What’s Next for the Thunder?

What’s Next for the Thunder?

the Thunder exceeded a lot of people’s expectations this year snagging the number one seed in the Western Conference but now they’re staring down the barrel of the offseason and they actually have a lot of questions to answer about who they’re going to move forward with who they’re going to try and move and what free agents if any they should try and go after so we’re going to get into all of that and more this video is sponsored by Squarespace but a little bit more about them later to get an idea of what the Thunder are going to be working with heading into this off season and two three four years down the line we got to take a look at their salary cap situation they’ve got Shay gilis Alexander on that long-term contract through 2027 so they’re good in regards to him but Chad and Jaylen Williams are going to be due for their rookie Max contract extensions at some point so that’s going to be a bridge that OKC is going to have to cross but right now I would say it’s more about looking at the role players that they currently have and making sure they can keep some of those really important guys while also leaving themselves enough flexibility to handle those contract extensions when they come up keep in mind OKC could be working with up to $35 million in open cap space depending on whose rights they decide to renounce which player options they decide to accept and some of the Dead cap that they have coming off the book soon two really important guys that I’m kind of keeping an eye on as the Thunder head into this off season is Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins now if you’re a thunder fan you obviously understand the importance of Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins you know that Isaiah Joe is one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA you know that Aaron Wiggins is one of the best role players in the NBA and so I think it’s pretty obvious that OKC is going to do everything in their power to keep those two guys around long term well they both have Team options for next year there’s a few different ways that OKC could decide to go about handling these team options one they could just accept both of their team options those guys are on the roster through next year and then next offseason they would become unrestricted free agents the other alternative is OKC declines those team options those guys become free agents but OKC signs them to a contract extension or resigns them to a more long-term lucrative deal that makes everybody happy and I guess the third option would be OKC declines those team options and both of those guys just become free agents and leave OKC like I said I don’t really see that happening both of these guys are really important to OKC’s success so I think they’re both going to be sticking around long term both of those guys are still pretty young and they’re not at the Forefront of top free agent discussions that might not be the case down the road so OKC needs to do whatever they can to keep them around long term now even though Gordon Hayward didn’t actually do a whole lot on the court for OKC this season it’s important to note that his contract is going to be coming off the books and that’s what’s going to clear up a ton of cap space for OKC that’s going to facilitate the front office’s ability to keep some of these role players around it’s just going to be a matter of who and for how much now there is of course an elephant in the room and that elephant is Josh giddy now I know there’s a lot of people who think that Josh giddy still still has plenty to show he’s not done getting better all of that may or may not be true I’m not going to weigh in on that what I will say is I think it’s probably time for OKC to move on I think a lot of Thunder fans agree with that I think in the postseason it became pretty clear that opposing teams were able to just build their defensive scheme around the fact that he doesn’t shoot he doesn’t really score he’s not entirely capable of putting the ball on the floor so when opposing defenses were having to figure out okay who are we going to help off of well the clear answer was Josh giddy he doesn’t do a whole lot on the other end of the floor either to really counteract the fact that his offense just simply isn’t where it needs to be so I think it’s probably in the best interest of all parties to move on but the big question is how much is Josh giddy worth on the market does he command a first round pick uh a couple of second round picks what kind of player are you getting in return for Josh Giddy and I don’t have a clear answer for that reports have already come out that OKC is shopping him around the league to kind of see what the market value is for him but there’s obviously the fact that he’s really struggled throughout his career so far in a lot of areas there’s the offc court stuff so I just don’t really know exactly what his value is at this point it’s really tough to say but ultimately the thing to keep in mind with the Thunder potentially moving Josh giddy is that they have enough Talent already on the team that they don’t need to bring somebody else in to replace Josh giddy they have players who will replace Josh giddy in the rotation it’s just simply a matter of clearing up the playing time in the minutes and the shots by sending him out and potentially getting just draft capital in return or cheap contracts that will end up off the books anyways real quick guys I want to take a second