Thunder is scary good

[OkcSinceSGA]

This is the same owner that refused to keep the KD/Westbrook/Harden trio together?
Will he be willing to spend to keep this team together because it will get expensive at some point. Chet. JDub. Shai. Hartenstein. Heck some team will throw money at Wiggins and Joe and Wallace. Will Dort be moved as he has a very friendly contract??
I mean this is looking far ahead but JDub and Chet extensions are looming. And their owner has broken up a potential championship core before…

You can come up with a bunch of scenarios where they only get 0-1 rings, but clearly they're better positioned to create a dynasty than any team ever

Any team ever?

Hopefully they win a playoff series this year over a team that's better than the Zion-less Pels. Getting absolutely dominated by the Bucks in the Cup game was not a good indicator though. This team folds under pressure, SGA specifically. Didn't he get shutdown by his scrub cousin in the play-in the year before?

I mean yea. They have the 7th lowest payroll, 2nd youngest team, are already pacing 70 wins without being close to their max upside.. and have 31 picks in the next 6 years. No team before them including GS has had that kind of hand on paper. You look at a team drafting as well as OKC and tell me if you're a betting man that they don't homerun at least 3-4 of the 31 picks? Imagine adding 3-4 more players of the tier of even Cason Wallace or Hart to a team that already has a potential 70 win roster?

I was saying for 2-3 years now we are probably looking at a Spursian type dynasty. A team that's elite for 10-12 years and adds 3-4 rings and several finals.

[Optms]

SGA may be the best player in the game. Need to see how the post season goes.

[ThunderBolt]

I heard on the athletic podcast today that Shai has more 30 point games in his career than Paul George. Ouch.

[dakomish23]

I was a year too early. I had Shai as MVP last year with OKC being a true contender. The Hartenstein acquisition was perfect for them. I'm sure Caruso will be too. Just beyond loaded and they all play like a team that doesn't buy their own hype. They're so much fun to watch.

[stillgotgame]

SGA may be the best player in the game. Need to see how the post season goes.

Yep. As a Bucks fan I can tell you all about potential and day to day dominance when Giannis became the best player in basketball. Bucks were unstoppable in the regular season. Too bad the regular season means nothing though. Diddly squat until you produce wins in the postseason. And SGA has done nothing.

[Optms]

SGA may be the best player in the game. Need to see how the post season goes.

Yep. As a Bucks fan I can tell you all about potential and day to day dominance when Giannis became the best player in basketball. Bucks were unstoppable in the regular season. Too bad the regular season means nothing though. Diddly squat until you produce wins in the postseason. And SGA has done nothing.

All the greats (except Magic and maybe Kobe) do nothing before they do something. OKC has taken the next step, Shai as well, this may be his time now. We will see.

[LascelleL]

This is the same owner that refused to keep the KD/Westbrook/Harden trio together?
Will he be willing to spend to keep this team together because it will get expensive at some point. Chet. JDub. Shai. Hartenstein. Heck some team will throw money at Wiggins and Joe and Wallace. Will Dort be moved as he has a very friendly contract??
I mean this is looking far ahead but JDub and Chet extensions are looming. And their owner has broken up a potential championship core before…

Something tells me they've learned from that mistake especially since they gave PG and RWB those huge ass extensions (and then traded them)

[OkcSinceSGA]

Read on Twitter

[KG Leonard]

With all due respect to dominating regular seasons, no team ever is scary or great without winning several playoffs series. Hartenstein, Caruso is the difference from last year's playoffs Thunder who couldn't rebound and their second, third best players wasnt enough to win Vs Dallas. Their real record so far is how Dallas made them look like SGA and not much else of the rest of the team. I have seen roleplayers look historic in RS many times before they were gameplaned to death by a better playoffs team.

[magee]

With all due respect to dominating regular seasons, no team ever is scary or great without winning several playoffs series. Hartenstein, Caruso is the difference from last year's playoffs Thunder who couldn't rebound and their second, third best players wasnt enough to win Vs Dallas. Their real record so far is how Dallas made them look like SGA and not much else of the rest of the team. I have seen roleplayers look historic in RS many times before they were gameplaned to death by a better playoffs team.

I feel we'll see the team the Thunder envisioned when Chet comes back. They will shift J-Dub down to the 3 and bring Cason Wallace off the bench. A Wallace/Caruso bench backcourt will wreck havoc. It will make it a little more difficult to gameplan against the role players when they can add Chet into the lineups that SGA is on the bench for.

