Thunder blown out by Mavs, the Josh Giddey conversation, and OKC shakes up the roster

Thunder blown out by Mavs, the Josh Giddey conversation, and OKC shakes up the roster

On today’s locked on Thunder podcast the Oklahoma City Thunder get embarrassed by the Dallas Mavericks and they shake up their Oster all coming up on today’s show you are locked on Thunder your daily Oklahoma City Thunder podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day

Let’s get it going on the lockdown Thunder podcast on lockon podcast Network your team every day I am your host media member and beat writer for insidethe thunder.com Ryland Styles follow me on Twitter Ryland Styles follow the show on Twitter at L thunderpod email the show L thunderpod

Gmail.com on today’s show we’re diving into the Oklahoma City Thunder being in embarrassed by the Dallas Mavericks what went wrong in this game for the Thunder what went wrong uh in this game just in general and uh and also the the roster gets shaken up a little bit so this is a

Bonus podcast doing it uh for the sixth time this week seventh time tomorrow after the Kings game uh drove to Dallas and back today uh after that game so um this might be a shorter episode we’ll see every time I say that though we usually get to rambling and yapping and

It goes long but the bottom line is against the Mavericks multiple things can be true it can be true that the Thunder have struggled in afternoon games this entire season that they’ve struggled in afternoon games for you know a long time now that they didn’t play good enough

Defense from A Team level to win this game or to even compete really they gave up 50 points in the first quarter nearly 47 to be exact that’s not good enough it can also be true that Josh gidy was was not good but the Josh gidy was not the only

Reason why the thunder were just blown out and embarrassed in this game so it it doesn’t have to just be one thing that that you look at and and kind of cast everything on the Mavericks hit a lot of tough shots in this game they also were able to get to their spots

With ease I mean when you let up no matter how it’s done whether it’s tough shot making or open shots when you let up 58% from the floor 39% from three and then 75% at the line when you let up 58% at the floor you’re not going to win

Those games more more often than not you’re not going to win those games and the Thunder were Dreadful offensively you know 38% from the floor 36% from three they just weren’t good they were not good in the paint they couldn’t get into the paint against Dallas even without dererk

Lively you of course they actually won the Second Chance points battle uh in this game but they were dominated in Fast Break listen to this Fast Break Dallas is is you know cruising 33-2 you know that that’s just not how the Thunder play basketball that’s not their style out rebounded by 14

Rebounds they had a they had a plus two turnover differential which was good for them but the Mavericks go wire to wire in this game and at one point grow a 41-point lead in honor of Durk like there just isn’t much to say when you

Play that that way and you can get into it l Dort was not good offensively really not many were good offensively for the Thunder Josh gy was not good in this game but as a collective unit when you play defense that way you’re going to lose it doesn’t really matter what

Happens on the other end of the floor but then the other end of the four did happen though so it’s kind of a double whammy the Thunder first and foremost have to get better at afternoon games have to get better at um preparing for these games and coming out with

Urgent see in these games and I asked Chad I asked you know Shay about what the rhythms and routines are you know might be thrown off a little bit um and and Chad was very candid about you know some that you know sometimes of course your routine is different you don’t have

The whole day to prepare you don’t have the whole day to watch film and all those things are are either crammed in or skipped entirely like the Thunder don’t do shoot around of course before two o’clock game then you don’t have enough time to so uh you know that that

Changes how you prepare for a game and get ready for a game but they’ve got to figure that part out it only happens a couple times in the regular season you know in the grand scheme of things a couple times you know a handful of times

In 82 Game season but you could run into a playoff series where it happens you know two three times you know you know you can see it happen uh a lot in a playoff series just depending on how the travel breaks just depending upon uh you

Know when the series starts and how many afternoon games there are on the weekends you weekend dates that there are you can see it happen a lot where pivotal you know series shifting games happen before a typical s o’clock start so it’s a minor thing right now you’re

Only going to play a few in the regular season to this point they’ve played three afternoon games it’s not a big sample size it’s not something um that that is just abhorent because it could it could just be as simple as a coincidence of of they wouldn’t have the

Juice these three nights anyway they just so happen to be played at two but uh it is something that should be monitored and uh and turned around for Oklahoma City but you know that all is true the defense was not good enough uh the offense was not good enough the

