[Mike Greenberg] “The Thunder are having one of the greatest seasons in the history of the NBA — that’s not an opinion, it’s a statement of fact.”
“Since the merger” is one of my favorite basketball phrases. 99% of the time it’s actually code for “besides Wilt Chamberlain, because his records don’t even make sense”.
Don’t forget about the Celtics when it comes to team success
MJ: I got one for the other thumb
Bill Russell: hold my beer
“look at my toe brother”
That’s not where I would put the 11th ring ;)
Might not be the brag you think it is :)
I hope that have an extra large ring for my magnum dong.
This dudes out here getting condoms from Fisher price and cock rings from world championships
Should be done more often. Why are we counting the ancient Celtics and Lakers championships but not the Cleveland Browns or Packers dynasties from the same period?
The Browns’ championships now count.
https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-s-official-records-to-finally-incorporate-all-america-football-conference-statistics
Colloquially and culturally speaking
Before the NFL and AFL merged, the Super Bowl was created as a new championship played between the champions of both leagues. Those championships from before the merger still exist today as the NFC and AFC championships. When the leagues merged, the super bowl became the new championship for both conferences.
From my understanding, the NBA-ABA merger was really more of the NBA absorbing the ABA, so they kept the same NBA championship since the ABA didn’t have much leverage compared to the AFL, which was a genuine competitor to the NFL at the time
Blame the NFL for changing the name of the final game and then pretending nothing existed before that.
Because only Wilt slept with 20,000 women. It’s science!
Cause 2 different sports?
I think titles do count. But nobody asks how many titles a team has won, they ask how many Super Bowls they have won. The Browns have won 0 Super Bowls.
English Premier League version is “since 1992”
Honestly does get kinda insane how many 20+ leads they get so early in games it srems. Just domination. Yea there are so many bad teams this era who are tanking but okcs domination is still all time
It’s even scarier how they can play down to bad team’s level for 3 1⁄2 quarters and then just turn it up a level or two. So frustrating.
Death, taxes, and OKC flipping a switch to turn a 4 pt lead into a 20 pt lead in 6 mins
Last night with 3 minutes to go the score was 98-102…then they decided “Oh, ig we’re supposed to win by at least 13”.
Final score 103 - 119….Insanity.
to be fair we were up 10+ before the Pistons went on a run, but yeah it was still an impressive shift
As a Pistons fan I was cautiously optimistic being down only by four, but realistically I knew what was coming.
The Pistons have a good young team.
And my OSU basketball king Cade <3. & Lindy, easily my second favorite team.
Death, tariffs, and OKC flipping a switch to turn a 4 pt lead into a 20 pt lead in 6 mins
Yea. End of season so they are probably chilling a bit more 1st halves as 1st seed locked up basically then turn it up whenever to lock in the win. Def is one of the best reg seasons I have seen. Jokic is the best player but you gotta give it to sga and that isnt even a knock on jokic. This type of reg season domination is rare
Jokic and SGA are having 2 of the best regular seasons we’ve ever seen. Just sucks they’re doing it in the same year. Either would have been a near unanimous winner in the vast majority of years. I think either wins going all the way back to at least Curry in 2016. Good thing for Jokic is that he already has 3.
Idk, I feel like they usually flip the switch after 2.5. I have lost count of how many times I have seen them tied or leading by like 6 at half only to see the lead be like 20 to start the 4th.
They were up 4 points with 3:14 left on the clock and they won by like 17 points.
Ngl that gives me 2023 Nuggets vibes
Oh yeah. I haven’t watched a team like them in years. They win in a few minutes. This game is supposed to be a coin flip and they are covering the pointspread at a historic rate of something like 67%? Thunder have the best against-the-spread record since 1995.
The Warriors weren’t THAT long ago right?
That’s who this version of the Thunder remind me of, not necessarily in playstyle, just in how they are never out of range of blowing the other team out no matter the score. In that sometimes they play with their food, and squash it. They can be having a terrible offensive game and then out of nowhere comes a 40 point quarter.
