2021-22 OKC Thunder Regular Season Discussion

[BlazersBroncos]

I think OKC has to make some type of move to clear out this rotation. I have been a fan of keeping Kenrich around b/c going full young isnt ideal, but he is just taking time from some younger guys. I also think Maledon is the odd man out, long term, and should be moved if possible. I have voiced that IMO Ty is a guy that might have a long term role as a shooter, so I like the idea of keeping him. I think Deck should be gone as well.

IMO this is a true tank year, so you need to get Poku and Vit time to see what you have. This offseason the Thunder should be spending FA money to build a winner around SGA, Giddey, 2022 FRP and hopefully Poku (Assuming he shows some progress, he wont become reliable by seasons end but you hope for some more consistent flashes. Letdown that his shot looks the same, he needs to work on that).

I think you move Maledon, Roby, Kenrich and Deck for something and roll with a distribution like this:

G - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32) / Ty Jerome (16)
G - Lou Dort (30) / Terrance Mann (18)
F - Josh Giddey (30) / Vit Krejic (18)
F - Darius Bazely (24) / Aleksej Pokusevski (24)
C - Derrick Favors (18) / Mike Muscala (15) / Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (15)

Maledon to me just doesnt have a trait that stands out as a compliment to the guys that are likely to be long term fits (SGA, Lou, Mann)
Roby is a nice swiss army knife, but he is older than Baze and doesnt have the athletic potential IMO
Kenrich and Deck are win-now types that just dont fit the timeline

See what you have as the team will suck either way.

[getrichordie]

I think the optimistic outlook and probable direction is that we are trying to get a good look at our young guys. We know what Jerome can do. I think we think that Kenrich can show more than what he has, as well. At the same time, we are trying to put something on the floor that makes sense in terms of development.

With all that said, guys will spend time with Blue. It’s gonna be a lot of shuffling and once we have a solid feel for who we like and who we think needs to be moved to cultivate and develop those guys we like, decisions will be made this season, IMO. The clock is ticking. We have to make room for the next draft class.

[kdthunderup]

I’m completely out on Bazley. I wonder if we can package him for Bagley.

[slick_watts]

there is no plan to get a look at the young guys. we just have an inexperienced and incompetent coaching staff. which is by design. sam presti did this before, when he hired p.j. carlesimo to tank. no one in their right mind would have hired him at the time to win with a young roster. the thunder coaching staff last season had one highly experienced nba coach and that was mike miller. after failing to tank to the bottom what does sam presti do? lets mike miller walk. now the thunder have three rookie nba coaches- eric maynor, zach peterson and kameron woods. mike wilks has only three years of nba coaching experience, most of his post-playing career was as a scout. david akinyooye is a nobody. only 32 years old, three years of nba coaching experience and not much elsewhere. dave bliss is the only one with any sort of actual nba experience, but not much.

this is a coaching staff assembled to suck. if or when the thunder get serious, daigneault and most of these guys will be gone.

[kdthunderup]

Was one of the most poorly coached games I have ever seen. At no single moment did any of the lineups we threw out there make any sense.

All our lineups lacked both size and shooting. When the game was clearly lost we didn’t even give our best prospects any minutes.

[bbms]

This season is going to be unbearable to watch.

[getrichordie]

Settle down, folks. 80 games left.

[Dadouv47]

That was ugly and it's only the beginnning. Hope SGA will improve though because he doesn't look like a max guy right now

[Mr Thunder Nick]

Congratulation Sam Presti : This is real a bad team. Can't wait draft night.

[Dadouv47]

Can't wait the lottery to get the 5th pick (or 4th)

You don't need such a bad team to secure a top 5 pick. I'm fine with our guards (even if I don't like Mann) but still don't get why we didn't draft a better big or even traded for one. Bazley is a mess and JRE has little upside.

[Dadouv47]

Doesn't matter how many times we say SGA understand the process and the rebuild, if our team is that bad all season he may ask for a trade. I'm fine with being so bad this season but Presti should accelerate the rebuild next offseason.

[Old Man Game]

I'm pissed. I haven't been able to get league pass team choice to work though I've subscribed and used it all last year so I haven't seen a game yet. Sinclair broadcasting can go jump in a lake. They have messed up local radio and now they've screwed local sports too

Sent from my moto g power using RealGM mobile app

[jake_swivel]

there is no plan to get a look at the young guys. we just have an inexperienced and incompetent coaching staff. which is by design.

I mean, maybe there is no plan to get a look at young guys. Or maybe Presti was like, "We can't do what we did last season again. No half measures. Play around with the lineup. Play the youngest, least nba-ready guys minutes. Put everyone in weird situations. Try to develop them, but lose, and lose dependably." Presti getting rid of Kemba before the season says to me that Presti isn't interested in having a repeat of last year. Seems pretty early to have any set in stone opinion about this coaching staff. Personally, I think Coach D ends up having a long career.

[Dadouv47]

I think OKC has to make some type of move to clear out this rotation. I have been a fan of keeping Kenrich around b/c going full young isnt ideal, but he is just taking time from some younger guys. I also think Maledon is the odd man out, long term, and should be moved if possible. I have voiced that IMO Ty is a guy that might have a long term role as a shooter, so I like the idea of keeping him. I think Deck should be gone as well.

