Thunder Offseason Thread

[Pillendreher]

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.

He lost in 2018 to European Rajon Rondo. That should have been embarassment enough.

Btw:

Utah ORtG against us: 106.9
Utah ORtG against the Rockets since then: 99.8

"We're an over team"

[Pillendreher]

In his last 50 games, Westbrook shot 51/140 on catch and shoot 3s, 36.4 %. Over his last 30, he shot 39/103, 37.8 %. That is something he needs to continue going forward. Teams will give him that shot all day long and he has to make it at a respectable rate.

[ThunderBolt]

This is the only thing I can find about exit interviews. It says they are today but doesn't list a time. Anyone else heard anything?
https://www.joplinglobe.com/sports/local_sports/thunder-s-offseason-of-discontent-leaves-much-to-address/article_5c88a8fe-b939-540d-b67b-ead92c4fe982.html

[Pillendreher]

This is the only thing I can find about exit interviews. It says they are today but doesn't list a time. Anyone else heard anything?
https://www.joplinglobe.com/sports/local_sports/thunder-s-offseason-of-discontent-leaves-much-to-address/article_5c88a8fe-b939-540d-b67b-ead92c4fe982.html

Read on Twitter

[ThunderBolt]

Did you guys hear about this? Man this is disgusting.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/04/espn-royce-young-tweet-twitter-troll-daughter-response-nba

[slick_watts]

In his last 50 games, Westbrook shot 51/140 on catch and shoot 3s, 36.4 %. Over his last 30, he shot 39/103, 37.8 %. That is something he needs to continue going forward. Teams will give him that shot all day long and he has to make it at a respectable rate.

he has to take more of them. the problem is to take a catch and shoot three you can't have the ball in your hands. and westbrook is not known as the master of finding open space without the ball in his hands.

i know that you know he shot only 32% on catch and shoot threes over the course of the season. and 33% in 2017-18. a sustained 36-37% catch and shoot %, especially at high volume, seems unlikely to me without some practice and adjustments.

[slick_watts]

Did someone forget Wiggins is alive? There's no way that's a bottom 2 contract. It's not good, but no supermaxes are.

depends how you extrapolate westbrook's decline. there's a chance that wiggins could be better than westbrook by the end of westbrook's deal.

interesting seeing john wall and russell westbrook grouped together in this context. injuries and decline aside, these are the two primary ball handlers / stars in the nba most seriously affected by the changing landscape when it comes to jump shooting.

[slick_watts]

Did you guys hear about this? Man this is disgusting.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/04/espn-royce-young-tweet-twitter-troll-daughter-response-nba

i'll become rich and famous when i invent a way to punch someone over the internet.

[ThunderBolt]

Separating catch and shoot threes is kind of tricky, imo. Can Russ really be convinced to limit himself to catch and shoot threes? If he hits 3 out of 4, can he be disciplined to not start taking pullup threes as a heat check/back breaker three?

[bondom34]

Did someone forget Wiggins is alive? There's no way that's a bottom 2 contract. It's not good, but no supermaxes are.

depends how you extrapolate westbrook's decline. there's a chance that wiggins could be better than westbrook by the end of westbrook's deal.

interesting seeing john wall and russell westbrook grouped together in this context. injuries and decline aside, these are the two primary ball handlers / stars in the nba most seriously affected by the changing landscape when it comes to jump shooting.

Yeah, no. That's before getting to Parsons, Batum, Biyombo, etc. We did this on the trade board in December and Westbrook wasn't bottom ten. He was 18th most valuable.

[ThunderBolt]

This audio feed is a joke. Billy says nothing.

[slick_watts]

Did someone forget Wiggins is alive? There's no way that's a bottom 2 contract. It's not good, but no supermaxes are.

depends how you extrapolate westbrook's decline. there's a chance that wiggins could be better than westbrook by the end of westbrook's deal.

interesting seeing john wall and russell westbrook grouped together in this context. injuries and decline aside, these are the two primary ball handlers / stars in the nba most seriously affected by the changing landscape when it comes to jump shooting.

Yeah, no. That's before getting to Parsons, Batum, Biyombo, etc. We did this on the trade board in December and Westbrook wasn't bottom ten. He was 18th most valuable.

a lot has happened since december. westbrook has since completed a 2nd season of measurable decline. in december westbrook's shooting and decline could still be construed as a blip, and of course the thunder were successful (defensively, anyway) so this colored the perception of westbrook's value. he's doing everything they wanted him to do and all that.

that aside, i don't know that i'd agree that he's the 2nd worst contract in the nba but i can see that as a tenable position for someone who is expecting a more or less linear regression from this point forward, as has been the case the past two seasons. my opinion is he'll plateau somewhat close to the level he's at now.

[Pillendreher]

Read on Twitter

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DO IT PRESTI

[bondom34]

depends how you extrapolate westbrook's decline. there's a chance that wiggins could be better than westbrook by the end of westbrook's deal.

interesting seeing john wall and russell westbrook grouped together in this context. injuries and decline aside, these are the two primary ball handlers / stars in the nba most seriously affected by the changing landscape when it comes to jump shooting.