Energy was not good enough the urgency was not good enough the preparation was not good enough none of it was good enough and they’ll admit that from top to bottom and it doesn’t fall on one person it doesn’t fall on only Josh kiddy it doesn’t fall on only Lou Dort it doesn’t

Fall on only uh you know whoever you want to point to as a matter of fact you can kind of Whittle the list down to a few guys who had even good games I thought case Wallace was incredible in this game provided a real spark defensively especially for a rookie

Going up against a very talented offense uh in Dallas he was was really good at contesting and and just you know bringing some sort of physicality to the defensive end and then offensively he was much more assertive of himself into into um the course of play which has

Been something that rookies tend to lack or be behind on uh which is just the normal course of being in the NBA but today who’s really aggressive something that you like to see from him he had 15 points in this game and a couple you know a couple rebounds and he was just

Really good SGA like he was slowed down by his standards uh because didn’t have a 30-point game but you know he played less than 30 minutes and he still got to you know 25 points on very efficient shooting 56% from the floor um besides those two you know Lindy Waters was fine

In garbage time Levar was fine in garbage time but this game was just a whole lot of just bad bad bad you know Chad had 13 and 12 but you know whenever you let Daniel Gafford look like an all-nba player whenever you have a Luca donic who’s

Just gonna light it up and not miss and and play excellent basketball like you know he can Kyrie had a really good game but I mean whenever whenever Daniel Gafford comes off the bench and he’s able to to to post you know 14 points for PJ Washington and for gatford you

Know post you know 18 points for him like those are two guys who literally got off a plane and stepped into this locker room room stepped into this court and were able to make a big impact for Dallas so that just kind of shows you the lack of energy the lack of

Preparation for Oklahoma City as a whole and as you mentioned at the top of the show two things can be true it can both be that those things weren’t well and then also that Josh giddy was not good we’re going to talk about him in the

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Your team every day thank you so much for making us your first listen every single morning every single day we’re here for you talking Thunder basketball you know you you look at this game from Oklahoma City and it just was not good and a lot of the ey is going to be drawn

To Josh kidy and rightfully so like it is what it is you know it was not a good Josh kiddy game we can sit here and rehash the same old same old conversation about Josh Kitty and as a fay week podcast we do that plenty we talk about him plenty on this podcast

But whenever your shots aren’t falling and they’re just leaving you alone on the perimeter that’s obviously going to hurt everyone else on the court whenever it’s gotten to the point where your where your opponents are looking at you on the perimeter and instead of contesting they’re just kind

Of waving you off and letting you shoot that’s not great defensively you know he has limitations which we you know already have known about his whole career which is not a big deal because whenever is a big deal but whenever he is locked in and he’s engaged he’s able

To combat those honestly I mean whenever he is engaged and he is active defensively he has a good enough frame to be a Team Defender here’s the problem with a Team Defender though that’s great whenever everyone else is playing playing good defense when the four other guys are playing good defense A Team

Defender is fine at the fifth spot problem is in games like this in games like Detroit in games you know like the Denver home opener when you’re not playing good defense as the other four when they’re not playing to their standards and they’re not playing um to their capabilities of course the fifth

And worst defender on the court is also going to get exposed that that’s not rocket science in this case the offense is the main concern here and to flip the Josh kidy conversation we know you know the limitations of like even if he even if

He did um you know shoot the ball with from three I just don’t believe that that’s the difference for Josh giddy because I mean you know three for nine sure he had wide open shots and and you wish that he would have cashed down on those but like three or four makes is

The most you can ask for for Josh giddy uh in in a single game because I mean that’s a lot of makes for anyone but especially for like a nonsharp shooter for Josh giddy defens is going to continue to live like this and just let let Josh KY have a free nine-point you

Know burst whenever they come for the for the benefit of playing for 48 minutes packing the paint not allowing the Thunder to drive not allowing the Thunder to to to cut and not allowing the Thunder to dominate points in the paint as they have throughout the season

So the concern with Josh giddy for me is the fact that this was a matchup where I believed that he would be able to have success I even wrote about it at th.com for styles points um on Saturday morning you look at the Mavericks and they looked like a matchup where Josh kidy

Could find a Groove because they’re Sim similar to um the Raptors in the sense of Josh gidy should be able to thrive against non Elite Rim protectors he just should like he should be able to use that space to get to the rim and finish now the problem with jash has been