to tell you about the sponsor of today’s video Squarespace Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform for creators to set themselves apart from the crowd online whether you’re trying to share your work with more people or grow a brand Squarespace makes it super simple to create an awesome website where you can engage with your audience and reach more people I have absolutely zero web design experience but Squarespace is simple and easy to ous user interface takes out all of the frustration of building a website and turns it into an easy and fun 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you’ve been keeping up with some of the buzz around OKC’s offseason potential the thing that keeps coming up is this idea of getting a backup center a more traditional Rim running kind of guy who can set hard screens run to the rim protect the paint anchor the defense when Chets not on the floor and provide some lineup versatility that I think OKC’s really missing there was a pretty big lack of rebounding that OKC had to deal with during the playoffs the Thunder had the fourth fewest rebounds per game in the regular season they had the fifth lowest rebounding rate of any team in the regular season and listen I understand this philosophy that OKC has where they understand okay we’re not going to get a ton of offensive rebounds we understand we’re not the best rebounding team in the world but what we’re going to do is we’re going to offset it by getting turnovers I understand that that’s their approach that’s kind of how they try to mitigate the impact that a lack of rebounding has and it’s smart don’t get me wrong I think it can work to a certain extent but there is a point where if the rebounding disadvantage is just too heavy it doesn’t matter how many turnovers you’re generating if the team that you’re going against is just absolutely killing you on the glass and I think we saw that against the Dallas Mavericks the issue to me isn’t just that they’re not the best rebounding team in the world or they don’t get a ton of rebounds the problem to me is that they didn’t even have the Personnel to try and counteract that in the first place and another thing with a more traditional Center that I think OKC is really missing is OKC doesn’t have a ton of screening action going on in their offense that isn’t just a guy like Isaiah Joe coming and setting a ghost screen for Shay and popping out to the top of the key to get a pass off of Shay’s drive that stuff is fine and it can work but the bigger problem is the thunder kind of struggled to create advantages because they don’t have somebody capable of setting those hard screens that allows a guy like Shel just Alexander to drive and create a direct Advantage off the dribble basically immediately and listen I’m not saying that Chad hren should become the full-time starting four I think you would still have Chad be that starting five but having this backup big would allow you to experiment a little bit with Chad running with more of a double big lineup and I understand they kind of tried to do it with the other Jaylen Williams a little bit throughout the season with you know some levels of success they’ve tried to do it in summer league with a guy like Olivier SAR and I actually liked a lot of the possibilities that it opened up especially with stuff like double big pick and rolls which is something you see Minnesota do all the time with Carl Anthony towns and Rudy goar and I look at stuff like that and I think there’s a lot of untapped potential there for OKC’s offense and they’re leaving a lot on the table if they don’t at least have the option to even try experimenting with that stuff also if you get this more traditional backup big man your defense is going to hold C water a lot better when chat’s not on the floor and you’re going to be able to have more easy offense just by nature of having a guy who can set these hard screens and generate advantages for guys so what about names what guys should OKC be looking at to maybe potentially fill this void one name that’s been thrown out a lot that I do like is Nick Claxton I think one of the issues right now is that Nick Claxton is definitely a starting big man so if OKC were to get him I don’t know how that would go with him potentially coming off the bench so I’m not sure if maybe that’s the best option but in theory it’s absolutely a guy that fills that hole and meets a lot of the criteria that people are mentioning when they say that they want this backup five Claxton brings a strong defensive Focus that I think fits really well with what OKC tries to do he’s a very mobile big man and he can also roam around in the paint and protect the rim pretty well this was a defensive player of the year caliber player no more than two years ago and I think he would do a great job within OKC’s defensive scheme and even though he can’t shoot I don’t think that’s going to be as big of a deal especially with how much shooting he’s going to be surrounded with at pretty much any given time regardless of who’s on the floor he’s going to be a free agent and the Thunder have plenty of cap space to sign him to a lucrative long-term deal I’m not sure exactly what that number could be I would imagine it’s going to be in the 20 to $25 million a year range but if that’s the direction that OKC wanted to go and swing on a big name like that I think he would be a great fit now a more budget option even though I’m not sure that this team would be willing to trade this player is Nick Richards I