Not to disrespect the 2023 Nuggets cause they were a great team and obviously won the title, but this team is something else man.
That team finished the regular season with +3.03 SRS, had a Net Rating of +3.4, and had a +3.3 Margin of Victory overall.
This Thunder team is at +13.36 SRS(all time record if they keep it up), Net Rating of +13.4(basically tied for the 95-96 Bulls for the first all time if they keep it up) and a +13.4 Margin of Victory overall.
They have to prove it in the playoffs obviously, but this league has rarely seen a regular season team like this in all of it’s history.
Anything short of a finals run would be a massive, massive failure looking at all the available metrics.
But that’s why we play the games and not stats. Any team in the play offs can make a run. Bad matchups, injuries, etc can occur. I’m just taking it one game at a time.
It’s kind of wild that we are in the final stretch of the season and the biggest ramifications for seeding isn’t for the play-offs. It’s for the lottery. The Sixers dropping out of the top 6 and giving their pick away to OKC among other picks coming down the pipeline could help establish OKC as a dynasty for the next decade if not more.
I’m hoping the Clippers lose the play in game and win the lottery . It would break the internet.
Cooper Flagg to the Thunder would create the most hated team outside its fan base in the history of sports. Deflated patriots, trash can astros, cowgirls, Texas steers, and more wouldn’t hold a candle to the vitriol that would come at the Thunder in this sub. We would be swimming in an ocean of tears. I’m holding out hope for it lol.
It’s not that, though. They go into 4th quarters up by 4-5 points. Give the opposing team hope. Then they just go absolutely nuclear for 2 minutes and suddenly are up by 15-20 points.
We also kinda do, then we fucking blow it up in the 2nd half and even lose on some.
Lol you know the saying nowadays that a 20 pt lead feels like 10? I literally think of lakers only whenever a commentary says that lol
Stats aren’t the end all be all, but their net rating is historically crazy good.
Nothing’s guaranteed until you “do the thing,” but the West is such a mess, they might be this season’s version of last year’s Celtics.
Yeah, the 2-7 West teams are super weird rn since most of them have stars or cores that you should be scared off in playoffs, but all of their rosters have fairly obvious holes in them.
Could easily see an outcome where OKC walks into the CF while whatever West team that meets them is super battered and banged up.
You know what team would have given OKC a run for its money? The Dallas Mavericks as constructed before the trade happened.
Man 😞 as a Thunder fan we were robbed of a fantastic rivalry
The mavs were robbed of a fantastic team
I guess okc doesn’t have it too bad in losing a potential rival
Unless that was 4D chess by Nico
As an NBA fan, the Dallas/Thunder was fantastic last year. It sucks losing as a Thunder fan. The Mavericks fans were screwed over and I think every arena but the Lakers should chant “fire Nico”..
Seriously. Could have been an all timer.
i know you smiling behind that
If he isn’t…I is.
Tuuuck Fexas
You’re allowed to say fuck on here
Have been worried about the Mavs all year then wake up and Luka is gone and my worries are gone with him. Like Christmas morning
I will never be able to comprehend that trade. NEVER.
Stupid GM trades player he doesn’t like personally for one he does.
It truly was a case in which if the Mavs would have just waited until the off season “that trade” would have made so much more sense. Mavs could have went “hey, we made this team to beat the Thunder and they lost to them….gotta blow it up”
OR the Mavs go back to the Finals which could have easily happened and Luka stays as you don’t trade a rising HOFer who went to back-to-back finals.
Damn, Mavs goofed so hard that it erased other teams goofs
The nuggets, lakers, and warriors are all way better than anything the east trotted out vs the Celtics last year
It also feels like people have managed to go too far in valuing “having done it before” in the current NBA where we have a lot more parity. Nobody has repeated since the KD Warriors, and if a team is pushing 70 wins and winning as dominantly as OKC has there’s nobody that should be favored above them
NBA fans lack imagination. The only things that can ever happen are things that have already happened before. Any take on a new star or team is dismissed until after it has been proven correct.
