OKC is a disgrace

[rand]

There are 6 teams with worse records than OKC. What the hell is this thread?

There won't be for long. Bradley was the only NBA caliber guy they had on the floor last night

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I feel like they've been doing it like this all season. Sometimes they had Shai, sometimes Al or George, sometimes even all three but they've still won an incredible number of games for what they're putting on the court. I can only conclude Mark Daigneault is one hell of a coach.

Some of the teams below them in the standings are putting out some really shaky lineups too.

[Saints14]

As a neutral fan I'm MUCH more interested in OKC than the Wizards or Kings. It's fun to see fringe young guys get opportunities

[Sactowndog]

The stockpiling OKC is doing bothers me. They could easily cash a bunch of them in for a low end star and a couple of veteran role players and maybe make some noise in the playoffs. Instead they are taking the losers path and tanking for even more picks.

As a Kings fan I wish the Kings were as smart as OKC. Instead they will muddle their way to the 10-12 pick and pray someone drops as usual. OKC is smart enough to know they don’t have a play-off team and are giving their youngsters minutes. Their fans have dreams of a top 5 player with a boatload of other picks.....

The Kings meanwhile.....

Spurs are in the same boat. Too proud to tank (even though that’s how we got Duncan in ‘97) so we’ll win just enough games to not get a top-10 pick and will continue to peddle in mediocrity. It ain’t fun.

At least your muddle is at a play off level.

[OkcSinceSGA]

There are 6 teams with worse records than OKC. What the hell is this thread?

There won't be for long. Bradley was the only NBA caliber guy they had on the floor last night

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using RealGM mobile app

I feel like they've been doing it like this all season. Sometimes they had Shai, sometimes Al or George. sometimes even all three but they've still won an incredible number of games for what they're putting on the court. I can only conclude Mark Daigneault is one hell of a coach.

Some of the teams below them in the standings are putting out some really shaky lineups too.

Can’t be! Only OKC thought to tank apparently. As someone said already, smaller market teams have massive disadvantages in free agency. They have no choice but to focus on draft. Trades don’t work because these players often leave when their deal is up.

[Jabroni Lames]

What kind of roster is that today?
Might as well not play the game at all?
How the hell are the 70 percent of the squad injured? I thought medical technologies have advanced?
Plus, how the hell are the broadcast companies paying billions of dollars for this kind of product?

Please discuss.

Dont hate the playa. NBA is a league that rewards losing, so of course there will be teams that will try to lose. They need to introduce relegation or change lottery rules where maybe best teams get best picks, or this will keep happening. NBA is fundamentally broken.

NBA is also rewarding big market teams , helping them forming super teams, favoring refereeing etc, the only way for the small market teams is to build through the draft. Until NBA develop the system of fair competition for all teams, thats the only way to do it, OKC is doing an excellent job, and they will be competitive very soon.

Sure, we all know that the NBA is catering to ESPN and TNT Nielsen ratings, but small market teams can be extremely competitive without tanking. Jazz, Bucks & Nuggets are proving that this year. Raptors are actually the smallest NBA market because Canadian viewership counts for zero in Nielsen ratings and they are coming off a very successful decade.

The reason OKC is bad is because of bad GM decisions, not because of big markets. A few key mistakes were crushing:

1) Not realizing that Scott Brooks isn't a championship-caliber coach soon enough
2) Trying to get James Harden to take a discount, and then trading him for almost nothing
3) Hiring a rookie college coach, Billy Donovan, to coach a championship-hungry MVP-caliber player in KD
4) Failing to build a better team around KD, and losing him for nothing
5) Not realizing that Westbrook's flaws are impossible to build a championship team around, despite his video game stats and jaw-dropping highlight reel athleticism.
6) In hindsight, they should have traded Westbrook while he was overhyped for a player who would have complemented KD better, solving problems (4) & (5)

[OkcSinceSGA]

Dont hate the playa. NBA is a league that rewards losing, so of course there will be teams that will try to lose. They need to introduce relegation or change lottery rules where maybe best teams get best picks, or this will keep happening. NBA is fundamentally broken.

