2018-2019 OKC Thunder Regular Season Pt 1: A Renewed Hope

[JustOneFix]

G-League?? Couldn't care less about G League...

[acheema0]

G-League?? Couldn't care less about G League...

Well then idk what you based your statement off of. Burton has not proven to be a better scorer than Nader at any level. Sure he might be worth a look, but anyone expecting him to be a huge, or any, upgrade from Nader is misguided imho. Kind of sucks that we have the aspirations we do and this is a serious conversation in the stretch run of the regular season

[JustOneFix]

Well then idk what you based your statement off of. Burton has not proven to be a better scorer than Nader at any level. Sure he might be worth a look, but anyone expecting him to be a huge, or any, upgrade from Nader is misguided imho.

I was just saying that Nader had plenty of chances and showed nothing. Burton had only couple of them, and was actually a huge factor. I am not saying that he's capable of playing like that on nightly basis, but from the look of his body movement, ball control and shooting mechanics he definitely seems to me as a gifted scorer and more skilled player then Nader, who, while a better athlete, seems like he has no control of his body parts at all and he's ballhandling is horrible.

Kind of sucks that we have the aspirations we do and this is a serious conversation in the stretch run of the regular season

I agree. But it is what it is. We have no one better.

[acheema0]

Any details on the contract?

Royce snuck a tweet in during the game with more info:

Read on Twitter

[Pillendreher]

Last 3 games:

opp eFG%: 46.1 eFG% (league average is 52.3 eFG%)
opp FGA in the restricted area: 32.7 (league average is 29.4)
opp FG% in the restricted area: 54.1 % (league average is 62.9 %)
opp FGA in the non-ra paint: 10.7 (league average is 14.2)
opp FG% in the non-ra paint: 43.8 % (league average is 40.2 %)
opp FGA in the midrange: 9.7 (league average is 13.7)
opp FG% in the midrange: 34.5 % (league average is 40.3 %)
opp FGA from corner 3s: 9.0 (league average is 7.2)
opp FG% from corner 3s: 18.5 % (league average is 38.3 %)
opp FGA from above the break 3s: 27.0 (league average is 24.3)
opp FG% from above the break 3s: 32.1 % (league average is 34.9 %)

A lot of this has been luck, but I think they have done a decent job in these games contesting players. You have to be lucky, but you also have to get guys to miss.

[SecondTake]

We're going 13-2 the rest of the way. It should get us back to the 3rd seed.

Defense looked great last game and I think it will continue to hold. They seemed to figure things out.
Nader is actually hustling on both sides of the floor and playing decent defense
Morris is playing a low key impact game
Russ is back to MVP level

If PG finds his form again we're going 13-2 with a first round sweep.

[Old Man Game]

LMAO. Looks terrible. Probably the worst I've seen in the entire league.

Read on Twitter

[ThunderBolt]

LMAO. Looks terrible. Probably the worst I've seen in the entire league.

Read on Twitter

Wow thats a hideous contrast. I've never really liked our logo and jerseys but this really looks like a pimple on the end of a sore thumb. Last night I noticed that Indiana's sponser blended really well with their jerseys. Apparently we were one of the few franchises that the University of Louisville basketball program earned more than last year so hopefully that will help.

[Bergmaniac]

This must be the most distracting and ugly jersey patch in the league by far.

[wco81]

what is that business?

[Old Man Game]

what is that business?

Truck stops. No joke, unfortunately.

[ThunderBolt]

Maybe they could find a mobile home manufacturing company for the back of the jersey.

[Old Man Game]

When the league initially announced they were going to do these patches I thought the whole point was that they'd be pretty small. I feel like Love's ugly ass logo dominates every image I've seen of that jersey. You almost can't not look at it. It's just hideous.

I'll say this for Love's corporate, they're getting lots of exposure.

[Bergmaniac]

Some of them are pretty small and the colour scheme fits much better, the Magic's Disney patch is barely noticeable thankfully.

[RunOKC]

At least this Jazz/Russ controversy is distracting everyone from the fact that OKC is on pace to possibly burn out of the first round for the 3rd straight season. Hope I'm wrong, but over the season we've been on FIVE losing streaks already (at least 3+ games OR 3/4 games ending up in losses is my criteria). Portland in comparison has two sustained streaks fitting that criteria, Denver three, Houston/Utah four. Can't be that inconsistent and have any concrete expectations other than to expect the unexpected. The converse is after those losing streaks we usually win a bunch of games. If we somehow do hit a sustained stride, like after that stretch where we lost 5/6 in January but pulled off 12 of the next 14, we could be WCF bound. Just the most frustrating AND entertaining team in the NBA I've ever watched.

[Pillendreher]

At least this Jazz/Russ controversy is distracting everyone from the fact that OKC is on pace to possibly burn out of the first round for the 3rd straight season. Hope I'm wrong, but over the season we've been on FIVE losing streaks already (at least 3+ games OR 3/4 games ending up in losses is my criteria). Portland in comparison has two sustained streaks fitting that criteria, Denver three, Houston/Utah four.

Can't be that inconsistent and have any concrete expectations other than to expect the unexpected. The converse is after those losing streaks we usually win a bunch of games. If we somehow do hit a sustained stride like after that stretch where we lost 5/6 in January but pulled off 12 of the next 14 we could be WCF bound. Best not to have any personal expectations and just enjoy the ride in my opinion.