It’s the current fear of backing something and being wrong. It’s much easier to only be on the offensive by attacking other fans while giving them nothing to counter with, because you don’t actually support anything.
Yep. Just watch this year’s Rockets. If they managed to pass 1 or 2 rounds, they will be underrated threats. If they phased out in the first round, they suck without a true star
yup. in nba fandom you’re not allowed to have a forward looking opinion, everything has to be historic and results oriented. it’s pretty frustrating how much it stifles discussion. Like would Lebron be any worse if, say, Marreese Speights and Anderson Varejao both hit their buckets in the 2016 finals game 7 and the Warriors won by 1 giving him one less ring?
Obviously team results are part of the discussion, but they often get treated as the whole discussion.
No, but Steph would be better, somehow.
the “having done it before” argument isn’t about having a repeated champion it’s about need deep playoff experience to win a title. every one of the recent champions was either a team that had been to the conference finals or finals in the past few years or led by someone who had (‘20 Lakers). the 2015 Warriors are the only counterexample and they went on to be a dynasty, so if you don’t think OKC is in that category they are back to being an anomalous title team without previous deep playoff experience.
I think the “done it before” teams are more a product of getting to a championship quality team more slowly. Critiquing a team that went from under .500 to the 1 seed back to back years because they didn’t take the time to lose in the playoffs in-between is weird to me. The team is good now.
I put more stock in regular season net rating and wins than conference finals appearances in the previous X years. Half of the teams in the last four conference finals are nowhere close to title contenders.
you can absolutely view this OKC team this way and that is an extremely valid argument for why they are more like the 2015 warriors than the Gobert/Mitchell Jazz. the historic differential and win record combined with the picking up an MVP while fleecing the clippers and hitting on many serious draft picks are all reasons to think OKC isn’t analogous to those previous teams.
i am just pointing out that previous deep playoff success is also a good indicator of future deep playoff success and the other teams in contention have that while the Cavs and Thunder do not
That’s a very fair assessment.
I believe this okc team is a very, very good team, I also believe they would have a higher chance if they had lost the finals last year. Obviously, I don’t think they have zero chance to win because of that not happening, but I do think it would have helped.
There are plenty of Celtics fans, myself included, that believe strongly that losing the 2022 finals was a necessary step in winning the chip last year
I agree with you. It’s why we hate Pat Bev so much. Even after trading Harden right after losing the 2012 finals, the team came back better the next year and looked like it was their time. Then injury after injury derailed playoff runs. Fuck Patrick Beverly!
I’m gonna come off like a hater and will probably get a lot of downvote but… does any of this matter truly? Playoff basketball is completely different beast from regular season. This OKC team is freaky good, but I don’t think they’re 12-0 their way to the finals in this west. Shit they might end up playing GSW/Wolves/Clippers/Memphis in round one.
It matters a ton actually. 67% of nba champions have been one seeds and I think basically every team that is near okcs level of statistical dominance (of which there aren’t many) except for the 2016 Warriors has won the title.
The only other team in the top 10 of NET rating not to win a title was the 15-16 Spurs. That OKC team almost beat both. Lol.
Memphis in round one
yes please
NBA regular season history matters. And it matters both ways, finish out this season with a ring it’s one of the best seasons of all time. Don’t…
That’s kind of the gist of what I was getting at. Calling this “one of the greatest seasons in NBA history” will ring very hollow if they get bounced in round 2 (not saying I think that will happen).
I definitely think Celtics win regardless, but OKC actually has a pretty competitive conference to deal with. All of the Celtics potential comp was injured
I can’t wait to become a thunder fan at the end of the month
There’s a 30% tariff on bandwagon flairs
too soon
I heard 50%
You hold the cards and we didn’t say thank you. Fuck.
It’s inevitable
There are some comfy seats still available on the bandwagon. Come on!
At this point, I just hope that OKC can keep the Luka Lakers away from a ring. God I despise that team
Never
We’re still sorry 😞 Hope you get the expansion team and KD gets to finish where he started.
