How Good are the Oklahoma City Thunder really?
In one of the most stacked years in recent memory the Oklahoma City Thunder have set themselves apart from the majority of the Western Conference sitting at the two seat despite the youth movement that they’ve had over the years and the continued draft picks they have in the future the real question
Comes for this team do they have what it takes to get it done when it comes to the playoffs they do have a timeout decide not to use a curry way downt oh what a shot from curry with 6 t0 of a second remaining Yo what is up everybody welcome back to another episode of Game time it’s your boy Dom and we’re going to jump right into things here today now before we get into anything if you guys do enjoy make sure you guys drop a like And subscribe for more without further Ado today
Obviously we are talking about none other than the Oklahoma City Thunder that wasn’t apparent by the thumbnail and title I don’t know what would have been but this team has been very very good so far this season not only do they sit tied for for the first seed
Currently in the Western Conference but just overall when you watch this team on the court they have elevated what they were doing last year and the year prior to a whole another level to take themselves into real consideration when it comes to playoff time they are a team
That a lot of teams don’t want to face in the first round and though they have inexperience in that regard a lot of people are still picking this team to go Fairly far in the playoffs regardless now they could be matched up against some juggernauts who have won
Championships over the past couple years that being the golden State Warriors the Los Angeles Lakers or even teams that have gone to the Western Conference or Finals over the last year um or not over the last year but over the last couple years in Dallas and Phoenix so there is
A lot of competition still sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference that could match up against OKC in the early rounds but most people still project OKC to at least make it to the second round and I think that’s high praise for what this team has been able
To put together this season now like I said they sit at 40 and 17 currently second in the Western Conference they are a very very good offensive team and we’ll get to their defense in a minute but obviously I think when you think of the and City Thunder you think of Shay
Gil just Alexander and you think of the MVP level season that he’s having averaging over 31 points per game over six assists per game five rebounds two Steals and nearly a block per game as well wel shooting 55% from the field and 38% from three and he has played as well
As any Wong in the entirety of the NBA obviously if you guys have seen my Luca video which I’ll link down below I still think that right now it’s either yic CH LCA for the MVP conversation but Shay right there would probably be um tied for third um with either you know
Giannis or say we still had embiid in the race I think embiid would kind of stand above the rest but Chay has had as good of a season as anybody at this point and should be in MVP conversations and there’s a reason that a lot of
People are starting to pick him for MVP and putting him as the favorite in that regard just because he not only is such a good offensive player but he’s there defensively too he um he is such a good offensive player that sometimes it kind of clouds your mind on like oh wait this
Guy is also one of the Premier Defenders at his position in the league and he’s been doing that for OKC this season so like I said they are third in points per game this season and they are 13th in offense or in opponent points per game this season which is very good because
Obviously you want to score more than the other guy um that’s kind of the objective of sports but then when you look at their defensive rating as well they sit at Fourth for the defensive rating and third overall for their offensive rating so they are great on
Both sides of the ball when you think about a team that you want to see potentially go win an NBA championship you have to be top 10 essentially in both of those categories there are very few teams throughout history that have not been top 10 in both of those
Categories and the Thunder are top five in both those categories which bodess well for what we could potentially see come playoff time I think a big thing from this team is obviously you have guys that can score you know Shay being the number one jayen Williams has looked
To take another step this season um I can’t remember whose podcast I was listening to where they were talking about just his progression from really his first game until now and how it’s almost been like three seasons of basketball because every single month you’ve literally seen just progression
After progression when it comes in the scoring Department efficiency whatever it is he has shown that level of linear progression um on par with really similar to what Victor wanyama is doing this year over with the Spurs where you can kind of see how the game is just
Coming to him a lot easier every single night and so that’s super awesome to see obviously he was a top rookie last year and he has been a very good player for this team so far this season averaging 19 points second on the team in scoring
As well as shooting 45% from three which I think is huge because when you have a guy that I I don’t think most people typically think of Jaylen Williams is like a three-point type of shooter and I I do think that’s where um some stuff on this team could be potenti become an
