Official NBA General Discussion 2025-26 V1.0

[Los_29]

They got their variance game. Final tally. 46% from 3. 6 games it is

Yup, what I said in the other thread. A team that can just get hot from 3 at any point kind of nullifies a 48 minute game lol. Doesn’t matter how well the other team plays when players can jack up shots from everywhere and make them now.

Also OKC relies a ton on Shai to do everything and Indiana has a more balanced attack. This isn’t going to be easy for OKC. They’re going to have to go real hard on defense to win this and run Indiana off the 3 point line.

Halliburton has been ridiculous with this last second shots lol.

They really don't need to rely on SGA, though. JDub can just walk into the paint with a bit of patience. If you just bring Hali into the action their D falls apart. Caruso and Wallace were in layup drives a bunch.

I truly think they've been used to the tough road to the rim against a big defensive team in Minny and haven't gotten used to the tissue soft D of the Pacers and how easily it folds.

They do rely on SGA though. Without SGA they are literally a play-in team. lol.

What’s worrisome is OKC lost this game despite forcing 24 turnovers. That is an insane number of turnovers and it’s not like the Pacers were out of this world good from the 3pt line. They are shooting like 40% from three in the playoffs.

It’s much easier to shoot a few percentage points above their average than to turn the ball over 24 times.

With that said, OKC is just so good, that I still think they win this series.

[M3tro]

Indy still not getting their just due.

At a certain point in time, you have to think they're simply a team of destiny this season.

Pacers in 6.

[TheGeneral99]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

[Brinbe]

thinking on it the day after, it's always wild to be witnessing historic events in real-time. hali with 4 of the most clutch buckets you'll ever see in 4 straight series is gonna be talked about forever, especially it coming after the most overrated vote.

this feels like a lifetime ago now lol. if gtj doesn't fumble that ball, everything might've been different.

Watch on YouTube

all the engagement bait about ratings and crap is funny because as the NFL realised a long time ago, the game (and the intrigue/drama associated with it) usually sells itself regardless of who's playing in the end.

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Westside Gunn]

None of those players are better than Siakam though. Scottie might still have the chance to be, but that's about it.

It seems like we're scrapping and clawing to get back to that 4-6 seed ceiling that we might have just had by keeping everyone. Look out though, we've got Jamal Shead and Jakobe Walter to show for a few years of terrible basketball!

That's a pretty wild claim considering RJ alone has replaced the production of Siakam and can do better.

Bruh. This cannot be a serious post.

Just read the statsheet. Do the same for Ingram.

A wingman > PF anyday. How did we do without Kawhi with Pascal leading the way. Someone in this thread or another thread, because of the Pacers success, adovcating for building around Pascal and OG. You're not gonna win with that.

Again, a good PF will always require a good wingman to get anywhere in the playoffs. People easily forget how ineffective Siakam was on his own here.

It was repeating the same mistakes from the Bosh era where he couldn't do it on his own as well

[Los_29]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

We’ve all been referring to Indiana as a treadmill team the past few years. Always picking late in the lottery and never tanking. tWo would actually refer to the Pacers as a team that is horribly managed and should be like teams like Orlando, Houston, Detroit, Charlotte because of all of their high picks.

Funnily enough, OKC would be even worse than all of those teams except for Charlotte if it weren’t for the Paul George trade. In the draft Presti has gotten them Dieng, Chet, Wallace, Poku, Giddey, Williams. Not a bad group but not great. Clearly a middling team. They’d be worse than Orlando. Tough, scrappy defensive minded team that can’t put the ball in the basket would be what they are. SGA saved that team.

The past few years have kind of been an eye opener for those who believe in tanking. The two teams left are those who got all of their best players outside of the top 10.

Exciting times. Feels like there are lots of teams not too far away.

[sidsid]

SGA taking those early clock missed 3s in the first half instead of probing for easy buckets/fouls is another one of those youth lessons. He wanted the statement knockout punch like the Memphis series. You could feel that game just itching to be a 30 point blowout early, multiple times. But all of SGA/Chet/JDub were too eager, got caught in the moment. They needed to be more methodical and you didn't see that until the second half.

