Who is our best young wing?

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Who is our best young wing? 

Post#1 » by getrichordie » Fri Feb 7, 2020 2:40 am

Given what we have seen from our young wings so far this season, who would you say is our best young wing?

Ferguson is still only 21 and has the physical tools, but he's shooting a putrid 32% from 3, but is finishing well around the rim. Also, he's only attempted 11 free throws the entire season. How in the hell? At least he's solid on the defensive end, but he needs to add weight. I'm just not sure he can.

Dort seems to move his feet well and appears to be serviceable on the perimeter. He can definitely body and bother opposing players. He's getting the Thunder folk excited. He's displayed some impressive shooting streaks and is younger than both Ferguson and Diallo. I personally like his shooting form and foundation over Ferguson and Diallo's.

I'm not sure there is anyone on the Thunder more athletic than Diallo, but it just doesn't translate on offense. At least, not yet. While he's certainly solid on defense, Diallo can't hit a 3 to save his life and he's not exactly Roberson, but he's suuuuuper athletic, right? At least his dunks look awesome.

...
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#2 » by Thunder Up » Fri Feb 7, 2020 3:06 am

Dort and Bazley have loads of promise, Diallo needs to be gone ASAP, Ferguson can go he is too passive on offense after this many years, his shot has regressed, and he hasn't put on any muscle at all
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#3 » by getrichordie » Fri Feb 7, 2020 4:00 am

Thunder Up wrote:Dort and Bazley have loads of promise, Diallo needs to be gone ASAP, Ferguson can go he is too passive on offense after this many years, his shot has regressed, and he hasn't put on any muscle at all


Do you see Bazley as a wing? I see him as a big. He primarily plays the 4.

I am personally over Hami. There's a ton of athletic wings in the NBA that can't shoot. They don't really contribute long-term unless they are just that superior defensively. The only reason Roberson lasted as long as he did was because he was literally the best perimeter defender in the league. One could even argue he was better than Kawhi, but he was able to survive because he played next to two uber offensive super stars in Durant and Westbrook for so long. That won't be the case for Diallo or Ferguson unless Presti hits the lottery again.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#4 » by ThunderBolt » Fri Feb 7, 2020 10:54 am

I like the idea of pairing another combo guard with Shai. Dort is the only player that I feel like I want to see more of what he can do but he was his flaws too.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#5 » by slick_watts » Fri Feb 7, 2020 4:15 pm

i don't have much confidence in any of our non-SGA young players having lasting impact on a contender.

if one of them learns to shoot it could make any of them somewhat valuable. sifting through to find another 'dre won't be a productive process though, i'm afraid.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#6 » by spearsy23 » Sat Feb 8, 2020 3:23 pm

slick_watts wrote:i don't have much confidence in any of our non-SGA young players having lasting impact on a contender.

if one of them learns to shoot it could make any of them somewhat valuable. sifting through to find another 'dre won't be a productive process though, i'm afraid.

The concerning thing is that if ANY of then became league average shooters they still wouldn't be average players. It's not a huge indictment because they're all so young, but when your best skillset isn't even average there isn't a lot of hope.
“If you're getting stops and you're making threes and the other team's not scoring, that's when you're going to see a huge point difference there,” coach Billy Donovan said.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#7 » by getrichordie » Sun Feb 9, 2020 4:23 pm

spearsy23 wrote:
slick_watts wrote:i don't have much confidence in any of our non-SGA young players having lasting impact on a contender.

if one of them learns to shoot it could make any of them somewhat valuable. sifting through to find another 'dre won't be a productive process though, i'm afraid.

The concerning thing is that if ANY of then became league average shooters they still wouldn't be average players. It's not a huge indictment because they're all so young, but when your best skillset isn't even average there isn't a lot of hope.