Issue come play half time is some of the spacing because though they’ve had um historically great averages across pretty much the board for all their players you know that includes like a guy like Aaron Wiggins who only shoots 1.6 a game but is shooting
51% you have um why can I not find him you have L darts who is shooting over 40% and he’s typically been looked at as a guy that you live with him shooting so there are a lot of kind of historical averages in regards to shooting on this
Team this year and I think teams are going to force them to win with that and prove that they are that good of a shooting team come playoff time now we’ll see if that kind of compounds there but with Jaylen Williams being the level of shooter and scorer um as a
Second op second option to Shay this season it has been huge for this team and probably the biggest X Factor for this team so far has been the rookie for them Chad holgren obviously he sat out the entirety of his first season in the NBA didn’t play a game until this season
And man has he been good if wemi wasn’t a player then I think you know chat would run away with the Ricky of the Year award by Miles the thing is is wemi has just had such a historical season chat was actually my prediction preseason for Rookie of the Year season
And he’s had just as good if not a better season than what I thought he could have had which is you know a testament to how good wem’s been for him to really be the runaway rookie of the year at this point and just a testament
To how good chat’s been for the fact that you know somebody that was picking him to be better than Wy for his rookie season and he’s still out done my expectations averaging 17 points this season seven rebounds and also getting 2.6 blocks per game also a nearly a
Steel game he has been a defensive monster his helps side defense is insane both him and wemi I think are comparable in that aspect and I think they will get comparisons for a long time throughout their careers obviously being just very two very slender bigs that you know
Might be 4 five tweeners as they go out throughout their careers but can stretch the floor can handle the ball it’s all there the whole package for the game is there he’s shooting 40% from three as well as a big man which is absurd considering he takes more attempts than
Jaylen Williams or Shay who are both more guard forwards obviously Shay being a guard um Jaylen Williams being more of a guard forward depending on the night I guess and then yeah I think this team has really been able to hold its head or hold its hat on the defensive side of
The ball due to how good chat’s been now one thing with this team is the rebounding and um they did bring in BMC bio who’s played one game for them so far got a block and a steel or not a block and a steel a block and a rebound
In his eight minutes that he’s played so we’ll see how that progresses for the rest of the season they did just need another big body in there um and I’m in agreeance with a lot of people they think that it was a good pickup and I
Would agree so they also went and picked up Gordon Hayward at the trade deadline and so we’ll see how that veteran leadership kind of plugs into this team because really bismack bambo and Gordon Hayward are the only veterans on this team and that’s where it becomes questionable come playoff time like will
This team be able to get it done well yes you’ve had Shay I think in two playoff series when Chris Paul was there in OKC and then his rookie season with the Clippers and then ludor also was on that playoff team with this Oklahoma City Thunder team but other than that I
Mean this is a completely different roster from top to bottom on players that you know were there prior right this is just completely different from where you were at when you made the playoffs with Chris Paul you couldn’t name any of these guys back then because they were barely draft
Prospects right unless you were that much of a draft fenom um as as it goes for like the rest of the roster I think K Wallace has stepped in and been a very good guard Off the Bench he’s averaging about a seven points Off the Bench with
Uh 1.4 assist so hopefully you know he could develop into a little bit more of a playmaker but he’s a very good defensive guard and can score as well Josh giddy has been fine for Josh gidy standards he’s averaging about 114 and six so normal Josh GID a year he hasn’t
Really taken another step though the interesting thing is him and Chad are still only 21 case Wallace is 20 Jaylen Williams is 22 I mean this is just one of the youngest teams in the league and it’s just crazy to think about how good they’ve been this season um another guy
I do want to highlight quickly would be well yes Aaron Wiggins and kenri Williams have been nice for them but um Isaiah Joe he’s been able to step in and be a extremely lethal three-point shooter at 4 % he’s averaging eight points per game he’s been great Off the
Bench he’s been getting some um kind of starting minutes coming out of halftime for them occasionally and yeah I think I want to say his with the lineup with him on the floor is actually like one of the best lineups in the league when he comes
In with the starter so yeah I think he’s been fantastic for them and I wanted to give him his flowers there but yeah obviously the ship is going to run through Shay Jaylen Williams and Chad holgren and those are the three you’re going to be looking at come playoff time
To not only take the fantastic years that all three of them have had so far this season and Elevate that even further now again I think lud dor will potentially be kind of the guy that teams make um win the series and it’s very possible that he could he could do