I also hope Seattle gets its team back, but friend you and I did not move the franchise and we have nothing to apologize for
We all supported a crooked deal because the ends justified the means. Otherwise, Oklahoma would never have had a team. IMO, you can be sorry for something without feeling personally responsible.
You’re sick man
SGA and Dort. It totally makes sense to cheer for OKC.
Join us, Canadian brother
❤️thanks for taking care of serge❤️
The true process complete. Sorry sixers
Hinkie died for this
I’ve always believed that Hinkie’s greatest sin was doing the process in a city NBA actually cared about, based on how no one ever talks about Presti’s selling and tanking and years of just accumulating draft picks. If Hinkie did the same thing in Orlando or Indiana, he’d at least be able to see his process finish and either be a hero or fired for the right reasons.
Thunder only truly tanked for 1.5 seasons, for what it’s worth
We were supposed to tank for fewer seasons too, but Simmons missed his whole rookie year and it took Embiid 2 and a half seasons to make his debut after his foot broke a 2nd time.
Yeah it doesn’t help that a good number of their high draft picks either didn’t work out or missed significant time.
Black eye of the league for a few minutes but teams like NYK and DET been ass for 15+ yrs. Just recently they have turned it around.
I still have a grudge against Termine for that comment, I can’t take anything else he says seriously
The Knicks and Pistons weren’t trying to be bad though. The 76ers were open and brazen about the tanking. They actively traded away good young players just to lose more games.
And we got a rejuvenated Al Horford back because of it so shoutout OKC
Presti’s House of Player Revival
reasonably priced at 1 first round pick
After losing 3 mvps
Perhaps it was also a mistake to give the whole thing a name and then publicize the idea of losing on purpose being a part of team culture
Hinkie didn’t do any of that. Our fans did
Mate, lets not put this down to tanking when they only tanked hard for ONE year. This is big brains that did this.
To be fair, they traded prime PG & Russ to jump start their rebuild, which gave them SGA, Jdub, JayWil, Cason Wallace ect.
Sixers had jrue holiday and a broken Andrew Bynum
To be fair to your fair, i don’t think anyone really knew SGA was going to become as good as he is, there’s also some luck in that trade that made it as lopsided as it became
Sam Presti probably has the idea that Shai is going to be a perennial all star caliber player. That dude knows how to scout for talent
You forgot Michael Carter-Williams
They were only bad for 2 seasons. Idk how they became known as a tanking team when they were just legitimately bad for a very short time.
We missed the playoffs 4 times since 2010.
And one of those was a play in loss.
People acting like we were perennially bad like Charlotte or Sacramento were wild.
Not until we get that ring. Jobs not done
I’m rooting for them to win 70 games
The fact that they are 29-1 against the eastern conference shows how dominant they truly are
They might or might not win the chip this year but they have been dominant. The frontcourt of Chet and IHart have been wrecking havoc
50 double digit wins is what blows my mind.
That we’ve lead by 15+ points for more minutes this season than we’ve been behind is a crazy stat too.
All I know is with all these stats we better win the whole damn thing or else
wreaking havoc
The best team during the season (on paper) all time for Thunder. Also the youngest team. This is like starting the main story after completing all the side quests and power ups. Playoff experience is all they need now.
They got that last year, losing to the Mavs in the 2nd round. You don’t need to necessarily lose at every playoff level to “build experience”.
Only thing going against them is if Shai wins MVP. Since the regular season MVP award’s inception, only 22.1% of regular season MVPs’ teams also went on to win the Finals. Not insurmountable odds, but still a historical hump.
“Get used to this. Now and into the future.”
Ok. I will.
stares with love at Sam Presti
Can’t you guys get a top 3 pick, too??
No but they could get 7 👀
Fears learning behind SGA….yes, yes please.
In theory, yes. The Thunder have a pick swap with the Clippers. There’s still a chance the Clippers are in the play-in and get knocked out, which would push them into the lottery. The pick swap has no protections. It’s extremely unlikely, but if the Clippers somehow manage to get a top 3 pick, that would indeed go to the Thunder.
