I hope OKC fans value this squad they have

I have quite literally waited my entire adult life to watch one of my teams win a championship. The amount of pride and enjoyment I get out of this team can not be overstated enough.

The statue should just be of him fucking Lawrence Frank doggy style

Thank you, I sure do. I’m glad others outside the team can also see and appreciate what a special team and organization this is and not just buy into the “unwatchable” narrative.

I dreamed of times like this. I was all in when Presti gave the speech. I spent the 2010s in pain of what ifs and failed potential. I proudly boasted how the PG-WB-CA thunder were gonna win 60 games and the chip. I had to eat shit and watch a bottom of the barrel team rebuild. I still paid for league pass since it was the only way to watch. I still listened to the podcast. I still watched them win only 22 games lol I could name you 90% of the nobody players who came and went in that time. I knew Presti wasnt gonna let us down so i rocked my gear while being the black eye and stain of the league. Now we have a decent chance at b2b championships.

I dont take it for granted in the slightest.

Definitely a drop off from Shai to McCain but your point is understood

We can’t stand it. Haven’t you heard it’s unethical and bad for the game

I fucking love this team

I understand I will probably never see a team (much less my favorite team) as good as this again. I’m enjoying the moment while it lasts.

Oh hail cba save us

Lobs to Jaxson Hayes used to be automatic, but y’all got centers that will contest it everytime. Sam Presti is the best man, I get jealous watching so many of your 2nd rounders ball out

Crazy enough, last year OKC was a team that would play a team close, then have a massive 3rd quarter, and cruise it’s way to a win in the 4th. We called them “Thunderstorms” because it would go from a close game to a 20 point lead in just a few minutes. Just turnovers into made buckets in transition over and over.

This year I feel like we’re really starting to see the effects of playing effiencient teamwide basketball. If you make your goals to be:

• Shoot more shots than the other team

• Shoot more quality shots than the other team (buckets off turnovers, getting to your spots, getting to the FT line, etc. )

• Have less turnovers than the other team

Suddenly all these things added up turn into a win. Not always one particular player or small series of plays. It’s been a joy to watch.

Yeah because when other teams squeeze back it’s a foul

And OKC has now two of those with Caruso and McCain.

McCain isn’t a championship level starter. He’s a good bench piece, but there’s a reason he only cost a late first and a couple 2nds. If another team had offered more, Philly would have taken it.

That said, Cason Wallace and Ajay Mitchell (when Dub is healthy) are both championship-level starters. Joe, McCain, and JWill are all guys that would be okay starters or great 6th or 7th guys, but instead are 9th, 10th, and 11th off the bench. Aaron Wiggins was the 8th man in our playoff run last year and is pretty definitively in the 12th or 13th spot with Kenrich now.

But yeah, having Caruso, Cason, and Ajay as bench guys is a massive advantage.

Caruso is no longer a true starter(just because of age/prior injury) but he is a massive spark plug off the bench. He goes max effort whenever you throw him in there.

Meh not last night, we didn’t score off of turnovers and gave away a ton of turnovers. We did not fight for boards hard enough either.

Easy to say when the team with depth is run by a (likely) 2x MVP

They have 3 stars, what are you saying? Their salary sheet reflects that. They’ve built a team with both the stars and the depth, which is just very, very, very tough to do. Presti is straight up a wizard

OKC has SGA and two other star players.

Unfortunately, this type of teams can’t be kept together for too long because everyone eventually wants their payday. OKC has maybe nailed the most perfect iteration of it and they’re set to lose a lot of talent very soon; likely before even attempting a 3peat. If you had prime LeBron/Curry and another star that fits, much easier to keep chugging along without worrying too much about losing rotation guys to free agency.

They haven’t had to make a choice (yet). Because their 3 best players combined cost about the same as 1 Jimmy Butler, they have both stars and depth.

I think OKC giving up “open” looks is a bit misleading. They’re “open” according to the NBA because there’s no one within a couple feet, but shooters almost always have a good defender closing out hard on them. There’s a reason we’ve spent 2 years giving up a ton of “open” looks but opponent 3pt% hasn’t been anything special.

13 is a bad deficit but you can come back from that, but then all of a sudden bang bang it’s 19 in like 12 seconds it’s so demoralizing.

Its refreshing to see someone say that because Shai Mark and Dort ARE the culture. They were here instilling that mindset since day 1 and guys came and went but those who bought in THRIVED because of it. 8 guys who played last night were 2nd rd or un drafted players.

It starts with the head of the snake.

They literally have the MVP and a 2nd overall pick on the team. Where did this narrative of 15 scrappy role players come from? 

EWA = Estimated Wins Added.

Simple version: every possession changes a team’s chance to win. EWA looks at those win-probability swings and credits/debits the players on the floor, while adjusting for lineup context so it’s not just raw plus-minus.

So if a lineup keeps winning important possessions, the model tries to sort out which players are consistently driving that.

Inputs are mostly play-by-play stuff: score, clock, period, possession, lineups, home/away, pregame strength/spread.

What it does not include: tracking data like defender distance, matchup assignment, shot quality, etc. I don’t license Second Spectrum/SportVU data, so defensive attribution is more indirect than it would be with tracking.

How does it relate to winning? Team-level WPA is literally tied to win probability, so the team side maps to game outcome by construction. The hard/interesting part is player attribution: who gets credit inside the team result.

Full methodology is here:

https://alleygorithm.com/methodology

Man what great analysis! I’m sure those 12 free throws gave them a huge advantage over the Lakers, who only had 13 free throws.

They’re not gonna sweep the entire playoffs even the warriors lost 1 game

Lol

lots of “bite me in the ass” potential here

You’ve seen it against “real teams” the last few full seasons my guy.

What all teams have they not played the last 2 seasons? Are there some secret teams i don’t know about?

Was the 1st seed in the west the last 3 seasons but sure we’ll wait for a real team to finally show up - whenever that is.

spurs fans really haven’t been paying attention

Get some fresh air buddy, it might be good for you

And also, phantom fouls. lmao

Do you need us to call your mother to come pick you up?