NBA is also rewarding big market teams , helping them forming super teams, favoring refereeing etc, the only way for the small market teams is to build through the draft. Until NBA develop the system of fair competition for all teams, thats the only way to do it, OKC is doing an excellent job, and they will be competitive very soon.

Sure, we all know that the NBA is catering to ESPN and TNT Nielsen ratings, but small market teams can be extremely competitive without tanking. Jazz, Bucks & Nuggets are proving that this year. Raptors are actually the smallest NBA market because Canadian viewership counts for zero in Nielsen ratings and they are coming off a very successful decade.

The reason OKC is bad is because of bad GM decisions, not because of big markets. A few key mistakes were crushing:

1) Not realizing that Scott Brooks isn't a championship-caliber coach soon enough
2) Trying to get James Harden to take a discount, and then trading him for almost nothing
3) Hiring a rookie college coach, Billy Donovan, to coach a championship-hungry MVP-caliber player in KD
4) Failing to build a better team around KD, and losing him for nothing
5) Not realizing that Westbrook's flaws are impossible to build a championship team around, despite his video game stats and jaw-dropping highlight reel athleticism.
6) In hindsight, they should have traded Westbrook while he was overhyped for a player who would have complemented KD better, solving problems (4) & (5)

OKC will win a title within 4-5 years. None of that matters anymore. This 2.0 version will be superior. Unlike the mentally weak stars (not Westbrook) they had before, they are led by a Mamba mentality master in SGA. They will be better this time.

[Nuntius]

Hinkies and Prestis didn't exist in the 90s when more than 1-2 teams felt like they had a shot at a title

The NBA saw 5 different champions in the 90s. Chicago won 6, Houston won 2 while Detroit, SAS and LAL won 1 each (yes, I know that it adds up to 11 seasons, I'm counting both 89-90 and 99-00).

In the 2010s, the NBA saw 7 different champions. GSW won 3, LAL won 2 (with two different teams, one Kobe, one LeBron), Miami won 2 while Dallas, SAS, Cleveland and Toronto won 1 each.

I don't think that saying that no more than 1-2 teams feel like they have a shot at a title is accurate.

So in this one decade
- the Kobe and Dirk rings don't count since they were before the team up era became a thing. With Dirk's one being the first year of the team up era. I genuinely think LeBron got shook since he didnt expect any resistance at all.

- 4 was just LeBron creating superteam on different teams
- 2 was KD on a superteam

- 1 was Spurs because they're the Spurs
- 1 (kawhi one) was due to injury. If no injury that was KDs ring
- 1 (Iguodala one). If no injury that was Lebrons ring

So if not for injury. Either a LeBron superteam or a KD superteam would have won every single title after 2011, barring one Spurs ring

Nah. You can't say that this doesn't count because X or Y. That's just a bunch of excuses. Facts are facts and the fact is that the 10s saw a bigger amount of different teams win the title than the 90s did.

[Nuntius]

Hinkies and Prestis didn't exist in the 90s when more than 1-2 teams felt like they had a shot at a title

The NBA saw 5 different champions in the 90s. Chicago won 6, Houston won 2 while Detroit, SAS and LAL won 1 each (yes, I know that it adds up to 11 seasons, I'm counting both 89-90 and 99-00).

In the 2010s, the NBA saw 7 different champions. GSW won 3, LAL won 2 (with two different teams, one Kobe, one LeBron), Miami won 2 while Dallas, SAS, Cleveland and Toronto won 1 each.

I don't think that saying that no more than 1-2 teams feel like they have a shot at a title is accurate.

With the difference in player mobility now I don't think its fair to just say team names. LBJ played for 3 different teams and won championships for those teams. Had he just stayed in one place the number shrinks from 7 to 5. Kawhi won in SAS then took his talents to THE NORTH and won there. Curry, LBJ, Kobe, Dirk, and Kawhi won all of the championships in the decade. The team names truly don't matter.

