This Has Thunder Fans FIRED UP…

This Has Thunder Fans FIRED UP…

the 2024 NBA Draft is officially over and many Thunder fans are starting to get a little bit heated about what Sam prey’s plan is for this team since he only drafted guards in the first and second round here in the NBA draft and we know that we need a big man all right we know we need some more size for this team if we want to compete and make a run to win the championship next season and we didn’t do that in the draft and so many fans are speculating why this is happening and they’re upset just going to be frank I see a lot of lot of you guys in the comment section upset that we didn’t take a center or forward at all in the draft we only took guards I see it on Twitter the Reddit Pages all over the place that a bunch of us are upset and at first I was upset that we took topic with the 12th overall pick not because he’s a guard though because of his injury and there’s something that we got to look at this year all right we took guards because we’re trying to set up for long-term success down the road because there’s no telling how many we lose there’s no telling if we lose both wig Joe and maybe even case Wallace then that leaves no guards for us off the bench it’ be nice to have those guys just in case they all leave secondly we still have free agency about to open up along with some trades that we can make and I’m sure we will make a trade because I don’t see Joe or Wiggins you know one of the two only one of them will stay on the team the other one will probably be involved in a trade being honest here that’s probably what’s going to happen and I can see us adding a big man through a trade and also free agency as there’s a bunch of rumors with hardenstein and some of the other big name big name free agencies uh free agents out there at the center position like Jonas valunas or backup like Andre Drummond but I saw an article or or really two breaking down our two first round picks because I’m not really going to dive into the second round pick because he’s a two-way guy that’s was probably what I’m going to talk about the guys that we have in a g- league for a video at another time so I’m really going to break down these two guys that we have are on contract not on two ways that we took in the first round and kind of go into depth why prey took them all right along with the article by Clemente almanza who like I’ve said before writes for um the thunderwire I believe he has great articles go check him out over there on the thunderwire but we’re going to go ahead and take a look at what he had to say about topic here all right Nicole topic was a decorative International player he was viewed as a blue chip Prospect who could be drafted in the top five before he partially tore his ACL the 6’6 guard provides Elite size and passing for his position he is Crafty on his drives and has shown hints of being a good shooter he started his career in the ABA league in 2022 when he was 16 years old he split time between the ABA and Euro league his first two seasons and sparingly played in 12 games topich averaged 18.4 points on 52.3% shooting 7.1 assists and 3.6 rebounds he shot 25.9% from three on four and a half attempts he suffered a knee injury in January that cost him four months his return was shortlived as he suffered a partial ACL tear on the same knee in May so as you can see there just I’m going to leave us up so we can look at the stats and I can up here when I talk to you about it 18.4 points on 52% shooting we know prey loves his efficient volume shooter guys there uh or efficient Shooters I should say 7.1 assist so the passing ability is there and 3.6 rebounds eh we could you know ask for a little bit more but we’ll take what we can get from him that’s where we drafted Dylan Jones for that rebounding wise and we’ll talk about that in a second the glaring issue is that 25.9% from three as a guard in the NBA now you have to be able to shoot you have to be able to shoot the three ball that is for sure now he’s shown glimpses that he can shoot the three ball he’ll have some games you know when he was playing where he would go off okay he would go let’s I think like five of seven from three which is good numbers great numbers all right then there are other games he’ll go one of six all right and people are saying oh this is just a giddy replacement who’s a little bit more athletic I don’t necessarily think that okay I don’t think it’s a replacement because every aspect of their game besides maybe the shooting even then I feel like topic is a little bit better of a shooter coming into the league than giddy was I feel like every other aspect of the game there’s differences giddy looks for the open man and he makes the smart passes topic is going to make these flashy passes look easy that’s the difference there gide never saw him really do these behind the back you know over the head passes maybe those one Hands Across the floor bounce passes and everything he would make uh in between a gap which are still impressive but a little bit more fundamental than what topic does topic he’s a more or more athletic guy who will drive in and isn’t afraid of contact giddy when you saw him drive in he either do a spin move or hero or a floater to get over the defender and so topish not afraid of contact whereas giddy he’s going to try to avoid contact at all times defensively since topic is a little bit more athletic he has the edge on him and so like I said there um like like like I just said there they’re not the same player all right sure they might you know be doing the same kind of roles all right they might be serving the same role but their style of play is completely different in those regards and the reason we took topic was because we have the opportunity to kind of take that risk since we just were the one seed okay keep that in mind we were just the one seed with a 12th overall pick with the lottery pick we’re probably going to take a shot at someone no matter what anyways cuz at that point the only that would have helped us out was kingan and besides that he went off the board super early there you know seventh pick overall so we weren’t going to get him all right so we just took the guy that we figured okay a year or two down the line he could find his way into the starting lineup be a good bench player for us and if someone leaves for some reason or weet trade someone he can s in that starting role and he could be a very good player in the league now going on to the second guy here all right Dylan Jones all right Jones is a bit of a bowling ball and he used his frame to attack the paint he’s a productive player at we State and earn several accolades he can use his unique size to bruise his way to the basket with that said he’s a bit undersized for a forward he’s also slow footed and doesn’t possess elite athletic traits he might be a uh he might be a tweener which can hurt him finding his footing in the league while the three-point shooting wasn’t great he had decent volume in his last two seasons he shot 85.7% from the free throw line last season which means there’s potential to work with he should get plenty of easy looks from outside on catch and shoot chances the area Jones can help the most is his rebounding fite being 6’5 he averaged nearly 10 boards he should be a positive contributor with rebounds when he’s on the floor and will scrap for the ball this was a huge uh wo for the Thunder last season they need all the help they can get with the rebounds that’s where Jones comes in we took him as a guard who can rebound he’s 65 with a 611 Wings span with 235 pounds that is insane