Pick protections are broken in 2k

the Thunder always ends up with Peterson or Dybantsa because of the Jazz pick in my franchise runs lol

I saw a comment a month ago somewhere where a dude said Adam Silver should have to step in because it’s so “unfair” that they are so good and have so many picks. Also said that they should be required to forfeit their picks lol. That’s just wild that people think this way.

Sixers is also top 4 protected i think (maybe top 6)

Thanks, you’re right. I brain farted and got some inverted. Let me fix that.

I know it wasn’t that bad at the time, but in hindsight might be the worst trade all time.

What parity existed before that? 5 straight years of Warriors in the nba finals, and 4 straight of Cavs (8 straight of LeBron) in the East?

Are people this young (or dumb) to not remember the NBA from 2011 to 2019? (Not to mention LeBron winning again in 2020 and Warriors again in 2022)

Continue to pray towards Harden. Focus on the 3 point foul merchanting and Prime James Harden activation. Send the Clippers to the playoffs and we can end this OKC reign of terror

Yep, there is no way that the Jazz let that happen.

It probably won’t, but the tankathon is quite ‘competitive’ this year with the wizards possibly a WOAT contender…

A lottery can say otherwise…

I mean let’s be honest the thunder have too many assets to actually roster so game theory says no one wants to give them fair deals given their situation so they may have to take crappy ones to move out of this years draft or give up great players on their bench for Pennies

the other 29 teams

So the Thunder should start dropping games to the Clippers, and refuse to trade with themselves?

For real, when you got all the best players and all elite draft capital. Hopefully he starts doing like me and it gets too uncompetitive and I start dumping good players so it doesn’t get too ridiculous.

Its over if he starts trade findering 14th/15th men and mid round picks for ¹⁄₂ future unprotecteds. Next thing we’ll know 5 years down the road the thunder will have had a couple more top 5 picks and still somehow 15 first round picks in one draft. Keep the pelicans FO away from him!

Well current apron rules in theory should not allow the Thunder to keep this roster forever.

Linebacker Dort will want more money, Jalen contract kicks in, Shai’s contract will ramp up next year onwards etc etc, as currently projected they are well over 2nd apron next year I think.

Let’s not do this again. After Denver and Boston won, fans were complaining about how they would dominate for years to come. OKC is on another level but a single injury, an uncountered scheme or a cold/hot streak can all lead to a different champion being crowned.

We went to play Toronto and, you know, just left everyone there. We can pick them up next year, call up the G leaguers. 

Yeah. OKC did everything well, as simple as that. Now they get to reap the rewards, like the GSW in 2015+

Something something second apron, there’s no way they keep all these players. Catch 22 of drafting well sadly.

They can do a few options.

Trade those picks for a star, or trade those picks for a later year. Like 2030

Every year there is this roster crunch discussion w okc, and every year it’s not a problem.

Easy moves to cut are Dieng and Kenrich ( :( )

And now w the emergence of Ajay, Topic may be on the outs and may be better off developing on another team.

And we will have to see what the plan is with Hartenstein, but I imagine only one of he and Sorber will be around in 1 or 2 years.

So we can pretty easily free up 2 spots and get as many as 4 depending on how Presti wants to handle the next few years

They will trade (most of) them for future assets even further down the line

I think what they will do is keep the best pick and package the other picks for future picks

If they don’t have roster space and don’t want to upset the amazing chemistry of the current roster, I could see Presti trading one of the lottery picks for a future first round pick and two second round picks, that kind of thing. Keep building assets so you have flexibility when you actually need it

Presti and the Thunder scouts are so good at drafting second rounders (e.g. Aaron Wiggins, Ajay Mitchell, Jaylin Williams, etc) that second round picks are a really nice asset to have, and the second round guys can be signed to a two way deal and developed until they’re ready (e.g. Ajay Mitchell)

They would probably trade away a couple of those picks for something a few years down.

They’ll probably just trade players instead. They need to keep the rookie contracts going to sustain this. Finding rookies who can be 3nD to replace Dort and Caruso is going to be the move especially since iHart is getting paid a lot and is a big cog in their offense and he’s getting paid a ton.

Exactly. If they play it correctly they could do some trading and spread it out perfectly to where they could actually draft and keep a bunch of high draft picks.

Trade end of bench guys for picks who are actually pretty decent. Fill in guys who develop

They’re as well equipped to 3 peat as anyone in recent years, but 3 peats take to much luck for anyone to probably 3 peat 20 games into their first title defense. People were saying the same thing when the 2016 Warriors and look what happened.

Not 1, not 2, not 3

the 3peat is very tough. They also will need to make some financial decision next summer: I don’t think they can keep everybody, although if one of Dort and IHart has to go, their younger players are well positioned to make up for it.

They needed a phantom call in game 4 to not go down 3-1 to Indiana. Plus Haliburton goes down in game 7. I’d pump the breaks a bit. Shit gets weird in the playoffs. If the league wants parity, they can stop rewarding SGA’s bull shit and call the Thunder’s defense the way they call everyone else.

Their championship run wasn’t 3peat indicative tbh. I’m not hating, I’m just saying that a couple of things going slightly different and they’d lose. Some of their series were very close. They do look even better this year though.

And Mavs after that

All it’ll take is a SGA injury and they might lose two games ROS.

the salary there is going to be more than the GDP of oklahoma.

i mean it definitely matters because the excess picks mean they have the most flexibility of any team lol. they’re set for the next decade

“It doesn’t matter that they have the best roster and best draft capital in the league.”

“It doesn’t really matter. ”

It does matter because that is how they and expensive teams can restock their roster with low salary players.

And having many bites at the apple helps their hit rate go up. Not all who are drafted out well of course but they will get many bites and keep those who can play at the rookie pay scale to help keep the team doing well with their 3 star players on max deals.

Many teams spend all their draft picks acquiring stars and then they have little to no picks while have little to no salary cap room either.

The Thunder have both 3 high paid stars and lots or runaway to draft low cost players and with having so many picks, only a few need to hit to prolong their run even longer than it otherwise would have lasted.

And yes, they will trade some of those picks and guys as needed as a way to reinforce the needs on their team.

Picks are currency, they are capital and having many picks and young stars at the same time is golden.

It gives OKC many more options going forward to strengthen their team, to trade for other players etc.

Having options is good, it matters.

Some guys will become too expensive for them soon enough as they already have 3 guys basically at max deals so when some of the others become too expensive in a few more years, they will have options to replace those players with more low cost players.

OKC has a LOT of depth and not all that depth is highly paid of course but some of those dudes will become expensive soon enough and they will move on and OKC has a path to replace them with all their picks to get more low cost dudes to surround their Big 3.

Yep, sucks to be them.