Who Should Be on the Thunder’s Free Agency Wish List? | Group Chat | Ringer NBA

Who Should Be on the Thunder’s Free Agency Wish List? | Group Chat | Ringer NBA

[Music] [Music] but now cruso goes to OKC and so Rob I think this is a good point to talk about the other side of this trade yeah for me they are the most interesting team of the off season and I I think we can start as a as a transition Point here with the fact that it’s now been articulated by the Thunder and by S prey that Josh giddy basically requested to moved that there was a conversation internally about what his role was going to be the Thunder are saying that they saw a vision for him coming off the bench which I’m inclined to agree with that that’s probably what Sor can I ask you something let’s do it let’s just say hypothetically Jay dub requested to be moved would his request be accommodated I I don’t suspect it would absolutely mutual agreement I think there would be an intervention here’s the thing I think there would be a lot of conversation a lot of trying to talk him down talk him out of it Josh giddy given the Run he just had requests to be moved let’s let’s make some calls let’s let’s see if we can let’s see like Jaylen Williams but they can’t all be dogs but if Josh giddy’s best role is coming off the bench and I I kind of think that’s what his future in the NBA will ultimately be then the Thunder are wise to move on at this particular point and I think that’s part of why the Bulls from the Bulls angle it’s it’s why we’re a little bit skeptical of some of the return here but the Thunder are turning that particular page and now in similar fashion that you expressed wise of like what’s the next Domino where do the Thunder go from here this off season because they don’t have their own free agents to worry about I I can’t quite put a finger on why but I don’t suspect Gordon Hayward is going to be coming back so they don’t have to worry about that we talk about the can we talk about the cruso fit really quickly in OKC that yeah which I think is Gang Busters the fact that like this guy might Off the Bench behind lud Dort that you could play them together that you could now trade lud Dort if you needed to like I don’t know this seems like pretty clearcut from their side well the team that just led the league in steals just got one of the foremost piranhas who’s just going to be feasting off of this like the the frenzy of Shay and Dort and Caruso in particular and the pressure that they can apply in space in the passing Lanes on the ball that’s a tremendous fit and and as you’re saying the the kind of dual Insurance of Caruso and Dort for each other whether it’s one of them doesn’t quite match up ideally against an opposing star and so you go to the other one both can pick up like nagging injuries here and there and now you don’t maybe need to worry about the fact that you’re going to be completely without one of your go-to Stoppers if you have two of them if Caruso continues to hit shots at the rate he hit shots from the perimeter last season he’s going to be everything that the Thunder want and need him to be yeah and what I like about this too is that in the Dallas series you could tell especially because they weren’t making shots at a very crazy high clip or getting shots off um in that regard anyway Isaiah Joe and Wiggins like some of those minutes left you wanting so the idea that Caruso just comes in and he becomes like a defensive solve like leaning in on on the defense in a way that suggest that they like look we got Shay we’re not worried about generating quality offense man like I love the fact that they’re just like we really believe in our MVP candidate and we don’t need to surround him with a crazy amount of offense to make something hum we need to put some dominant defensive groups out there and we’re going to kick people that way I love that idea because they just get scrappier and nastier and tougher with this move which you know obviously that’s right up my alley I’m a you know I’m a I’m a barroom brawl type of guy back Aly type of guy y’all well yeah I think you made the point there where like they’re putting Joe and Wiggins out there for shooting in the playoffs but now you have a shooter in Caruso who’s around 40% over the past few years and then you get one of the best Wing defenders in the NBA on top of that he was like what I believe second Team all defense uh right behind herb Jones and so like first in our hearts though Justin I can’t imagine a better fit for what they want to be and on top of that they still have all this money to where if you want to go out and get a big to protect Chad or like you want to swing a big trade even they have so many opportunities to do so and so I I wonder do you guys think there’s like a clear path here would you prefer them now that they have Caruso in house they’re building this nice little depth chart here would you want them to still go Lori marinan hunting or is this more of like hey let’s actually just go give hartenstein the bag give Nick claxon the bag for two years let’s just get aop Gap and just like be us plus some of these other guys I personally like the Lori marinin or OG anobi Pursuit a little bit more than than adding a big and if you are going to add a big I want to do it with the complete understanding internally and externally with that player you’re coming off the bench and when push comes to