I don't think that you can say that for certain. LeBron, for example, left the teams he left because he didn't feel he could win anymore with them. I don't believe that he would have won all those rings if he stayed in the same place so I really cannot say that had he stayed in one place the number shrinks to 5. Someone else would have won that ring in that case, imo.

[1bigfan13]

As a fan of the Thunder I gave up on the season as soon as the team decided to quit.

As soon as they started deactivating guys (Horford & Miuscala) and making up injuries to shelve other young players, who quite frankly need the game reps to develop, I completely stopped watching. I'm sorry but I'm not watching G-League level b-ball night after night.

I get wanting to tank. Hell, I was all in on the tank.....but not like this. This feels completely fraudulent.

I'd be perfectly content if they had the same W/L record but the young guys who are actually worth watching (SGA, Dort, Bazely, etc.) were actually playing.

And one final point. They've only got SGA under contract for 2 more seasons. There's no guarantee that he's going to re-up to stay in OKC after. Especially if they're still scuffling to rebuild. So if I were OKC I'd be careful about stunting the growth of all the young players under the assumption that SGA will be a long-term building block.

[Stickmann]

As a fan of the Thunder I gave up on the season as soon as the team decided to quit.

As soon as they started deactivating guys (Horford & Miuscala) and making up injuries to shelve other young players, who quite frankly need the game reps to develop, I completely stopped watching. I'm sorry but I'm not watching G-League level b-ball night after night.

I get wanting to tank. Hell, I was all in on the tank.....but not like this. This feels completely fraudulent.

I'd be perfectly content if they had the same W/L record but the young guys who are actually worth watching (SGA, Dort, Bazely, etc.) were actually playing.

And one final point. They've only got SGA under contract for 2 more seasons. There's no guarantee that he's going to re-up to stay in OKC after. Especially if they're still scuffling to rebuild. So if I were OKC I'd be careful about stunting the growth of all the young players under the assumption that SGA will be a long-term building block.

Bazley sucks. If he was healthy he would be on the court, dudes a great tank commander. Shai has planter fasciitis which is a legit injury don’t know how they made that up. And there’s literally zero chance he declines his max extension. So much dumb stuff being said in this thread

[Synciere]

Let them tank. It doesn't work 100% of the time. No one has tanked their way to a championship. If the goal is just to compete then I guess you can point to Philly, a team that has yet to get past the second round in the 8 years since they began tanking. Whoop de doo... People point to the Spurs but they lost David Robinson and Sean Elliot to injuries. That's not tanking. What OKC is doing now is tanking. It is a disgrace, but if that's how they want to play it and their fans are with it, who are we to complain? It's terrible for the league though. Every time the Thunder come to town no one is buying tickets to watch that team. It literally causes the league to lose money when teams go out of their way not to compete.

[JXL]

What kind of roster is that today?
Might as well not play the game at all?
How the hell are the 70 percent of the squad injured? I thought medical technologies have advanced?
Plus, how the hell are the broadcast companies paying billions of dollars for this kind of product?

Please discuss.

They're not playing for this season. They have about 18 1st round picks, and 17 1st round swaps, along with a crapton of 2nds for the next 6 years. It's not a FA destination, so they have to build through the draft. They're playing the long game, but not like Sam Hinkie where they're throwing away seasons to get top 5 in the draft year after year, although they're leaning close to it.

[Mister Ze]

They must have hired Hinkie as a consultant

[raylewis]

NBA would be a strong 20 team league

[ItsDanger]

If they get a top 4 pick, everyone will forget. OKC is doing what they need to do.

[Fencer reregistered]

This is classic tanking and its been going on a long time. Blaming this on analytics or players finally gaining some power is rich. And wrong.

And what is the cause of blatant tanking. It's the advent of superteams that leaves the middle of the pack literally helpless. In that it is worse to be a 8 seed than the worst team in the league.

