20-21 OKC Thunder Regular Season News

[ThunderBolt]

So Dennis Schroder’s shooting has come down to earth. CP3 is frustrated with his teammates effort. Gallo has missed a ton of time with a sprained ankle.
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[ThunderBolt]

Spoiler:

sga has had an encouraging start to this season. if he keeps it up i'm comfortable with a max extension this summer. i'm not sure i'm convinced he'll become a top 10-15 player, but i think the potential is rapidly increasing.

sga is currently at >.400 FTr and >.300 3PAr (with 3PT% > league average) on > 25% usage. this tends to be the realm where the most consistent scorers operate. over the last five seasons, the only players who routinely do this are james harden and kevin durant. isiah thomas and lou williams have done it during their peak years. and elite stretch bigs have done it also, like kevin love or demarcus cousins. sga is one of four players meeting these criteria this season, along with aforementioned harden and durant, and damian lillard.

assuming this holds, it'll be a huge step in the right direction for shai, particularly the FTr. .400 FTr or higher would insulate his offensive impact from shooting variance. it's the thing that make 'star' players like jamal murray and donovan mitchell frustrating to watch. they have to rely so much on their mediocre jump shots. if shai draws fouls like this, he won't have to.

this is also evidenced by his improved shot distribution. so far this season only 28% of sga's FGA have been 2-point attempts outside the restricted area. a 10% reduction from last year. that he is shooting a better percentage at the rim and from three as well-- well, that's why he's at 62%+ TS at the moment.

so yeah if he maintains this, it would be super exciting for the team's future. at that point the only thing holding him back from super stardom would be his usage, which seems to be sticking in that 25-27% range. sga doesn't seem comfortable, yet, extending his usage into the 30%+ like the elite volume scorers do. but if he keeps up what he's doing now AND can do so while taking the workload of an elite scorer? he'd be a top 10 player or very, very close to it.

hoping sga continues his strong play because it'll be the most exciting thing to look forward to in terms of player development for the thunder since durant / harden / westbrook.

Until he takes the next step, I appreciate that shai isn't hijacking the offense trying to get his own.

[slick_watts]

So Dennis Schroder’s shooting has come down to earth. CP3 is frustrated with his teammates effort. Gallo has missed a ton of time with a sprained ankle.

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sam hit big on schroder. lots of fans wanted to keep him long term. his shooting #'s last season were just insane relative to the rest of his career. it was wise to sell high.

the draft position we sacrificed last season by winning games was worth it considering we got out of cp3's deal so painlessly as a result. thinking about all the thunder ultimately got out of westbrook with four seasons and 160mm left on his contract, it's up there with sam presti's finest work. hopefully we follow through on it.

[slick_watts]

Maledon 45.45 3PT% when starting next to SGA.

This is obviously minuscule sample size but its clear just from the eye test and Theo's career FT% that he's gonna be a good shooter. I hope as he gets older we see a lot of development in his shot diversity. He's kind of passive by nature but it'd be sweet if down the line someday he's shooting step backs out of isolation.

hm, i don't think this is clear at all that he'll be a good shooter. lots of ~80% free throw shooters aren't good 3pt shooters. russell westbrook being one of the prolific modern examples. 80% from the line, 30% from three.

[retrobro90]

Maledon 45.45 3PT% when starting next to SGA.

This is obviously minuscule sample size but its clear just from the eye test and Theo's career FT% that he's gonna be a good shooter. I hope as he gets older we see a lot of development in his shot diversity. He's kind of passive by nature but it'd be sweet if down the line someday he's shooting step backs out of isolation.

hm, i don't think this is clear at all that he'll be a good shooter. lots of ~80% free throw shooters aren't good 3pt shooters. russell westbrook being one of the prolific modern examples. 80% from the line, 30% from three.

Right but eye test as well I think his form on his 3 is much nicer than someone like Russ. Doesn't squish his own head with his shoulders and shoots from the bottom of his feet. Not to mention the shot selection between the two is hardly a comparison.

[thedoppelganger]

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[ThunderBolt]

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In a normal year I would be less worried about this. However with a shortened season and teams having games canceled and other unknowns, it just feels like this could come back to bite us when the ping pong balls don’t go our way.

[retrobro90]

This is obviously minuscule sample size but its clear just from the eye test and Theo's career FT% that he's gonna be a good shooter. I hope as he gets older we see a lot of development in his shot diversity. He's kind of passive by nature but it'd be sweet if down the line someday he's shooting step backs out of isolation.

hm, i don't think this is clear at all that he'll be a good shooter. lots of ~80% free throw shooters aren't good 3pt shooters. russell westbrook being one of the prolific modern examples. 80% from the line, 30% from three.

Right but eye test as well I think his form on his 3 is much nicer than someone like Russ. Doesn't squish his own head with his shoulders and shoots from the bottom of his feet. Not to mention the shot selection between the two is hardly a comparison.

And tonight Maledon goes 6-6 from outside

[ThunderBolt]

Theo staying in the starting lineup?

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[ThunderBolt]

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[ThunderBolt]

I’m looking forward to seeing this kid play when he gets healthy. His highlights were impressive before his injury.

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[Dadouv47]

Poku gonna play with the blue. Good for his development but not for the tank.

[ThunderBolt]

Poku gonna play with the blue. Good for his development but not for the tank.

I don’t really have an opinion on this. I don’t know which is better for player development and how more playing time vs inferior competition helps as opposed to practicing and playing against the first team guys. I’m sure they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think it was for the best. Jerome kind of surprises me.

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[ThunderBolt]

Sam and company either knew he sucked when they drafted him or figured it out soon after he arrived.

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[Dadouv47]

Poku gonna play with the blue. Good for his development but not for the tank.

I don’t really have an opinion on this. I don’t know which is better for player development and how more playing time vs inferior competition helps as opposed to practicing and playing against the first team guys. I’m sure they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t think it was for the best. Jerome kind of surprises me.

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Well he clearly lacks confidence and he misses open shots anyway so I guess it's better for him to be able to play more minutes.

Sending the rookie you traded two FRPs for to the G league is not a good look but whatever...hope he will improve.

[jambalaya]

Less than 1 pt from worst SRS in league. At team "factor" level it is 4 near average, 3 bad, 1 good.

In 6-8 team race for ultimate last playoff seed next season, not really or possibly better? How long to 6th seed or better? Scratch n claw for every spot up.

[Dadouv47]

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Oh well no more trade talks about Hill. Hope he recovers quickly

[Dadouv47]

Pretty weird that our organisation is saying how long a player is out...that's a first

[thedoppelganger]

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Oh well no more trade talks about Hill. Hope he recovers quickly

So he'll return after the all star break, which is only a couple weeks before the trade deadline. Not a bad timeline, and he misses a tough stretch of games we've got over the next month

[ThunderBolt]

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Oh well no more trade talks about Hill. Hope he recovers quickly

I just don’t think hill was going to really get that much of an asset. In a way this is kind of a good thing. He can stay around the team and be a good locker room guy but not impact winning on the court.