TBU Podcast | Wrapping Up 2023 and What’s to Come in 2024 🎬

TBU Podcast | Wrapping Up 2023 and What’s to Come in 2024 🎬

Welcome into the Thunder basketball Universe it’s been a little minute since we podcasted we hope you all had a wonderful holiday and Christmas time with your family and loved ones Gallow how was your holiday oh it was amazing it was crazy but amazing as it is with

Three kids yeah yeah we just running around but uh my daughter woke up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve and said Daddy I heard Santa in the sky and I was like I know he’s here he’s coming you better go back to sleep go back to

Sleep it’s 4:00 in the morning or else he won’t come with your gift and she woke up and it was magical and uh yeah we just we had a lovely time how was yours it was amazing um I stayed at my PJs all Christmas day and this is

How you know I have reached just like Peak adulthood the best gift that I got this Christmas was a full set of pots and pans gosh nonstick that’s big time pots and pans all matching set now I can throw out all the hodge podge like

You’re all gred up on us he came in here as a little 23y old and you know now look at me now with a matching set of pots and pants which I think was kind of a gift for my parents too because they used all of that to like cook thanks Christmas

Dinner too so it was a win-win for everybody so it was a really good holiday season here in the Thunder basketball Universe for multiple reasons the Thunder since we last podcasted had a five game holiday home stand but before that they had a couple of games on the road Sacramento and Denver and

Included a fun game winner by SGA we’ll get to that a little bit later but first since it’s been a minute since we’ve last podcasted we’ve got a couple of things each that have blessed our timeline so we’re going to dive into these things right now Nick I’ll let you

Go first yeah well just like everybody got kind of a second serving a double helping at uh Christmas dinner or Christmas Eve dinner we got a pair of things here yeah for you and the first one for me is uh Homeland shopping spree Target shopping spree there have been so many

Shopping spree that these Thunder players have helped uh families go on here leading into the holidays and I think some of this off the court stuff can sometimes get overshadowed by what happens on the court but as kind of a community um pillar and leader these opportunities and you see some of the

Families then and how they get impacted by all of this is just um so heartwarming and so we saw Jaylen Williams Jay will and Lou D um each take families over to Homeland for big shopping spree right before Christmas to make sure everybody had what they needed

And then the entire team went out to Target and worked with grandparents raising grandchildren and that organization um to make sure that the kids uh that got to go all had a chance to shop for something big and exciting and the grandparents also who you know rarely ever get to shop for themselves

That they got a nice shopping spree too that was such a special first of all that was the first time I got to experience this annual all team shopping spree I loved it it was so cool a the kids and their excitement of being able to shop in Target with their favorite

Thunder player that was massive but also seeing the just joy and disbelief on these grandparents faces that you know their kids are being taken care of but also oh wait I can shop for myself today what I can get what I want I can go get

Myself a nice fleece blanket or you know like the these these folk folks were just getting whatever they wanted and it was just there was so much joy and I think I came into it anticipating it to be kind of chaotic cuz I mean it’s

A big store you got all these guys who are you know super tall and you know you got all these kids leading the charge with the carts and I was like okay this might be a little we might have to play a zone defense here just to let keep up

With everybody but that thing went so smoothly and it was because these kids were prepared they came in and they were like I know exactly what I want I know what aisle it is I know where I need to go and which ones I need to hit first I

Remember Jaylen Williams Jay dub being done in like five minutes and his kid was like yep I knew exactly I wanted this this and this and I knew exactly where to go get it yeah they knew where in the store to go the the kids excitement manifested in exactly that in

Just the Precision and like knowing exactly what they wanted and being as efficient as possible at being able to get whatever that toy was or whatever um you know console or whatever and being able to get home as soon as possible to start playing with it the emotion really

Came from the grandparents and a lot of times the grandparents were with um Thunder entertainers I know our very own Michael cage was walking around with some of the grandparents as well which Mike Mike might have gone a little over budget he’s one of those guys that’s

Like you know you should get that get two of them why not you know yeah he’s a little little kind of guy yeah is he is yeah I mean and um that’s when the emotion really flows and the grandparents every year at this event um you know they’re surprised by that

Aspect of the proceedings they think that they’re going and they’re they’re able to to give their grandchild something that they might not otherwise get yeah um and yet here’s this surprise for them and that’s when the Waterworks come and it’s just uh it’s really special because you know so so many of

These people in you know sort of the the golden years of their lives we’re not necessarily expecting to be raising you know young children um and here they are and so what a way to reward that um sacrifice the other special element to this was that the grandparents were also

Given some extra money to Homeland to go grocery shopping later on and so everything was literally taken care of for these families and it was so special and fun to see all right I’m going to do one of mine we’ll come back to your second one later because since we’re on

The the topic of holiday assisting and giving back Shay gildas Alexander had his annual SGA kicks for a cause event this year he had it at the Converse factory store he invited 15 kids from the Boys and Girls Club to come to this Factory Store they were all there they

Kind of they were like okay all right what are we doing here they weren’t told ahead of time what was happening and then they started to see some SGA signage and then they started to see Rumble kind of lurking around and then sgaa walks into the building and it’s

All clicking they got a shopping spree in the factory store to get whatever they wanted and these kids oh my gosh they were all basketball players from the Boys and Girls Club first of all they were hand selected because they had been leaders within their own basketball

Team and and in school as well and Shay did was so engaged this is like Shay in his element like on the court Shay in his element but also like Shay in fashion in his element because he had a chance to go around his this this Converse store and help these kids pick

Out what they wanted and he and these kids were like sh what should I get like what what is like what do you normally wear you know you wear your like jeans all right I got you come this way yeah go right over here we’ll get you we’ll

