

Of course, other teams probably are able to command higher ticket prices in bigger markets and the local TV deal isn't going to be as lucrative.

I would think they do okay in merchandising with Westbrook and George jerseys, especially this year.

Can they generate enough revenues to keep this roster or payroll?