The Oklahoma City Thunder Episode 829

The Oklahoma City Thunder Episode 829

Yeah man Boom the hottest team in the NBA was the Utah Jazz man oh really and I want to say this I want to make sure everybody it’s just not just that but look at the wins they’ve had this year and just in just in um January yeah they

Started 76ers the Timberwolves I mean they beat uh the Nuggets they beat everybody and if if you’re top team right now you got crushed ready man you got crushed by the Jazz and now the Oklahoma City Thunder make the Jazz look a little bit lost not completely but a

Little bit there’s a moment in that closing quarter down the stretch where it started to feel like we had learned a lot from the Lakers and from the Clippers and the Big Shot making that it took to to close out a game then we were

Giving it out to the Jazz I mean those Shay fadeaway elbow jumpers with a shot clock winding down I mean what what shots just pure money pure perfection but the to have the guts to to nail that shot and to hold that pose as the ball’s going through it’s

Just like I see we always say it but we see Michael Jordan out there a little bit of Michael Jordan out there I I couldn’t get over how many times how many times the Thunder players kept on throwing Shay the grenade you know what I’m saying by the grenade right MH where

Like you have less than five seconds left on the shot clock and a player doesn’t want to take the shot so he throws at somebody else like they kept on doing that to Shay and Shay just kept on stepping up they did that to jdub a

Few times and jdub stepped up as well but like he did it’s it’s a different aspect for a player to be pass the ball when they’re wide open shot you know but to be able to to pass the ball when he’s guarded heavily and five seconds left

And expect a player to get that shot off is I mean that’s unheard of and very few players that I’ve ever seen them be able to have that ability and now we’re looking at Shay and just the intensity that he brings to the game is is insane

Like it’s insane what’s up du had a big game what’s up buddy yo but what I I really want to talk about because you know dub was player of the game and all that stuff but what I noticed was that Josh gy was the best player on the court in the first

Half like the way that he rebounds the ball like is crazy yeah dude he reminds me of a little bit of Dennis Rodman a little bit of um jaymond green yeah like I do now he’s a better shooter he has more skills he’s a great passer but the way that he

Rebounds the ball like he starts tracking it and he and he’s definitely the best rebounder on our team um but when he’s the best rebounder on the court and he’s also the the best passer on the court um you kind of in the you’re in the spot where like I don’t

You can’t compare him to any individual player you’ve seen before in history you can be like this element reminds me of him and this like even the turnover he had he threw to meic that was a pistol Peete pass like he didn’t look he threw the bounce pass directly behind him and

It went out of bounds but it was like I think that was probably his one turnover all in what he’s doing out there is unbelievable he makes our team so much harder the guard when you’re talking about what are you going to do about Chad what are you going to do about J

What are you going to do about Shay and then there’s giddy who plays like that yeah this is this is giddy’s [ __ ] game and he’s finally figured it out as far as just how to like live to the highest expectations he has for himself because in the end like that’s really

What where Josh kind of gets stuck sometimes is he knows how he knows what he should be doing out there and that expectations and and and not living up to his own expectations can be really frustrating for him so he involves himself on the offensive glass in a

Really hungry way it reminds me a lot of like um like I know very little about this Dave but Australian Rules Football okay like there are those you gotta go up and you got to get the ball and you gota like Mason Cox like he’s famous the

50-50s yeah Josh owns the 50-50s he find he tracks the ball he gets to a point where only he can get up to get it he gathers it with two hands and before he lands his head is up and he’s looking down court and what we get to see is

Spectacular playes like that dunk by by jdub but everything works you talked about right there I’m just echoing what you’re saying um so Josh gots gets the ball gets the ball up right to half court and what does he do picks up the ball brings the ball above

His head makes it look like he’s passing to one person but passes to chat walking down the lane for a dunk I I just put a short up about it bro like Josh is making the game easy for everybody because nobody knows where he’s going with the ball nobody sees where he’s

Going with the ball and he’s picking the ball up at [ __ ] half court how do you [ __ ] guard that you can’t guard that now he’s picked up the ball at half court at full speed and he’s gonna pass the ball and he’s got three guys and