Exactly what a um teren man did back for the Clippers when they played against the Utah Jazz where the Jazz were like look we’ll live with losing to teren man and they did um but there are a lot of times where you play in series and it’s
Like oh we’re going to live with losen that guy and it ends up working out in your favor so we’ll just see how lud dor responds to that as it goes for seating and how I think that that’s all going to play out I do think that this team is
Pretty pretty locked to at least be a top three seed they play well against the top teams they are currently on a win streak and so it doesn’t look like they should be falling off um you know recently they’ve beaten the Clippers who are top four as well so it does help
Them in that category to stay where they are now matchup wise there are some favorable stuff for OKC obviously I think you want to play a team that doesn’t have as much size um I don’t think you want to see a team obviously you wouldn’t see them but I don’t think
You want to see a team like minnesot or Denver in the first round because yes Chad’s a great kind of Health Defender and stuff like that but I don’t really love the match up of CAD on like a yic or um even like trying to rebound against Rudy go Barett would be
Something um interesting to see Rudy Rudy go Barett and Cat obviously would kind of clog up the paint there against the entirety of the Oklahoma City Thunder roster some teams that I do think could be favorable matchups would be like a New Orleans Pelicans if they start to fall down the standings a
Little bit which everything is super close um just the other day I think they were the at now they’re the five seed so we’ll see how everything kind of trickles down to the end I do think Phoenix could be an interesting matchup as Phoenix doesn’t really have a lot of
Depth though they have the experience and they’ve been there and I do think they have the top end talent I don’t I wouldn’t necessarily count OKC out in a playoff series versus them um Sacramento is another team that I don’t really love the matchup for OKC I think sabonis they
Just don’t have an answer for a guy like sabonis when you’re looking at that type of series and then even Dallas I think they’ve added a lot of bigger bodies that um would impede kind of some of what OKC’s done so far this season where it’s like okay if you’re not making your
Shots and you know everything tightens down slows up in the playoffs a lot of those guys haven’t been there I do think Dallas could be a threat there and then obviously the Lakers are known for having size um but again if they ended up matching up against like the Warriors
That would probably be a little bit more of a favorable match up so it’s about 50/50 if I look at the playoff team of okay I think this a favorable match up for OKC okay this I think is a favorable match up for the other team
Which I think is very kind of spread across the board for the majority of playoff teams especially in the west this year just due to the parody in the league and how well pretty much 10 like we have a full 10 teams that people can realistically pick to make the finals
Win the finals I know um on numbers on the board uh P he’s been talking about how well maybe you know the Warriors look really good they’ve been on a run did they they have a shot to actually go and win a championship and though I
Would put a lot of money against them on somebody else on like if I had to pick the field I’d obviously pick the field they are the 10 seed but it’s like yeah that core has been together forever this core has the experience they have four championships like there’s a very real
Chance that one of these lower seeds ends up going deep in the playoffs and that’s scary for a young team like OKC or a young team like Minnesota both teams with kind of limited playoff experience um with the core that they have currently I think Minnesota has a
Little bit more they obviously were there last year but I I’m not discounting OKC in that regard because of of one man and that’s Shay and I think this is a big reason why again A lot of people are moving him up in the MVP standings they’re putting him at his
Their top for the MVP and there’s a very very real chance that you know within two months he’s almost a nearly unanimous MVP if the Oklahoma City Thunder are able to capture the best record in the Western Conference and truly have are able to not only continue the dominance they’ve shown in the
Regular season to this point but even extend that there’s a very real chance that he captures the MVP this season and that would be super awesome to see for a guy that you know was kind of looked down on in the draft I know I always
Think of him because he goes in one of those two picks before the Nuggets drafted Michael Porter Jr and I want to say they drafted Jeremiah Robinson Earl I think that I don’t know I always forget the other guy that got drafted by the clippers for the reason that well
He’s not Shay and Shay has been great obviously goes to the playoffs his first year with the Clippers his next two years is voted on to potentially be a most improved player when he gets to OKC we’ve known that they’ve kind of been known for shutting him down a little bit
Early in the seasons to help their draft odds um but then you get to last year where he finishes top five in MVP he makes all NBA first team really steps it up goes from 24 to 31 points per game from the 2021 2022 season until last
Year makes his first allar All-Star team finishes second and most improved player and again this year follows it up with yet another All-Star performance he’s had a career high and steals this season a career high in blocks this season he’s not at a career high in points he’s just