Get you hooked up and he was helping reach you know High shelves and stuff too so it was like it was so special and wholesome these kids I mean all basketball players they loved it my favorite part of this event was that uh Paris put on a little disguise put on a

Boys and Girls Club shirt and tried to get a shopping spree of her own as well yeah no uh Paris you you were there and kind of helped um run the proceedings a little bit too like what what was that like to just see Shay you know take over

The store this way and Captivate these kids who I mean what an opportunity to to shop with you know allstar MVP and a guy who knows or about fashion exactly it was it was unbelievable because I’ve I’ve been to each of these kicks for a cause events over the past

Few years and each year Shay grows as a player he grows in kind of people’s knowledge and awareness of him he’s blossoming as you know this bright star in the NBA and so this year it was just like immediate these like these kids have Shay listed as their favorite

Player you know like everybody that was there appreciated loved and was so excited that he was there and the best part about it I did like a little intro like welcome everybody glad you’re here you know we’ve got Shay here he’s gonna explain how everything’s going down and

Shay got the mic and he was like we’re so happy you’re here you’re going to get a shopping spree if you have any questions at all questions about basketball questions about fashion questions about what you need to get I’m your guy don’t hesitate and he was just

So open and these kids I mean some of them were a little intimidated still like walking up to SGA you know 6’6 he’s the star but he was so disarming and just you know really really engaged and you could tell these kids really appreciated it that’s and they went all

Out let me tell you like Shay it was so funny cuz he was like packing these they each got like bags to put their stuff in and Shay was like no no no we’re gonna we’re going to start this over like this kid had like all this stuff kind of hodg

Podge like stacked in he was like sh was like I used to stack groceries I got this and so he would take the shoes and stack them and get them all sorted and these are the the human moments and interactions that all of this is designed to do you know it’s not just

The the material stuff and you know just heaping gifts upon people like even at these Homeland events you know it’s Jay will just laughing with the the the kids uh as they’re pushing the shopping cart around the entire time or Lou just you know trying to keep up with the kids as

They’re like buzzing around him trying to you know get more um sweets into the card and the moms trying to get more like health food in the car like all this stuff and what you’re describing with Shay is like those are the types of things that they’re going to remember

More about that experience than you know what shoes necessarily they brought home they’re going to grow out of those shoes at some point but they will never grow out of that memory and they ask Shay all kinds of questions about the NBA and everything and so these kids who play

Basketball who want to grow up being like Shay they got a memory of a lifetime that day all right Nick I think you got another bless your timeline yeah and this one happened last night um here at paycom Center we’re um recording just after the Thunder beat the New York

Knicks last night to cap that uh back toback in this five-game home stand we’re getting ready to fly out to Denver in just a couple minutes here um but at the end of the game uh jdub just went off 17o fourth quarter to really help

Seal this game and as jdub came over to do his walk-off interview I hit him with this question about how it felt to hit that you know trailing three pointer to put OKC up 10 uh during this crucial stretch late in the fourth quarter and then all of a sudden uh the Waterworks

Happened and it was not tears it was Chad holgren coming over and dumping a bunch of water kind of right in JB’s face actually no immediately like on his head water went everywhere but then he was so nice cuz he came back with a towel right after that you know CH Chad

You’re gonna Chad give and take you know he’s gonna he’s gonna take a bunch of water and dump it all over your head and then he’s going to bring you a nice towel and and give you something to dry off it’s like a sour patch kid like

First they’re sour then they’re sweet J was like dang just got my braids redone man that’s rough that’s rough that was so fun I mean I’m curious to know how many times you’ve gotten drenched with water in one of these walk-off interviews it had to have been we’re

We’re certainly into double figures now um I’m not sure I’m not sure I’m not sure we’re into dozens yet but you know over half de you know six years now seven years of doing this it’s uh you know they’re starting to add up they starting to add up especially with this

Group in particular I mean the the Milestones the career highs the gamewinners all of those moments are certainly Waterworks worthy yeah and I mean that sequence that Shay that excuse me that uh jdub had yeah in the fourth quarter let alone the start of the game

And we talked about this last night like seven straight points for the Thunder to start that game at all three levels of the floor that was the way that dub was you know attacking and I thought it was really fitting that it was Chad that was

The guy that dumped water on him because there those two in combination in the start of that fourth quarter when New York was really trying to switch everything defensively those two guys played pick and pop for much much of that fourth quarter before Shay checked in and OKC just kept getting good look

After good look after good look the thunder only turned the ball over four times all game and when a team’s switching on you that really baits you into trying to play isolation and go one-on-one and that can often lead to turnovers not for the thunder in this game

They worked that pick and pop and J forced you know big like Taj Gibson to try to defend him off the bounce um and then force a guy like Josh Hart who’s given up you know probably six seven eight inches on Chad hren to try to contest those jump shots like good luck

Both ways best of luck to you yeah pick your poison there and jayd finished with a career high 36 points and he was so incredibly efficient yeah with the way that he was able to score I mean at some point Nick you had no that was a

Different tweet I was like it was shame had was it Shay or dub who had 19 points on nine uh I believe that was sh but you’re I mean but both those extremely efficient as well you know it it’s just one of those deals that both

Of those guys and when they’re both kind of cooking like that it’s really hard to to deal with him jdub finished with a 36 on 17 shot attempts 13 seven five of five from three which is a career high and made threes for him as well and he

Was getting to the free throw line literally any way that you can put points on the board jdub did that against theck he was scoring at all three levels also getting to the free throw line and Tru and getting points off turnovers I mean really generating a

Lot of different points and all doing it within the flow of the offense which is something that coach dagal has recently given him a lot of credit for is that against the Timberwolves he shot the ball really well there as well and knock down four threes I believe in that game