Three options to pass the ball Josh is winning every time like there’s not a player in the league that’ll be able to stop that why well he’s 69ine and 240 pounds man and he’s learning how to play with the big guys how to pass over them how

To get around them so if that’s how he’s doing it then guess what a 6 fo three guy is not going to be able to stop him Josh is Josh Josh Josh Josh is just gonna we’re just gonna run over people man like Josh is just gonna run you

[ __ ] over you know what he’s gonna do he’s gonna be patient until you’re backpedaling and you’re in the wrong step and he’s just gonna run you over because then it’s your fault why because Josh gets it all these people that are out there saying trade Josh trade Josh

Trade Josh like no you don’t trade a player like Josh Josh is a player that in the long run when you’re sitting up there and you’re counting how many banners being able to um hang up whether Western Conference Finals banners whether they’re Championship banners whatever they are and you’re watching

People you know numbers get retired in Oklahoma City Josh is the player that you want to hold on to because Josh is gonna be here for the longest Josh is gonna have a 20year career and it could be an all in Oklahoma City because the Next Generation the style of ball that

Plays isn’t going to change they’re not going to be all of a sudden in in five years six years seven years all of a sudden be able to figure out how to stop Shay you know what I’m saying and then all a sudden they’re they’re they’re they’re drafting players to be able to

Stop players like Shay because he’s the new like super baller of the NBA no it’s not going to be like that I mean the audacity that anybody thinks that we should trade Josh is crazy because Josh is the key to the future of the Oklahoma City Thunder it’s he’s the key to having

A player that you can expect to put up insane numbers right open shots everything creating everything one player on this team does it the best and that’s Josh man and you got to sit here and say you know yes we’re full of jayd Dubs and we’re full of guys like you

Know that can play ball like Chad and Josh and we have all these different players but Josh is that one guy that he doesn’t going to go out there and he’s not going to expect to take 25 shots in the game you can sit there and say Josh is

Happy with seven eight nine nine shots and that’s good but he’s going to create 30 to 40 points just think about that yeah yo and you mix in you what we saw from dub just absolute Superstar performance and down the stretch what we saw from chat you know clutch block

Shots you know go back beginning of the season and we were just in shock because we had a player who could come up with clutch defensive plays yeah now we’re used to it it’s only been what that was the halfway point in the season now 41 games in yep and we’re already sitting

Here being like yeah I mean like that’s what we expect from Chad you know they got a break to the basket they got Walker Kessler going to the hoop and CH just stands him straight up like yeah and we’re expecting him to do it without fouling because that’s just what he does

So yeah like let’s talk about it we’re halfway through the season like are is this what you expected from us or is this better than you expected or what do you think um before I get into this I think I said um halfway through the season I

Wanted to see this team like six games above 500 all right I’m sorry I’m pulling up the record right now because I don’t I don’t I think we’re all right um um so we’re on 15 games about 500 I mean 15 games about we’re 28 and 13 we’ve won 15 more games

Than we’ve lost and so as far as that goes no I I if you told me that we’ be close to 30 wins through the first 40 games of the Season 41 games of the Season I’d be like [ __ ] yeah like [ __ ] yes right but no I couldn’t sit there

And predict what the our win total is going to be like this close to 30 with 41 games played like no come on man like like I I said the game this team was probably gonna win 50 games so halfway through the season I thought this team

Would probably get like 25 wins so the fact that we’re three wins above that like that’s come on man that’s Plus in the course of a year bro that’s 60 is reachable 56 right now like how many people like seriously guys I I want everybody think about this how many

People in Oklahoma City Thunder media were saying Oklahoma City city was going to win 50 plus games you know I want to give a huge shout out and and I do mean this in the adult do with all due respect to everybody else in Oklahoma City but

There was one person one person that said Oklahoma City was gonna win 58 games everybody else said you were crazy bro I didn’t even think it was possible but you’re the one that said 58 games is plausible and now we’re sitting here and we’re sitting at 28 wins halfway through through this season

