Why Minnesota Timberwolves are bigger title threat than OKC Thunder | Nerd Sesh x Hoops Tonight
Who is a more serious title Contender the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Minnesota Timberwolves we’ll start with Logan I am uh amidst the YouTube video in which I’m I’m actually working on a take similar to this uh for me it’s Minnesota and as it stands Minnesota is
My number two team out west right now and uh the reason for that again this is subject to change because I think the Warriors and Lakers both need to make major Trad uh trade deadline moves depending on how they reconfigure their roster again they could still jump up in
There um I’m skeptical about the Clippers Suns and Kings for two-way value stuff like that and I really believe in this defense and their ability to slow down uh any Western Conference foe that they run into and I think when you look at Minnesota the majority of the losses that they have
Suffered this year it’s been down to really three reasons and and again you can you can blanket statement uh these keys for for a lot of NBA games but it’s been evident with Minnesota it’s lack ofical turnovers it’s poor effort defensively and it’s been RedHot shooting Nights from their opponents uh
Five of the seven losses that Minnesota has suffered has been when a team has had a true shooting percentage of 60% or better again you can make that mostly again a blanket statement for a lot of loss the team suffer but it’s been evident with Minnesota the one advantage I will give
Oklahoma City concretely over Minnesota at this point is there halfcourt offense creation and they’re just depth of weapons offensively I think that really could be the mar difference in a series that you know Carl Anthony Tal’s going to have to pull his weight Anthony Edwards is going to have to consistently reach that
Superstar level which he has done on big stages but that’s still the biggest um variable here when Oklahoma City SGA can have an off night and Chet can take over knocking down shots getting to the rack he’s so good Jaylen Williams dropped you know 36 the other night um he’s a 90th
Percentile isolation player this season an isolation possession from Jaylen Williams is worth 1.24 points that’s absurd he’s a 72nd percentile pick and roll ball handler like Point Blank Minnesota just does not have the depth of offensive weapons that Oklahoma City does and Oklahoma City is a damn good
Defense too so I’m I guess I’m gonna say I want to hit the pause button here because I want one more month I think Oklahoma City and Minnesota like Golden State and LA need to do something at the deadline I think the majority of teams
Across the league need to make a move to get marginally better at the deadline uh Oklahoma City finding a secondary or tertiary offensive weapon another one to put them over the top I know both of you guys have discussed lry marinin would be awesome if they could make a swing for
Him with their picks and then I think Minnesota needs to make another swing too to put themselves over the top to keep Pace because again I think they have the defensive personnel and the physical advantages to stifle LA to limit Denver just a little bit to open
The door but they are just in a different class offensively than Denver Denver is in a different tier so for me I think Minnesota I like Minnesota more because their defensive ceiling but they have to to make a move at the deadline I’m shopping Kyle Anderson na I’m
Shopping Shake Milton uh Troy Brown Jr and picks like whatever I can whatever move I can make to get another bench piece or another option offensively to give me easy offense come playoff time is what I’m doing but I think I’m just marginally like uh Minnesota more because of their
Defensive consistency but Oklahoma City is a damn good Contender too I I legit buy into both of these teams potentially making a a playoff run yeah I love both of these teams I am so so high on the Thunder I think this is as bright a
Future from a young team as we have seen since Shocker the Thunder just over a decade ago and they had Harden Russ and KD Sam prey man I hope that he gets his ring because he is as brilliant a player evaluator as we have seen in this league
He just Nails draft pick after draft pick after draft pick and he makes very good value trades but at some point you got to put it all together and get that ring and reach the actual apex of the sport I mean Jason you remember I was
Crazy high on Chad as a prospect I said he was the best guy who I had ever been able to really evaluate I love Shay I think Jaylen is even underrated like I think he’s a perennial third star he is rarely good for a second-year guy they’re awesome but right now it’s
Minnesota I think there’s a few concrete reasons for that number one is how well they match up physically against the big Elite teams in the west I think that is going to be a very important component just with the way that the best teams in the league have gone you are looking at