And he had an opportunity in that game he had an open look it was a little far away from the three-point line and you could see he was probably processing it for a second like should I let it fly no I’m going turn it like that could have

Been a heat check moment for Jay du but he was like you know what no we need a great shot here in this moment so he moved it and that’s exactly what the Thunder got yeah nine threes in his last two games and uh shout out to our

Producer Matt Bishop because he pointed out to us you know jdub now shooting 42% from three on the season well above 50% from the field this is a guy with his ability to attack the rim get into the lane you know hit those mid-range jumpers if he is going to be a 40%

Three-point shooter two I mean watch out yeah that is at some point you become unguardable if you have that level of scoring ability at all you know all facets of the game yeah that that was such a a great moment and definitely deserved a little pre postgame shower there from Chad homr all

Right here is my final bless your timeline and it’s really kind of a two-parter because the umbrella is special guests inside of paycom Center over this five game home stand there have been a couple surprises the first first one was case Wallace had some wonderful visitors and it was the entire

Boys basketball team from Richardson tid school which is his Alma back in Texas right outside of Dallas and His Old Coach all the players they came and they got to take pictures post game with KAS and then K gave them all a Brand New Pair of Shoes after that what a guy the

Rookie giving back already I mean he just got here exact’s he’s not even been on the team for three months you know or like you know in this setting has played 30 games in his NBA career yet and this is the second time that the Richardson

High school team has gotten to see him play which is really cool they they saw that uh amazing Victory by the Thunder Down in Dallas where it was like that wacky game OKC was up massive Dallas comes storming all the way back on the 30 nothing run and then and then the

Thunder finishes it out somehow with a wild flurry at the end so to see the two games that they got to see was really remarkable and then um k i remember in our media day interview K talking about just how much like his neighborhood of Hamilton Park Texas means to him and he

Was like you know it’s really important to me to motivate and Inspire the kids that are coming up behind me so I’ve got some things up my sleeve like he said that immediate he was like I got some things that I’m working on I won’t I

Won’t tell you now I was like okay all right well I’ll keep an eye out I think this was one of the things that he had Wallace I mean he just really you don’t they don’t they don’t make a lot of them like K Wallace you know just the ability

To think as a professional at such a young age I mean the guy’s not even 20 years old I know and he’s been benefited from that that close proximity to Dallas already twice this season um so we’ve got the close proximity with Dallas then we have a very large proximity a

Distance and prox yeah what’s the opposite of a proximity I don’t know I don’t know but so the other big special guest that was a surprise to all of us I think inside of pcom Center sitting Courtside for the Thunders game against was it the Timberwolves or was it the Lakers I

Believe the Lakers the Lakers venicius Jr and now for all of our NBA fans who don’t necessarily follow international soccer we’re right there with you it took us a second like okay I’ve heard this name before but this this guy is a big deal he is a superstar for Real

Madrid he was born in Brazil and he is just a rising star in European and international soccer like one of the top 10 players in the world like his name is up there with you know like the Leon Messi and and these guy like this guy is

Such a big deal and he was sitting Courtside in paycom Center in Oklahoma city turns out him and Shay really good friends cuz Shay went to Madrid this summer to go visit Vinnie and he played a little soccer Vinnie played a little basketball like they got to switch

Sports a little bit so they hung out in Madrid Vinnie posted a picture of them saying you know my bro they’re they’re really close and so Vinnie returned the favor and came to Oklahoma City when you’re an all NBA player your circles start to get a little bit different a

Little bit wider and the that’s the amazing thing about Shay is like he has International friends he’s got people that he knows he’s you know obviously relationships with like people like Drake and you know and you know who we’ve seen sit Courtside in OKC as well

Um how can we forget that jacket yeah yeah exactly and um and yet he’s still so attached to the team in all ways and so grounded and and humble um and yeah this is this is great for I think the City of Oklahoma City to you know you have these International level folks

That are coming to this town and I think you know just sort of reinforces everything that we’ve uh talked about uh in terms of the the value of this organization here in this city and um how you know having the Thunder here and the Thunder having a city so supportive

As this this city is um is such a perfect symbiotic relationship and the last thing I’ll say about this because in my head I was trying to make the connection I was like okay these two guys were born in different hemispheres I mean Shay was Chase from Canada Vinnie

Is from Brazil they play in two different leagues they one plays international soccer one plays in the NBA and they play on different continents Europe and in here in the United States and I was like where’s where’s the crossover here like how does that was the connection well it turns

Out I mean like if you look at it on the surface like yeah there’s not much of a connection but if you go a little bit deeper and I did this because I needed to do a little bit of a deep dive on Vinnie Jr um the if watch Vinnie Jr play

And you hear kind of what the the the pundits internationally are saying about him they say a lot of the similar things that you know people say about Shay gilders Alexander super crafty you know a great facilitator and he was one of the leaders in assisted goals in the in

The uh in in in Real Madrid in the Euro league and so he’s he’s very crafty hard to defend hard to contain and then you also peel it back a little bit more and they both are very fashionable athletes as well yeah probably the fashion world

Is maybe where they cross paths but yeah I mean that’s that’s makes sense and you you know you see some of the best basketball players especially the ones coming from Europe have soccer in their background there’s an innate understanding of angles of passing of um just you know momentum in terms of you

Know leaning one way and being able to to play a different direction off of that all of those things in terms of how do you get the ball from here all the way into that with a million guys in between you that is pretty Universal to a lot of these

Different sports and so you know maybe sh’s been watching some some game tape and and learning a thing or two about how to orient the the pieces on the floor it’s all about expanding your brain a little bit you know kind of think of things differently it’s why a