Against Rudy goar against Christof porzingis against these guys who are Elite Rim protectors he can’t drive into that space and he can’t hit threes at a at a super duper high percentage or if he is hitting at a good percentage it’s not enough volume so like when the

Volume goes up to like nine attempts the percentage drops way down so you know he doesn’t have enough of that three-point threat to to beat you it’s just and it’s not just TR this happens with every player going back again I’ll use it to to to kind of compare it because I know

That sometimes it can feel isolating to Josh kidy you know last year with Jay will shooting 40% the whole season nobody defended Jay will on on the three-point line because okay he’s shooting 40% might make one or two a game you live with it you know at most

He’ll make three so at most you give up nine points uh for the benefit of it you know of playing defense you know off of him at the perimeter so it happens every player even players who like on their career have good shooting numbers which josy is no secret doesn’t

But whenever you play a team who does not have that elite shot blocker because Lively was out and they they had gatford who is a really really good addition L looked awesome with this team and and and these pieces are fitting great now of course this was a night where

Everything went M the Maverick’s way so you hopefully those additions will look great and they did but what’s cons what’s concerning the most is that now you’re seeing games where even against nonthreatening paint presence Josh still can’t get it going I believe that Josh kiddy is a good basketball player I believe that

Josh kidy can perform well in the NBA it’s impossible to watch these 5050 games and not question if if he can reach his individual potential we always talk about this from the Thunder side but his individual potential in Oklahoma City now it’s been 50 games I still believe that we’re in the hypothesis

Point of the scientific process you shouldn’t you shouldn’t think that it’s all over and that there’s no way it works out you can guess one way or the other if you think it can work out if you think it won’t work out you can make that educated hypothesis but you still

Got to go through the scientific process to see if that hypothesis ends up being correct but it’s impossible not to question things right now about Josh’s fit it’s also important to balance it out of this is a guy who’s only 21 years old who’s having to change his entire

Role for the third straight season in the NBA who’s been asked to do the most sacrificial stuff of this grouping right of this core and this is also a roster though where SJ is at his best with the ball in his hands Jaylen Williams has the best

With his ball with the ball in the hands and theoretically Josh KY has best with the ball in his hands and there’s only one basketball you’ve got to work all that out and you know Rome wasn’t built in the day even the heedles didn’t didn’t get it right their very first

Season or their very first month or or their first handful of games they ended up going to the finals and losing to JJ B but that’s a different conversation you know this is something that can take time and when you’re watching the season unfold before your eyes game in and game

Out it can feel it can feel so burdening of watching these mistakes happen because the mistakes you know or the Miss threes or or the the timely misses and the the runs when he’s on the court and everything it’s a pattern in losses especially so then you look you

Start to reflect on the other you know 16 17 losses on the year and you start saying well it’s it’s kind of the same story however they also have you know 36 wins this season and he’s also had some FL flashes of great games like in Toronto you know like against Toronto

Should say um in double overtime where he was a massive part of the win and and the Thunder don’t get that win without shos kidy so I would say that the that the biggest thing to me is put in your hypothesis and frankly based upon this season’s data

Point that we’re going to judge off of I could see still being optimistic that things can figure it out but I can also see if your hypothesis right now is that this cannot work and that this is not going to be a good fit for either side for Josh individually or for the

Team as a whole I could see either prediction you know being rationally and well thought out the discourse has gotten to a point where it’s it’s it’s not rational it’s kind of like way too extreme of like either Josh can do no wrong or or or

Josh is the problem fully in a game like tonight Josh D was not the full problem he was he was a part of the problem because of course if Josh KY went you know eight for nine from three hypothetically this game turns on its head but if L dor goes you know instead

Of going one for six from three if he goes three for six from three and those three those three hits come in the more beginning part of the game that set the tone right that that changes things if the Thunder can play play like a defense that changes things yes you know I

Mentioned that during the game Luca hit some very tough shots especially early on and that can be deflating that can be demoralizing but they also at times just walked to the where they wanted to go and had little to no resistance so if the team played better defense that

Helps things too so you know you can be in the middle and be correct it doesn’t you don’t have to take any opinion and and go to the extreme for the sake of going to the extreme Josh giddy was a problem today dor shooting was a problem today the

Lack of defensive effort was a problem today the fact that the Mavericks couldn’t miss was a problem today it all was a problem Josh kid’s problem has been more prevalent you know throughout the season because the Thunder have a top five defense in the NBA top five