IMO this is a true tank year, so you need to get Poku and Vit time to see what you have. This offseason the Thunder should be spending FA money to build a winner around SGA, Giddey, 2022 FRP and hopefully Poku (Assuming he shows some progress, he wont become reliable by seasons end but you hope for some more consistent flashes. Letdown that his shot looks the same, he needs to work on that).

I think you move Maledon, Roby, Kenrich and Deck for something and roll with a distribution like this:

G - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (32) / Ty Jerome (16)
G - Lou Dort (30) / Terrance Mann (18)
F - Josh Giddey (30) / Vit Krejic (18)
F - Darius Bazely (24) / Aleksej Pokusevski (24)
C - Derrick Favors (18) / Mike Muscala (15) / Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (15)

Maledon to me just doesnt have a trait that stands out as a compliment to the guys that are likely to be long term fits (SGA, Lou, Mann)
Roby is a nice swiss army knife, but he is older than Baze and doesnt have the athletic potential IMO
Kenrich and Deck are win-now types that just dont fit the timeline

See what you have as the team will suck either way.

I wouldn't give up on Maledon just yet. He's still very young and I like his upside. Agree about the rest though. We have too many "meh" players and we need to get rid of some and play most of our talented young guys.

[bbms]

This Giddey guy is a legit offensive anchor. He dynamizes the offense.

Sucks for SGA because he's marketed himself heavily as the Thunder's PG, but I already see SGA looking for Giddey to handle the ball. I'm not worried about fit on the court, I think Giddey enables SGA as a top-level scorer in the long run.

They both play winning basketball and are sound decision-makers, I have no doubt about that.

[BlazersBroncos]

This Giddey guy is a legit offensive anchor. He dynamizes the offense.

Sucks for SGA because he's marketed himself heavily as the Thunder's PG, but I already see SGA looking for Giddey to handle the ball. I'm not worried about fit on the court, I think Giddey enables SGA as a top-level scorer in the long run.

They both play winning basketball and are sound decision-makers, I have no doubt about that.

The narrative that they cant share the ball is just nonsense. We have Durant, Harden and Irving on the same team sharing the ball just fine. No reason SGA and Josh cant not just make it work, but make it flourish, as the two primary ballhandlers.

Glad to see Josh have his first good game. I think these statlines will become very common in the coming months. He is just born to be an offensively gifted NBA player.

Poku has been quite dissapointing so far through 3 games. Not really seeing any improvements in decision making and his shot is still crazy streaky. Hope he can make a jump at some point similar to what he did last year after coming up from the gleague. The kid has such a unique skillset, he just needs to keep working.

[bbms]

This Giddey guy is a legit offensive anchor. He dynamizes the offense.

Sucks for SGA because he's marketed himself heavily as the Thunder's PG, but I already see SGA looking for Giddey to handle the ball. I'm not worried about fit on the court, I think Giddey enables SGA as a top-level scorer in the long run.

They both play winning basketball and are sound decision-makers, I have no doubt about that.

The narrative that they cant share the ball is just nonsense. We have Durant, Harden and Irving on the same team sharing the ball just fine. No reason SGA and Josh cant not just make it work, but make it flourish, as the two primary ballhandlers.

Glad to see Josh have his first good game. I think these statlines will become very common in the coming months. He is just born to be an offensively gifted NBA player.

Poku has been quite dissapointing so far through 3 games. Not really seeing any improvements in decision making and his shot is still crazy streaky. Hope he can make a jump at some point similar to what he did last year after coming up from the gleague. The kid has such a unique skillset, he just needs to keep working.

I think Poku would improve leaps and bounds if he just improved shot selection. I like what he's been able to do on on-the-ball drives to the rim. I think he has played better than Bazley who is a similar offensive player.

[BlazersBroncos]

This Giddey guy is a legit offensive anchor. He dynamizes the offense.

Sucks for SGA because he's marketed himself heavily as the Thunder's PG, but I already see SGA looking for Giddey to handle the ball. I'm not worried about fit on the court, I think Giddey enables SGA as a top-level scorer in the long run.

They both play winning basketball and are sound decision-makers, I have no doubt about that.

The narrative that they cant share the ball is just nonsense. We have Durant, Harden and Irving on the same team sharing the ball just fine. No reason SGA and Josh cant not just make it work, but make it flourish, as the two primary ballhandlers.

Glad to see Josh have his first good game. I think these statlines will become very common in the coming months. He is just born to be an offensively gifted NBA player.

Poku has been quite dissapointing so far through 3 games. Not really seeing any improvements in decision making and his shot is still crazy streaky. Hope he can make a jump at some point similar to what he did last year after coming up from the gleague. The kid has such a unique skillset, he just needs to keep working.

I think Poku would improve leaps and bounds if he just improved shot selection. I like what he's been able to do on on-the-ball drives to the rim. I think he has played better than Bazley who is a similar offensive player.

Ya, I think the minutes Bazley is getting should mostly go to Poku. I just dont see it with Bazley, I think he is JAG (Just-a-guy), a deep bench warm body. Poku can get to the rim much better, sees the floor much better and just overall has more potential.

[kdthunderup]

It’s only a small sample size but Giddey is leading the team in most advanced stats. No surprise for anyone who has watched the team play.

[slick_watts]

i'm guessing poku and bazley both follow the terrance ferguson trajectory. i'm about 60/40 bazley is out of the league after his rookie deal and 50/50 on poku.