Oklahoma City Thunder 2017-18

[Bellaboo]

I feel terrible for the fans who have to watch his feeble attempts and the owners for paying him as a world class talent throwing up that garbage. I think the time has passed and he needs to start practicing the underhand technique of Rick Barry.

He said he tried it this summer and the results were not good. I'd say he should try harder.

[dankrutka]

I feel terrible for the fans who have to watch his feeble attempts and the owners for paying him as a world class talent throwing up that garbage. I think the time has passed and he needs to start practicing the underhand technique of Rick Barry.

It was recently reported that Roberson already tried it and didn't have success with it. I know we all think we have an answer to Roberson's free throw problems, but does everyone really think OKC and Roberson haven't been working on this endlessly? These are mental and skill problems, not a work ethic or lack of creativity problems. Some players worked tirelessly their entire careers to improve free throws and saw no results. In the case of some skills, hard work does not always lead to improvement.

[dankrutka]

^^^^^Lol

I like Robertson I do. The guy is.....lets just call it ' challenged' on the offensive side of the ball, to say the least or be nice however you want to look at it. And its just my opinion but Avery Bradley is hands down better at guarding the 2 position. But that's why Andre is so valuable, the guy played as a big man at Colorado I believe. So he can grab boards and defend multiple positions.

But it doesn't matter what he does defensively when he handicaps the half court offensive sets. Its not hard to see it. Its clear as day. Guys just do not respect him and simply clog the lanes.

Look, I like Andre but.....Andrew wiggins? 10-20 for 27 points last night.

Like I said before. I trust coach Donovan to iron this out. Doubt there is a bigger THUNDER fan than me but I am also not blind.....he is a problem for us in OUr halfcourt offense....PERIOD! He sucks at free throws, he awkwardly shoots the ball before he jumps and the ball rolls off the side of his hand on the way there, he hairballs free throws....like, lmbo, the heck are we talking about here Lol.....he bet on his self and hit the free market then came right back to OKC.

Its like, why can't we acknowledge the guy is a decent defender that sucks offensively (stating the obvious) without being a hater? Its the truth.....just wish we could have AT LEAST given Avery Bradley a shot.....A better 2 guard defender and WAAAAYYYY better offensively!

There's just no evidence to suggest that Avery Bradley is even in the vicinity of Roberson defensively. Roberson is an absolute elite defender - maybe top 5 in the entire league. Here's the comparison between Roberson and Bradley. The overwhelming evidence suggests that not only is Roberson in a completely different defensive league to Bradley, he's probably a more effective player overall.

Here's the overall evidence:
- Roberson has twice the overall value (not defensively, overall!) of Bradley according to VORP (1.2 to 0.6)
- Roberson's win shares per 48 minutes (how many wins he contributes to overall) is 0.89 to 0.59
- Roberson has a higher overall box plus/minus at 0.0 to Bradley's -0.7
- Roberson even has a higher OFFENSIVE win share than Bradley at 3.6 to 2.3 and true shooting percentage .525 to .519 (Roberson shoots over 60% from the field to Bradley's 47%; BTW, I don't think Roberson is actually a better offensive player, but he can be effective in what he does as is evidence by his high field goal percentage)

Here's the defensive evidence:
- Roberson's defensive box plus/minus is 2.1 to Bradley's negative rating of -0.5 (that's a huge difference)
- Roberson's block percentage is 2.2 to Bradley's 0.6
- Roberson's defensive rebound percentage is 14 to Bradley's 9.5
The only stats that are in Bradley's favor are because he plays more minutes. You can argue that is important. But when Roberson is on the floor, he is clearly a better player and a dramatically better defensive player than Avery Bradley.

I used their career state above, but their stats from last season show the same results (see here).

The stats pretty dramatically show that Roberson is not only way better defensively, but just better period. I know Roberson is frustrating, but we can't just start making up that Roberson isn't that good of a defender or player when he is. Season after season he has been in many of OKC's best lineups. Everyone is so focused on what Roberson can't do, they don't focus on what he does well. In general, most fans can't actually identify good defensive players anyway so they don't get credit.

[Laramie]

I feel terrible for the fans who have to watch his feeble attempts and the owners for paying him as a world class talent throwing up that garbage. I think the time has passed and he needs to start practicing the underhand technique of Rick Barry.

Agree, he needs to try something (under hand, over hand, fingerling), because he continues to get the same bad results. Those large lunch-grabbers of his doesn't allow him to get a good feel for the ball. His odds are like tossing a quarter at the state fair lucky strike game--trying to center the quarter.

[Roger S]

I'd be happy if he could at least hit the rim with those free throws.... Those two airballs were tough to watch... At least use the backboard.

Watching those two airballs made me wonder if he has a vision/depth perception problem at that range among the other issues with his shot.

[OKC_on_mines]

The vision depth perception thing might be valid.

[Jake]

Maybe he just needs to get some glasses and he'll start shooting ~40% from 3.

[Roger S]

Maybe he just needs to get some glasses and he'll start shooting ~40% from 3.

Maybe 39%... 40% is probably pushing it.

[dankrutka]

Okay, I'll bite. Maybe a teenage klutz becomes the star of his high-school basketball team when he magically acquires the abilities of his hero, NBA star Andre Roberson -- but the switch leaves Roberson unable to shoot free throws

[Laramie]

.

Oklahoma City Thunder 114 - Indiana Pacers 96

Box score: http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400974811

Westbrook triple double: REB 10, AST 16, PTS 28

[OKC_on_mines]

Think he averages another triple double this year?

[dankrutka]

Certainly possible. Rebounds will be the tough category.