Offense in the NBA so those other things have worked more often than not whereas Josh kidy has admitted so that he’s played more bad than good this year and I think that you can get to a point too where it’s you know the criticism so out of Josh kidy when in

Reality this just might not be a good fit and that happens in the NBA all the time but it’s been 50 games and we can get lost in the tree you know the forest of the trees or however that say goes and one it ought to fix itself perfectly and mirror up

Perfectly after 50 games I know that it gets um you know again living dayto day it gets you know bit you know burdening I guess I could say again about how he every one of the teams performing each day but it’s been 50 games and they’ve had to adjust to new

Roles they’ve had to adjust to a new system in the sense of you know the same system as a grand grandular scheme but incorporating chat in the system does change things so he has different skill sets than than the bigs that you were playing with last year jdub taking the

Step as a Creator um you know getting back to his more College Roots as a Creator and then just as a score for himself you know creating for himself much l others that’s a different wrinkle that that was not there last year remember last year the conversation at

This time at the allstar break was that you were hoping that that J dub could become more aggressive and become more assertive into the offense so all these things have changed right before our eyes and again for Josh giddy the team itself has changed year over year over

Year and you know you go back in his basketball life right and we’re just talking on the court with Josh kidy he goes from the NBL to the NBA that’s a massive change no new country new rules new basketball and new everything right then you go to year two

Where you go from you know you know you there were structure in year one the Thunder have always done a really good job of even in those Seasons where they were losing more games than winning they were very structured and organized but in year two you start playing in in

Bigger Games you start you start to to to creep into um finding your fit next to Shay and jadab as Shay takes a massive leap JB was still um on par or even behind giddy last last year at times and and the dynamic was just entirely different to now you’ve got to

Incorporate chat but you’re also incorporating a brand new jup like yes Josh gy and JB did play together all last year but this is not the same J as last year this isn’t even the same Shay as last year this is a more improved version of Shay even though the stats

Aren’t as glaringly improved the way that jdubs are he a much more improved player especially as a lead ball handler as a true point guard so it all it all intertwines together I think it’s perfectly fine to have a guess one way or the other someone’s

Going to be proven right either this is going to work and it’s going to get turned around and there’s going to be some egg on the face or the trend is going to continue to go the way it has so far and you know the other side will be

Vindicated I have a lot of questions of if this can work or if this will work because you know we’ve seen it work in small doses can it work over a sustained period of time whenever defenses can always revert back to just simply not guarding Josh giddy because even in a seven game

Playoff series where you only need to get hot and win four games the odds of Josh giddy going you know four for you know six from three-point land in a playoffs game it can happen but the OD of it happening four times in seven games is a calculated

Risk worth taking right now for the sake of being able to pack the paint and play off of him so you know I am interested to see how they’re able to fix the and and M Force the defenses to change how they’re defending Josh kidy and there are some wrinkles to do

That use Josh kidy as a screener more use Josh kidy as a cutter more I the uh opening play it was was was a good idea to have Josh KY start in the corner start to be you know of course ignored in the corner but JB kind of drives to

That side and draws out of course the attention of the guy supposed to be guarding giddy giddy Cuts behind the action JB hits him giddy missed the push shot but it was a really really good look generating more of those opportunities is something that from a

Team standpoint they can do to help Josh giddy because putting him in a role where he’s just standing in the corner isn’t fair to anyone it isn’t fair to the rest of the roster because it makes their life harder but it also isn’t fair to skidy either because that’s just not

His game he’s he’s not going to play well in that role he just isn’t so it’s a long-winded way because this is a long-winded conversation to say I still think the jury is out but you’re getting close to a verdict there’s only a few you know jurors still deliberating here but as

Long as they’re deliberating you can’t give a verdict you know as long as they are holding out hope and trying to work through the issues you can’t go to the bayth yet so put the hypothesis in we all have them it’s very fair to question to fit

Long term but also let let let the scientific process play out let the trial and errors go which will happen for the next 30 Games as you as you get to see rotations tweak as the roster gets shaken up a little bit which we’re going to talk about soon it’ll happen in the

Postseason because some it to be fair to Josh giddy which I think can get lost at times there are players who just magically start playing better in the playoffs and magically start playing better in big games Josh G to his credit had a huge game in New Orleans in a big

Spot in the playin let’s see what happens in a seven game series the race to being loud and first can often times take away what basketball really is and often times stick away from basketball this course as a whole I’ve made no mistake about what Josh gidy