I want to live in the world where OKC gets #1 and #7 after winning a championship.
It would honestly make me happy to see this, just to shove in the face of all the moronic gm’s and owners just how stupid they are
Greatest GM of all time if they win this year.
The fact that Stephen A. Smith is keen on blaming Presti for the failings of this team on the court is - quite possibly - the most asinine line of thought in the man’s career and that’s saying something.
Presti’s greatest failure is not having precognition that the league would increase the salary cap for a team so he could have kept Harden on the Thunder.
Presti is definitely one of the best GMs of all time. Still Jerry West probably still wins at the moment.
Yeah, it’s such a brain dead take. The GM’s job is to field a competitive roster, which Presti has done. The Thunder are the best team in the NBA right now, while also being set for the future as well as any team with all their young players and draft picks. Also, you factor in that the Thunder have to build their team through trades and the draft. They’re not like the Lakers were all-timers go there in free agency.
Sam Presti is such a fucking good GM. Also, the Thunder had the privilege of SGA not being like fucking good at the start of his career. It allowed the Thunder to rebuild through good drafting. Now that he has blossomed, with all their drafted pieces together, Presti has remade his old KD Thunder.
SGA was really good at the start of his career. Obviously not this good, but they shut him down both years we were tanking because he kept winning games with Dort and a bunch of G Leaguers.
All right, I’m gonna need people to stop talking like this
Yeah. It feels too eerie. Let it happen.
Especially with all of our minor injury scares lately. I’m like petrified Something is going to derail the whole thing. Or we could just lose. No one knows.
“Building them up just to find a way to tear them down later” type shit
FR you know they have the “choke artist” and “Regular season merchants” takes loaded up and ready to go if OKC gets eliminated.
And it’ll be completely fair, but thankfully this same core will be back on the floor next year one year older and better
I mean is it not valid lmao. OKC got the pass last year since they were a young inexperienced team. They are kind of dominating now and should be in the finals atleast.
How many picks do you guys have over the next 5 years? I feel like even if you fail in the playoffs that’s an important lesson and your team will be better off for it. Just enjoy the ride.
It’s true, but because Greenberg said it, I’m inclined to disagree.
How can you disagree with him? He makes the safest takes in sports talking-headdom.
the biggest war in the sub is Vs. rationality.
I mean I find it refreshing in the face of hot takes for clicks. And he doesn’t yell at me.
He tried to argue last year that UConn would make the NBA playoffs. He’s got some horrid takes.
I was gonna say, he’s right, but not because he has any idea what he’s talking about
Look means nothing until they prove it in the playoffs. We know they are an elite regular season team
The only time anybody brings up the 2001 Seattle Mariners is to make fun of them, you can literally have the best regular season of all time and nobody will care if you don’t win the championship
That’s probably a bit dumb but it’s also reality
“73-9 don’t mean a thing without a ring.”
Same with the Boston Bruins a couple years back setting the regualar season standing record then bombing out in the playoffs.
As someone who definitely sang this song about GSW, and someone who wants OKC to be successful:
This has always been fair. It’s the same standard for everyone. 30 fanbases want championships and hopefully they can keep it going
Fun fact. Every “best regular season of all time” team in the 4 major sports didn’t win a title.
Just to pile on add the 2021 New England Revolution who had the best MLS season of all time and lost in the first round lol
I’ll just say that basketball is the best sport for crowning the best team the champions. Baseball and hockey require a lot of luck, even in a 7-game series. Football is a 1-and-done and anything can happen in one game.
7 of the 9 teams with the best records ever in the regular season won a championship that year, and the other two won in surrounding years. OKC’s going to find themselves in the same company. We already know they’re as good as anyone
All those stats absolutely mean something although it doesn’t guarantee a ring its significant historical markers of similarly dominant regular season teams that have gone on to win the ring. You cant just hand wave this season they are having.
People forget that the Spurs won 67 games in 2016.
