20-21 OKC Thunder Regular Season News

thedoppelganger · Post #641 » by **thedoppelganger** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 2:57 am

Post #642 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 3:30 am

gabriel deck is 'meh'. the report said a three year deal. so effectively two years. the report on micic is a lot more interesting. he is legit, and could possibly be a surplus value piece for a few seasons depending what he would sign for. with no buyout to pay, the amount could be reasonable.

namlede · Post #643 » by **namlede** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 3:43 am

At the time I was shocked at the Steven Adams trade, but now I'm starting to get it. Sam wants the next great Thunder team to be the complete opposite of the KD/Russ/Harden days of iso ball. To do that he needed to get rid of everyone that played with Russ imo.

I'm really excited to see where this team goes.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using RealGM mobile app

Old Man Game · Post #644 » by **Old Man Game** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 3:45 am

namlede wrote:At the time I was shocked at the Steven Adams trade, but now I'm starting to get it. Sam wants the next great Thunder team to be the complete opposite of the KD/Russ/Harden days of iso ball. To do that he needed to get rid of everyone that played with Russ imo.

I'm really excited to see where this team goes.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using RealGM mobile app

I have no idea if this is a function of plan or just that we have more unremarkable players who can't create out of isolation, but I will say, we've actually ran more offense this year than I think I've ever seen from our team.

itzmrgigglez · Post #645 » by **itzmrgigglez** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 4:51 am

slick_watts wrote:gabriel deck is 'meh'. the report said a three year deal. so effectively two years. the report on micic is a lot more interesting. he is legit, and could possibly be a surplus value piece for a few seasons depending what he would sign for. with no buyout to pay, the amount could be reasonable.

I don’t see the point off a adding a guy who doesn’t fit our timeline and who can help us win now this hurting our tank this season. Unless he’s tryna get more veteran presence, I don’t get the point of adding Deck

jake_swivel · Post #646 » by **jake_swivel** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 8:48 am

Folks might want to get comfortable with the likelihood that okc isn’t tanking after this season. Wouldn’t be surprised seeing Horford back.

Post #647 » by **ThunderBolt** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 10:34 am

itzmrgigglez wrote:
slick_watts wrote:gabriel deck is 'meh'. the report said a three year deal. so effectively two years. the report on micic is a lot more interesting. he is legit, and could possibly be a surplus value piece for a few seasons depending what he would sign for. with no buyout to pay, the amount could be reasonable.

I don’t see the point off a adding a guy who doesn’t fit our timeline and who can help us win now this hurting our tank this season. Unless he’s tryna get more veteran presence, I don’t get the point of adding Deck

Tanking can become toxic to a culture. If Sam feels he has several long term pieces on the current roster, he might be trying to avoid that. Also, Micic is valuable and there isn’t any point in not using an asset and maximizing his value either to develop the current guys or as a trade piece. Maybe both.

Post #648 » by **ThunderBolt** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 10:37 am

jake_swivel wrote:Folks might want to get comfortable with the likelihood that okc isn’t tanking after this season. Wouldn’t be surprised seeing Horford back.

Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis and New Orleans are all teams that tanked briefly and tried to get back in to contention soon. I think that’s the goal for most teams. It’s just that others that due it annually have typically been poorer run organizations.

Woerzboerg · Post #649 » by **Woerzboerg** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 10:41 am

I'm absoluteley fine not to tank next season, even more if we can get a very good young player out of this years draft. This year we would have had a shot at the play-in tournament if we wouldn't tank hard and I think there is no reason to assume that we don't have a shot at the playoffs next year. Our pick will go to Atlanta then, but we will have the unprotected Clippers-Pick and probably the Suns-Pick in 2022s draft, so this ist ok.

A roster like this is going to compete for sure:

SGA-Maledon-Micic
Dort
Williams-Deck
Poku-Bazley
Horford-Brown

And we will add two to four rookies to this and maybe free agents. There will be no tanking next season and that's ok.

Mickey8 · Post #650 » by **Mickey8** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 11:30 am

I wonder how Micic will adopt in the NBA, to me he was always a half full glass kind of a player, but he has really improved in the last 2,3 years playing in Turkey, he's an excellent passer , thats when he could help Thunder probably, as the facilitator off the bench.