And we’re sitting there saying 58 is not only plausible it it it could happen because we have two bad losses in January you take away those two bad losses and just split it just one and one yeah take away that that call that no call that goal tending they should

Have called on Draymond at the beginning of the Season there’s a few of them I know I think we might be the last team in the league to get to 20 wins what’s up Mark I’m sorry to get the 20 losses I really seriously think we could be in a

Position where the Celtics hit 20 losses before we do because when I think about and this maybe we should adjust right but when I think back about the 82 Game season and and embarking on at the beginning I I thought we could hit 58 like you’re

Saying 60 wins is what I kept saying I kept saying 60 based on the fact that the second half would be actually much better than the first half I do think it’s still going to be that way what do you think the second half could outperform the first half for us I

I’ll be honest like I this team’s not done peing I mean look at what jdub’s doing right now yeah like if you’re if and Josh giddy is doing right now so you’re taking Josh giddy um jdub and Shay right Chad’s playing phenomenal but it’s not the consistency that you need

To see like out of out of right out of 10 games he’s going to play really well for six of them and that’s amazing like to me that’s way better than than most of those rookies out there and then that’s that’s not a diss on this is what

I expect out of rookies every rookie I expect them to be able to have you know that’s coming through the Thunder you know six out of 10 games that are good games and that’s where we’re at with chat now chat’s gonna get there that 10

Games but once he gets there to those 10 consistent games and then you start seeing Mis chit with those 10 consistent Games you start seeing Isaiah Joe which has had you know consistency issues when it comes down to um consistently hitting threes and games all the stuff that that

We’re missing right now I feel like it’s all doable like we’ve seen it happen throughout the season so when everything starts clicking yeah it’s just a matter of time it’s just a matter of time before it’s all working moani what’s up Tanner what’s up guys hell yes what’s up

Everybody chat is popping today guys they’ve this has been incredible I mean this last stretch has been I’d say the most difficult had this season it’s not over yet if you look at what we have coming up we’re talking about the best team in the west next game we also have

More games in January against Elite teams so we’re right in the middle of the thick of things yeah I mean you think we’re gonna lose a couple games in a row again or you think we’ll be all right with that no I think it’s like it’s ups and downs throughout the season

I think if you if you look at you know January the biggest thing that when you have a couple losses in a row is the next game yeah like they’re inevitable like we’ve gone through how many um double headers so far um I think it’s three or four so far this yeah three

This month I think so far so we still got a couple more but that’s what we’ve had the issues with guys I mean look at the Hawks game like this is the issue we’ve had like after Double headers or during double headers if if one thing is

Off we don’t get a chance to get in that that practice and I that’s what’s the biggest difference I think with this Oklahoma City Thunder team is whenever you know shits hit the fan we get back into the practice facility and we get back to the basics and Coach is so

Incredible at doing that is getting these guys refocused so that’s what I go back to and that’s what I get excited about is when these guys are really putting their hats on and figuring it out and after that man like seriously like it’s just a matter of time before

People put the you know pieces together and they plug in the light the lamp and it’s just like bam like the consistency once we get that and that’s the second half I mean guys think about Josh giddy rookie year think about jdub’s rookie year think about um you know Shay his um

The year before he came out for the um all NBA team you know like like all the second halfs guys like every single one of these guys you look at the second half it’s like bam these are so so much better players and when does that happen

That happens around February yeah so if we’re seeing Jay duub step up the way he is and is right now and he continuously gets better I I’m telling you guys and I know he can get better but you’re looking at Shay and J as the onew punch in Oklahoma

City and then you’re looking at Chad getting there you know you’re looking at Josh giddy getting there like this is going to back to the exact thing that everybody’s saying about Oklahoma City is that there’s no more waiting for this team to be in contention this team is in contention

Just people don’t realize it nobody’s willing to look at it and say a small Market team was able to rebuild this quickly everybody thought that this team was still still in the tear down stage still in the draft minded stage man I was talking alambra today man you know what alambra

Was and I were talking about we still have three legit chances to be in the lottery this year let me explain that to you right we have the Clippers swap right which let’s just be honest the Clippers are one player away from being in trouble all right and they’re

