Oklahoma City Thunder 2021-22 season

[Bill Robertson]

the residents of seattle overwhelmingly voted against a taxpayer funded new stadium in 2006 which set in motion the relocation of the team

"Voters in Seattle last week voted overwhelmingly to bar the city from spending money on arenas or stadiums unless the deal makes a profit for Seattle. The vote is a rebuff to the local pro basketball franchise, the Seattle SuperSonics, which is asking for an arena upgrade paid for by taxpayers."

Exactly. And my question would be: Has that attitude changed?

[Jersey Boss]

There is a lot more to why the taxpayers said "oh hell no"
https://crosscut.com/mossback/2021/1...ports-stadiums

[shartel_ave]

There is a lot more to why the taxpayers said "oh hell no"
https://crosscut.com/mossback/2021/1...ports-stadiums

none of that had anything to do with the vote in 2006, the Sodo stadium rejection was in 2016 the sonics were long gone

[Jersey Boss]

none of that had anything to do with the vote in 2006, the Sodo stadium rejection was in 2016 the sonics were long gone

Didn't you post earlier SODO was rejected in 2006?
Be it as it may Schultz wanted publicly paid for improvements.
Now the Kracken are playing in a privately owned facility thar they will share with the future Sonics.

[shartel_ave]

Didn't you post earlier SODO was rejected in 2006?
Be it as it may Schultz wanted publicly paid for improvements.
Now the Kracken are playing in a privately owned facility thar they will share with the future Sonics.

No, key arena renovation which failed then building a new stadium in Renton which the voters said nope and that was 2006

SoDo was 2016

Schulz is a greedy bastard and Seattle should be able to land an expansion NBA team with new Climate Pledge Arena and I say new because the only thing that is the same is the outside shell it is massive on the inside.

[Laramie]

Seattle's Ready...


Seattle invested $1.5 billion in Climate Pledge Arena

[Mississippi Blues]

pressure the elected officials to build a new building ... there was no seattle support to build a new basketball arena ...

Well there you have it, Seattle doesn’t have great fans because they didn’t force the politicians to build a new arena. I mean really, what does this prove? That things in society exist outside of a vacuum where everyone has the same opinions and motivations? The whole fiasco in Seattle was a mess and it could be said that the city as a collective messed around and found out that they aren’t above losing their team to a much smaller market and the perfect storm (not a WNBA pun) with lots of moving pieces over the years prior culminated in an opportunity for Oklahoma City to get the team, but to conclude that that means Seattle didn’t have great fans or that the Sonics weren’t a staple in the city is a stretch.

[Jersey Boss]

Seattle's Ready...


Seattle invested $1.5 billion in Climate Pledge Arena

Seattle did not invest 1.5B. The funding came from private investors. Hopefully this will be the trend going forward.

For the princely sum of $1.15 billion, all from private funding, OVG and its partners did the equivalent of holding the arena’s 44 million-pound roof up on stilts, blasting away at everything else beneath and building a new facility.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...-greatest-way/
.

[Mississippi Blues]

No, key arena renovation which failed then building a new stadium in Renton which the voters said nope and that was 2006

SoDo was 2016

Schulz is a greedy bastard and Seattle should be able to land an expansion NBA team with new Climate Pledge Arena and I say new because the only thing that is the same is the outside shell it is massive on the inside.

I liked the SoDo arena and the idea of an “all-sports-district” with all the venues basically lined up together, especially as downtown Seattle is gradually expanding further and further into the Industrial District, I felt it could’ve helped establish a really neat area in the future, which that area is growing anyways but the idea of it all being there together was cool. To me, just renovating the Key Arena seemed kind of silly since that was on the list of rejected options to begin with that ultimately caused the Sonics to relocate, but it’s hard to deny that Climate Pledge has become one of the nicest arenas around with the renovation.

[shartel_ave]

I liked the SoDo arena and the idea of an “all-sports-district” with all the venues basically lined up together, especially as downtown Seattle is gradually expanding further and further into the Industrial District, I felt it could’ve helped establish a really neat area in the future, which that area is growing anyways but the idea of it all being there together was cool. To me, just renovating the Key Arena seemed kind of silly since that was on the list of rejected options to begin with that ultimately caused the Sonics to relocate, but it’s hard to deny that Climate Pledge has become one of the nicest arenas around with the renovation.

the key arena is a historical landmark from the World's fair in 1962

[Mississippi Blues]

Right, which the whole Seattle Center area that’s been built out some since the 1962 World’s Fair (Century 21 Expo) is a pretty neat area, especially the Chihuly Garden and Glass, which Dale Chihuly is another little shared piece between Oklahoma City and Seattle with his largest permanent exhibit at the OKC Museum of Art. Obviously the Space Needle is the most notable piece of the entire area, at least on a national/global scale, but Key Arena was a big part of the identity for the whole area, especially with it being tied to the Sonics for most of their history. The renovation and the NHL expansion (Kraken) has done a lot to bring it back to life, which I honestly didn’t ever expect but am really happy to see.

Really not sure why this became a Seattle thread, so my bad for adding to that. It’s just always fun to talk to others who have experience with Seattle, especially when it comes to the Sonics/Thunder.

[5alive]

8 years ago today...

[Laramie]

Seattle did not invest 1.5B. The funding came from private investors. Hopefully this will be the trend going forward.

For the princely sum of $1.15 billion, all from private funding, OVG and its partners did the equivalent of holding the arena’s 44 million-pound roof up on stilts, blasting away at everything else beneath and building a new facility.
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...-greatest-way/
.

Seattle is an exception.

Doubt if this will be the trend going forward. Certainly not in small & medium size markets.