Hinkies and Prestis didn't exist in the 90s when more than 1-2 teams felt like they had a shot at a title

Guess how San Antonio got David Robinson? It was the tank of all tanks.

It's okay to not be a historian of the game and to have only started following it recently. But please trust me that this didn't start with Hinkie. Not even close.

The Celtics tanked so hard one year in the 90s -- I'm pretty sure it was for the Duncan draft -- that GM M. L. Carr stepped in as coach himself rather than ask anybody else to lead the squad.

He DID say that he tried to trade picks before the season with another tanking team, so that each could play to win. But I'm not sure that was a serious offer, and in any case it didn't happen.

[1bigfan13]

Bazley sucks. If he was healthy he would be on the court, dudes a great tank commander. Shai has planter fasciitis which is a legit injury don’t know how they made that up. And there’s literally zero chance he declines his max extension. So much dumb stuff being said in this thread

Bazley's only 20 years old and only in his 2nd year. He hasn't experienced a normal NBA season/off-season yet. I think it's a bit premature to declare he sucks. Will he develop into a Jayson Tatum caliber player? Probably not. But I don't think it's a stretch at all to see him develop along the same level as a guy like Jerami Grant. Declaring that he sucks is the epitome of dumb stuff that you're complaining about.

Also I don't believe for a second that Shai has plantar fasciitis. Shai was already taking every other game off for "contusions" and other minor ailments. Bazley hasn't played since the All-Star break because of a mysterious "shoulder injury". And Dort has basically been shut down for the year over a concussion that probably wasn't that severe. Based on all the personnel decisions OKC has made over the last month I think it's a pretty assumption that they're making up and milking these "injuries".

[UcanUwill]

As a neutral fan I'm MUCH more interested in OKC than the Wizards or Kings. It's fun to see fringe young guys get opportunities

There is an alternative timeline where different team gets Pokusevski, and he clocks 0 NBA minutes all year. OKC are smart, once again, dont hate the player, hate the game, its the league that rewards losing.

[Stickmann]

Bazley sucks. If he was healthy he would be on the court, dudes a great tank commander. Shai has planter fasciitis which is a legit injury don’t know how they made that up. And there’s literally zero chance he declines his max extension. So much dumb stuff being said in this thread

Bazley's only 20 years old and only in his 2nd year. He hasn't experienced a normal NBA season/off-season yet. I think it's a bit premature to declare he sucks. Will he develop into a Jayson Tatum caliber player? Probably not. But I don't think it's a stretch at all to see him develop along the same level as a guy like Jerami Grant. Declaring that he sucks is the epitome of dumb stuff that you're complaining about.

Also I don't believe for a second that Shai has plantar fasciitis. Shai was already taking every other game off for "contusions" and other minor ailments. Bazley hasn't played since the All-Star break because of a mysterious "shoulder injury". And Dort has basically been shut down for the year over a concussion that probably wasn't that severe. Based on all the personnel decisions OKC has made over the last month I think it's a pretty assumption that they're making up and milking these "injuries".

Bazley has regressed from last year, has a shot attitude and does nothing remotely well. Can’t finish, shoot, drive, defend, pass. Ok ball handler I guess. He can improve but he’s terrible right now, it’s dumber thinking he can develop like grant when he hasn’t shown the work ethic or attitude that grant did his fists few years. Shai is hurt, there’s literally zero chance they’re making up an injury hahahaha. But yeah Sga sitting some meaningless games is gonna make the first player ever to turn down his rookie max extension. Sureeeeee man

[OkcSinceSGA]

Imagine at SGA’s age being so dominant that your team which is already starting a bunch of G league players, has to shut you down with a bunch of random ailments because you won’t stop winning? This guy has that Mamba work ethic and mentality. He CANNOT be stopped. When he’s putting up like 27/6/5 next year a lot of people are going to understand that Kobe trajectory.