[Boselecta]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

There doing this because we basically gave them Pascal for free. They didn't have to give up any players of substance to get him.

[SirKen]

That's a pretty wild claim considering RJ alone has replaced the production of Siakam and can do better.

Bruh. This cannot be a serious post.

Just read the statsheet. Do the same for Ingram.

A wingman > PF anyday. How did we do without Kawhi with Pascal leading the way. Someone in this thread or another thread, because of the Pacers success, adovcating for building around Pascal and OG. You're not gonna win with that.

Again, a good PF will always require a good wingman to get anywhere in the playoffs. People easily forget how ineffective Siakam was on his own here.

It was repeating the same mistakes from the Bosh era where he couldn't do it on his own as well

While I agree, we needed a proper PG. My biggest worry from Kyle's departure was always the hole it was going to leave behind. If we kept Norm, at least the SG position was going to be solid and we would have just needed to find a good PG to stay competitive while acquiring more talent to consolidate. Keeping Fred instead meant that both PG and SG positions were going to be questionable.

[Los_29]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

There doing this because we basically gave them Pascal for free. They didn't have to give up any players of substance to get him.

That’s quite standard. Why would teams give up players of substance if they are trying to win?

FRPs and if you’re lucky a rotation player or two is enough to get players like Pascal.

Pascal has played a huge role but the pieces they have around him are why they are so good.

[FrozenLeafz]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

There doing this because we basically gave them Pascal for free. They didn't have to give up any players of substance to get him.

When the Pacers win, Indiana owes us some picks

[Los_29]

Bruh. This cannot be a serious post.

Just read the statsheet. Do the same for Ingram.

A wingman > PF anyday. How did we do without Kawhi with Pascal leading the way. Someone in this thread or another thread, because of the Pacers success, adovcating for building around Pascal and OG. You're not gonna win with that.

Again, a good PF will always require a good wingman to get anywhere in the playoffs. People easily forget how ineffective Siakam was on his own here.

It was repeating the same mistakes from the Bosh era where he couldn't do it on his own as well

While I agree, we needed a proper PG. My biggest worry from Kyle's departure was always the hole it was going to leave behind. If we kept Norm, at least the SG position was going to be solid and we would have just needed to find a good PG to stay competitive while acquiring more talent to consolidate. Keeping Fred instead meant that both PG and SG positions were going to be questionable.

Norm has largely been a bench player his whole career. Never made an all-star team and never played a significant role on a championship caliber team. Fred is a far more impactful player.

Point guard was never our biggest problem. We just didn’t have the depth and Scottie/OG/Pascal just did not fit.

[YogurtProducer]

They really don't need to rely on SGA, though.

One of the craziest posts i have ever seen.

The guy who averages 21.7FGA is not "relied on" by the Thunder?

[YogurtProducer]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

There doing this because we basically gave them Pascal for free. They didn't have to give up any players of substance to get him.

They gave up 3 firsts and a rotation piece. Pretty standard for a tier 3 player being traded.

Indiana has not even been picking up decent pieces late in the draft. Nembhard is really the only major piece of their team they got outside the lottery. Mathurin was a lottery guy. Everyone else is pretty much picked up in trade or free agency.

[NinjaBro]

Just read the statsheet. Do the same for Ingram.

A wingman > PF anyday. How did we do without Kawhi with Pascal leading the way. Someone in this thread or another thread, because of the Pacers success, adovcating for building around Pascal and OG. You're not gonna win with that.

Again, a good PF will always require a good wingman to get anywhere in the playoffs. People easily forget how ineffective Siakam was on his own here.

It was repeating the same mistakes from the Bosh era where he couldn't do it on his own as well

While I agree, we needed a proper PG. My biggest worry from Kyle's departure was always the hole it was going to leave behind. If we kept Norm, at least the SG position was going to be solid and we would have just needed to find a good PG to stay competitive while acquiring more talent to consolidate. Keeping Fred instead meant that both PG and SG positions were going to be questionable.

Norm has largely been a bench player his whole career. Never made an all-star team and never played a significant role on a championship caliber team. Fred is a far more impactful player.