[KG Leonard]

With all due respect to dominating regular seasons, no team ever is scary or great without winning several playoffs series. Hartenstein, Caruso is the difference from last year's playoffs Thunder who couldn't rebound and their second, third best players wasnt enough to win Vs Dallas. Their real record so far is how Dallas made them look like SGA and not much else of the rest of the team. I have seen roleplayers look historic in RS many times before they were gameplaned to death by a better playoffs team.

I feel we'll see the team the Thunder envisioned when Chet comes back. They will shift J-Dub down to the 3 and bring Cason Wallace off the bench. A Wallace/Caruso bench backcourt will wreck havoc. It will make it a little more difficult to gameplan against the role players when they can add Chet into the lineups that SGA is on the bench for.

I hate injuries getting in the way of the good teams in playoffs, will look forward to seeing Chet, zero rotation player injury for Thunders in April. I might be a Celtics fan but I hate injury luck in playoffs. For my entertainment I want to see fully loaded top teams in the West and East fighting to prove who is best of the best.
The real great to watch season starts in Round 1.
It is hard to motivate focusing as much on games in January when the time zone for games here in Sweden is 4 to 6 in the morning.

[KG Leonard]

With all due respect to dominating regular seasons, no team ever is scary or great without winning several playoffs series. Hartenstein, Caruso is the difference from last year's playoffs Thunder who couldn't rebound and their second, third best players wasnt enough to win Vs Dallas. Their real record so far is how Dallas made them look like SGA and not much else of the rest of the team. I have seen roleplayers look historic in RS many times before they were gameplaned to death by a better playoffs team.

I feel we'll see the team the Thunder envisioned when Chet comes back. They will shift J-Dub down to the 3 and bring Cason Wallace off the bench. A Wallace/Caruso bench backcourt will wreck havoc. It will make it a little more difficult to gameplan against the role players when they can add Chet into the lineups that SGA is on the bench for.

Oops...

[Ito]

Those overpaid players contracts gon be scary in a few years

[MoneyTalks41890]

Those overpaid players contracts gon be scary in a few years

Which ones?

[OkcSinceSGA]

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/best-net-rating-in-nba-history-by-season

Wow. The Thunder have done it! Despite no Chet months, Hartenstein out many games.. which tanked their 70+ win chances... they have surpassed the Bulls as the highest net rating team in history if it holds. Passing the 96 Bulls. Almost 2 full net rating points ahead of Boston last year.

[Capn'O]

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/best-net-rating-in-nba-history-by-season

Wow. The Thunder have done it! Despite no Chet months, Hartenstein out many games.. which tanked their 70+ win chances... they have surpassed the Bulls as the highest net rating team in history if it holds. Passing the 96 Bulls. Almost 2 full net rating points ahead of Boston last year.

They already have the highest SRS rating too. By a lot.

They're currently above 13. No other team has ever finished above 12. Here's the list:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/tools/share.fcgi?id=k3YK6

[OkcSinceSGA]

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/best-net-rating-in-nba-history-by-season

Wow. The Thunder have done it! Despite no Chet months, Hartenstein out many games.. which tanked their 70+ win chances... they have surpassed the Bulls as the highest net rating team in history if it holds. Passing the 96 Bulls. Almost 2 full net rating points ahead of Boston last year.

They already have the highest SRS rating too. By a lot.

I'm really pissed off about Hartenstein/Chet injuries. Without them, they would have literally 4-5 less losses and could be at a 70-72 win pace which would be the cherry on top of an SGA MVP and potential title.

PS. I see the other teams but not them. It's not live, need to wait for season end? That's a big jump!

[RunOKC]

Heard a pretty unbelievable stat on my ride home today. If you took all the games OKC has won by single digits and converted them to losses they would still the #1 in the West.

Also, Aaron Wiggins is averaging 23pts/game over his last 7 games.

This season is by far the Thunder's best shot at winning a title. Have to capitalize before the Lakers retool and they have to pay JDub/Chet + a potential SGA super max.

[OkcSinceSGA]

Heard a pretty unbelievable stat on my ride home today. If you took all the games OKC has won by single digits and converted them to losses they would still the #1 in the West.

Also, Aaron Wiggins is averaging 23pts/game over his last 7 games.

This season is by far the Thunder's best shot at winning a title. Have to capitalize before the Lakers retool and they have to pay JDub/Chet/SGA super max.

Again, just can't get over that they realistically should be 47-5 or 48-4 if they actually had a healthy big in a lot of these games. Most of the losses this year came without one of their star impact centers (I believe all but 1?).

Wiggins is another guy who looks like the real deal for sure.

[JHFVF07]

I dont know! SGA is the MVP, OKC is playing the best basketball I saw in much time(that defense is suffocating), but still, as a Laker fan, I feel more confident playing them than Nuggets. Until they win it all, ppl will always get the inpression that their roleplayers will fold when the pressure rise.