Thunder Offseason Thread

[Kizz Fastfists]

How can you be so sure? I mean this playoff meltdown is a lot worse than last year, there's no excuses to point to besides lack of shooting.

PG was hurt and Roberson will solve all problems. They might even throw in some Schroder blaming. So Presti will maintain the status quo. Remember last year it was all Melo was a cancer and Roberson got hurt. They will search for excuses that do not include Russ and Donovan. We can not be critical of Russ because he stayed. Donovan is doing the best he can and still needs time because kd ran off and we got nothing for him which makes it hard.

[kdthunderup]

Just trying to think of some trades we can offer for Beal if the Wizards decide to tank and rebuild.

Schroder (tank commander)
Grant (sell high on)
Ferguson (young sg to cover loss of Beal)
1st round pick

For

Beal

Then we could look at trading Adams to give us some cap flexibility and depth.

Prince
Bazemore
Len

For

Adams


Westbrook
Beal
George
Roberson
Len

Prince
Bazemore
Diallo
(Bench is Still a mess tbh)

[SecondTake]

How can you be so sure? I mean this playoff meltdown is a lot worse than last year, there's no excuses to point to besides lack of shooting.

PG was hurt and Roberson will solve all problems. They might even throw in some Schroder blaming. So Presti will maintain the status quo. Remember last year it was all Melo was a cancer and Roberson got hurt. They will search for excuses that do not include Russ and Donovan. We can not be critical of Russ because he stayed. Donovan is doing the best he can and still needs time because kd ran off and we got nothing for him which makes it hard.

Nah, we never had Roberson all year so there wasn't any surprise mid season, nothing needed to be adjusted to. It's not a good excuse in 2019. It's like blaming the failure on a player that was never part of your team to begin with.

I mean I also assume PG and WB must be pushing for shooters as well, right? It's in their bets interest.

[ThunderBolt]

Trade Russ for Beal. John Wall and Russ on the same team. If only Ernie were still running the show...

[SecondTake]

Just trying to think of some trades we can offer for Beal if the Wizards decide to tank and rebuild.

Schroder (tank commander)
Grant (sell high on)
Ferguson (young sg to cover loss of Beal)
1st round pick

For

Beal

Then we could look at trading Adams to give us some cap flexibility and depth.

Way too much. Grant has had a breakout year and he's going to get better. Ferg has been decent for a second year player and has shown a high potential going forward. Schroder+Ferg is an OK offer, but throwing Grant in there is just giving up too much. It also kills our wing defense if we give up both. They're also the only two decent shooters we have outside PG.

[kdthunderup]

Just trying to think of some trades we can offer for Beal if the Wizards decide to tank and rebuild.

Schroder (tank commander)
Grant (sell high on)
Ferguson (young sg to cover loss of Beal)
1st round pick

For

Beal

Then we could look at trading Adams to give us some cap flexibility and depth.

Way too much. Grant has had a breakout year and he's going to get better. Ferg has been decent for a second year player and has shown a high potential going forward. Schroder+Ferg is an OK offer, but throwing Grant in there is just giving up too much. It also kills our wing defense if we give up both. They're also the only two decent shooters we have outside PG.

Grant had a great year but you have to give up something of value to get something like Beal back. Schroder is probably a negative asset to most teams so I don't see them taking it without getting a couple nice pieces alongside. Could potentially replace that 1st rounder with a 2nd.

[jambalaya]

Hey Slick. Hey good basketball fans.

I rarely post here anymore but I still watch and wonder what is coming next.

[RalphSampsonJr]

Man the basketball world is being ruthless towards Russ. Maybe. Juat maybe this is what he needed. To get embarassed this badly in a playoff series.

Then PG makes salty "bad shot" comments. Yea it was technically a bad shot but Dame had been doing it all series.

These two got put in their place by Portland. Adams couldnt stay on the floor and Grant seemed to fade away when the post season came.

Lets hope all these guys take this very personally and come back next year with a better attitude. As well as a better understanding of what it takes to win.

[ThunderBolt]

Hey Slick. Hey good basketball fans.

I rarely post here anymore but I still watch and wonder what is coming next.

I miss your posts. They were like haikus about thunder ineptitude.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Just trying to think of some trades we can offer for Beal if the Wizards decide to tank and rebuild.

Schroder (tank commander)
Grant (sell high on)
Ferguson (young sg to cover loss of Beal)
1st round pick

For

Beal

Then we could look at trading Adams to give us some cap flexibility and depth.

Prince
Bazemore
Len

For

Adams

Adams doesn't have anywhere near that value. If you included OKC's 1st that might entice Atlanta if there was someone they wanted there, but it would be contingent on their player being there.

That package doesn't get you close to Beal. I can't think of anything OKC could offer that would get your close to Beal without including PG.

[Jstock12]

I feel like Presti will have to think outside the box and take some risks. Maybe take a flyer on a couple of guys from the Euroleague. Guys like Cory Higgins or Dairis Bertans (brother of the Spur Bertans). Both shot at a 50%+ clip from three this season. It might work, it might not... But I think some low risk high reward gambles must be taken when it comes down to the roster construction for the next season.