I just don't understand how this keeps happening. Last season you at least could point to Melo being a much too prominent piece of the team and Roberson going down, but this season? I just can't come up with an explanation, especially since you can't just point at one single thing as a reason for this. It's not just 3pt shooting. It's not just defending against dribble penetration. It's not just defending without getting called for fouls. It's not just FT shooting. It's always something, every damn game. And we never manage to just put everything together. Once we start making 3s, our defense isn't there. Once we defend, we can't make shots. Once we draw fouls, we can't make the FTs.

Is it a discipline problem? Some of the reasons for the up and down are volatility based, sure, but not as much as one would think I'd say.

[RunOKC]

At least this Jazz/Russ controversy is distracting everyone from the fact that OKC is on pace to possibly burn out of the first round for the 3rd straight season. Hope I'm wrong, but over the season we've been on FIVE losing streaks already (at least 3+ games OR 3/4 games ending up in losses is my criteria). Portland in comparison has two sustained streaks fitting that criteria, Denver three, Houston/Utah four.

Can't be that inconsistent and have any concrete expectations other than to expect the unexpected. The converse is after those losing streaks we usually win a bunch of games. If we somehow do hit a sustained stride like after that stretch where we lost 5/6 in January but pulled off 12 of the next 14 we could be WCF bound. Best not to have any personal expectations and just enjoy the ride in my opinion.

I just don't understand how this keeps happening. Last season you at least could point to Melo being a much too prominent piece of the team and Roberson going down, but this season? I just can't come up with an explanation, especially since you can't just point at one single thing as a reason for this. It's not just 3pt shooting. It's not just defending against dribble penetration. It's not just defending without getting called for fouls. It's not just FT shooting. It's always something, every damn game. And we never manage to just put everything together. Once we start making 3s, our defense isn't there. Once we defend, we can't make shots. Once we draw fouls, we can't make the FTs.

Is it a discipline problem? Some of the reasons for the up and down are volatility based, sure, but not as much as one would think I'd say.

I think discipline and volatility can go hand in hand.

volatility: liability to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.

We know these guys can do even better/have shown they can play at the highest level. Russ himself often says that we can beat anybody on any given night if they play well. When you go from winning at a 80% clip for a prolonged period to losing 3-6 games in short span of games that tells me they relaxed/think they can just play their best whenever they want. Coaching, Bench, Defense (switching, rolling big men), FT shooting, 3Pt Shooting (less so now luckily..). It has to do with everything, and not just 1 player/person which is why I think as a team we are not disciplined. Maybe discipline isn't even the biggest problem, but I think if they were disciplined we would easily be second. We've probably lost the most close games out of any teams this year.

[Pillendreher]

At least this Jazz/Russ controversy is distracting everyone from the fact that OKC is on pace to possibly burn out of the first round for the 3rd straight season. Hope I'm wrong, but over the season we've been on FIVE losing streaks already (at least 3+ games OR 3/4 games ending up in losses is my criteria). Portland in comparison has two sustained streaks fitting that criteria, Denver three, Houston/Utah four.

Can't be that inconsistent and have any concrete expectations other than to expect the unexpected. The converse is after those losing streaks we usually win a bunch of games. If we somehow do hit a sustained stride like after that stretch where we lost 5/6 in January but pulled off 12 of the next 14 we could be WCF bound. Best not to have any personal expectations and just enjoy the ride in my opinion.

I just don't understand how this keeps happening. Last season you at least could point to Melo being a much too prominent piece of the team and Roberson going down, but this season? I just can't come up with an explanation, especially since you can't just point at one single thing as a reason for this. It's not just 3pt shooting. It's not just defending against dribble penetration. It's not just defending without getting called for fouls. It's not just FT shooting. It's always something, every damn game. And we never manage to just put everything together. Once we start making 3s, our defense isn't there. Once we defend, we can't make shots. Once we draw fouls, we can't make the FTs.

Is it a discipline problem? Some of the reasons for the up and down are volatility based, sure, but not as much as one would think I'd say.

I think discipline and volatility can go hand in hand.

volatility: liability to change rapidly and unpredictably, especially for the worse.

We know these guys can do even better/have shown they can play at the highest level. Russ himself often says that we can beat anybody on any given night if they play well. When you go from winning at a 80% clip for a prolonged period to losing 3-6 games in short span of games that tells me they relaxed/think they can just play their best whenever they want. Coaching, Bench, Defense (switching, rolling big men), FT shooting, 3Pt Shooting (less so now luckily..). It has to do with everything, and not just 1 player/person which is why I think as a team we are not disciplined. Maybe discipline isn't even the biggest problem, but I think if they were disciplined we would easily be second. We've probably lost the most close games out of any teams this year.

I just can't fathom how that happens though. I get it: Sometimes you become a little lazy. We all do. But at the same time, after getting a swift kick in the ass by doing a bad job, don't you get back to being more focused, more engaged to the task at hand? We're talking about 2.5 months of up and down. How does that happen? Where is the coaching staff in all of this? Where are the team's vets?

[wco81]

Ringer NBA podcast today said Adams has slipped on defense compared to previous seasons.

They cited the Pacers comeback where they repeatedly went to pick and roll at Adams in the fourth quarter.

Didn't see that game so don't know how true it is.

[Pillendreher]

To counter my own frustration: 5 games in a row with below league average opposing eFG%. The last time they did that was from 12/31 to 1/8. Progress? Let's hope it is.