Expecting a lot out of qu that he hasn’t had to do in a long time they’re one injury away from being in serious [ __ ] trouble all right right and that right there could be a 12th pick a lot of pick right all right now then you look at the Jazz pick

They’re at 500 right and you say you know the Jazz are they trying to get that okay let’s just say the Jazz pick turns into 13 12 so right where is it top 10 protected I think yep top 10 protected and then you have the Houston

Rockets which is again right in that um frame right there right and you’re sitting there with three mid- round draft picks and one of the most elite mid- round drafts I’ve seen in a long time like the top of the draft is kind of funky I wouldn’t be wanting to be in

The top of the draft this next year but that mid round is where the meats at bro that’s where the players are going to be at that’s where a kawhai that’s where Giannis is going to be sitting in in this draft and to me if I’m Sam prey I

Already know who I’m going to go with in this manner and I’m sitting there saying how do I get to that player guarantee that that player gets to be on my team well G guess how you do that guys there’s one way of doing it by having three draft

Picks Sam gets a move up in the draft and if he doesn’t use the picks for anything else and he just uses the picks to move up in the draft he gets who he wants guys and that is way more valuable as we’re finding out with jdub as we’re

Finding out with case Wallace you know like these are the guys that that round out this team now so for me I’m saying keep those draft picks trade those draft picks because we get three of the Ford picks right there trade those draft picks get the guy that you want and keep the

Consistency of building this team because when it’s all said and done and Shay leaves Shay gets old becomes an old man right Shay heads out we need to have guys backed up every single year you see what I’m saying we have guys backed up every year the amount that we lose

Is so small yeah because we we’re prepared for the the change and that’s what’s so important about what we saw in this last rebuild that we saw in Oklahoma city was we were prepared for the change but this next time when it comes to rebuild people won’t even be

Able to say rebuild it just be like change of guard you know like Shay’s Oklahoma City Thunder team won this many championships chat’s Oklahoma City Thunder team won this many chips or you know Chets and jdubs ch um won this many chips this player won this many chips

You know like because it’s the it’s the gradual this is it’s it’s linear it’s not like Hey we’re going to trade over our draft picks to get a good player for this time it’s it’s seven eight years nine years down the road that we have all these picks and guess what guys

Every year we have 10% of the picks almost think about that guys like let that soak in we got 10% so what do we get to do with these picks we get to set the price while everybody else is sitting there strumming their thumbs and saying we’re setting the price to what

The draft picks are worth now so we want them mile you know Bridges miles Bridges cool Co cool well let’s wait until it’s worth one draft pick and we get to pick what draft pick we send them because guess what everybody else doesn’t have any picks to

Draft or throw out there we’re the ones with the picks and we get to decide what to do you’re wanting to rebuild your team and you need more draft picks to do so but you have a number five in this year’s draft and you’re saying I need

More players and you’re like who could trade with me in Oklahoma city is sitting there with number 12 number 11 and number 13 and people are like oh yeah see that’s what I need I need depth in my team so I’m willing to trade this number five for the

Depth and it’s gonna happen how do you feel how do you feel that like with like you said owning this many picks like do you think that pre is going to approach like you’re kind of implying at the beginning a singular player or is he

Going to try to get a few players who all have a good chance every draft is different every draft is different it there’s going to be drafts where we’re going to lose out on players coming up like I look at um still my favorite player um Keon Johnson bro on the on the

Um g-league he’s killing it bro I mean he is murdering the [ __ ] G League like and and like nobody can stop him so you’re looking at this progression and you’re saying okay you’re you’re looking at a first round pick and you’re saying this player wants to come play for us

Right cool cool cool cool come play for us but I’m sorry you got to take the Keon Johnson route Kean Johnson played one year year and a half in the G League then he came out and played up in the you know yeah because it’s the same

System once a player has success down there and understands what he’s doing then he has success up there because a player comes out and they’re saying hey D’s going to be you know um $30 million a year this next year for this next contract well we don’t we don’t have

That because want to keep the cord together so we go to that g League that we’re going to have first round draft picks dominating and we’re be pulling them back up there for these things we get a player injured like why are we sending these players to go out there and expect these

