Are a healthy Thunder today, better than last year ?

[Thunderhead]

I just listened to a RealGM podcast, where the verdict was no.

Your opinion ?

I think Russ is better than last year.

The center position is improved.

Morrow is an improvment in 3pt shooting and perfect fit for the team.

I think Roberson and last season's Thabo is a wash, Thabo was not very good last year.

Im not sure there's any improvement in Lamb and PJ , and Butler and Fisher were better last year.

Its close, but I don't think the Thunder are worse than last year. Whether they've improved as much as the Rockets, GSW, Clippers, Blazers .... I don't think so.

[bondom34]

Yeah, I think so. I don't see how they aren't, unless you're saying Thabo was good, which isn't true.

[Thunderhead]

Dec 20 podcast, bout14:45 minutes in

http://podgallery.org/realgm-radio-2/

[spearsy23]

Depends what you mean by healthy. They haven't been healthy and comfortable in their roles yet this season. If we actually get and stay healthy in time to get some consistent rotations by playoff time I think it's a better playoff team. If nothing else I'd expect KD to have a more solid postseason.

[bleeds_purple]

Dec 20 podcast, bout14:45 minutes in

http://podgallery.org/realgm-radio-2/

This guy nailed it pretty damn well on OKC.

[Bravenewworld]

Zach and Bill seem to think differently.

http://youtu.be/-YIQ4-_0epg?t=47m35s
This is where they discuss OKC and their depth players. Zach, thank you for being the second person i know (myself) to say Adams should be untouchable.

Its very clear that OKC is better this year then last. Its not even a debate, the majority of OKCs depth was 1-3rd year players last season with little or no experience. They are all now a year older, have better skill sets, have experience, etc. IMO the only major loss was Fisher who simply provided vet experience. KD, Westbrook, Ibaka are now to the point where that is not really needed. Obviously Caron was a solid piece but his replacement (Morrow) seems to fit what we need way more then he did.

Anyway, who are these jokers on this podcast? They seem to be pointing out semantics or nonsense.
Seeding, wont matter in the West. Period. They seem to think this is some major thing, no, its not.
Warriors didnt get better, their players are simply entering their prime.
Teams in the West that got better did so because of holes that needed to be filled.
OKC had a couple holes, filled them and now we are at where we are. Yes, it would be nice to bring in Lance over Lamb, or even get Wilson without gutting our team. But those things probably wont happen because as long as we are healthy, we know for a fact we have possibly the best defensive squad in the NBA and we did not have last season.... so there ya go, using GSW logic, we dramatically improved too didnt we?

[Thunderhead]

Anyway, who are these jokers on this podcast? They seem to be pointing out semantics or nonsense.

Arturo Galletti of this site

http://www.boxscoregeeks.com/

Arturo is an Electrical Engineer and Six Sigma Black Belt in the lovely isle of Puerto Rico where he applies his talents to good honest work (most of the time) by keeping his production lines running day and night (and weekends) and works on sport analysis in his free time. He was the first to answer David Berri’s call for guest writers at his blog, and he is the big brain behind so much of our model building.

and host of the podcast is

Daniel Leroux
@DannyLeroux
Sportswriter for RealGM, Mid-Level Exceptional, WarriorsWorld, and Vegan Fish Tacos (my site) as well as host of the weekly RealGM Radio podcast.

http://basketball.realgm.com/news/articles/author/8/Daniel-Leroux

[Thunderhead]

Sorry, something went wrong , self delete

[Thunderhead]

Same here

[Thunderhead]

Same here

[Thunderhead]

Same thing here

[bondom34]

Also, Zach Lowe disagrees...

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-n ... -rankings/

Yup. This conference is nuts, so we might as well get crazy. They’re in 10th, and Kevin Durant is dealing with an ankle sprain after returning from a broken foot. Remember the question that drives these rankings: If everyone’s healthy in April, who are you picking to gut through this conference with all the money on the line?

This is a bet on the power of both star players and incremental improvements. Adams can’t shoot, but he’s leagues better than Kendrick Perkins at scoring off cuts, snagging putbacks, hitting the occasional post-up bucket, and generally doing NBA athlete–level things. Morrow and Jackson can handle minutes at the 2 should Roberson’s shooting prove fatal, and at least one of the up-and-down Roberson/Perry Jones III/Jeremy Lamb trio figures to be ready to contribute at some point in the playoffs.

Brooks also showed a slightly quicker trigger tweaking the rotation during last season’s playoffs. It was still more Civil War soldier than John Woo action hero, but at least the trigger existed.

Trust me: No one wants to see these guys in the first round, or any round after that. Everyone in the West is terrified of them.

[KD35Brah]

Adams is better than Perkins.

Roberson has more impact than Sef did last season. Way more. He actually has the 2nd highest on/off on the team behind KD(KD's is messed up by playing half a game).

Russ is better than last year.

Durant seems to more refined compared to last season. Less dribbling imo.

Ibaka is playing subpar, needs to be involved more and motivated.

Jones somewhat seems to be finding his ground the past 2 games.

I hope Reggie continues his play from the past 2 games along with better defense.

If we could finish with 59 wins last season and make it to the WCF with Perkins and Sef stinking up the team. Along with Russ missing 36 games and playing only 30 minutes when he could play i don't see how we are NOT better this season.

Staying Healthy is the biggest question mark this season.

[Bravenewworld]

Way to just repeat what i said Bondom.

[NaturalThunder]

I can't think of any argument that would convincingly argue otherwise. I always thought after the Harden trade, and after I got a glimpse of some of the young players and their emergence, the Thunder could be devastatingly good from about 2015-2020 if they manage to retain the core (KD, Russ, and Ibaka). In my eyes, based on what I saw in glimpses last season and what I've seen this season, Adams is a part of the "lock him down no matter what it takes" group. I'm still on the fence about Reggie.

It's already been mentioned, but Roberson is already a more impactful player for OKC this year than Thabo was last year, and Adams is better now than Perkins was last year. And Adams just complements Russ and KD so much better than Perkins because had has good hands, is a great athlete, and has very good to sometimes great catch and finish ability around the basket. And I always thought Adams had legit defensive anchor potential and we're starting to see flashes of that. While Serge and his blocks get all the pub, Adams is already our best interior defender and not too far away from being viewed as one of the best, most complete frontcourt defensive players in the entire NBA. And now OKC has a dead-eye three-point shooter who's not a telephone pole and/or wet paper bag (I'm looking at you Kevin Martin) on defense.

Unfortunately injuries have nearly derailed us this season and it's looking more and more like if we want to win a championship this season, we may have to do so as the 8-seed or 7-seed and go through arguably the best conference ever without ever having HCA just to make the Finals.