Season has been to this point and I’ve criticized him on this show today and also on the show in the past and I think I’ve been very fair to Josh kidy both ways against Detroit I didn’t think he deserved a lot of criticism I played against Detroit last week but a lot of

People did and I was kind of on the opposite side of that today he was clearly not good today there’s no ifans or buts about it but you know earlyer week we talked about Josh Kitty like this this has been a conversation that I feel like I’ve

Been very fair upon on each side and I think that as long as you’re keeping it within the bounds of what’s happening it there is there is room for uh all types of questions and opinions about Josh Kitty but you still have to keep the context of the big

Picture there’s nothing more to do right the trade deadlines passed the rest of the season will play out you’re not going to play him zero minutes but it’s also unfair to act as though you know just because his name’s getting called in the in the first five

Whenever the lights are off and uh and it’s a party in the pregame J is playing a career low in minutes right now J Kitty even you know with the injuries that they had recently is still averaging you know 25 minutes a game which is by far career low

Yes he’s still getting introduced as a starter the Thunder have been able to to bench him down the stretch and that I think it’s easier as Gordon Hayward comes back you know comes back from injury and uh is on the doorstep of returning after the All-Star break you

That that will make things easier and overall to the Thunder willing willingness to Pivot in game now in this specific game you know the numbers and minutes look out of whack because you know Josh skidy only played 22 minutes even though he was forced to eat the end

Of that game uh and play a lot of that fourth quarter whenever the game was already lost but like this game was just purely lost basically from the first quarter they made a couple the thunder made a couple runs in the middle quarters but eventually fell flat in the end but

Still end of the day we all have our take of what we think will happen with trash gidy but I still think it’s fair to everyone involved the team and the player to still let it play out and be comfortable letting it play out because this the sneaky truth is

That like this is not a make or break year for the franchise this is not make a break year in the postseason you know I think that the Thunder are talented enough to get past the first round and once you get past the first round anything can happen you’re at that point

You’re you’re now you know 30 more regular season games and and possibly seven more you know you’re D you’re dang near 40 games more from here to now than anything can happen to any team so um you know I think that this season there’s not a ton of pressure to win a

Championship there should be no pressure going a championship you can afford the luxury of working things out and pivoting in a post season series when you need to and then reevaluating things in the summer and I’m all for having those tough conversations on the summer we’ve already had them on this

Show during the season but it it can all be true in the sense of it doesn’t have to just only be Josh giddy today that you’re that’s drawing your ey it can be the fact that they didn’t come out prepared for an afternoon game again it can be the fact

That they didn’t play defense again can you know in an afternoon game it didn’t have the same defensive intensity that they need it can be the fact that L dor didn’t shoot well either it can be the fact that you know you all these other

Cases of um you know K Williams was not good in this game you can be the fact they didn’t go to Jay will soon enough or that uh you know Usman Jen was not good in this game although majority of that came uh you know garbage time it can be a lot of

Different things you you know job had a relatively quiet game for his standard he had nine points in this game in 26 minutes and he shot 40% from the floor like even J up did not play to to to his part it can all be true and it is all

True and we’ll talk about this game against the Kings um after it happens I think that the game against the Kings is interesting of for me the kings are such a good team and a talented team that I’m not like you know leading the charge of that they have to

Win this game or they have to show that they’re better than this and so they have to go out there and get a statement win but they I think that they do have to to play a much more competitive game you can’t go get blown out again even

Though the kings are good even though the kings are like an excellent team and they have a lot of talent they you cannot go get blown out again since the kings are so good I’m not going to say it’s a must-win game and on on February

12th against a a team as good as the Kings but you can’t go 0 and four in embarrassing fashion in both season and I’m sorry in afternoon play there’s just some sort of uh Huts that has to kick in at that point so I think that this is a

Big game from the King standpoint and at the top the Western Conference race is just incredibly tight your four and a half games up of fifth place so you know you have a pretty nice cushion on home court advantage however Thunder are fourth right now but only a

Game back of one and only half a game back of seeds two and three so it it’s going to be Topsy turby the rest of the way so these games start to stack up and if you can get a win against the Kings who’ve been a bit of a thorn in the side

For OKC and then you play Orlando even though it’s on the road last game before the allar break you know on paper should should win that game against Orlando who’s a very good young team and place a thunder tough last year they had a lot of good