Point2 under what he was doing last year but then when you look at it from a percentage wise he’s shooting the second best percentage he’s ever shot from three you have to go all the way back to his second season in the league to see this type of shooting from him or sorry
His third season in the league where he shot 41% his only year ever over 40% and then when you even just look at it from a field goal percentage side he’s shooting his best from the floor when he’s getting the most attention on the opposite side like if you’re playing
Against OKC your best defender or one of your top two Defenders on all possessions is against Shay and he’s still scoring at the highest level that he ever has right and so I think that’s an Testament to his ability to just be crafty with the ball right he is able to
Just just get to his spots um I I can’t even there’s not even a lot of great players to compare just how he kind of gets down to the Lane gets where he wants to gets his little floater turnaround um he shoots a lot from inside the a lot more from inside the
Arc than a lot of other stars in today’s game which I think is interesting to see just how that different play style plays against some other teams and you know he still is very good playmaker he gets rebounds as much as you know he can for
Being um um out there as a guard right like he is a taller guard so that helps him in that regard and he gets about five rebounds a game but I do still look at that as the team as a whole a little bit lacking in the rebound department
When we get to playoff time and then even when you look at uh turnovers it is his third lowest of his career so you know pretty much since he was a sophomore since he was in his first year with OKC this is his best turnovers per
Game so he’s holding on to the ball he’s um averaging career high and assist I mean there’s just there’s nothing you can look at what Shay has done this year and say anything other than praise for it and I think that’s just the way you
Have to look at it as for the rest of the season and how we should see them kind of get towards playoffs and seating and all that obviously we talked about some matchups they have one of the easier schedules going for the rest of the season they have the ninth easiest
Schedule for the rest of the year according to Tenon and that should bode well for this team you know you could have play the Rockets a couple more times you to play the Spurs the Hornets so I do think that that will help this team obvious see they they’ve played
Well against good teams and playing against good teams can kind of help prepare you for the playoffs especially at this point in the year where you know all these teams are fighting for seeding and we’ll see if there’s any teams that kind of hunt matchups I think it’ll be
Difficult in the Western Conference to do so I think that’s more of a possibility in the Eastern Conference but OKC will be able to hopefully strengthen their case for the number one seed and for home court advantage throughout the playoffs obviously we know back when Kevin Durant um Russell
Westbrook and James Harden were there when they were the the baby Thunder back in the day right they obviously were known for having such a great homec court advantage the way that the fans poured into the arena and I’d assume that um you know the Thunder fans are
Going to ride just as hard for this team come playoffs because again it’s a young team with a lot of hype at the top of the standings currently on a five-game win streak they’ve won over 70% of their games this year and they still hold top
Picks come draft time as well so it even if stuff doesn’t go the way you want it to come playoff time which that’s just me assuming the lack of experience will hold this team back from anything more than a Conference Finals experience Conference Finals appearance I think
That would be their ceiling in my opinion would be to make the Conference Finals and I think already this year’s been a win I wasn’t as high on the OKC jump coming into the season as a lot of other people were I thought OKC would be
A good team I thought they could be a top like six to four team which they are technically a top four team they’re really a top two top one team right now in the Western Conference so I wasn’t as high and didn’t think they’d have quite
The jump that they’ve had to this point I thought they would be more of like a truly in theack guaranteed playoff team as you know comparatively to last year where it was like oh okay they’ll be in the playoffs next year they’re they’re in the play and they’ll be in the
Playoffs next year type thing and they took the jump that some experts were predicting and come you know offseason they were like look OKC is going to be like super good next year and that’s exactly what they’ve been and so I guess I have to admit like I was wrong
On even how good this team could be and that could apply to the playoffs as well but if we do look past the playoffs they do currently sit with the 9 and 11 pick uh that from Houston and that from Utah so that’s good for them they will be
Able to get more talent in I want to say yeah currently they’re projected to get Rob Dillingham from Kentucky and then Cal filipowski from duke I do think filipowski would be very good ad for them obviously he did just get injured from the court storming incident the other day which obviously is very
Annoying as a Duke fan but I do think do think he’d be a good ad kind of as a backup behind chat doesn’t necessarily provide the full Center role next to chat cuz again I think he’s a little bit more of a five SL a four once he gets to
