[Highlight] Isaiah Joe with a perfect defensive possession against the Phoenix Suns last night, in Game 1.
Going through all the screens, doesn’t let anyone get by him, and forces a bad shot on Dillon Brooks at the end.
The fact that he was unplayable in parts of last year playoff shows the steps he have taken, specially on the defensive side.
And it is him, J-Will and Ajay along with Chet that are leaps and bounds better this playoff than last that makes all those, “well Pacers took them to seven, Nuggets took them to seven” arguments only half truths. It is just not the same team
I watched at least 60% of both Isiah’s and J Will’s college games and Ngl I’m shocked at his evolution. You could definitely see this with J Will once he got stronger because he’s always been above average skilled and athletic but Joe was a spot shooter that evolved into a complete player that just might dunk on your entire squad. Crazy player development they got in OKC
yeah there’s been a decent amount of heartache in OKC circles that Wiggs has pretty much fallen out of the rotation after being a key piece last year. and some of that is on him simply struggling to hit shots, but a huge amount has been on Joe (who has always been a regular season +/- demon off the bench) elevating his defense.
he’s still physically pretty small so if he gets a big who can exploit that on him he’s pretty much cooked but he dies on screens less, moves his feet better, and has just overall brought a higher level of competitive effort on the defensive end.
a huge part of the offense drying up in the playoffs for long stretches last year came down to Joe being their only reliable movement shooter but getting absolutely abused defensively to the point where they had to cut his minutes to the point where he was getting DNP-CDs in the Finals. Him keeping this level of intensity up unlocks a ton of lineups.
I mean they literally are full truths
He means that people use last years playoffs as an argument to justify saying that theyre weaker than expected this year. Only time will tell, but if their All-NBA player is healthy and their shooters make even league average % of their 3p shots the Thunder are going to be a maaaaaasssive problem. Theyre deeper than last year
just taking Joe as an example - a much improved defensive player who was catching DNPs in the Finals and should be able to stay on the court now against the high level teams (fingers crossed). that alone adds in a 42% three point deadeye to the rotation.
It is the exact same team, but Chet, IJoe, SGA, Ajay Mitchell, JWill, all significantly leveled up, and we got another shooter. You can try and make the argument that Dort and Caso are in a slump, but idk how in good faith you could think that they are not clearly better than they were last year.
There are two ways of looking at this, but Wiggins was a key contributor last year and he’s not in the rotation. That could be fall of of him or others getting better. I think it’s both, but I find it hard to imagine he wouldn’t be in the rotation if he didn’t fall off some. I would also say that the shooting fall off of Caruso is meaningful where the two you mentioned, Cason and Dort didn’t even shoot particularly great in the playoffs. Dort did hit them when it mattered.
Caruso contributing 25 mpg of his defense while shooting 41 percent from 3 and excelling in distributing when kicked to off of doubles was so important last year. If he gets left open and keeps missing his 3s, that’s a problem. The team has done well with him on the court despite his poor shooting, but that’s easier to hide in the regular season.
I think the thunder are in a better position given all of the player improvements, and also having been there before, but I don’t think it’s an open and shut case.
Pretty clear foul on O’Neal though
He means in the sense that last years OKC team is the worst iteration of this current team there will ever be until contracts run out.
Really?? Likely that last years team is best iteration, Williams, Caruso and Dort have all regressed (injury related) and next year they lose 2 of Ihart/Dort/Wallace maybe all 3
It hasn’t really been reported except by local guy Andrew Schlecht, but Joe was dealing with some pain last year that he played through. It was affecting his shot and who knows what else. With full health this year, he’s a different player. (We can only hope that something similar is going on with Wiggins this year after he was excellent last year.)
The fact that none of the commentators even caught this.
If he drained that 3 you could literally put this on his career highlight tape.
You expect Doris to have caught this while going through her ramblings? Lol
That switch… sexy.
a coach’s wet dream
That recovery on Goodwin is also hot af
This is suffocating man
This is why nephews hate OKC.
This is why people praise OKC. You know why they get the hate… your leader is an actor. Despite being great he’s a salesman. Nobody likes that shit except the fans of the team he plays for.
People find any reason to hate OKC.