First year players to have a an impressive year as a rookie like I mean by all means we’re going to get players like jdub we’re going to get players like case Wallace that are ready right but even in the future if we pick up a player like K Wallace I don’t see a

Player like K Wallace breaking through the top 10 in the future you’re gonna have to play in the um in the G League you’re gonna have to play a year down there you’re gonna have to be able to take that and utilize that you’re GNA look at

Four years right you’re gonna look at the old school college basketball all right everybody knows if you know things about college basketball old school basketball Bill walson Bill Russell those guys had a burn their freshman year you got to go play freshman ball freshman ball and that’s what needs to

Happen with this bro because it’s important that the the the transition happens so would players save their rookie year if they didn’t jump into the NBA action I guess they would um a little bit more like what you’re were saying back when very beginning of us starting this podcast you were talking

About the St Louis Cardinals and Branch Ricky the guy who launched the modern minor league system and you were comparing what s prey is going to do that is like three years ago now so watching it work Jang who we didn’t know his name at

That point but he’s come in and you know he didn’t play last night but he played both games in La I was really impressed with the minutes he put up and also just how the team you know Works people in um Jay will um he fell out of the rotation

He was back in the rotation for the Jazz this is a matchup thing and this is a depth thing coach will go 10 Deep 12 deep but he also has two or three guys who he trusts that he’s not going to Lindy Waters perfect example missed two

Shots in three minutes didn’t play again yeah and it’s not a diss on Lindy Waters because even if he hit the shots he probably only play six minutes yeah but it’s there’s opportunities U one of the guys that continues to Wiggins what Wiggins does with his minutes is always impressive and so

Amazing big minutes in La came back and played a few more minutes this last game but so great how I mean how does this all play out in the playoffs because honestly like this so it’s new to me all right it all works together because we we’re trying to save these guys we’re

Trying to save their legs because when we get to the playoffs I’m sorry like if you think that we’re going going 12 deep in then every single playoff game then you’re just mistaken like those are going to be designed playoff games where we’re going 10 12 deep the rest of it

Man we get two three days off in a row almost every single game so there’s no like you know what I’m saying like you just go you like 38 minutes for Shay 40 minutes for Shay like that’s when you spend the minutes on those like those guys get those minutes

Then you put away games and you’re like okay like last night job getting 37 minutes I was like what the [ __ ] bro seems like so many minutes right why does it seem so like so many minutes because these guys don’t go about 34 very often why because when

You get to the playoff moment now you have rested legs like think about kawhai think about these other guys that are being run at 38 39 40 minutes a game and they’re not getting the rest that they need to you know like LeBron James still being run out there ad still being run

Out there a lot you know Golden State Warriors still running their guys hard you know they get to the playoffs and like that’s they’ve already spent all their energy they’ve already like used everything up you know that’s why this Oklahoma City Thunder is going to be unique that

Way how do the Lakers win well it’s because the pandemic man they brought everybody into one place they took care of the health they took care of everything they were able to control it all ever since then they can’t win they can’t even win a playoff series sort of

But you know what I’m saying it’s because of that man like you can control the narrative in there look our defense is really the star of of what’s been going on recently um but what do you think about jdub as far as where does his peak come in where do

You feel like like is this what we saw last night is but it’s just more consistency or do you think he has a another level every great needs a Scotty Pippen bro every great needs a um John Stockton you know like every great needs a shack so you look at Jay

Dub and you start thinking about what the possibilities are with him and you’re seeing him play in this way and you’re like you know what like 30 points a game bro H and you start thinking about it and you start realizing it like the moment that jdub shines the most is

When does every game guys this is not hard the fourth beginning of the fourth yeah there you go see Mark and I right there why because Shay comes out of the game the game is designed around Chad and jdub and it’s incredibly efficient it’s incredible like he has this

Confidence a Swagger in that that time period and he puts up eight 9 10 12 14 points it doesn’t matter he just keeps on balling so when you’re looking at jdub and you’re understanding what JB’s future is on this team it’s it’s more about what his future is like in the