Big athletic strong front courts and Minnesota is the epitome of that with their two big looks and they’re just really athletic all around with Jaden McDaniels and anthy Edwards and OKC is very athletic but in the front Court they’re slight they’re 29th in rebound rate this year and I think teams like
The nuggets the Lakers can expose that ched is an unbelievable pure rim protector his timing his length and all that but he’s not not an elite rebounding five and I just think that level of strength really presents problems for OKC on the interior whereas Minnesota they have as good a formula
For guarding an Nika yic as anybody does in the league put cat on him that’s a really big body you have goar there and help they’re going to match up on the glass against anybody I think that that matters in Playoff scenarios especially looking at the competition out west I
Also think they have a depth Advantage it’s good for both these teams but they are seven deep with damn good players and we talk about the lack of redundancies I think Minnesota’s put together a really nice complimentary basketball team I had offensive concerns about playing cat alongside a true five
But I think that you are looking at a lot of guys who fill specific roles goar as this defensive anchor Pat as a guy who can help defend on the interior and then can do various things offensively attacking mismatches killing you with his shooting Jaden is just this awesome
Three and D wing and is your go out there number one sort of offensive option from the perimeter awesome athlete and then Conley is just this highlevel facilitator smart veteran guy going to shoot the ball really well so on top of this big three they have of
Star level guys they’ve got two really good almost perfect role players in the starting five and then Kyle Anderson and Nas Reed are super valuable bench pieces you just have a versatile two-way guy in Anderson and then as explosive a scoring bench big as there is in the league in
Nas Reed whereas I look at OKC and I’m like boy I love Kon Off the Bench I love Isaiah Joe Off the Bench those guys are really good are they as multifaceted maybe as some of these more veteran guys who we’re talking about that’s a question but honestly my concerns are
Maybe more with a couple of the guys in the starting five like as long as Josh giddy is closing games and playing 25 minutes a game I think that’s a problem I just think he is not very good and this was always my problem with him
Being the number six pick in the draft he’s in a player archetype that we haven’t seen successful in the league ever like his passing is awesome but to be a really good offensive player in the NBA today you have to be a highlevel threat both as a scorer and a passer and
This is a guy who is a below average athlete who has Bad Touch who has a broken jump shot who is going to be a negative defensively I mean we’re seeing it this year right he’s giv you 11 a night on 50% true shooting I think he
Takes the offense out of rhythm I don’t think he holds defenses accountable as a spot up shooter I think he is going to be an addition by subtraction situation if they can move off of him and then even a guy like Lou Dort who has been awesome this year he is shooting the
Hell out of the ball I’ve just seen too many times from him in the past where he gets in these stretches where it’s brick after brick after brick and that can be a question of shot selection so I don’t have the same level of Faith with those
Fourth and fifth guys that I do with the Minnesota dudes who just excel in their roles and then they are much more experienced Mike Conley has been in multiple playoff runs as has Kyle Anderson goar has been to the second round a few times pad and ant have at
Least been to the playoffs multiple times teams don’t win titles when nobody on their team has real playoff experience and that is the case for OKC Shay has been there sure but he’s never been there as the guy Lou has been in one playoff series and that’s it that’s
The entirety of the playoff experience on this roster in this rotation outside of Isaiah Joe being a garbage time guy in Philly that doesn’t count ‘s maybe one exception historically to that rule that being the 1977 Blazers very young team but overwhelmingly it’s certainly helps to have been there before to have
Been in those battles and there’s a physical maturity with Minnesota along with that mental maturity I just think they scale better to a playoff setting right now but long term boy I am high on what OKC can do yeah that last part is is literally the take that I came into
This with when I was prepping this morning like I think Oklahoma City is is going to be awesome for a really long time yeah I think they aren’t going to make the mistakes they made early on with the with James Harden they are uh they have a lot of very specific pieces
That I look at with championship contention like diversity of shot creation diversity of defensive scheme that they can run they like like Chad hren I think legitimately has the potential to be the best player in the world one day like they have they have so much upside it’s not even funny but