I think that is an exaggeration. Ferguson is above average defensively and Dort has shown chops as well as Diallo. If these guys turned into consistent league average shooters, that would certainly be rotation players and have long careers. But that is a big if. Don't down play the value of defense.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#8 » by spearsy23 » Sun Feb 9, 2020 5:01 pm

getrichordie wrote:
spearsy23 wrote:
slick_watts wrote:i don't have much confidence in any of our non-SGA young players having lasting impact on a contender.

if one of them learns to shoot it could make any of them somewhat valuable. sifting through to find another 'dre won't be a productive process though, i'm afraid.

The concerning thing is that if ANY of then became league average shooters they still wouldn't be average players. It's not a huge indictment because they're all so young, but when your best skillset isn't even average there isn't a lot of hope.


I think that is an exaggeration. Ferguson is above average defensively and Dort has shown chops as well as Diallo. If these guys turned into consistent league average shooters, that would certainly be rotation players and have long careers. But that is a big if. Don't down play the value of defense.

Hami is trash defensively. Ferguson WAS a league average shooter last year, and played much better defense than this year, and was still a negative. Dort has a body of work barely longer than my nba resume.
“If you're getting stops and you're making threes and the other team's not scoring, that's when you're going to see a huge point difference there,” coach Billy Donovan said.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#9 » by sleestak33 » Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:58 pm

Funny...the best wing player OKC has you didn't even mention and that's Abdul Nader. The few games he started this year when Ferguson was out he showed enough of an offensive skillset along with decent defense to say that he should be their starting small forward. The problem is they play him so sporadically that he never really is able to get into any kind of a rhythm. At the end of the day though there is something seriously wrong with the evaluation of talent going on at the small forward/shooting guard position. To somehow end up with Ferguson, Dort, Abdul Nader and Diallo at your collection of wing players is just inexcusable especially considering they gave away Lamb and Grant. You put Grant on this team and put him out there starting instead of Ferguson and I think they're a championship caliber team. I have no idea why they got rid of him.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#10 » by ThunderBolt » Mon Feb 10, 2020 8:15 pm

I don't know how anyone could have strong feelings about any of these guys being the "best". That's like debating about who has the best gas station hot dog.


bisme37 wrote:If there were magnets in basketballs so strong they changed the path of the ball as it flew through the air, wouldn't the ball then stick magnetically to the rim when it got there?
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#11 » by sleestak33 » Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:56 am

ThunderBolt wrote:I don't know how anyone could have strong feelings about any of these guys being the "best". That's like debating about who has the best gas station hot dog.




LOL...this is true. I'm basing my opinion on who has the highest upside offensively and that's Abdul Nader because he can score off the dribble fairly consistently. Plus he's at 36% on 3s and 82% on free throws so he's the best shooter of the bunch. None of these guys are the answer though.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#12 » by slick_watts » Wed Feb 12, 2020 12:40 pm

this thread is about young wings. nader is 26. he's 10 days younger than dennis schroder.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#13 » by ThunderBolt » Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:19 pm

slick_watts wrote:this thread is about young wings. nader is 26. he's 10 days younger than dennis schroder.

I thought Dennis should have been included too.
bisme37 wrote:If there were magnets in basketballs so strong they changed the path of the ball as it flew through the air, wouldn't the ball then stick magnetically to the rim when it got there?
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#14 » by Great » Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:24 pm

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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#15 » by Kizz Fastfists » Thu Feb 13, 2020 5:55 pm

SGA is clearly the best young wing no the team. No one else has proven they can be a long-term solution with Ferguson having shown the most potential out of the rest and is the only one you can really expect to become a good rotation player at this point, but he has to get over whatever is bothering him this year and take another step forward like he did last year.

I don't believe Diallo has the discipline to recreate his shot and become good enough there to be decent and he doesn't do anything good enough to get by as a Roberson level shooter. Nader is garbage, but is passable for 10-15 min a night but he is already entering his prime so it isn't like he's got much growth left in him. Diallo is a broke man's church league version of Russ.

Dort can't shoot. He did a good job giving max effort to look like a fringe NBA player until he started to experience the NBA grind and reality hit in that you can't give 110% effort every game and maintain that level. Dort is fundamentally sound on defense, but lacks length for bigger players and gives you nothing on offense.