NBA you know like um I think for a long time I would say um I like um Jaylen brown right but the more I watch Jaylen Brown’s game even now I just that Jay Brown is a poor man Jaylen Williams bro and Jaylen Williams is game is

Something that people are not going to be able to understand for for a while and when they able to understand they’re going to be looking at it and be like wow I mean JJ talks about J um jdub he loves jdub he loves his personality

He loves his Swagger he loves the way he dresses he loves his shot he loves the way he gets to the [ __ ] hole in fact there’s nothing he doesn’t love about J Dub’s game and I’m not saying JJ like he’s one of the greats because J JJ is not one of

The greats but he is one of the greats as far as podcasting that’s an NBA X that’s an NBA ex player so for me I look at at that in the way that he explains the game guys and if you really want an understanding of what he believes about jdub just

Listen because he’s talked about him a lot and go back and and you guys can look it up on YouTube JJ reck and jayd dub like he will talk about it guys I’m telling you he has this VI feel and Vibe about jdb is that he could be the best player in the

NBA and it’s like damn and then you watch him play and dominate like he’s been doing recently and you recognize that he’s barely sweating out there sometimes like some of the stuff isn’t even hard for him like the other night were playing against the Clippers and I

I put up a short about um JB getting to the hole making it look easy and then then I I I watched it in slow motion you know what was so funny about it he made it look easy against the claw let this settle in guys like the

Whole short he is running right past the claw and in fact he almost made him fall down if you watch the beginning of the clip and zoom into the footwork of the claw you could tell like he almost made him fall in his ass and you start thinking about that

Like how many Defenders are in the league that are the qu’s level his size that could dominate on the defensive end like that there’s not many maybe three you think about that and he makes certain people look stupid out there how good is he gonna

Be we’re all on just for the ride bro that’s all I gotta say y before we get out here I want to ask you one more thing because you mentioned it with jdub and Chad like the fourth quarter is really set up for them right now our weakness

Is the end of the third quarter we don’t have Chad and jdub out there usually and it’s Shay and you know all bench players surrounding him um why is it that that’s such a weak point for us right now is it because jdub and Chad aren’t out there or is it

Because Shay is just tired at that point it’s the spread out bro okay um if you look if you watch the game so when when JB and Chad aren’t out there then you’ve got Isaiah Joe out there and they’re spreading the floor um um Jaylen Williams Jay will you might see out

There um me chit we love to see Mis chit out there and Josh giddy right so that’s kind of the group you’ll see out there so um as far as why we see that quarter like that it’s it’s a lot of it has to do with like when we saw um last couple

Of years where Shay was you know coming out of the game in that fourth quarter beginning of the fourth quarter and we would be up by 15 points and then we would be down by five when Shay came back in the game um a lot of it’s like that it’s

Reversed because when you have guys like jdub and Chad that are so much better than everybody else right and you always have to account for them and it’s spreading the the court out for um Shay then all you take those guys away what do what does these teams do they

Collapse on Shay they double on Shay they triple on Shay Shay is phenomenal at past out right but when you do that it you guys have to hit shots and they just haven’t consistently been hitting the shots and that the that that Midway through the third quarter to

The end of the third quarter and then you’re looking at the scoreboards of these third quarters and you’re seeing these teams are putting up 30 something points and you’re seeing them put up a lot of those points in that time period and again it goes back to teams are

Getting to the to the Lane when chat’s out you know they’re doing all these other things when jdub’s G not there so it’s it’s it’s yeah man like those two guys are so much better than everybody else that it it it sucks the air out of

The room when they’re out of the game just like it sucks J um you know Sha’s out of the game but when Shay’s out of the game what happens to the the the other team they take their best player out of the game as well their most consistent scorer to get them a

Break kind of equal it out you know so they have a hard time scoring where we have Chad and jayd duub putting up some serious points in that fourth quarter every single time because even if we have what those guys out there for six minutes together before you know C comes

In or or Shay comes in or five minutes together these guys are putting up crazy points Man 10 12 14 16 points all right guys we appreciate it we’ll talk soon he

The Last Storm

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