There’s just two big flags for me like the western conference is huge on the front line and they are tiny and uh everything we know about NBA history tells us that the longer you get into a playoff series that’s where physical matchups matter more and more I know I
I’m in some trouble with ther fans because I did my power rankings before the the Minnesota win and I said I don’t think Oklahoma City is capable of beating Minnesota LA or Denver four times out of seven because of the Frontline size mismatches and then they beat the out of Minnesota
Of course I look silly but but genuinely speaking when you get to the to the uh to the playoffs and you get into a seven game setting the whistle gets a little tighter it becomes a more physical game I just am worried about them on the
Front line and then that second piece of it is like I mean shout out to the 1977 Blazers but but shout out to but like kids don’t win in the NBA they just don’t they they sometimes kids make some noise but kids don’t win win in the NBA
And when they do it’s like 26 27 years old and they’re surrounded by vets usually at that point this team has not just a lack of Championship experience they have a lack or a lack of playoff experience I should say they have like a basketball experience these are all kids
These are young young basketball players and so I when I look at that those are just giant red flags for me that say like Hey listen to what NBA history tells you doesn’t mean they can’t win it just means they would be beating the odds it’s kind of like and for the
Record the Counterpoint there is what happened with Denver last year we have never not in recent NBA history uh it it had been decades since we saw a non- defending Champion non-top 10 defense be able to you know win the the NBA championship and they won comfortably
And often on the strength of their defense so like literally it was it’s it it can be done it’s just I think I think uh Denver is more of the exception to the rule and we also have to account for the fact that joic is the best player in
The world right now and I as good as Shay is I don’t believe he is uh the looking at Minnesota they have a big red flag too that I always look at which is they’re really bad at half court offense um in general like when things get super
Physical like having a bunch of guys that are capable of of of really high level clothes at attacking and having two really high-end uh shot creators are are really important and I’m not saying that ant’s not capable of that but that certainly is a concern for me but to
Your point Carson they have two massive green flags which is they have a lot of experience and they’re huge and that those are just two very very important pieces to to a playoff run I don’t view either of them as top tier contenders I look at I still only think Boston and
Denver are capable of saying like hey we have like a really good chance of winning this year I think everybody else is like is like long shot chance pending a good trade like and where good trade could potentially Vault them into that that next level but yeah I again it’s
Not an anti- Oklahoma City take I have a ton of fun watching Oklahoma City dude Jaylen Williams was cooking the New York Knicks last night just cooking him like he was pulling Tod Gibson out into switches and barbecuing him he was uh uh utilizing the pick and pop with chat
Holr and getting open looks you started picking on Julius Randall and switches like the kid is in insanely good and he he’s on a a stretch here just in the last like couple of weeks he’s really turned up the scoring volume and efficiency last nine games Jaylen
Williams 20 points per game 57% from the field 53% from three 86% from the line and Logan you mentioned his isolation numbers which have been off the charts like they are freaking awesome it’s just this is not their year I I just I like I I think they’ll I think they’ll give
Somebody a really tough fight they’ll have some moments where they win game in OKC and you’re like man these guys are going to be a problem for a long time but just game five game six game seven it’s just going to be the bigger stronger teams that kind of wear them
Down uh I I know they’ve had some success against the bigger teams in a regular season sample but I do think that they’ve probably been one of the best effort and consistency teams this year which is obviously go which is like they’re like to me a much better version
Of the Memphis Grizzlies team from the last couple of years that was really good in the regular season but I didn’t I wasn’t as optimistic about their high-end long-term potential
The nerds and Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight discuss why Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert make for a bigger title threat than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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