Lot of basketball players you know they might have I think of like a guy like Aaron Wiggins remember we used to talk about that he grew up in like doing dance and all that like and theater and all that stuff well all that Rhythm might have helped him here in basketball

Ball being able to kind of maneuver his body to get good shots certainly makes all those reverse layups make a lot more sense for for Aaron wiges one thing I will say that Shay has an advantage on here no off sides in basketball that’s really nice yeah cuz that uh that cherry

Pick layup that he had last night really would have been um you know called back unfortunately so still don’t understand off sides in in soccer I I don’t get it don’t don’t worry about it don’t bother I apologize to all of our soccer fans who are watching this and cringing

Really hard at my lack of knowledge I apologize we we’ll stick to basketball here okay so speaking of basketball we are rounding out 2023 the thunder only has two more games in this calendar year so we’re going to look back at the at the season so far just kind of take this

Season and this year in aggregate so far the Thunders played 29 games they’re 20 and n and they have the third best net rating in the NBA and we have seen a lot of growth a lot of development within this group and one example I want to

Talk about real quick and I want to I want to throw this to you because I think is a really good example of how the second youngest team in the NBA takes each and every game and applies those lessons to the next one so the Thunder just defeated Minnesota two

Games ago December 26th yeah runaway Victory 23-point win against the number one team in the Western Conference the team with the best defensive rating in the NBA and the Thunder handily scored 129 points in that game well flashback a month before then the Thunder were in

Minnesota and they got out to a strong start off defensively but then they started to stall in the third quarter and that’s because Minnesota went to a Zone they really mixed up their defenses they had to they had to kind of shift and throw the kitchen sink at the

Thunder because their offense was so powerful in that game and it worked because the Thunders offense started to stall in the third quarter Minnesota was able to come back from a dble double digit deficit and then ultimately come back and win the game a close win but a

Win nonetheless for Minnesota since that point the Thunder went up against teams who threw his Zone at them who threw the kitchen sink at them threw different lineups and different kind of defensive looks and schemes at them and with each of those games the Thunder took away

Lessons took away kind of all right watching film and seeing how we could have done this better next thing you know they’re facing the exact same Minnesota team who started the game throwing these punches I mean came out of the gates with a Zone came out of the

Gates with some full court pressure here and there throwing different players at shade double teams this that and the Thunders offense smooth sailing did not get rattled at all for the entire 48 minutes and and almost didn’t even play a different style of tenor the entire game either that was what was most

Impressive is that you really you didn’t even see any like ripples in the pond in terms of how the Thunder executed offensively throughout that entire 48 minutes it was like possession after possession looked the same but had different outcomes if that makes sense you know the the style was consistent

But the product each time was just based on who happened to be open uh what the defense was giving up and so the Thunder being able to stay locked in and focused on having the right types of attacks based on what the coverages were uh was

So cool to see just the the locked in Focus discipline especially you know coming out of a Christmas holiday where you had two days off you’re at home in the midst of this five-game homeand and you all know like the holidays are a busy sometimes stressful time you have

So many responsibilities and they’re even more you have even more responsibilities when you’re at home right and so for a team to have that level of focus and concentration going into a a back-to-back at home the next two days after that uh really impressive but kenri Williams told me the morning

Of the Minnesota game he said we feel way more prepared to go up against this Minnesota team now having seen big squads like the Lakers and Denver in previous matchups like those were formative experiences for the Thunder and I think in a bigger picture standpoint a a great lesson that this

That you all can take away about this Thunder team is like they can be adaptive Learners yeah you don’t they don’t have to put their hand on the fire of the stove to learn that it’s hot over and over again they can do that one time

And then they can see that hot stove again and be like I recognize that I’m not gonna touch that again not gonna do that and they can they can see how a team is going to defend them like the Lakers who have great size and length or

Denver who has great size in length and they can recognize okay this is an applicable learning experience that we can utilize against other teams with similar archetypes right Mark digal uses that term archetype a lot to to speak to individual players right so a guy like Damen Lillard who has a high pickup

Point well there’s other guys in this league who are like that too as Steph Curry um you know Jaylen Brunson that you can’t really go under screens on right um You got to play those guys a little bit differently well there are archetypes for teams as well and so the

Thunder being able to learn off of some of those previous games and not have to get into a home and Home Series right you know in years past we saw that the Thunder would do better when they had these little baseball Series in the second game of those series well now it

Can be a month apart yeah and they’ve used the lessons in between to do a better job and mind you we’re only 29 games into the season and so there’s still a lot of season left to be played and a lot of lessons still to be learned

But it’s really encouraging to see the growth and the the rate of learning from this young Thunder team and rookies guys like Chad hongren and Cas Wallace who are starting their NBA careers I mean literally only played 29 games in their NBA career and their rate of learning

Early on really impressive and so for this thunder group as a whole we’re seeing all of these lessons start to stack up and this is something that coach dagnal talks about all the time stacking possessions stacking games stacking days stacking weeks like they all they they’re they’re just placing

Bricks on top of one another they’re laying a really strong foundation and making sure that nothing is wasted no no experiences no time on the court nothing is wasted and so far we’ve seen some really strong foundations being built so far a lot still to learn but some really

Encouraging signs early yeah and we’ve talked mostly about offense you know how to attack New York when they’re switching how to attack Minnesota when they go Zone but in that back-to-back set that we just saw and you know leading up to that as well if you take

Out that Lakers game uh Thunder defense has just been absolutely impossible to deal with 42 combined turnovers they forced against Minnesota in New York and that’s not even something that the Thunder is setting out to do it’s a natural by product of how this team plays we and