[Dadouv47]

Any idea of how much it would cost to sign guys like Ross or KCP? Or a one year contract to a guy like Danny Green (kind of player Presti must like, despite the fact that he's a good shooter). Would try to get Wes Matthews but it looks like he found his home in Indiana.

[SecondTake]

Man the basketball world is being ruthless towards Russ. Maybe. Juat maybe this is what he needed. To get embarassed this badly in a playoff series.

Then PG makes salty "bad shot" comments. Yea it was technically a bad shot but Dame had been doing it all series.

These two got put in their place by Portland. Adams couldnt stay on the floor and Grant seemed to fade away when the post season came.

Lets hope all these guys take this very personally and come back next year with a better attitude. As well as a better understanding of what it takes to win.

Dame almost scored from half court though... I mean guys are capable of making insane, ridiculous shots, but I'm not sure what PG could have done there any better. He kept him from the drive, kept him too far for him to drop down a pass for a 2 and basically forced him to take a half court with the last second winding down. The bigger problem is the 15 point choke job they managed to orchestrate before that shot went off.

[SecondTake]

Just trying to think of some trades we can offer for Beal if the Wizards decide to tank and rebuild.

Schroder (tank commander)
Grant (sell high on)
Ferguson (young sg to cover loss of Beal)
1st round pick

For

Beal

Then we could look at trading Adams to give us some cap flexibility and depth.

Prince
Bazemore
Len

For

Adams

Adams doesn't have anywhere near that value. If you included OKC's 1st that might entice Atlanta if there was someone they wanted there, but it would be contingent on their player being there.

That package doesn't get you close to Beal. I can't think of anything OKC could offer that would get your close to Beal without including PG.

Man I don't think we should even offer that for Beal. You're saying that's not even enough for Beal. I'm starting to think that Beal is becoming a little over rated. I'm not sure that trade even gets us to 50 wins as it is.

[Kizz Fastfists]

I could see any of those guys going for the MLE. I could also see someone offering any of them a bit more to outbid the MLE teams. Rodney Hood, Ariza, Wes Matthews and Rudy Gay could also be potential targets. Brook Lopez, Aminu, Taj Gibson, Mirotic, pick a Morris brother could be some big options. OKC can probably only get one of those guys at best. They are going to have slim pickings. They could draft an older prospect that is NBA ready and can shoot, but I don't see Presti doing that. I think Presti will draft another athletic prospect that is probably in need of development with a higher ceiling than the guaranteed short-term help that could be there.

[SecondTake]

Also I think our roster construction is so broken that you can't make a trade for a single "star" and have it make much of of a difference. I don't think we need more stars, I think we need better fitting role players aka guys that can knock down open spot up opportunities. The amount of open shots WB has created this season is insane. Imagine some decent role players like HOU has, like TOR has, like MIL has on OKC. A lot of those guys making big impacts on those teams were doing nothing elsewhere. We need a new coach that implements a drive and kick system along with guys that can knock them down.

[SecondTake]

I could see any of those guys going for the MLE. I could also see someone offering any of them a bit more to outbid the MLE teams. Rodney Hood, Ariza, Wes Matthews and Rudy Gay could also be potential targets. Brook Lopez, Aminu, Taj Gibson, Mirotic, pick a Morris brother could be some big options. OKC can probably only get one of those guys at best. They are going to have slim pickings. They could draft an older prospect that is NBA ready and can shoot, but I don't see Presti doing that. I think Presti will draft another athletic prospect that is probably in need of development with a higher ceiling than the guaranteed short-term help that could be there.

Those guys you listed are actually pretty good. Lopez, Mirotic, Aminu, Ariza, Wes are all the kind of guys we need.

[Antinomy]

For the love of god. The Thunder need to bring in a SG that can dribble/score on his own. Westbrook will never be efficient enough to be a first option offensively. People have killed him all these years & said that he should be a 2 but in reality his greatest skills are everything besides scoring. At his athletic peak, he could score at will because of his athleticism but now that it’s waning, we see him losing his touch as well.

[Kizz Fastfists]

Those guys you listed are actually pretty good. Lopez, Mirotic, Aminu, Ariza, Wes are all the kind of guys we need.

The question is will any of them take the tax MLE and will Presti even bother calling them. We can probably mark Wes Matthews off the list since he picked Indy over OKC after being bought out this year. I can't imagine the Bucks don't try to keep Miotic. Portland will want to keep Aminu. I believe Lopez is unrestricted with no bird rights as is Ariza. Ariza chose money over winning last off-season so I expect him to take the highest offer. Lopez will likely try to stay with the Bucks unless someone offers him real money.

I listed players that are likely to play for the MLE, but that doesn't mean OKC can actually get one of them. It is even harder to get them when PG and Russ are screaming that there is no system and they get to do what they want. If you wanted to win would you sign with a team that it is known the players dictate how the game goes and the coach is their puppet?

[Sinobas]

I know this is sort of off topic, but Paul George should be in the dunk contest next year. That dunk he had at the end of game 3 was amazing.