The league and I would love to see next year trying out getting a center and seeing how CAD looks at the four the same way I’d love to see that for wemi but I do think they’ve also both played well at the five that it’s not something
You have to rush to do it would kind of keep them away from some injuries which I think would be helpful I think it’s a big reason why Anthony Davis hasn’t wanted to play the five Altin is crey because you just get injured you’re banging more especially at their thinner
Frames and if rebounding becomes an issue from the playoff time I would love to see that be an option that they pursue and kind of look at come the off season but yeah I think this team this team looks very good they look to have one of the better chances come playoffs
And as for future projections we know that OKC has Beyond too many picks I even forgot to mention they have the Clippers pick this off season they have I think four first round picks next year they’ve got three in 2027 another two in 2029 they have nearly the entire 2029 second round
Picks like they have like six in the second round there so like this team if somebody’s not working out on this team you can easily move off them you can easily send them to another team and bring in another young guy to try and build up and you’ll you’ll never really
Have to worry about not a lack of talent I think at the back into this rotation which I think will be huge because you look at some of the other contending teams or teams that have star players on them the bottom of their roster slowly thins out you can look at the defending
Champions the Nuggets who are looked at to have yes a younger bench but also a weaker bench than last year right you don’t have Jeff Green you don’t have Bruce Brown um and you’re more reliant on you know a couple second-year players in um pton Watson and Christian brwn
Right or you can even look at the Warriors whose roster thinn out a lot especially once they ended up getting Kevin Durant speaking of Kevin Durant the sun’s rosters looked at to be very thin so I think OKC will be able to have good depth going into the future you
Will have to make a lot of decisions as it goes for paying guys and I think that’s where you know some of the second apron rules and some of that stuff that hasn’t quite fully come into effect that was meant to help smaller markets keep their players could come and actually
Hurt a team like OKC that will have so many young players that they’ll have to pay and so there will be a lot of big decisions that Sam prey has to make over the next couple years which he’s been such a great drafter and so good at getting draft picks his biggest question
Mark I think throughout his career as a general maner manager has been making the right decision when it comes to paying players obviously chooses to not go into the luxury tax and trade James Harden away Harden goes on to win MVPs and that OKC team never goes on to win a
Championship so I think he’ll have similar kind of stuff come up with you know guys like Chad Jaylen Williams Shay they are locked up right now for the for future but when you get to four or five years down the line these questions will start to pop up and I’m sure there will
Be essentially cap casualties which isn’t something you typically see in the NBA as it goes for young players typically if a guy goes somewhere else it’s like oh well we didn’t want to pay him that much whereas like OKC is going to want to pay them they’re just not
Going to be able to is the issue there and so again something that you typically more see in the NFL where it’s like oh we’ll cut this guy as cap casualty whereas here it’s like we literally can’t we can’t pay him $40 million a year because we don’t have the
Money to do so and that’s even in a more flexible cap League than a lot of other leagues I think baseball is probably the most flexible of the major sports leagues especially in America but the NBA has been up there and you know with the luxury tax with the second apron and
Stuff like that it is becoming a little bit more restrictive and so we’ll see how that bodess for this team as they get older but as for this year it has already been a year or a win of a year in my books again I think they outperformed most people’s expectations
Coming into the season and if they have any playoff success that’s just a cherry on top now we’ll see how how well Shay does trying to get that mvp if we see a push for it um he should have the games played requirement almost done by then
He’s at 56 right now so he just needs to play nine of their next 25 he’s sitting really easily in the conversation to win it and it really it’s going to come down to can he can he find some of those moments towards the end of the season
That it’s like all right that’s that’s the MVP this year and can he capture it so I think that’s that’s the biggest story for OKC is Will Shay be the MVP this year again personally I’d have to lean a little bit towards probably not but I can’t count him out I can’t count
Him out with the type of year that he’s had hopefully you guys enjoyed make sure you guys drop a like And subscribe for more and that is going to be it from me Dom here at game time and I’ll catch youall next time peace out guys oh my goodness oh my goodness oh
My that’s disgusting
The Oklahoma City Thunder have been elite this season! Should Shai be the NBA MVP? How impressive is Jalen Williams sophomore season? Is Chet Holmgren the ROTY? What should we expect come playoffs for this team? Will OKC become a dynasty?
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