They’re so disruptive the steals the the force turnovers the points off turnovers to your point it is it’s a side effect not the source of what they’re going for here they want to be a team that takes away any easy look and opportunity they want to be a team that sticks to the

Game plan for 48 minutes a physical team that chooses to be physical The More Physical team out there on the floor because there’s a difference between strength and physicality the Fender’s not always going to be the strongest team out there but they can choose to be

The more physical team and they want to be a team that is active and so for me these last five games have been activity games just on both ends of the floor particularly defensively these guys are flying all over the I mean like literally Minnesota we talked about this

In the walk-off you need to watch our walkoff the walk out walk out sorry our walk out videos on Twitter because we were talking about how Minnesota seemed like they were just swatting flies the entire game because the Thunder just buzzing around these guys just swarming Carl Anthony towns every time he gets

The ball just you know swiping in on Rudy gobear when he’s trying to post up one of the Thunder players and that activity cu the Thunder has so much length on its roster guys like Shay gildas Alexander super long arms Jay dub 72 wingspan that is super effective when

You’re going up against these these these opponents and the Thunder doing a really good job of utili utilizing that length with its activity yeah and sometimes when when you think about teams flying around the image that gets put in your head is like scrambling wildly to you know recover from getting

Beaten and then you’re kind of chasing the play the Thunder being everywhere is more in this like am amoeba like shell of you know rushing to to one side of the floor to really clog up any driving Lanes or you know a pass on a roll and

Really pinching in in as that low man in the help side and then being able to spray back to the other side yeah in cohesion when that ball gets kicked across to the other side of the court so a lot of the Steals and turnovers that you’re going to see from this Thunder

Team are from teams either trying to wedge a pass in on a short roll or a lob to the rim in a space that’s like a little bit too tight or they’re trying to kick the ball over the top of the defense to get to the second side and

The Thunder got great length on the back side of the defense just to be able to make a deflection or get their hand in the lane or you know create some kind of confusion there and that is a sign of a really tight and cohesive defensive shell it’s it’s a proactive scramble not

A reactive scramble and it’s happening in unison all of these guys locked in and my favorite part about it is that you’ve got guys like Isaiah Joe kenri Williams Jay will out there taking charge it Lou Dort drawing offensive fouls just demoralizing plays for opponents right but then you’ve got also

Chad holgren swatting shots away sheay gildas Alexander blocking shots you’ve got Jaylen Williams blocking shots all these guys are just so active when it comes to contesting shots but it comes down to being willing to put their nose in the fight all these guys are willing

To get dunked on that’s the that’s the key here is that there’s a vulnerability that comes with going up in Kent testing shots and all these guys have a level of humility about them to be like you know what I’m going to go up there I’m going

To put I’m going to put my nose in the fight here I’m going to put my hands up and try to contest this and make him Miss whatever happens happens but I’m there and you got to go through me to get this ball through the hoop yeah and

That’s the type of defense that you want to have it’s why the thunder is one of the top you know five or six defenses in the NBA right now and it helps lead to OKC’s offense you know the points off turnovers are a real thing for this team

The Thunders threatening an all-time NBA record for number of consecutive games with at least 10 points off turnovers and I know 10 doesn’t sound like a lot but when you just think about it like think about hitting singles in baseball right like you just keep getting on base

And if you can get double digit points off turnovers every single night that’s putting you in a space offensively where you know in addition to all your kind of like normal buckets that you’re going to get around the rim or free throws or whatever like you’re going to add up to

Being in the game every and and it’s why we’ve seen the Thunder not really I me maybe twice this season against Denver at home and in Houston like really only been twice this year that Thunder has not been in a game late and lost and so um there if you just

Kind of continue to hit singles in all these different categories you’re going to be able to to be there at the end of the game I think this is a really good transition into the offense that we’ve seen from OKC I mean obviously the defense helping to stir up some of those

Easy looks out in transition the Thunder wants to play fast starting defensively that’s how you play fast and get out on the break but their style of play I think has been really consistent especially over these last couple of months here as they’ve gotten the ball rolling really and laid a really strong

Foundation about how they want to play as a team and it starts with their ability to get into the paint something that every team in the NBA knows that this group wants to do but the Thunder still able to do it and they do it in so many different ways right it’s the

Drives they have about 60 drives per game that’s more than any team in the NBA by kind of quite a bit and Shay leads I think the league and drives by at least three or four more than everybody else I think he’s up at about

23 or 24 drives a game I mean he is in the paint almost every possession uh in some way shape or form but then the Thunder is doing it through cutting as well and all five spots on the floor can cut it is orchestrated there are cues

About when to cut if you know if your guy is driving and you’re in the short side uh if you’re a three-point shooter sometimes you know you’re going to stay sometimes you’re going to dive Baseline and you’re going to be ready for that drop off pass sometimes you know if

You’re in the in the opposite side corner you’re going to you’re going to dive Baseline if the if that drive is coming in from the Baseline you’re in the opposite Wing you’re coming in on a back cut that way and we see Chad holen cut I mean seven Footers cutting and

That type of unexpected action is what’s putting some of these opposing teams into all sorts of binds you know if you’re going to be singing Rudy go Beer’s earlobe with a pass on a back cut I mean that’s just not a position that goar is typically used to being in he’s

Used to being either a helps side shot blocker or a guy sitting back and drop hanging around the rim he’s not used to having to deal with a guy at the three-point line cutting back behind his head for for a layup and and so it’s so exciting to watch this team rack up

Assists via the drive and Via these back cuts too it it puts teams in such a dilemma they have to choose okay sheay gildas Alexander is getting into the lane using his Wizardry to find ways to get two feet into the paint each and every time are we going to commit bodies

To try to cut him off and not allow him to get to the rim or are we going to stay put on these three-point Shooters who have been knocking down shots for the last few games and let them fire it off from three well the last two games