Post #651 » by **Dadouv47** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 11:31 am

Guess we aren't going after RFA players if we are bringing so many guys (Micic/Deck)

How much is the minimum salary cap? We have 50 millions guaranteed for next year. We will have to pay some guys...

jake_swivel · Post #652 » by **jake_swivel** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 11:51 am

Dadouv47 wrote:Guess we aren't going after RFA players if we are bringing so many guys (Micic/Deck)

How much is the minimum salary cap? We have 50 millions guaranteed for next year. We will have to pay some guys...

90% of the cap. But there is no penalty for being under it. You are forced to spread out the difference to the remaining players. Which is a boon for dudes like Dort. Good for morale.

I think Presti will want to stay as asset rich as possible, so keeping exceptions are just another chip for trades. I think there are going to be bundle trades throughout the next season where okc has fewer players coming back. Likely with outsized salary coming in.

jake_swivel · Post #653 » by **jake_swivel** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 11:56 am

ThunderBolt wrote:Tanking can become toxic to a culture. If Sam feels he has several long term pieces on the current roster, he might be trying to avoid that. Also, Micic is valuable and there isn’t any point in not using an asset and maximizing his value either to develop the current guys or as a trade piece. Maybe both.

Yup, tanking can be toxic. And winning can be contagious. I was all for tanking this year and next, but with the pieces we have, I totally get erring on the side of maintaining a winning culture.

I think we are looking at a Denver-like build. Set your long term pieces, develop from within while taking shots at high upside guys (MPJ/Bol), then bundle the assets you’ve developed for players who fit your team. Those assets value is increased when they have contributed to a winning team.

Mix in some aspects of the spurs build. It’s an interesting strategy that I wouldn’t have chosen, but I think it’s likely to yield very promising results.

Post #654 » by **ThunderBolt** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:01 pm

Dadouv47 wrote:Guess we aren't going after RFA players if we are bringing so many guys (Micic/Deck)

How much is the minimum salary cap? We have 50 millions guaranteed for next year. We will have to pay some guys...

I'm ok with that. Even if we could land some of the guys in free agency, most of them just don't excite me very much.

jake_swivel · Post #655 » by **jake_swivel** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:02 pm

This season did not meet my tanking expectations. But I think I’m fine with it. I love the Euro direction. This team is going to be fun to watch. They are going to compete and move the ball. They’re going to be smart.

Post #656 » by **ThunderBolt** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:03 pm

jake_swivel wrote:
ThunderBolt wrote:Tanking can become toxic to a culture. If Sam feels he has several long term pieces on the current roster, he might be trying to avoid that. Also, Micic is valuable and there isn’t any point in not using an asset and maximizing his value either to develop the current guys or as a trade piece. Maybe both.

Yup, tanking can be toxic. And winning can be contagious. I was all for tanking this year and next, but with the pieces we have, I totally get erring on the side of maintaining a winning culture.

I think we are looking at a Denver like build. Set your long term pieces, develop from within while taking shots at high upside guys (MPJ/Bol), then bundle the assets you’ve developed for players who fit your team. Those assets value is increased when they have contributed to a winning team.

Yep. And there is going to be a year where we are able to make a big splash in the draft by trading up. Maybe it's this year or maybe it's not. But it's going to happen eventually.

jake_swivel · Post #657 » by **jake_swivel** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:10 pm

slick_watts wrote:gabriel deck is 'meh'.

Andres Nocioni was meh, too. But on those mid-2000s bulls teams, he was integral along a ton of young guys. He was a professional, hardhat guy who helped create an attitude of “we are working hard and you aren’t messing with us.” I love having 2 of these dudes on the team. Kenrich is another. That attitude is contagious.

Post #658 » by **Dadouv47** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:18 pm

I think we should still end up with a top 10 pick next season. We are not going to tank but we are still developing A LOT of young guys.

I hope Presti will move on from some young guys that aren't going to be part of our future team ...Roby & Jerome are fine players but I just don't see it.

jake_swivel · Post #659 » by **jake_swivel** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 12:21 pm

Dadouv47 wrote:I hope Presti will move on from some young guys that aren't going to be part of our future team ...Roby & Jerome are fine players but I just don't see it.

Build value. Create RCovingtons and TJ McConnells. Bundle with draft picks. Take back salary. Trade 2 nickels for a dime. Continue building value with other players. Repeat.

Post #660 » by **Dadouv47** » Fri Apr 9, 2021 1:05 pm

Read on Twitter

/photo/1

tank 3 weeks before and we had a top 5 pick ;(