Not even 24 hours since Zach Lowe called out the media for not talking about them
This is what is so annoying about NBA discourse. Basically a merry go round of the usual until they are essebtially forced to talk about a certain team or player. This season has been such an awesome year in totality competition wise.
Like it’s ridiculous Draymond Green self campaigned for a DPOY and he shifted to favorite on the odds. Did the first half of the season just simply not exist? That encapsulates everything that is wrong with the media, the awards process and how actual basketball is hardly ever discussed.
Playoffs got me nervous
Who cares about ring culture? It’s all about the regular season. Everyone knows our 73 wins matters more than those 4 rings. SMH
Kinda insane. As someone old enough to have seen those royal teams mentioned… it’s wild how little people are talking about the Thunder. When those teams were rocking, especially the Bulls in 95, they were like rockstars. There was Beatles level Bulls-mania. I don’t even think most non NBA fans know Oklahoma has a basketball team outside of Norman.
The Bulls already won championships at that point. Why are people missing that massive fact? OKC hasn’t proven anything yet. If they win this year and have an amazing season again next year, you will see way more coverage and “mania”. Warriors didn’t get that until they won their first championship of the recent dynasty as well.
The bulls also had Michael Jordan. SGA may be having a great season (and a few more prior to this one) but he doesn’t hold a candle to the celebrity that was Michael Jordan. Let’s be real here.
This is the kind of NBA coverage we need more of. Good on Greeny.
It really is kind of crazy to think anyone can beat them lol. It’s going to be funny seeing them win or lose. If they win it’s going to be hilarious that some of us thought they could lose, but if they lose it’s going to be funny since they should’ve won lmao.
mark daigneault doesn’t get enough credit.
Makes me sad that the cavs only have 3 less wins, and are 1-1 vs the thunder and everyone is just penciling in Boston vs OKC.
I hear you, but I wouldn’t say everyone is penciling in OKC. The Thunder are in a pretty similar situation to the Cavs in terms of both teams being elite in the regular season and a lot of people saying, “We have to see it in the playoffs.” On First Take this morning, Marcus Morris said OKC isn’t even a contender and picked the Clippers over them to make the Finals lol. Cavs and Thunder are going to have to take their respect in the postseason.
The one thing the cavs have as an advantage vs OKC is our starting 5 all has pretty solid postseason experience at this point and our best player has been a really good postseason performer for most of his career
OKC is awesome but they’re definitely green
Considering that they had a season like this without chet for 2/3rds of the year makes it even more impressive.
I haven’t checked but I think they’ve had a fully healthy line up for only 12-15 games.
Yet the media still acts like there’s only five teams in the league… the Thunder not one of them.
This comment is exactly why the media talks about them all the time. Even in this thread that has nothing to do with those other teams, you still bring them because both love/hate brings views for the media. Let’s just celebrate the thunder here.
ESPN is literally having a segment about them right here as the sole focus and was shared here lol
Every single ad I see has SGA. They will have 3 MVPs in the last 11 years despite not even making the finals in that time. They’re not a ‘big market’ but they are 100% being pushed.
Do they? All I hear about is the Thunder, Cavs, Lakers, Celtics, and Nuggets.
why does that look like Max Kellerman from the future
Welp, I just had an old man moment. Didn’t you watch Mike and Mike?
I honestly see them winning it all this year. They’re truly a beautiful team to watch
The fact that they did this with Holmgren out for most of the season is scary
These are the type of stories NBA analysts should be telling. Even as a Cavs fan, what OKC is doing is incredible. And numbers back it up
Damn, who knew I was watching history being made this season so far
But has he considered that they aren’t the Lakers?