Those teams have chosen to clog the paint right and the Thunder have taken advantage of that again reading reacting putting themselves in a position to just resp respond to what and take what the defense is giving them Shay gets into the paint fires it out behind the

Three-point line Isaiah Joe 3 Shay gets into the paint kicks it out to Lou Dort knocks down another three-pointer Jay gets into the lane kicks it out to Jaylen Williams it’s the same thing over and over again but different you know like it’s the same it’s the same action

In different ways and it’s it’s beautiful to watch because now the Thunder over the past couple of games really knocking down a lot of Threes it’s been a lot of different guys but they’ve been shooting the ball incredibly well so we might start to see teams try to take away that three-point

Shot what does that open up the paint sh footworking you to death I mean I was just about to say this is like on the the rare times that opponents have not clogged the paint Shay just goes to work on people I mean the ability that he has

To keep a pivot foot is absolutely unbelievable that play against goar I don’t know if you remember this but I have no idea how his leg one of his legs was in cement in the ground and and the other one was flapping around wildly to

Be able to get to the angle on the up and under to get to the layup just fascinating stuff and what’s so cool about Shay is like that is honed practiced thought about and then in the game totally reactive and back you know back to just the way that he’s able to

To finish I mean it seems like every type of layup under the sun he has a total feel for none of it ever looks like oh wow he’s he’s kind of flinging that up there yeah it looks more like okay he got his under the exactly the

Way that he wants it to he’s got it on the side of his hand the way that he wants it to and he’s flipping this in from an angle that he’s tried to flip it in before and finishing through contact I mean literally any way possible that

You could finish a layup Shay has a way to do it and I’m sure there’s even more that we haven’t even seen yet and so I’m really excited for these next you know 50s something games we have on the schedule because it’s been really fun to watch one last thing about the offense

Here because I think it’s worth mentioning OKC’s assist to turn turn over ratio so far this season they are sixth in the league around two two to one assist to turnover ratio really impressive by the youngest team the second youngest team in the NBA we just mentioned they had four just four you

Can count them on less than one hand how many turnovers they had against the New York Knicks last night well that’s kind of been a theme for them throughout the season they’ve been really good about taking care of the ball and I think it goes back to again this is a symptom

They don’t go around talking about hey we have to take care of the ball hey don’t turn the ball over hey Shay you’ve got three turnovers come over here on no that’s not happening there’s no definitely yeah antithetical to how they talk it’s like they’re not really that

Concerned with them but to your point it’s a byproduct of what they’re doing exactly and I think it’s a source of generating critical thinkers out there on the floor who are making really sharp and smart and the right decision out there making the simple pass if it’s

Needed just rotating the ball to keep finding the open look out there on the floor rather than trying to you know thread the needle and we see that often guys can do that but rather than trying to make a heroic pass or you know play on each and every possession they’re out

Here like you said hitting singles most of the time it’s also a Player Development Story and there’s two guys in particular that I want to point out and one is Lou Dort the tightening of his game all around to be more efficient is one of the ma most massive stories of

This season I mean the guy shooting above 40% from three taking all of the right shots right now even though he’s had you know some some Hills and Valleys like any player is going to have in terms of that efficiency the style of play according to Mark dnal has remained

Consistent throughout and one of those aspects is the decision making not jamming the ball into the lane on drives that really have nowhere to go uh but instead you know making prudent drives attacking off of closeouts in steady balanced situations that has certainly been a factor in terms of limiting the

Turnovers and then the other guy that I really want to call out is Chad holgren and this is a little there’s a little back and forth that um our very own Royce young and I had on uh Twitter yesterday about this spin move that that

Chets got going and if you looked at it back in summer league a lot looser when he would get to that elbow try to spin into the lane guys were able to come over and crash on the help side and come grab that ball we actually saw Josh

Giddy go through the exact same thing last season where he had to really tighten up how he was going to use that spin move when once he got in the lane Chad was able to recognize some of the issues that he was having in summer league address that with that spin move

Over the course of the two or three months before the start of the season and now that’s one of his most effective weapons to be able to get all the way to the rack and so Chad being a rookie playing 30 minutes A Night at the center

Position for him to not be a turnover machine is absolutely stunning I mean you don’t see that across the NBA for a rookie with that much usage to not be coughing the ball up all the time and the reason is great Player Development intense focus and Mark dnal says he is

You know inexhaustible Chad in terms of his willingness to to dive into the game and figure out how to be better he’s always asking questions a true basketball Junkie just always has a basketball on his hands just is willing to talk about basketball lives breathes sleeps basketball 247 except when he’s

Pouring water on his teammate’s heads that that’s also basketball I would argue but yes to your point the man is that’s why we’re seeing so much growth and development from him from all of these guys L Dort mentioned watched a lot of film on how he can be a more

Efficient player have sort of a tighter style of play this season and we’re seeing the benefits of all of that film watching all right we’ve mentioned it there’s still a lot of season left to be played if you can imagine I mean we’ve played 29 games we’ve been playing

Basketball for about three months now and there’s still much more we’re not even halfway we’re about a third of the way through the season so let’s look ahead really quick to 2024 the first thing I want to mention here um the Thunder’s going to get its

Road badge here in Jan January a couple of couple num you’re not going to see us in the studio for a very long time it’s going to be a a little little while so um just we apologize in advance but just a couple of numbers to just help you

Understand what OKC is going to be going through in January 30 in 31 days the Thunder has 17 games they have five backto backs five I’m just going to let that settle in for a second five back-to-backs in the month of January alone 11 games on the road that means

