Oklahoma City Thunder 2016-17

[dcsooner]

Hard to watch��

[dcsooner]

Nm

[Thomas Vu]

I like what I saw from Dipo and Grant. If they can sustain that OKC could probably break top 4 again

[catch22]

Brand new team, essentially. They are playing against a team full of the best ball players. They need to do some growing.

[Roger S]

1st Quarter - Great ball movement, good D.
2nd Quarter - Exact opposite of 1st...

Agreed.... Adam's was killing them in the 1st and then they went away from what was working for some reason.

Young team on the road against a lot of superstar talent with a lot of additional emotion and drama going on.... It's a tough arena to win in for any team.

We all know the team has areas they need to work on but I think this game was an anomaly and not going to be an indicator of how our season will play out.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^^
Unfortunately I pretty much nailed it with my prediction posts yesterday; played out just about like I expected. At the same time, everything you say is also true. There is zero reason to be crushed by this; it's an early-season measuring stick that clearly demonstrates growth areas on which the team and organization need to focus, and gives our youngsters a taste of a playoff-like matchup and environment. Honestly not a bad thing at all. Time to come back home and get better.

[Roger S]

Honestly not a bad thing at all. Time to come back home and get better.

Exactly.... And we picked up a road win that I'm pretty sure none of us here expected the team to win.

[Anonymous.]

KD sure is good @ hitting threes while wearing a GSW jersey .

That went about as expected, it was fun up until KD blew it open in the 2nd. Oladipo and Grant did a great job last night. You could tell Russ was tired on the 2nd night of a B2B with his difficulty to even finish the simplest of layups.

Now on to the politics of the matchup...
Out of everyone on the team, I would prefer Kanter not be the one talking smack to KD. Russ and KD blocking each other was cool to watch. Those guys know each others game so well. I did find it pretty funny how long Kerr kept his starters out there, and then KD and co. was flying around smashing dunks on the likes of Grant and Singler. It is still almost unbelievable to me that GSW picked up KD when they were already in the running for GOAT. For some reason my brain can't comprehend the fact that Durant, Curry, Thompson, or Green and any pair of them could essentially have horrible games or just rest - and their team would still be favored. So when they are all in Game 7 mode like last night, nothing will stop them.

[Roger S]

So when they are all in Game 7 mode like last night, nothing will stop them.

I've heard of a King from the East that is mighty enough to slay these 3 point spewing trolls.

[king183]

For some reason my brain can't comprehend the fact that Durant, Curry, Thompson, or Green and any pair of them could essentially have horrible games or just rest - and their team would still be favored. So when they are all in Game 7 mode like last night, nothing will stop them.

I'm sticking by my prediction: GSW will be bounced in the 2nd round of the playoffs. They annihilated us last night for various reasons, but GSW is not as good as they were last year due to "supporting cast" issues.

And BBQ is right: LeBron and the Cavs can handle them if they end up facing each other, but I'm betting it'll be the Spurs in the Finals.

I also think Urbanized is correct: We are one big trade away from being a contender. Let's see what Presti does.

[Bellaboo]

A split on that particular road trip was very adequate. Not sure anyone would have us at 4 - 1 at this point a month ago.

[Bill Robertson]

1st Quarter - Great ball movement, good D.
2nd Quarter - Exact opposite of 1st...

This I have never understood. If I ran an offense and had it working I'd keep doing the same thing until the opponent stopped me. I've seen so many teams in all sports not do that.
Another example, I've seen many a football team march right down the field on thier first few possessions using screens, dumps passes, short crossing routes, etc. Then on the next possessions they run in between the tackles and punt. I don't get it. Probably why they're planning offenses and I'm not though.

[king183]

Anyone else excited about Sabonis's potential? He's looking better every game, with the exception of fouls. He seems like he can be a monster after spending a summer getting bigger and working on defense.

[dankrutka]

I'm sticking by my prediction: GSW will be bounced in the 2nd round of the playoffs. They annihilated us last night for various reasons, but GSW is not as good as they were last year due to "supporting cast" issues.

And BBQ is right: LeBron and the Cavs can handle them if they end up facing each other, but I'm betting it'll be the Spurs in the Finals.

I also think Urbanized is correct: We are one big trade away from being a contender. Let's see what Presti does.