[Laramie]

Interesting read: https://www.nba.com/news/2022-consensus-mock-draft?cid=nba%3Adynpage%3Aown%3Aemail%3Adaily%3Ali nk%3Aeg%3Anl%3Aeng%3At-crm%3AUS%3Aen%3A20220608AILY_NEWSLETTER_EXPLICIT_TEAM%3A

[dankrutka]

Interesting read: https://www.nba.com/news/2022-consensus-mock-draft?cid=nba%3Adynpage%3Aown%3Aemail%3Adaily%3Ali nk%3Aeg%3Anl%3Aeng%3At-crm%3AUS%3Aen%3A20220608AILY_NEWSLETTER_EXPLICIT_TEAM%3A

It's always interesting to see how consensus forms around these mock drafts even though we know the consensus is always wrong on a lot of players. On a recent episode of the Down to Dunk podcast, Andrew Schlect showed how players in the 7-10 range have been significantly worse than players in the 11-13 range. The Thunder, for example, are pretty independent in their draft evaluation. They've taken players—Russ and Giddey—above consensus. It'll be interesting to see how this draft unfolds. I suspect the Thunder are targeting Chet, but I also sometimes wonder if we won't look back and Paolo Banchero and Jaden Ivey end up the two best players in this draft...

[Laramie]

It's always interesting to see how consensus forms around these mock drafts even though we know the consensus is always wrong on a lot of players. On a recent episode of the Down to Dunk podcast, Andrew Schlect showed how players in the 7-10 range have been significantly worse than players in the 11-13 range. The Thunder, for example, are pretty independent in their draft evaluation. They've taken players—Russ and Giddey—above consensus. It'll be interesting to see how this draft unfolds. I suspect the Thunder are targeting Chet, but I also sometimes wonder if we won't look back and Paolo Banchero and Jaden Ivey end up the two best players in this draft...

Agree Dan, Don't quite see this as a situation similar to Oden-Durant vs Smith Jr.-Holmgren.

This draft is going to be wide open where there may be 5 to 7 picks; you want know who was the best among the picks until two to three seasons following this draft.

[Laramie]

Ousmane Dieng Height/weight: 6-foot-10, 216 pounds - Position: Forward
Drafted: First round, No. 11 overall by N.Y. Knicks (proposed trade to OKC Thunder)


Jalen Williams Height/weight: 6-foot-6, 195 pounds - Position: Forward
Drafted: First round, No. 12


Jaylin Williams Height/weight: 6-foot-10, 240 pounds - Position: Forward
Drafted: Second round, No. 34


JaMychal Green Height/weight: 6-foot-8, 227 pounds - Position: Forward-Center
Undrafted:

[Laramie]

IMO Thunder will have a chance to develop a solid pool of reserves. If Holmgren makes progress much like Josh Giddey--Thunder will make the playoffs. His size will help on defense and will be a distraction on offense; it will open up Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Mann & Giddey's game.

Dort could also be used to anchor the 2nd team with Green, Deing and either one of the J. Williams could make the reserves competitive.

Excited to see how Coach Mark Daignault coordinates these pieces for maximum production.

[catcherinthewry]

IMO Thunder will have a chance to develop a solid pool of reserves. If Holmgren makes progress much like Josh Giddey--Thunder will make the playoffs. His size will help on defense and will be a distraction on offense; it will open up Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Mann & Giddey's game.

Dort could also be used to anchor the 2nd team with Green, Deing and either one of the J. Williams could make the reserves competitive.

Excited to see how Coach Mark Daignault coordinates these pieces for maximum production.

Two quick points. First, Jamychal Green will not be with the Thunder next year or at the very least past the trade deadline. Aquiring him was totally about swapping a bad draft pick this year for a better one way in the future. Green is 32 yrs old and doesn't fit in to the Thunder timeline. Hopefully, Presti is able to extract some value from him.
Second, the Thunder are not making the playoffs this year, nor do they want to. Sam would like to get at least one more high lottery pick out of this rebuild. The '22-'23 Thunder will be concentrating on developing the young players they have drafted. Teams that give significant minutes to 2 sophs and 3 rookies don't make the playoffs. I do think this year will be the last bad year record wise and that being said, I am still looking forward to watching this team.

[Laramie]

Understand the logic on Green. This team will have too much talent potential to tank. These guys will want to secure a spot on the Thunder roster; you can only tank so much. Now the competition to secure a position on this team or impress upon other NBA teams comes into play.

[catcherinthewry]

Understand the logic on Green. This team will have too much talent potential to tank. These guys will want to secure a spot on the Thunder roster; you can only tank so much. Now the competition to secure a position on this team or impress upon other NBA teams comes into play.

I'm not saying they are going to tank. I'm saying that teams with so many young players don't make the playoffs. They won't need to tank to be in the lottery next year.

[Bill Robertson]

I'm not saying they are going to tank. I'm saying that teams with so many young players don't make the playoffs. They won't need to tank to be in the lottery next year.

If this is true. And I believe it is. This upcoming season will be, I believe, the 6th that the Thunder aren't good. At this point I have to wonder if we ever will be again. I'm truly asking because I don't follow deeply enough to know. How many NBA teams in the last 25 years have rebuilt into a true contender for the NBA title completely through the draft like Presti is determined to do. To my untrained eye I see Dallas and other teams that were on top when we were but drastically fell off when we did climbing back up much faster by using the draft, trades and free agency. Too many first round, amazing looking, draft picks in all the major sports never pan out and end up a waste of time and money. I want dearly to see us contend but I don't see us much closer now than when Westbrook and George left. We have a ton of "If they work out we'll be great prospects " and not enough known Championship possible players. And will SGA stick around to see if the questions turn out to be great choices.

[Jake]

The first iteration of the Thunder were built through the draft.

[dankrutka]

The Thunder are tanking next season. We’re not winning playing all these young guys. But it should be really fun to watch still.

[Laramie]