know a lot of people probably didn’t watch a ton of hornets games this year but if you did Nick Richards probably stood out while you were watching them he’s a very very solid Rim running big man every now and then he flashes elements of a little bit of a push shot mid-range game that I like he’s also a very solid Defender and most importantly he’s a fantastic rebounder he would bring a lot to the table in that department I think he can fit well in pretty much any lineup that he’s in as long as he’s not being asked to shoot threes or anything like that he’s a really solid screener which is going to open up a ton for the Thunder and Nick Richards is on a dirt cheap contract he’s making around 15 million over the course of the next 3 years and that’s a super solid budget option if that’s the route OKC wants to go and of course if the Hornets were willing to part ways with him I don’t know if that would even be the case but he’s a name that I do like he’s a player that I’ve seen a lot of that I think would fit very very well in this more traditional backup big man with all of this backup big man talk there is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot and it’s that if you go out and get this backup big who’s playing a more traditional role of setting screens rolling to the basket getting rebounds protecting the paint I think you have to go out and get a backup guard as well who can facilitate those lobs to that more traditional backup big man on the rooll who can operate as the pick and roll ball handler and make those passes at a high level and I’m not saying there is isn’t anybody on OKC that can potentially do that but getting somebody right now who you could pair with this theoretical backup big man it would basically give you solid bench offense straight out of the box and especially with OKC spacing just having this guard big Duo who can come off your bench go in there run the pick and roll and kick it out to shooters or generate stuff at The Rim that’s going to do a ton for just overall continuity and the Thunder’s ability to hold water regardless of who on the floor I don’t have a ton of solid names in mind because this is a tricky one those players don’t grow on trees they’re actually relatively difficult to come by I think either tus Jones or Trey Jones would be fantastic again I don’t know if the Wizards would be willing to part ways with tus Jones I don’t know if the Spurs would be willing to part ways with Trey Jones but if either of those two guys became available I think they would be perfect fits for this I want to close by talking a little bit about this idea of identity I think it’s really important for a team to have a strong identity but the problem is a lot of teams get overfocused on this idea of identity and they end up losing out on flexibility I don’t think coaches should just give up on things right when they stop working the stuff that got you to where you are in the first place is part of your identity and giving up on it the second things get hard makes it really difficult to establish continuity but in the postseason flexibility Reigns Supreme if you’re not able to try new things and experiment against teams who are a particularly bad matchup for you then you’re just going to end up being dead in the water the Thunder have data to learn from from this previous postseason run they should use everything that they saw as a lesson and address as many concerns as they possibly can this off season and it’s not like they don’t have the flexibility to do it they’ve got $35 million in cap space potentially they’ve got all the picks in the world to facilitate whatever trades they want to so now is the time to strike while the iron hot instead of just sitting passively and waiting for things to develop and see what you have on your hands I think at this point we know the Thunder have a potential long-term Contender on their hands for years to come so you need to go out and put the best team around your stars as you possibly can in order to maximize your chances of winning a championship the Thunder too often just go out there and rely on Shay to bail them out whenever things get hard they need to go out and provide some more options and possibilities to work with because just because stuff was working last year doesn’t mean it’s going to continue to work and you need to be able to adapt and build on the Fly hope you guys enjoyed this video I know this was a little bit different than what I normally do I’m going to be trying a lot of new stuff on the channel uh I would like to try some new things and not everything be so you know film break down and analytical so if you guys enjoy this kind of stuff let me know in the comments and uh yeah I’ll see you in the next one

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The Oklahoma City Thunder surprised a lot of people after snagging the #1 seed in the Western Conference, but ultimately lost in the second round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs to the Dallas Mavericks. Now, they’re looking at a lot of questions to be answered for the offseason.

What will a Josh Giddey trade look like? Can they keep Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins around long-term? Can they snag a backup center like Nic Claxton or Nick RIchards? How can they most effectively build around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, and Jalen Williams?

I cover the OKC Thunder offseason in this full breakdown.

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