2021-22 OKC Thunder Regular Season Discussion

[ThunderBolt]

Athletic player rankings 20-36…

Spoiler:

Booker
Holiday
Young
Williamson
Beal
Mitchell
Morant
Murray
Towns
Conley
30-Shai
Simmons
Draymomd
Jaylen brown
Siakam
Westbrook
Lavine

I like Morant but this is too high.

[spearsy23]

Athletic player rankings 20-36…

Spoiler:

Booker
Holiday
Young
Williamson
Beal
Mitchell
Morant
Murray
Towns
Conley
30-Shai
Simmons
Draymomd
Jaylen brown
Siakam
Westbrook
Lavine

I like Morant but this is too high.

Ja, Jrue, Murray, and Conley all too high (or at least shai should be in front of them. Russ way too low based on how he finished the season

[ThunderBolt]

Asked on Daily Thunder but I wanted to bring it over here just for ya'all's perspectives.

How long would it take for "Trust in Presti" to dissipate? How many draft whiffs would it take (not saying this for sure is a whiff, just hypothetically)?

I know Durant, Harden, Russ, even Serge, Reggie and Adams built a lot of credit, but there has to be a limit right?

Why do we ignore Sabonis, Oladipo, George, Shai, Gallo w/ Clippers picks and Westbrook for Cp3/rockets picks that were supposed to be late twenties pick?

The first round of drafting isn’t why Presti should be kept. It’s the fact that he’s made other moves since then that show me his previous success wasn’t a fluke. He’s not untouchable but he’s got a few years for me.

[bondom34]

Literally just started a rebuild. Like have been out of the playoffs one season. What is happening.

[bondom34]

Athletic player rankings 20-36…

Spoiler:

Booker
Holiday
Young
Williamson
Beal
Mitchell
Morant
Murray
Towns
Conley
30-Shai
Simmons
Draymomd
Jaylen brown
Siakam
Westbrook
Lavine

I like Morant but this is too high.

Ja, Jrue, Murray, and Conley all too high (or at least shai should be in front of them. Russ way too low based on how he finished the season

FWIW, they're tiers w/ sub tiers. So a lot of these guys are basically interchangable/situationally dependent. I don't entirely agree with them either but could add some context.

[namlede]

if we don't get a great player in this draft or next I'll start to lose faith in him. but we won't know that for like 3 or 4 years.

I think Giddey is pretty special.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using RealGM mobile app

[ThunderBolt]

Athletic player rankings 20-36…

Spoiler:

Booker
Holiday
Young
Williamson
Beal
Mitchell
Morant
Murray
Towns
Conley
30-Shai
Simmons
Draymomd
Jaylen brown
Siakam
Westbrook
Lavine

I like Morant but this is too high.

Ja, Jrue, Murray, and Conley all too high (or at least shai should be in front of them. Russ way too low based on how he finished the season

FWIW, they're tiers w/ sub tiers. So a lot of these guys are basically interchangable/situationally dependent. I don't entirely agree with them either but could add some context.

Booker-Zion 3a
Beal-Shai 3b
Simmons -Lavine 3c.

Shai was 4a last year.

[namlede]

our first rebuild it took year 3 to make the 8th seed.

year 1: KD/ Green
year 2: Westbrook/Ibaka
year 3: Harden

rebuild #2

year 1: SGA/Giddey
we still have 2 more years at the earliest to get back into the playoffs.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using RealGM mobile app

[ThunderBolt]

if we don't get a great player in this draft or next I'll start to lose faith in him. but we won't know that for like 3 or 4 years.

I think Giddey is pretty special.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using RealGM mobile app

Even then, it's not that simple. Do we miss on Giddey because he sucks or has a major knee injury? Do we miss on other picks because we select poorly or aren't getting lottery luck? Are we getting worse picks because we aren't properly positioning ourselves or just get screwed by ping pong balls?

[Dn4sty]

I think that Presti makes a decent push next offseason.

[Dn4sty]

if we don't get a great player in this draft or next I'll start to lose faith in him. but we won't know that for like 3 or 4 years.

I think Giddey is pretty special.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using RealGM mobile app

Even then, it's not that simple. Do we miss on Giddey because he sucks or has a major knee injury? Do we miss on other picks because we select poorly or aren't getting lottery luck? Are we getting worse picks because we aren't properly positioning ourselves or just get screwed by ping pong balls?

I think a lot of the frustration we have seen from OKC fans over the last few days is mitigated if Giddey doesn’t roll his ankle.

[thedoppelganger]

Asked on Daily Thunder but I wanted to bring it over here just for ya'all's perspectives.

How long would it take for "Trust in Presti" to dissipate? How many draft whiffs would it take (not saying this for sure is a whiff, just hypothetically)?

I know Durant, Harden, Russ, even Serge, Reggie and Adams built a lot of credit, but there has to be a limit right?

Why do we ignore Sabonis, Oladipo, George, Shai, Gallo w/ Clippers picks and Westbrook for Cp3/rockets picks that were supposed to be late twenties pick?

The first round of drafting isn’t why Presti should be kept. It’s the fact that he’s made other moves since then that show me his previous success wasn’t a fluke. He’s not untouchable but he’s got a few years for me.

You lose faith in a front office when they show they don't have a clear process/vision, and that's not an issue with Sam. As you listed he's made mostly the right moves from a big picture perspective since KD left, but the interesting part will be if the fanbase has his level of patience to go through this kind of rebuild.