Games last year from Orlando came with fron at the at the low high post whenever Shay got the contest for the win it was great but nonetheless I digress you get two wins before All-Star break that can really you start to change things for you as you get Gordon

Hayward back speaking of let’s talk roster shakeups as the thunder made a few roster moves this is uh G to be talked about after we talked our good friends over at Nissan Nissan’s great check out Nissan at shop nissanusa.com and whenever you do you’re going to be able to get your hands on

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Hours and uh I think that I’ve given this pod the same vocal energy as the Thunder played defensively in energized wise so I do apologize for that but I think that it’s led to some some interesting enough conversations especially whenever we’re going to have our seventh part of the week here in a

Couple hours after this Kings game but um the Thunder did check up their roster and they they signed bismack bomo who is a 68 big man but you know he is a big man his wingspan is huge um you know he’s a beefy big especially comparatively it’s with the Thunder you

Have so don’t let his his raw height fool you uh he is actually a big man uh who can’t shoot but can do everything else I think he’s a I think he’s going to be a fine Defender especially as a rim protector in these pinch minutes I

Think that he can rebound the ball really well he can be a pick and roll rle man very well hit in the dker spot as a safety net very well he’s in transition he’s on the glass you know he will be a change of pace big I don’t

Think that he’s gonna be someone who starts or someone who plays heavy rotational minutes or someone who’s a who’s a um consistent part of what the Thunder are doing but I think that this is the classic player who we talked about all this week leading up to the

Deadline of putting a tool in your tool box like the the ability to go to a guy like bio is is going to be vital come playoff time you’d rather have the option than not you’d rather be able to do something then just have to be forced

To sit on your hands in the postseason so I think that that’s it’s a really good pickup for Oklahoma City of course it cost no assets other than sending him to the rest of the year so so that was really good for Oklahoma City uh also they converted lendy Waters

To a um two from from a two-way to a standard contract is technically being called the multi-year deal again which is just typical um of how the Thunder kind of label things but it’s it’s the same setup as as um his last season one was where there’s a team option and they

Can uh move on from him after this year which I’d imagine they’ll handle it the same way they did last year where they let them play out the season on this standard contract then they decline as option uh and they reevaluate things that’s just a guess but I would imagine

That’s kind of how it goes but the Thunder also made a roster move to now F Lindy wat spot they’ve signed Adam Flagler who has played really well for the G league in the OKC blue this season 12.4 points 3.4 rebounds and a stock per

Game he shot 44% from the floor but 40% from three and 90% at the charity stripe really good shooting uh touch 43% on catch and shoot looks here’s the big deal he he’s awesome in transition and he’s really good as a creator for himself and others you know was really

Good as a pick and roll ball handler uh to really organize the the blue offense and help them drive and help them just score the basketball again much like biombo even more so than biombo I should say the pathway for actual NBA minutes is is going to be few and far between barring

Injuries but if you did go into a pinch where like now that you’ve traded away meit and traded away you TR man where you’re you’re down a few ball handlers he can really help you know he again he was teammates with Jared Butler on that Baylor team who they signed after they

Converted Lindy Waters last year uh the same similar vein like Jared Butler yeah you you like going to Jared Butler uh in that Memphis game whenever they sat everybody you like going to Jared Butler um you know whenever some injuries arose well you only played him six games and

And it was to the tune of 12 minutes per game which was very much uh heavy heavy lifting from that last game against Memphis last season so um you I would not expect much from Adam Flagler at the NBA level he’s been an awesome player at the g-league level

Um let’s see what happens but I would not expect him to make a huge impact in the rotation barring in injuries the thing with Flagler is um he is one of the best options that if you did run into injuries he could play your system very well uh and and it’s more

Translatable to the NBA one to one than some of the other uh blue players who are playing really well right now so that’s where where the Thunder stand on Adam Flagler I think that he plays um you know more physically defensively than his size would indicate so that’s

Helped them kind of bridge the gap defensively uh he’s a really high feel for the game guy which is going to be massive for the Thunder and then he can really get hot from three he’s one of these guys who’s not like a you he’s not built as like a sharpshooter and he’s

Never going to be confused with a sharp shooter I would say he’s more of a streaky shooter or like you could just look up and he’s got wow he’s got four for you know four for five and he’s got six for eight N Night from three like