Diallo and Dort are the prototype for wings that Presti chases. Atheltic, but it doesn't translate to the NBA. Ferguson is a bit more skilled and a bit less athletic. Ferguson isn't the typical Presti wing and seems more like he was trying to find KMart 2.0, which is the type of player I would love for them to find on the wing. Ferguson is great when he plays aggressive and a glaring issue when he just stands in the corner. The fact that he has shown he can be aggressive, cut and move on offense, but rarely does led me to think it is a coaching thing. Diallo and Dort can't stand there to catch and shoot because they can't shoot, but since Ferguson can shoot it seems Donovan just wants him there so he can say he has spacing without actually understanding the concept. It is the same thing Sabonis did when he was here which was a complete waste of his talent and then he goes to Indy and explodes with good coaching because he had the ability but Donovan didn't know how to use him with another big man while Indy has no problems using him with other bigs.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#16 » by 1bigfan13 » Sat Feb 15, 2020 2:19 pm

Obviously SGA has the best upside and looks to be a future all-star. But I'm going to throw Bazley's name in there as well.

I like what I've seen from Bazley so far. Great length. Plays with a great deal of confidence for a young player. Is comfortable putting the ball on the floor.

He looks like he'll eventually be one of those solid small forwards who will be able to chip in 17 & 8 on a regular basis. Once Gallinari & CP3 have departed he's one of those guys who I think will pick up the slack.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#17 » by spearsy23 » Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:41 pm

Ferguson was an attempt to find k-mart 2.0? Wut? He's the quintessential presti wing. No ball skills at all but runs really fast and jumps really high.
“If you're getting stops and you're making threes and the other team's not scoring, that's when you're going to see a huge point difference there,” coach Billy Donovan said.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#18 » by Thunder Up » Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:09 pm

One day Kizz will let it go that he was incredibly wrong about Ferguson
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#19 » by getrichordie » Sun Feb 16, 2020 9:32 pm

Kizz Fastfists wrote:SGA is clearly the best young wing no the team. No one else has proven they can be a long-term solution with Ferguson having shown the most potential out of the rest and is the only one you can really expect to become a good rotation player at this point, but he has to get over whatever is bothering him this year and take another step forward like he did last year.

I don't believe Diallo has the discipline to recreate his shot and become good enough there to be decent and he doesn't do anything good enough to get by as a Roberson level shooter. Nader is garbage, but is passable for 10-15 min a night but he is already entering his prime so it isn't like he's got much growth left in him. Diallo is a broke man's church league version of Russ.

Dort can't shoot. He did a good job giving max effort to look like a fringe NBA player until he started to experience the NBA grind and reality hit in that you can't give 110% effort every game and maintain that level. Dort is fundamentally sound on defense, but lacks length for bigger players and gives you nothing on offense.

Diallo and Dort are the prototype for wings that Presti chases. Atheltic, but it doesn't translate to the NBA. Ferguson is a bit more skilled and a bit less athletic. Ferguson isn't the typical Presti wing and seems more like he was trying to find KMart 2.0, which is the type of player I would love for them to find on the wing. Ferguson is great when he plays aggressive and a glaring issue when he just stands in the corner. The fact that he has shown he can be aggressive, cut and move on offense, but rarely does led me to think it is a coaching thing. Diallo and Dort can't stand there to catch and shoot because they can't shoot, but since Ferguson can shoot it seems Donovan just wants him there so he can say he has spacing without actually understanding the concept. It is the same thing Sabonis did when he was here which was a complete waste of his talent and then he goes to Indy and explodes with good coaching because he had the ability but Donovan didn't know how to use him with another big man while Indy has no problems using him with other bigs.


Obviously, it's SGA. Should've mentioned that this was a post about wings other than SGA.

Dort is still young, so he still has a chance to improve, but it's going to take a lot of work. He needs to show he can provide more than what Ferguson/Diallo can to keep getting minutes.
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Re: Who is our best young wing? 

Post#20 » by No-Man » Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:44 am

Easily Bazley if you count him as a wing

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