The one thing I had an issue with was wasting half of last season upping the trade value of Horford + Hill. Did the Hill + SGA injuries actually save Sam from us landing in an even worse lottery position? The ultimate goal is drafting another star to pair with SGA, and we could've picked at the top if we had committed to just playing the youth from the start of the season.

We did have the worst imaginable lottery with falling to 6 and Houston getting Green, but that's more terrible luck than it is a bad process. The Rockets did everything wrong for a couple years and managed to fall ass backwards into the second pick, it doesn't mean Rafael Stone is some almighty genius. If we have bad lottery luck again next year though, our fanbase might combust based off the reactions this year.

[Mr Thunder Nick]

If the ping pong balls fall at pick no 1, Presti takes Cunningham and is the Greatest.
We had no luck this years draft and so we have to wait on better days.
I just hope that we let user young team play the hole season without sitting players in the intention to loose games.

[Old Man Game]

Asked on Daily Thunder but I wanted to bring it over here just for ya'all's perspectives.

How long would it take for "Trust in Presti" to dissipate? How many draft whiffs would it take (not saying this for sure is a whiff, just hypothetically)?

I know Durant, Harden, Russ, even Serge, Reggie and Adams built a lot of credit, but there has to be a limit right?

Why do we ignore Sabonis, Oladipo, George, Shai, Gallo w/ Clippers picks and Westbrook for Cp3/rockets picks that were supposed to be late twenties pick?

The first round of drafting isn’t why Presti should be kept. It’s the fact that he’s made other moves since then that show me his previous success wasn’t a fluke. He’s not untouchable but he’s got a few years for me.

Okay. Sure extend it to all those other moves that you listed. My underlying question still is at what point would people start to get fed up with him? Clearly he's built up a ton of credit. I was struck, in that Yahoo piece the other day, by the fact that he's the longest tenured GM in the league. I didn't realize that. It made me think about his longevity and future here.


Sent from my moto g power using RealGM mobile app

[ThunderBolt]

Asked on Daily Thunder but I wanted to bring it over here just for ya'all's perspectives.

How long would it take for "Trust in Presti" to dissipate? How many draft whiffs would it take (not saying this for sure is a whiff, just hypothetically)?

I know Durant, Harden, Russ, even Serge, Reggie and Adams built a lot of credit, but there has to be a limit right?

Why do we ignore Sabonis, Oladipo, George, Shai, Gallo w/ Clippers picks and Westbrook for Cp3/rockets picks that were supposed to be late twenties pick?

The first round of drafting isn’t why Presti should be kept. It’s the fact that he’s made other moves since then that show me his previous success wasn’t a fluke. He’s not untouchable but he’s got a few years for me.

Okay. Sure extend it to all those other moves that you listed. My underlying question still is at what point would people start to get fed up with him? Clearly he's built up a ton of credit. I was struck, in that Yahoo piece the other day, by the fact that he's the longest tenured GM in the league. I didn't realize that. It made me think about his longevity and future here.


Sent from my moto g power using RealGM mobile app

Like I said, he’s got a few years to undo the good. The rebuild is just now starting. He really hasn’t had time to fail other than not making moves that win over the media.

[thedoppelganger]

Read on Twitter

Gotta be the lowest Spurs win total O/U since last century.

Of note:
Houston @ 25.5
Detroit @ 25.5
Orlando @ 24
OKC @ 23.5 - yes Vegas thinks we'll have the lowest win total as of now

[ThunderBolt]

Read on Twitter

Gotta be the lowest Spurs win total O/U since last century.

Of note:
Houston @ 25.5
Detroit @ 25.5
Orlando @ 24
OKC @ 23.5 - yes Vegas thinks we'll have the lowest win total as of now

I have a bad feeling we will make Derrick Favors look like a stud.

[namlede]

do you guys think Shai makes another big leap? Last years leap was huge and made me think he might have what it takes to be a #1 option, not there yet but he is showing signs....

do you think he makes another big leap offensively to where he can get his anytime he wants, or does he make a big leap defensively where tha'ts his biggest weakness right now. Or do you think he plateaus?

[Dadouv47]

do you guys think Shai makes another big leap? Last years leap was huge and made me think he might have what it takes to be a #1 option, not there yet but he is showing signs....

do you think he makes another big leap offensively to where he can get his anytime he wants, or does he make a big leap defensively where tha'ts his biggest weakness right now. Or do you think he plateaus?

stats wise it's gonna be difficult. He won't shoot 41.8% from three again.

I can see him having a better impact on defense and attacking the paint (not that he was bad at it )

I obviously want him to improve and think he hasn't reach his ceiling yet but if he can do in 82 games what he did in 35 games last season, that's already pretty good. Think defense gonna be his major improvement.

If he makes a BIG leap, then you trade picks and go all in with Shai.

[Dn4sty]

do you guys think Shai makes another big leap? Last years leap was huge and made me think he might have what it takes to be a #1 option, not there yet but he is showing signs....

do you think he makes another big leap offensively to where he can get his anytime he wants, or does he make a big leap defensively where tha'ts his biggest weakness right now. Or do you think he plateaus?

stats wise it's gonna be difficult. He won't shoot 41.8% from three again.

I can see him having a better impact on defense and attacking the paint (not that he was bad at it )

I obviously want him to improve and think he hasn't reach his ceiling yet but if he can do in 82 games what he did in 35 games last season, that's already pretty good. Think defense gonna be his major improvement.

If he makes a BIG leap, then you trade picks and go all in with Shai.

You are right. He’s going to shoot 41.9%