Wow what what a game from U you Adam Flagler so I think it’s I think that he is one of the better options that you can get on a two-way deal because of what he brings to the table you’re not going to you know for example a guy that

I love is Caleb McConnell because he has NBA ready defense right now uh and he could play at that level defensively in the NBA and play extremely well on that end right now however on the offensive end you’re you’re only going to get 28% from three from him uh he’s a good

Cutter he’s a good he’s a good dive man to the rim but you’re not going to use him as backck and roll man just due to his size and as a cutter you have a lot of redundency there and he’d be apt to be someone who gets left alone on an

Island that can’t make you pay for it and so when you’re thinking about twoa guys yes I think that I think that K McConnell of any player on the blue has the most elite NBA seal that’s his defense however being realistic he’s only going to play at most you know an

Eight minute spurt here and there and the league is so good and so talented that if you’re only hanging your hat on defense you’re gonna get scored on like even if you’re the best defender there is I mean like Lou Dort for example and this is not a good example today because

They also had very many bad defens possessions but L Dort for example had a possession against Luca where like he he they just almost shoulder bump luuka he was contesting it so hard and so well um but Luca still just splashed into set back three and that’s that’s textbook

Harassing defense where the offense is just better now in the NBA so my point is if you’re a Defender only who cannot provide much offensively you’re gonna get scored on anyway and the drop off is there so with Adam Flagler the benefit to him over a guy mcconell who I like

More over a guy like uh you know KJ Williams who I like over a guy like jamas Ramsey who I like would be what he can do offensively within the flow of your system He’s Not Gon to let up too much defensively in terms of the drop

Off from him and the other options but he plays your style of offense better J Ramsey has made vast improvements with his three-point shot this year which is really starting to change the way that Scouts view him although it’s still a tough grind for him to do that uh in the

NBA right now uh but his bread and butter is still going to be attacking the rim as a bold dominant player you’re not going to have your two-way guy doing that Adam Flagler though the way that he scores is more repeatable is more conducive to the Thunder sty of play so

That’s kind of why I think that they leaned Flagler in all of this and they’ve liked Flagler this entire season of course he had some he had like a weird start to the G which you can get into on another show maybe lock on G

Needs to happen so we can get all these stories but he’s been playing down the stretch of this year and it’s been really good for the blue and now we’ll see what he can add to the Thunder um you know I I’m I’m curious to see you

Know when and how much the Thunder want Flagler to be you know to I should say to join the team uh because they they did have Livia SAR with them today they did have lindia WS with them today but K Johnson and Flagler were both in Stockton with the

Blue of course the Flagler signing even as of this moment right now is not official um by the team so that so that also changes the rules and regulations but if I had to guess um the earliest you’d see either keante or flag on the on the Thunder bench would be Tuesday

Against Orlando at that point um you know you might you might just kind of um have them reconvene post Allstar break because um you know they’re coming back from the West Coast trip and U all that goes into that so the Thunder will also host uh the the sou

Falls Sky Force I believe is what their uh mascot is on the 13th so you know you get some more run for them that day so it’ll be interesting to see kind of who they take to Orlando anyway that was your Adam Flagler breakdown for those of

You that were just dying to have it uh that is the benefit to this podcast C is that even on days like today where you’re kind of drained from a six-hour road trip no one else can break down the G like we can here El on Thunder and has

This information ready for you off the cuff about guys like Adam Flagler because we put the work in so is great uh to get to go down there cover a game on the road is really fun actually um you can ask more stories about that if you’re interested I just don’t know how

Many people would be interested in my uh in my uh road trip Ventures but if you are let me know I plenty of time um talk about the roster stup talk about the thunder you know G against the Mavs Kings game gonna have a podcast right afterward we yapped our way to 40

Minutes I can’t believe it I really apologize for that but it is what it is so appreciate anyone who’s still listening to my voice right now that is insane of you subscribe for free across all podcasting platforms so you never miss an episode including on YouTube and

Hit me up on Twitter at Ryland Styles and if you’ve made it to this very Point say Plaza somewhere Twitter _ Styles or on YouTube whatever else but until tomorrow be good and be good to one another

The Oklahoma City Thunder were embarrassed by the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday in another disappointing afternoon game for Oklahoma City. Can the Thunder rebound against the Kings? OKC shakes up their roster, it is time for the Josh Giddey conversation. What can the OKC Thunder do better to improve from games like this against Luka Doncic and the Mavs?

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