I like your optimism, but don't share it. Unfortunately, Golden State is definitely the odds on favorites to win the title and probably several titles over the next few years. And even if OKC added a star, which is very unlikely, we'd still likely be on a different tier. I like this team, but just making the playoffs is a reasonable goal for this squad. We have to adjust expectations... titles just aren't on the table anymore. That doesn't mean this don't be a fun season though.

[Bellaboo]

Anyone else excited about Sabonis's potential? He's looking better every game, with the exception of fouls. He seems like he can be a monster after spending a summer getting bigger and working on defense.

He's before his time as a 20 year old. He's going to be very good defensively as soon as he gets his lateral quickness up to par with NBA competition.

[dankrutka]

This I have never understood. If I ran an offense and had it working I'd keep doing the same thing until the opponent stopped me. I've seen so many teams in all sports not do that.
Another example, I've seen many a football team march right down the field on thier first few possessions using screens, dumps passes, short crossing routes, etc. Then on the next possessions they run in between the tackles and punt. I don't get it. Probably why they're planning offenses and I'm not though.

The bigger problem is that we had to sub out starters and play our bench. Our bench is not very good and the lineup when Russ subbed out was exceptionally bad.. It's not as simple as the team just decided to quit passing. It was just a lot of inexperienced and not very good (yet) players.

[baralheia]

For what it's worth: Five Thirty Eight's model isn't perfect, but they peg the current chances of the Thunder making the playoffs this season at 89%. Currently they have OKC ranked as the 6th strongest team in the league. http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/...a-predictions/

[OKCisOK4me]

I was thinking 47 wins this season as reasonable

[Jake]

The Warriors are a much better team than OKC, so the result isn't unexpected. Especially on a back-to-back away game.

The fact OKC is 4-1 is honestly surprising to me. They're better than I thought they'd be

[Urbanized]

KD sure is good @ hitting threes while wearing a GSW jersey .

That went about as expected, it was fun up until KD blew it open in the 2nd...

This has been my complaint with KD for years now. He is without question a next-level talent, but honestly I think he is a BAD head case. Completely spoiled, soft. He wants everything to come easy, he pouts, etc., and rarely gives maximum effort. If something truly fires him up, he can obviously become ridiculous; truly unstoppable. But in the 8 years he was here, this only happened a few dozen times. And MOST of them occurred when Russ was injured. Had nothing to do with Russ freezing KD; Durant just didn't want to work hard for it most of the time.

Last night, he obviously wanted it badly. And he was devastating. If we had seen THAT KD more often than not during his OKC tenure, there would be multiple World Champions banners hanging in the rafters. I despise him more for that now than I do the way that he left or the way that he has handled himself since.

You can say a lot about Russ - much good, some bad - but you can NEVER say the dude isn't trying his damnedest.

[Bill Robertson]

The bigger problem is that we had to sub out starters and play our bench. Our bench is not very good and the lineup when Russ subbed out was exceptionally bad.. It's not as simple as the team just decided to quit passing. It was just a lot of inexperienced and not very good (yet) players.

Granted. The starters go back in and seem to panic instead of going back to what they started out doing that was working.

[Laramie]

Granted. The starters go back in and seem to panic instead of going back to what they started out doing that was working.

Good observation SoonerSoftail. They hit the panic button and got schooled by a veteran superstar laced team.

Westbrook exhibited leadership in his post game interview. Durant (IMO) came off a little cocky.

[OKCRT]

I see that tomorrows game time is 5:00. Is there a reason for that start time? I don't remember a 5:00 Saturday game in the past. Could be wrong but those all seem like 7:00 start times. 6:00 on Sundays.

Hopefully Kanter gets it in gear. He's been off so far and we need him to score 10-15 every night and 10 boards. I mean the guy is getting paid pretty dang good and needs to produce!

[sooner88]

I see that tomorrows game time is 5:00. Is there a reason for that start time? I don't remember a 5:00 Saturday game in the past. Could be wrong but those all seem like 7:00 start times. 6:00 on Sundays.


Hopefully Kanter gets it in gear. He's been off so far and we need him to score 10-15 every night and 10 boards. I mean the guy is getting paid pretty dang good and needs to produce!

They are testing out earlier start times for international markets, although it still makes it a midnight tip in Europe. NFL and NBA are both in that testing phase with an international expansion inevitable.

[ljbab728]

The West could be interesting this year. One night after routing the Thunder, the Warriors get routed by the lowly (but improved) Lakers.