They have six games at home but four of those are backtack they’re either coming from a place or going to a place the day before the day after that at home I’m just going to have my suitcase out and ready I’m going to dump everything that

Was in there and throw it in the laundry take it all back out and put it right back in the suitcase I’ll fold it whenever we get to wherever we get to goodness gracious and this is goingon to be a really good test for this team because up to this point they’ve only

Played three back-to-backs yeah they’ve and the Thunder three and0 on in those back to backs but having to do that when you’ve been on the road playing relentlessly like I mean game after game is truly an onslaught of games in January that’s going to be a different

Test yeah and there’s a human element to all of this too I mean the travel there’s a reason why teams have better home records than Road records it’s just a fact of life in the NBA that when you travel it’s harder on your sleep and on

Your your body and on you know your ability to to like focus and be present and you don’t have all of your Creature Comforts that you have at your home practice facility and you don’t have your family and your friends around and in terms of that uh support and

Everything so um this is going to be a massive challenge for the thunder in this upcoming month and the Thunder completely Embraces that I mean this is something that if you’re a team that’s trying to get to where the Thunder wants to get to over the course of you know

This next you know stretch of of years while these guys are kind of still in their pre-prime heading into the prime years of their careers like these are the formative experiences to test all right how much you know how much can we push these guys how much depth do we

Have how can we reorient reorient things if guys have bumps and bruises what are some different ways that we can play if we don’t have certain guys for 35 minutes a night tonight um you know this is this is going to be such a great like

Proving Ground and a great like hey we need all 18 guys to be effective and to be able to like just be a part of the system we’ve seen that the last couple weeks you know Trey man in the rotation last night Vasa meic in the rotation Davis bton you can’t even say

In the rotation just like ready to be ready to be inserted into the microwave and to knock down a shot in what how many seconds was it it it was 20 seconds yeah and at the end of each quarter he was literally last possession of each quarter less than a minute left 47

Seconds Davis get in the game 20 26 seconds Davis come on man get in the game I I love sitting where I sit at home which is right at the scor table next to Chris F Michael cage can see me can’t you yeah I can see you and I and

So here’s here’s the sequence of events that happens that it just anytime that this is happening now you’re going to be watching for this Mark if it’s the end of a of a quarter and the Thunder looks like they’re going to have like the last

Shot of the of the quarter and there’s a dead ball Mark will be standing kind of right in front of Chris and Michael and I at the scores table and he’ll turn and he’ll go Davis and Davis who’s for some reason always sitting at the very end of

The bench comes sprinting down the sideline I mean such it is such a great Sprint that he does sprinting down to the sideline and it’s almost like he doesn’t even stop at the scorers table he just kind of like sheds his warm-ups as he’s running and he’s boom he’s into

The game and he doesn’t really even stop then he’s like right into the inbounds pass he’s running into and he’s suddenly just curling into a jump shot but there’s this little moment between all of that where I track Davis and then I look across the court to Paris and I’m

Making sure that Paris knows that Davis is in the game so she can get the stop watch out start the timer yeah my head immediately goes down when Davis gets in t I’m writing down the second that he’s in the game and I’m doing some math to

See what how much time it took for him to knock down that first shot it was 20 seconds the first time he checked into the game checked in at 26 seconds knock down is three at six seconds yeah and these are weapons that you just teams

Have to have you know you think about some of these Elite skills you know the the Josh giddy inbounds passing like there there are moments in the game that that’s I mean the Golden State game where Chad hits the game tying shot to send it in overtime the Thunder does not

Win that game if not for an inbound passer like Josh G right and you know the Thunder maybe doesn’t win some of these games like you think about the Dallas game right Davis comes in and he’s absolutely on fire for like six minutes yeah what did he score 15 points

On three shots just something ridiculous yes so I mean you don’t win and and that’s the difference in a long season you know that’s two wins right there what does it look like for you at the end of the year if not for a guy like

Davis bans who comes in and and you know a guy like Josh giddy who makes like this great pass like these are things that add up over the course of the year and what we’re going to see in January just to pull it back to that is there

Are these guys Lindy Waters Olivier SAR konay Johnson who might get a crack mic and and Trey man and poku like you’re gonna see some of these guys throughout the course of this next month or so and they’re going to impact games whether they impact directly a win or whether

They give a guy a spell to keep them fresh for the next night’s game that is going to impact the long-term winning for this team this season and the overall development of the group so that by the end of the year this team is the

Best that it can possibly be and just it it helps when you have a guy like Davis I wonder if it’s strategic when he comes off the bench just don’t stop moving like I wonder if that’s part of him like warming up you know like getting himself

Ready warming up a little because he’s got to come into the game and immediately knock down a shot he’s like all right as soon as he calls my name like nonstop he’s got to get the blood pump into his hands you know to Sprint sitting there for the last hour

You know he’s got to get things moving I bet you that’s strategic if I had to guess that that dois is so smart he really is um do you know the other thing happening in January I please tell me because I didn’t know that we could possibly pack

Anything more into this month there’s a lot of three for one voting days oh nice okay you see what I did there you see what I did there so Allstar voting is now live through January 20th and you can vote every single day for your NBA All Stars and the Thunder has several

Guys that you could certainly add to your ballot so all you have to do is go to OKC thunder.com Vote or you can go to the Thunder mobile app and cast your ballot the next three for one voting Day January 1st it’s easy to remember because it’s New Year’s Day so be sure

To vote Thunder on that day don’t forget yeah you just you you wake up you don’t have to go to work that day nope first thing you do get that app out and just you know Thunder Thunder Thunder Thunder vote Thunder and vote as often as you as

You possibly can and keep an eye out for those three for one voting days because that’s when your vote one your one vote counts three times so be sure to keep those on the calendar all right speaking of the calendar let’s look at what’s coming up for the Thunder like we