[OKC_on_mines]

Yeah. I think the assists go up. How about my guy Steven Adams ? Every year he gets better. Might be the best center in the league!

[Laramie]

Yeah. I think the assists go up. How about my guy Steven Adams ? Every year he gets better. Might be the best center in the league!

Definitely among the best centers in the NBA. He'll get another crack at Utah's Rudy Gobert & Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns.

[OKC_on_mines]

Oh yea. And he is still pretty young. But he is so unselfish. One of my favorite THUNDER!

[OkiePoke]

Adams didn't have a good year last year. I think it had a lot to do with opponents would just crowd the lane. They can't do that this year with PG13 and HoodieMelo outside.

Felton has been a huge improvement over backwards James. Good to see 2Pat get some points last night, along with Huestis and Ferguson.

[Laramie]

I'd be happy if he could at least hit the rim with those free throws.... Those two airballs were tough to watch... At least use the backboard.

Watching those two airballs made me wonder if he has a vision/depth perception problem at that range among the other issues with his shot.

Heard it was Dre's exceptionally large hands...

[dcsooner]

Did a quick comparison:

Former Thunder Players

Oladipo- 26.0 ppg
Kanter 14.3 ppg
McDermott 5.0 ppg
Smith, Ish 6,4 ppg
Jackson R 15.2 ppg
Lamb, J 15.8 ppg
Sabonis 11.2 ppg
Lavergne, J 6.0 ppg

Current Thunder players

Heustis 1.5 ppg
Ferguson .7 ppg
Grant 6.8 ppg
Hamilton, D 0.0 ppg
Singler 0.0ppg
Collison 0.0 ppg
Dozier 0.0 ppg
Felton 7.8 ppg
Melo 24.8 ppg
George 18.5 ppg

Our bench will be our achilles heel this year

[AP]

lmao

[Bellaboo]

Dozier hasn't even played a G League game ever, so yep he's a zero.

Singler and Collison more than likely won't see the court this year so yep they will be zero also.


So what I'm saying is they will have no impact to the season other than in practice.

[dankrutka]

Did a quick comparison:

Former Thunder Players

Oladipo- 26.0 ppg
Kanter 14.3 ppg
McDermott 5.0 ppg
Smith, Ish 6,4 ppg
Jackson R 15.2 ppg
Lamb, J 15.8 ppg
Sabonis 11.2 ppg
Lavergne, J 6.0 ppg

Current Thunder players

Heustis 1.5 ppg
Ferguson .7 ppg
Grant 6.8 ppg
Hamilton, D 0.0 ppg
Singler 0.0ppg
Collison 0.0 ppg
Dozier 0.0 ppg
Felton 7.8 ppg
Melo 24.8 ppg
George 18.5 ppg

Our bench will be our achilles heel this year

This is a weird analysis that randomly pulls players from over several years who are in very different situations and uses only raw stats, which really aren't instructive. Scoring more points does not mean that you're better. It may just mean that you're on a bad team and thus taking more shots.

More than anything though, the bench was the Achilles heel last season. Lol.

The bench units will be much better this season for multiple reasons, including (a) an elite scorer will stagger minutes with bench units, (b) the upgrades at point guard (Semaj to Felton) and power forward (Sabonis to Patterson) will be significant, and (c) some young players will likely improve, namely Abrines. Once the playoffs arrive I expect OKC to have a 9 man rotation (Starters + Abrines, Patterson, Felton, Grant). Anything beyond that is bonus. But, yeah, in the regular season, Ferguson and Huestis will get a chance to prove themselves and it could be bumpy at times. But, this bench is far more ready for the playoffs than last year when three of the main contributors (Kanter, McBuckets, and Sabonis) were basically benched against the Rockets. None of the top 9 will be benched from this year's team.

[Jake]

I think Felton is going to prove to be a really solid pickup for this team. He didn't light it up or anything last night, but it's so nice to have a reliable 2nd point guard that can control the flow of the game somewhat.

[sooner88]

Carmelo hit it on the head last night when they asked about PG's off night. The main draw for him to OKC was they now have the ability for one of their stars to have an off night and still succeed. With 3 all-stars we can stagger our lineups where there won't be the giant offensive lull we have had in the past. Adams' is going to be a monster with the spacing our stars now command... can't wait for us to hit our stride.

[dcsooner]

This is a weird analysis that randomly pulls players from over several years who are in very different situations and uses only raw stats, which really aren't instructive. Scoring more points does not mean that you're better. It may just mean that you're on a bad team and thus taking more shots.

More than anything though, the bench was the Achilles heel last season. Lol.

The bench units will be much better this season for multiple reasons, including (a) an elite scorer will stagger minutes with bench units, (b) the upgrades at point guard (Semaj to Felton) and power forward (Sabonis to Patterson) will be significant, and (c) some young players will likely improve, namely Abrines. Once the playoffs arrive I expect OKC to have a 9 man rotation (Starters + Abrines, Patterson, Felton, Grant). Anything beyond that is bonus. But, yeah, in the regular season, Ferguson and Huestis will get a chance to prove themselves and it could be bumpy at times. But, this bench is far more ready for the playoffs than last year when three of the main contributors (Kanter, McBuckets, and Sabonis) were basically benched against the Rockets. None of the top 9 will be benched from this year's team.

Did a quick Comparison not Analysis

[bradh]

Shocking, dcsooner finds something to fit his MO of always finding the negatives in anything related to OKC

We were all set to pick up tickets and see OKC play the wolves up here in MSP tomorrow night, but my allegiance to my hometown Astros trumps that so I'll be somewhere watching game 3