Yeah, no. That's before getting to Parsons, Batum, Biyombo, etc. We did this on the trade board in December and Westbrook wasn't bottom ten. He was 18th most valuable.

a lot has happened since december. westbrook has since completed a 2nd season of measurable decline. in december westbrook's shooting and decline could still be construed as a blip, and of course the thunder were successful (defensively, anyway) so this colored the perception of westbrook's value. he's doing everything they wanted him to do and all that.

that aside, i don't know that i'd agree that he's the 2nd worst contract in the nba but i can see that as a tenable position for someone who is expecting a more or less linear regression from this point forward, as has been the case the past two seasons. my opinion is he'll plateau somewhat close to the level he's at now.

If you expect a linear regression for him, expect the same from CP3, Griffin, Love, etc. He's still not useless like the others. Heck, even Lillard who's a clear better player will sign this summer and be owed $55M at age 35. He's not near 2nd worst, he's not even bottom ten.

[Pillendreher]

This audio feed is a joke. Billy says nothing.

He never says anything of value.

[slick_watts]

If you expect a linear regression for him, expect the same from CP3, Griffin, Love, etc. He's still not useless like the others. Heck, even Lillard who's a clear better player will sign this summer and be owed $55M at age 35. He's not near 2nd worst, he's not even bottom ten.

kevin love might be an interesting case. his contract is about 75% the total value of westbrook's moving forward. will need to keep an eye on that one. blake griffin had a better season this year than he did last year, made his first all-star game since 2014-15. i wouldn't' have the warm and fuzzies about his deal (which, is a year shorter than westbrook's) but it doesn't seem like he's regressing in the same way. not yet, that is.

chris paul also has one less year, but he's older and clearly lost some juice this season.

i think the point is that westbrook's contract is in this company, a couple years removed from being mvp, and that's a shocking development.

[bondom34]

If you expect a linear regression for him, expect the same from CP3, Griffin, Love, etc. He's still not useless like the others. Heck, even Lillard who's a clear better player will sign this summer and be owed $55M at age 35. He's not near 2nd worst, he's not even bottom ten.

kevin love might be an interesting case. his contract is about 75% the total value of westbrook's moving forward. will need to keep an eye on that one. blake griffin had a better season this year than he did last year, made his first all-star game since 2014-15. i wouldn't' have the warm and fuzzies about his deal (which, is a year shorter than westbrook's) but it doesn't seem like he's regressing in the same way. not yet, that is.

chris paul also has one less year, but he's older and clearly lost some juice this season.

i think the point is that westbrook's contract is in this company, a couple years removed from being mvp, and that's a shocking development.

Griffin just got surgery. Also, it's not really shocking at all. Everyone knew the back half of that contract was bad. Its still not near 2nd worst. It's ina group of max level deals for guys about his age that won't age well. Exactly what was expected.

[slick_watts]

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sam should be next.

[slick_watts]

If you expect a linear regression for him, expect the same from CP3, Griffin, Love, etc. He's still not useless like the others. Heck, even Lillard who's a clear better player will sign this summer and be owed $55M at age 35. He's not near 2nd worst, he's not even bottom ten.

kevin love might be an interesting case. his contract is about 75% the total value of westbrook's moving forward. will need to keep an eye on that one. blake griffin had a better season this year than he did last year, made his first all-star game since 2014-15. i wouldn't' have the warm and fuzzies about his deal (which, is a year shorter than westbrook's) but it doesn't seem like he's regressing in the same way. not yet, that is.

chris paul also has one less year, but he's older and clearly lost some juice this season.

i think the point is that westbrook's contract is in this company, a couple years removed from being mvp, and that's a shocking development.

Griffin just got surgery. Also, it's not really shocking at all. Everyone knew the back half of that contract was bad. Its still not near 2nd worst. It's ina group of max level deals for guys about his age that won't age well. Exactly what was expected.

i don't think anyone expected westbrook to be this player this soon. even i wouldn't have predicted it.

[bondom34]

kevin love might be an interesting case. his contract is about 75% the total value of westbrook's moving forward. will need to keep an eye on that one. blake griffin had a better season this year than he did last year, made his first all-star game since 2014-15. i wouldn't' have the warm and fuzzies about his deal (which, is a year shorter than westbrook's) but it doesn't seem like he's regressing in the same way. not yet, that is.

chris paul also has one less year, but he's older and clearly lost some juice this season.

i think the point is that westbrook's contract is in this company, a couple years removed from being mvp, and that's a shocking development.

Griffin just got surgery. Also, it's not really shocking at all. Everyone knew the back half of that contract was bad. Its still not near 2nd worst. It's ina group of max level deals for guys about his age that won't age well. Exactly what was expected.

i don't think anyone expected westbrook to be this player this soon. even i wouldn't have predicted it.

OK, still doesn't change the point.