Mentioned we are going to get on the plane here in about 45 minutes oh yeah we gotta go we gota go so the Thunder heading out to Denver for a quick one game Road Trip taking on the Nuggets who the last time the Thunder was on the

Road it was in Denver taking on the defending Champion Denver Nuggets and that was an incredible game my we got gild Alexander buzzer beater that if you’ve watched any Thunder content around that game You’ heard me make this point but I can’t stop thinking about it

Because it’s just so cool the setup that Shay had on that gamewinner was so incredible I know that he says that he didn’t think about it it’s all just an a it’s just a product of him playing one-on-one over the course of his career and life and childhood or whatever but

He comes zooming into the front court right after you know midcourt line and then he just stops on a dime and he gets his Defender just to to rise up out of and just relax for a half of a millisecond yeah and pton Watson who’s you know good young Defender but he just

Relaxes for enough time yeah for Shay to be like I’m hitting the burners again and that’s when Shay hits the gas once more gets to the elbow and once he’s in into that spot Watson’s on his heels yeah there’s no chance nobody is blocking that shot nobody’s affecting

That shot Shay spins hits the elbow jumper and cool as you like you know walks back to the to the Huddle like hey guys hey this game is not over there’s still 09 seconds on the clock so let’s get a stop before we start celebrating

So nasty yeah maybe we can get an on maybe maybe I would like for this game to not be as close just for my personal heart rate and uh blood pressure sitting there in the corner like this so so stressed out I have to believe Nick that that move was an

Because I I have to here’s why because used so much brain power to determine what he needed to do in game management because as soon as the Thunder got that rebound off that Miss he looked over quick to Mark yep to see if he was going

To call a timeout yeah you g call no no all right cool as soon as that happened that little one second interaction between him and Mark dagnold happened Shay immediately looked at the clock all right we’ve got what was it like N9 seconds something like that n 89 seconds

8 n seconds left like all right let me not hurry up and just Chuck up a shot here let me let me lay and wait a little bit let me take my time let me hit a little bit of a hesy so that I don’t give Denver an ounce to work with after

I make this shot and that’s exactly what he did he knocked it down with what 0. n.4 something ridic less than a second left on the clock Denver had like the smallest window just it literally catch and shoot was all they could get off and the Thunder completely erased that

Opportunity on the inbounds I love the mental side of the game that you’re highlighting here because not just that shot by Shay but the buildup to that too I mean that whole game was a chess match between the Thunder and how to defend Nicole yic and throw so many different

Looks at him whether they’re you know uh going to double him whether they’re going to play him straight up where they’re going to double him from all of that kind of played into how that game unfolded at the end as well yeah as the Thunder was kind of doubling more on

Jokic’s post ups and coming from the top side that really elicited Denver to try to play yic in isolation and in that two-man game with Murray up top a lot more Y and at the end of the game to try to avoid a double team and make sure

That they could get a good clean shot off yic is up at the top of key of the key isolated against Chad holgren well he had to do like this throwaway heave yeah and that Miss shot is what led to the run out and and game-winning bucket

By Shay and so all of those little pieces throughout the 48 minut it’s matter and they add up and they end up accounting for one of the Thunder’s best wins of the season and then they go back on the road and play them again just a

Few weeks later and this sets up a really fun matchup in Denver I’m really looking forward to this game other’s going to play against the nuggets on Friday and then they come home for the final game of 2023 it is the thunder annual New Year’s Eve match up this is

Always such a fun game inside of paycom Center and this year they host the Brooklyn Nets so this is going to be a really fun match up for the Thunder to close out 2023 we love having this game on New Year’s Eve every night it’s it’s

Been so cool I mean the last you 12 13 years of my life this is where I’ve been every single New Year’s Eve and it’s it’s become such a greata tradition and um you know this is also a really good one because it’s on a Sunday so 6 p.m

Tip off so we’ll get out a little bit early and get a chance to you know have a little nice little dinner after the game or something like that um so that’ll be good and this also kind of begins a stretch though for the Thunder where we talked about it in January but

Also a really Eastern Conference heavy stretch so another test within all of this for the Thunder is hey here’s some teams that you only see twice a year you haven’t seen Brooklyn yet you just came off seeing New York for the first time how can you prepare for these teams one

After another after another when you’re not necessarily seeing them on film on a night toight basis going up against Western Conference teams and then your very first game in 2024 is the number one team in the Eastern Conference in the Boston Celtics so the Thunder a lot

Of challenges still coming their way but a lot of really encouraging signs that we’ve seen through the first 29 games well that wraps up our podcast for 2023 that’s crazy this is this has been such an amazing year even think back to January of last season and that’s when

The Thunder really took off and so you know this this year 2023 uh just an amazing year of growth and development for this group and this organization and to see how far they’ve come not just with the record but the style of play the way that they’re

Attacking each game and the fact that not only they in every single one of these games but often times commanding and dictating how these games are going can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2024 and we still have a lot of season left and a lot of excitement ahead of us

So we want to thank you so much for watching and tuning in be sure to like rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcast thank you so much to our producer Matt bishop and until next time Thunder up and happy New Year

Paris and Nick talk about how the team continues learning through each experience, the growth of the rookies, sharing the ball on offense and causing disruption on defense. The TBU crew also recaps the Christmas homestead, blesses your timeline with some Holiday Assist events and previews what’s to come in 2024.

2:00 Community Shopping Sprees recap
5:40 SGA Kicks for Kids
10:00 Bless Your Timeline – Thunder vs Knicks
14:50 Bless Your Timeline – Celebrities at Paycom Center
21:53 Team Development
40:51 Lookahead to 2024

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