One minute it’s Shai gets the craziest whistle. Then it’s “not how many he gets but how he gets them”, then it’s “it’s not Shai it’s what Caruso and Dort are allowed to get away with”
With how these goalposts always shift, the one constant is OKC being good and beating people’s favorite teams.
Those might just be different people
and this is like their worst or second worst defender in their playoff rotation
The difference in his defense from last year is crazy though. He couldn’t stay in front of anybody, and if he did keep his body between the ball and the basket, half the time he’d just get knocked back 10 ft by that shoulder. Now he’s keeping his body between the ball and basket on basically every possession, and he apparently put on enough beef to be able to absorb that shoulder a little better.
can’t wait for mccain to magically become a league average defender in a few years. Maybe we’ll have another guard we can trade to y’all after we completely misuse their potential then too and keep the cycle going
Yeap hugely improved in terms.of positioning, process and physicality.
He may very well be able to actually stay on the floor in the later rounds now and especially important as Wiggins does not seem rotation worthy for the Playoffs now.
I expect he is going to swing a critical Playoffs game for us.
Man I love coach mark because he instilled this into every player or you don’t play come playoffs, even JMac who isn’t the best defender came in and forced a turnover right away
His 3 point shot is important but our coach benches guys if they don’t give effort on defense. He did it to McCain until he got the message and Joe obviously has learned from it.
OKC defense is so fucking good man. They force you to speed up your own offense.
CLAMPS
Arkansas legend Isaiah Joe
wow thought he is a cone in that end
He’s improved a ton. He’s become much better at defense and expanded his offensive games with counters built off his 3 point ability. He’s got so much better that he’s been a crucial role player this year while Aaron Wiggins has fallen out of the rotation almost completely - which is a dramatic change from last year where they were neck and neck
I think we asked Wiggs to try to move into this kind of shooter role this season and it just didn’t happen. He’s a driving guard, and we’ve just got a couple of guys who are bigger and better at it now. I think he might need to move to a team that needs a 6th man to lead a bench unit.
Yeah Ajay being healthy has eaten most of the Wiggins minutes. I think Wiggs has been dealing with some kind of injury too, but idk
Wiggs won us game 4 in Denver last year. He will forever be a GOAT.
Oh I love me some Aaron Wiggins, but I think it’s apparent that Ajay has taken over a large amount of his mins
There was this video, can’t remember if it was like the nba doc that JDub narrated, where Daigneault was talking about the players work in the offseason. He said that they were all hyper aware of their shortcomings due to the championship run and essentially all went out and just worked as hard as they could all summer. No one wanted to be the guy who let the others down trying to run it back.
It’s crazy how clear that became as the season went on especially with the guys who didn’t get a ton of minutes last season like Joe and JWill.
Not anymore, he has upped his defense same as JWil this year (bro had 4 steals in 10 minutes 🤯)
He was last year. Apparently decided he wants to play now.
He is a fine defender. He was fine last year too, he just injured his knee heading into playoffs and wasn’t 100% so Mark put him on the back burner
Relative to the team, he was. Arguably the worst defender in the rotation last season and why he barely played last playoffs. He made significant strides overall this season while remaining one of the best shooters in the league. He is still not great at all, but he can handle himself better on the court
This is the defence version of that curry pov meme
Daryl chose Dwayne Dedmon over him btw
He was bad at the time. So was Dedmon, but dedmon had literally zero upside left at that point.
A sniper from 3 who’s decent on defence is something we could use off the bench (let’s be real he’d start with us)
We just can’t develop players for shit
That as well. It’s a organisational thing.
Absolutely gorgeous team defense
Most Improved Thunder player in the 2025-2026 regular season. If this holds up throughout the playoffs, it would be pretty huge.
Honestly you got too many players that could go for that title lol. Ajay came out of nowhere and is an amazing defender. Jwill who people thought got an expensive vibes based extension and to be an extra body vs Jokic is now playing great and looks like great value. Nuts.
Ajay is #1. JWill and Joe share #2
Isaiah Joe being even a passable defender is huge.
I also think this is a prime example of why coaching and culture matters. You can’t tell me that Joe develops like this on every team in the league. That’s insane development by Mark and Co.