I got clowned on for saying that this is the most dominant team I’ve seen since the 73-9 warriors. It feels like every time I watch them they can just automatically turn a close game into a blowout
Wow I wish this guy new someone at ESPN so he could convince them to cover them
I understand how people can think Jokic is the MVP. I cannot understand how people think it would be highway robbery if SGA won the MVP over him. It’s just utterly ridiculous and tells me that person has absolutely no idea what the MVP award stands for. But that wouldn’t be a first here…or second…or third…
I won’t be shocked if the Finals are the Thunder vs Cavs
People over think things and fall back to what they know - which is why so many assume it’ll be the Lakers and Celtics
But the Lakers and Celtics have their flaws too
For the Lakers - LBJ is the GOAT but he is old and has not been playing great since coming back from injury. Outside of LBJ and Luka, the roster isn’t great. Lakers fans love to crow when their team wins, but quick dismiss losses as “nothing to see here!” . I’ll take any of the younger , deeper, athletic teams in the west over a playoff series over the Lakers.
For the Celtics - if they hit their 3s, good, if not, they’re in big trouble. KP is fragile, if he goes down, so will they.
The Thunder and Cavs have their flaws as well, but they’ve both been consistently good all season long yet people keep coming up with BS reasons why that doesn’t matter.
Don’t care about anything they do in the regular season. Show me something in the playoffs.
That’s how everyone feels about the Rockets
lol it’s definitely how I feel about the Rockets. I’m very consistent.
The NBA is more talented than it’s ever been. It’s also actually more competitive.
The amazing net ratings of the last few years shows that these are among the most competitively dominant teams of all time.
Like the 1996 Bulls had a 13.4 NET rating 115.2 to 101.8.
The OKC Thunder have a 13.4 NET rating 120.3 to 106.9
Looking at NET Rating % though still shows an advantage to the Bulls because they scored 11.7% more points per 100 than their opponents and OKC scored 11.1% more.
That’s a 5% difference.
However.
In 1996 the average team scored 99.5 points a game with 17.7 coming off three pointers. 17.8% of all points coming from 3.
In 2025 the average team scored 113.8 points a game with 40.5 points per game coming from 3. 36% of points coming from 3.
So to come back from a 13.4 per 100 possession advantage in 1996 the average team would get .81 3 point possessions (2.38pts) plus 5.5 2 point possessions for the other 11.2 points to tie the game.
6.31 league average successful scoring possessions total to come back.
In 2025 the average team down 13.4 would have to get 1.81 3 point scoring possessions for 5.43 points and 3.99 2 point scoring possessions for the other 8 points to even it up.
5.80 league average successful scoring possessions to come back.
So it would be about 8% easier, given the scoring distribution of each season, for the average NBA team to come back from 13.4 points down in a 100 possession game in 2025 than it was in 1996.
This still puts those Bulls ahead in NET rating dominance. And that’s only worth what it’s worth btw.
As a Nuggets fan, this team does not get enough respect. I anticipate they could moonwalk to the title. Nuggets got no respect in 2023. Thunder also being disrespected. Eerily similar.
This is what a tank build looks like when Adam Silver doesn’t meddle in your front office.
I think they’ll domimate the west and they’d beat the Cavs in the finals, but I’m uncertain about Boston.
A locked in Boston for the playoffs is elite as we saw last year and even though OKC beat them in Boston fairly recently, regular season games don’t mean too much for these potential playoff matchups.
They would both match each other well as they both have elite defensive players, great wings, awesome C’s and incredible spacing and overall lineup versatility.
Even though Boston’s on the road, I think they’d win in 6.
If OKC avoid Boston, then I think they will win the chip this season barring injuries.
The Cavs are too unproven with their core and I think OKC’s overall defense is better and their spacing is greater.
A Mobley and Allen front court pairing could also be exploited as Allen may get abused due to his lack of spacing, and he could struggle if OKC go small and draw him out to the perimeter.
Mobley would be the key in this series and him hitting his 3’s would be essential to the Cavs potentially winning.
I really hope they go all the way this season, stars are aligned. If they fall short it would be really, really unfortunate
I mean me too, thanks
The Thunder under Presti make the small market excuse look so bad.
This is nuts. They still have the youngest team in the league with the most amount of picks.
My brain can’t comprehend how far ahead the Thunder are organizationally compared to everyone else.