Point guard was never our biggest problem. We just didn’t have the depth and Scottie/OG/Pascal just did not fit.

They did fit, we were pretty good with them all things considered. We just needed that killer 1A option.

We had a deal for Dame agreed to so much so that Shams had his draft ready and tweeted it until he had to take it down. People forgot how great Dame was. He took a garbage Portland team all the way to the conference finals. They have been a lottery team without him since. Dame is the clutchest player in the league.

Makes you wonder how our team would've been had we kept everyone together and added Dame. We'd be talking about Siakam , OG and FVV a lot differently in Raptorland.

[Westside Gunn]

None of those players are better than Siakam though. Scottie might still have the chance to be, but that's about it.

It seems like we're scrapping and clawing to get back to that 4-6 seed ceiling that we might have just had by keeping everyone. Look out though, we've got Jamal Shead and Jakobe Walter to show for a few years of terrible basketball!

That's a pretty wild claim considering RJ alone has replaced the production of Siakam and can do better. We haven't even seen all of BI yet and most will agree he hasn't even reached his peak yet.

Having these wingmen will be a lot more valuable than a PF that relies on a wing to shine

It's Eid so I will try to be nice, but for the love of God man!

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Eid mubarak!

[Raptaurus]

So much for OKC’s vaunted defence…..

On the offensive side, only SGA showed up. Unless JDubs, Chet, etc contribute more, it’s gonna be tough for them in this series.

[ForeverTFC]

I have no **** idea how Indiana is doing this.

But funny enough for this board, Indy has been the definition of a treadmill team that just kept making trades and picking up decent pieces late in the draft until they finally broke through:

2016 - 45-37 and 1st round exit
2017 - 42-40 and 1st round exit
2018 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2019 - 48-34 and 1st round exit
2020 - 45-38 and 1st round exit
2021 - 34-38 and missed playoffs
2022 - 25-57 and missed playoffs (got Mathurin with the 6th pick)
2023 - 35-47 and missed playoffs
2024 - 47-35 and ECF
2025 - 50-32 and finals

There doing this because we basically gave them Pascal for free. They didn't have to give up any players of substance to get him.

This board would lose its collective mind if we gave up 3 firsts for Siakam and signed him to a max contract. We gave ONE of those picks away for Ingram, signed him to less money for less years, and some folks called it a fireable offense...

[sidsid]

They really don't need to rely on SGA, though.

One of the craziest posts i have ever seen.

The guy who averages 21.7FGA is not "relied on" by the Thunder?

Not needing to rely on him taking 30+ and monopolizing the game. That tends to be the answer when you're facing a really strong defensive team, and your offense is in the mud with few answers. That's how parts of the Minny series ends up because you're secondary and tertiary scorers are having a hard time generating anything in the half court, and adapt by finding seams elsewhere.

It's how the Warriors last championship ended with Poole being unplayable and the beautiful motion offense devolving into Steph having to play standard pnr for an entire half to abuse Timelord/Horford with deep, deep 3s, because the Celtics D cut everything else off.

What the Thunder need to do is to stop rushing bad offense and maybe not miss 60% of their paint shots/layups either. And see if they have anyone like the Delon/Shamet duo they can play off the bench who were like +50 in the Knicks series (this is a joke, but showing the point). Because the Pacers are not a good playoff defense compared to what the Thunder had to go through, and beat convincingly.

That's why SGA should be relied on to manage the game, take over when they're in a rut, and be able to conserve more of his energy instead of having to be the entire offense.

Pretty much spelled out in my other post, but by your snipped quote it looks like you couldn't understand it or simply stopped reading there. Either way, glad I could help you out here.

[dTox]

That's a pretty wild claim considering RJ alone has replaced the production of Siakam and can do better. We haven't even seen all of BI yet and most will agree he hasn't even reached his peak yet.

Having these wingmen will be a lot more valuable than a PF that relies on a wing to shine

It's Eid so I will try to be nice, but for the love of God man!

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro using RealGM mobile app

Eid mubarak!

Thank you and Eid Mubarak to you too!