People will consider this team stacked (which it is) but honestly I feel like most of the credit goes to their player development. Joe was not a good defender in his career and was mainly benched last year in the playoffs due to it. Now he’s able to do this. Ajay Mitchell and Jaylin Williams are also both second round picks and very important to the thunder defensively as well. Jared McCain also has been getting better overtime and he just joined the team at the trade deadline. It’s impressive how they get the best out of all their players
I feel like Joe has been playing great especially since the McCain trade, like maybe he felt he had to turn it up to keep his minutes or something. His defense has been sooo much better
This defense is amazing… wonder if they could’ve taken prime Steph down
Great defense. SGA could have drawn like 3 separate flop ish fouls on that 1 sequence if they were on separate teams. snaps head back as soon Joe touches him 😂
You’re pathologically obsessed with Shai, it’s good we can’t access your comment history because we would definitely call the police on you
For watching sports? Those are the only subs i even visit nowadays. Occasional programs I watch on Netflix/prime too I guess. You a goofy just dying to shit on ppl for any hobbies they got. SYBAU
It’s okay having hobbies, it isn’t okay commenting on every OKC post to shit on Shai, even when the post isn’t about Shai at all
From my experience, ppl only check post history to shit on ppls hobbies. I had a dude shit on me, just because I used to post on a nerdy video game sub I played a few years ago cuz he creeped on my post history (not a gooner type game lol). Why? because I don’t like his playstyle and talk a lil trash? I don’t have a problem with Shai as a person, seems like a good guy. I just wish he wasn’t James Harden in 2018 like. Cuz he’s super talented.
I think it’s completely OK to comment on every single OKC post if I want. I’m not on the Thunder sub! I’m not going on your guys’ turf to antagonize. This ain’t your turf, it’s everybodies turf.
That was great defense though. Only ones I don’t like are Dort and SGA, rest of the team is fine enough for me.
Fair enough, thanks for taking the time to respond. My point was that by shitting on Shai on non related posts you shift the focus of good bball and productive discussion. Here we have great defense from a guy who wasn’t playable in the playoffs because of that last year. You have the right to comment on every OKC PGT, stats or Shai posts about him, but mentioning him on other posts seems obsessive behavior
Last sentence is fair enough, don’t quite agree but I see why you would opine that. You’re not wrong to feel that way. But in my defense, there has been quite a few OKC posts the past 15 hrs(for obvious reasons), and the other threads aren’t quite as fun to clown on/chime-in. Though I did comment on a few Orlando/Detroit threads seeing as the other games today not quite as shocking or compelling?
I apologize for getting overly defensive last sentence of my first reply.
Hey your reaction was warranted. My first reply on you was vile and an attack on your person, I’m sorry about that. Thanks for the apology and have a great day!
I saw a clear foul by Joe on O Neal before the good contest on Brooks, this uncalled foul is the type of foul SGA gets consistently so it is fair to discuss here
Ehh I think this is a weak play to complain about the whistle on, since there are somehow 4 different offensive push offs in the clip, at least two of which had enough extension that they should have been easy foul calls
And he wouldn’t have got a call because Joe was playing proper defense. Watch Joe move his feet, use his chest to stop the dribbler after beating him to the spot, and most importantly he didn’t use his hands to slow down a drive. OKC’s coaches and players understand the rules around defense and what sort of physicality is allowed and what isn’t. Had Joe been beat off the dribble and in an attempt to slow down the driver Joe used his hands and put them in the drivers chest then I would agree with you that SGA would’ve use that to draw a foul, but this is textbook modern defense.
Can’t tell if this is sarcasm?? Joe WAS beat off the dribble and he DID use his hands to slow the defender, very clear blocking foul
I have no disrespect to give towards that defensive sequence. Draymond on Kawhi like legit grit.
Haha they hate you for being right. Is this was swapped, Suns would’ve been called on that first body bump. It is outstanding defense too but apparently other teams aren’t allowed to do that to OKC
🤷🏽♂️ idc about downvotes. Sometimes I get plus 200 uovate, sometimes minus 70 downvote. ppl will downvote simply just because they don’t like what you said, even if it’s true. I say let the downvotes keep coming. I prefer them if anything 😂😂😂
Haha I respect this so much, I’m downvoting as a showing of appreciation. Keep fighting the good fight you brave soul