in the 235 it’s not a husky 235 okay it is a buil okay he has muscle to him he is athletic he’s a Bruiser he’s what we want Lou Dort to be offensively Lou Dort is a Bruiser defensively Dylan Jones is a Bruiser offensively he’s going to drive in and he’s going to want the contact okay he’s going to want to get fouled he’s going to want to try to go through because he knows he’s strong enough to kind of finish through contact and get an and one for us and rebounding wise 10 rebounds at 65 all right that’s impressive I feel like if he plays let’s say 14 minutes a game for us which I don’t know how much he will play depending depending on how free agency goes for us but let’s say all right he ends up playing 14 minutes a game for us you know anywhere from 10 to 14 he should get close to five boards for us which does help us out that helps us out a good amount because he’s going to be physical that’s a good thing about him he’s not afraid of contact all right he’s going to box out he’s going to get physical that 611 wingspan is going to help him out a ton almost at almost a 7 foot wingspan all right that’s impressive for a guard that’s impressive defensively there’s potential as well when you have that kind of uh wingspan and you’re not afraid to go into contact like that there’s potential on both sides it’s just the fact he is a little bit older that’s something that Clemente Almanzo talked about with him as well he is a bit older so it was a chance there you know we don’t know how much more room for improvement there is whereas with topic he’s 18 we know there’s going to be Improvement and he could keep on growing he can grow another three inches okay because like I said he’s still a teenager he’s only 18 right he’s only 18 which is insane so there’s potential with him and Jones if we could just kind of I don’t I don’t want to I don’t know what the right word would be I want to say refined but I’m not sure if that would be the right word either if we could somehow use that to help us rebounding wise even though he has a smaller body it’s just the fact his wings span and size you know his wingspan and weight helps him out so much when he’s trying to be physical and get boards 21 and 10 all right as a guard that doesn’t really have an out outside shot is very impressive kind of like Russell Westbrook Vibes there when you would see him Russell Westbrook didn’t really ever have an outside shot so he’d always drive in get the contact if he missed he’s not going to be afraid to try to get his own Miss there and get the board all right very similar in those regards when I look at him now this is where we kind of you know see what the thought process is why we took those two guards in the first round and really guards in general okay if toich hits OKC gets a high-end starter who can be an elite playmaker if he can develop a jumper he increases his importance tfold those archetypes are always a value commodity but if the worst case scenario materializes the Thunder can eat the hit they already have one of the best trios in the league anything beyond that in terms of star power is icing on the cake the Thunder obviously loved Jones and they had the currency to acquire him near the end of the first rounde he can be a fun-sized wing that can stretch the floor he has a nice feel around the basket which can help him at his best case scenario or H help him hit his best best case scenario so as you can see there I want you to notice here all right these very big words here okay but if the worst case scenario materializes the Thunder can eat the hit they already have one of the best trios in the league so as you can see there all right we have the capability to kind of take this you know like Risk all right we have it it’s a 50-50 shot he actually you know pans out and is the player that a lot of people saw him as before this entury it it’s the fact that we had a you you know originally a top five pick follow to us at top you know at 12 because of this injury it is big for us and we’re able to take that risk because we already have a great team and everyone knows we’re going to make a move in free agency whether that’s a trade or we sign someone like Isaiah hartenstein who has been on the Thunders list for a while now and after everything happening with the Knicks it seems more likely we will get hartenstein so it’s one of those things we’re like okay we’re already going to have a good squad so we might as well take the risk on this guy and see if he can pan out for us and help us extend this dynasty down the road since you know realistically we’re probably going to trade a good amount of our picks to go get star players on our team all right because especially with next year’s draft and we have five first rounders there’s some good talent in that draft and we can use those picks as value to get a star player from a rebuilding team that’s trying to you know totally hit the reset button team that I think about is Utah but you know we know how Danny a Works it’d be very unlikely in that case scenario because he really wants to keep Lori Markin but like I mentioned there it’s just a fact that we can take these risks now in the draft because we already have an established team we already have an establish Trio a young Squad that’s already this good one of the better teams in the league so you can take that risk and with our development program and our history you know of picking guys that work out in the draft especially at 12th overall I am fine with it the only concern is the knee injury for tow pitch and then Dylan Jones I don’t really see a concern okay he’s old yeah but we know what we’re getting from him we we know we’re getting a Bruiser cuz he’s older probably don’t have much left to do with his game that he can improve all right we probably know where his ceiling is now where his limit is so I’m fine with that pick the only thing that scared me about this draft was topic just need injury and at first I was like a we really need a big but then again when I looked at the bigs in the draft I’m like how many would actually help us out would make an instant impact on this team and play 20 plus minutes a game that was my thought process the only one I could think of would possibly clinging but even then I like you know it was very unlikely we would trade up for him I feel like so let me know what you guys think down in the comments though if you guys you know after this kind of you know analysis that I kind of gave you there you know why we took these guards how we had the opportunity just kind of you know okay we can do this we can risk it because we know in the future two three years down the line we’ll probably lose a good amount of our guards to free agency or even trades so we might as well try to extend the dynasty a little bit or do you guys really think no matter what we should have took a bit cuz I know a lot of people wanted Don Holmes at 12 I didn’t like that though so let me down know down in the comments what you guys think and I’ll see you guys in the next video

The OKC Thunder ended up having 3 picks in the 2024 NBA draft after multiple trades with the Knicks. However, they ended up drafting only guards and it has many fans upset. Bryson Akins breaks down why the front office drafted only guards in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Thunder Digest covers the latest reports, news and rumors regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you want to stay updated with every trade, move and tidbit on players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Josh Giddey, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.