shove we want to have Chad on the floor as our five and maybe that pushes you out of the Isaiah hartenstein market and into like the yaka purle trade market or something thing right maybe it adjusts the the parameter slightly and you’re going towards more someone who’s like a borderline starter and more someone who’s more of like a probably best served as a Reserve at this point in in their career and all that can be well and good but I’m looking at that four spot I’m looking at like who who is the next Josh Hart is something I’ve been thinking about a lot this offseason I say that you know a gamer who can punch above their weight who can play across the positional Spectrum who can completely change the rebounding dynamic in a game even as a wing player if they could find someone who can do some of those things I think they could be really well served even without adding more quote unquote size because they’re just going to play bigger so this is what makes the thunder so interesting to me is they have those option they can they can go for forwards they can go for Bigs they obviously just added a guard that opens up all kinds of interesting lineups for them especially on the defensive end but they have more draft Capital at their disposal than any other team and with that it makes them have the greatest capacity to surprise us in what they do because they can chase after basically anybody whoever they think is the best conceptual fit for what they’ve got and the framework of what they have is open to anyone who can basically dribble and shoot and that that’s a pretty wide range of player and a wide range of star that for for people like us who are trying to forecast their moves makes them very confusing but very exciting so in terms of what they could do going forward um the only reason I love the the marketing thing because it is a response to their lack of girth in the sense that any team that’s big enough to hurt us with their size we want marketing will make them extremely hard to guard so if you want to be one of those big bludgeoning teams as we watched in the finals with Dallas who did out physical and out big man them in the second round of the playoffs Dallas had a hard time guarding a spread out team and marinin will make them a legitimate five out pass dribble shoot at all five position threats like that to me that is an effective response um being like you know what we can’t handle your size but you can’t handle our perimeter abilities right like to me that is a that’s a more creative way of going at it than just saying look you know somebody like say yonas who I still like I still like valent chunis and I do love that he’s a big Bruiser being like you know what this is how we fix our big man um and and girth issue by bringing yonis in this is like no no no no no we’re going to make it hard for them to stay big um language did was weird but like we’re GNA make it difficult for them to stay with all that size on the interior um by you know spreading guys out like I I I I love that as an idea I wonder if they’ll pursue that this off season or guys if San prey which has been his kind of like Mo will be like you know what Caruso was incremental enough let’s see what we could do with this and then tackle the rest next off season I tend to think that we all want Lori for them but what prey wants for them is to just be who they are and to just steadily methodically build into like those three guys and just add as much around them as possible and so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more of like a har anden um although the free agent big Market pretty shallow there because I don’t think Claxton for instance gives them what they need he’s a little too frail and I think he want someone with a little bit more heft but after that it’s just like then we’re just getting into the dime a dozen sort of big pile and we might as well just go out and trade for someone’s backup big at that point just just to do it that way so there aren’t a lot of like big swing bigs out there this is why you know the the Lowry skill set that W was talking about they can move the Thunder a little closer to the model that just won the Celtics the title his willingness to shoot and the fact that he has such a high release point is such a huge difference and if the Thunder are going to become the best version of themselves whether through adding pieces or developing into that kind of team there’s going to be some important swing skills here too which is Jay dub needs to get threes up faster Alex Caruso needs to be willing to take on the catch immediately and not always be looking to facilitate and make the next play like these guys are good Shooters and they need to trust in those shots because they were guard in the playoffs in a way where defense like Dallas could swarm the inside could collapse around Shay that didn’t stop Shay from putting up 30 but it did contain the rest of the operation and so they do need at least more willing shooting if not better Shooters and I think that is going to be an effective way to combat a lot of their problems

Justin, Rob, and Wos discuss the potential upcoming moves the Oklahoma City Thunder might and should make after swinging a trade with the Bulls, sending Josh Giddey to Chicago for Alex Caruso.

Check out the Bill Simmons YouTube channel: youtube.com/billsimmons

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