Thunder have lost two in a row for more than 20 PTS for the first time since March 9, 2022
March 8, 2022: vs. Bucks 115-142
March 9, 2022: @ Timberwolves 102-132
October 28, 2026: @ Mavs 96-120
October 31, 2026: @ Rockets 98-119
Insane avalanche of injuries paired with the off-season where they had to let a lot of depth pieces go is gonna make this probably the biggest rough patch of SGA’s career. He’s still putting up numbers but you can see the defensive production from the rest of the team is completely under water now. Idk if they can keep the ship steady to stay in the playoff race with all these Western teams coming out strong
Probably will be short lived, as they still have clippers pick next year
Clippers might end up in the bottom 3 and end up with just 2 balls in the lottery. It’s kind of unfortunate for OKC that the new draft lottery rules took affect so quick.
Hate this part of the change so much. Not all bottom 3 teams are tanking, most are just bad. Also since they smoothed out the next 10 or whatever picks they already killed tanking incentive so why not just let the bottom 3 be in the pack with the rest?
The CBA change gutting most of the good veteran teams essentially helped OKC win a title, so I doubt they’re going to be too disappointed about a 1st round pick being top 12 instead of top 5.
We’re pretty good with 12th picks, so I wouldn’t be so mad.
Which teams are you talking about? The only one i can think of is twolves with the KAT trade, but Randle was fantastic for them that year
Presti is a hero
This stretch is going to show that SGA isn’t the same ceiling raiser as the other top 3 players. His hyper efficiency came from having the deepest team in the NBA. Like people talk about him not playing in the 4th quarter but that’s more of a testament to how good their bench was that they were not only able to maintain leads but build on it.
There was a comment the other day talking about how SGA was going to have to carry his team like Jokic in 2022. Jokic in 2022 best player was Aaron Gordon and Will freakin’ Barton. Thunder fans have been telling us since last season that Ajay Mitchell is the best (non rookie) contract, Jared “Sold high” McCain is an elite 3 level scorer, Jaylin Williams would start on 29 other teams, iHart is an above average center and now all of a sudden they’re all bums lol
You don’t even know what a “ceiling raiser” is lmao you wrote so much and yet your entire core premise is wrong.
A ceiling raiser is someone who takes a good team to a great team, not someone who drags mediocre teams to staying afloat, that’s a floor raiser.
Nice try hiding your comments but your last 13⁄15 comments are all about hating or throwing jabs at Jokic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/search/?q=Bigman054%0A&type=comments&cId=407b0ec6-e108-4f4f-886d-7cd21ae8bdf1&iId=8144c28d-4019-4d58-a164-b4463da8482d
Doesn’t change the fact you don’t know what a ceiling raiser is lmao don’t use terms you don’t know the meaning of.
He’s still tied for 2nd in EPM this season with Luka, and they’re both just barely behind Wemby. Shai is the 2x MVP for a reasonhttps://dunksandthrees.com/epm
Extremely small sample size brother, give it time
Always a nuggets flair. Always
Missing two max players will always hurt a team to be fair, but I think the barometer for a successful season from Shai will be Jokic’s 21-22 season like you said. Nuggets were missing Jamal all season and MPJ only had 9 games before also sitting out the rest of the year, and we ended up 6th in the West getting 4-1’d by the Warriors on our way out. If SGA can have that type of season even with the injuries he might be able to keep his BITW title, but if not, it’s probably going to make its way to someone like Wemby
Jokic still had Aaron Gordon and like some other good role players
Because Ihart, Ajay, McCain, and Aday are bums right
OKC has a better and deeper team than that jokic year
No way you think jokic had a better supporting cast that season than Shai has right now even with all the injuries.
Stopped reading 13 words in because you don’t know what words mean lmao
You basically said “this summer is really going to show how good my parka is at protecting me from the cold”
Correct on many levels. The current roster they have now is nearly equal to that of others and now their great players are suddenly bums? The thunder are great in spite of shai and now that the playing field is even, despite its unfortunate circumstances shows that he aint in the same caliber as other ceiling raiders.
How would lakers be if you took Reaves, Kessler and Thybulle? Not good right, that’s what happened to Okc
I think your point is correct, but do agree with some others that this season will prove he’s notfloor raiser like jokic was. As in, he makes a good team great, but can’t make a bad team good.
I mean, injuries absolutely decimated them, so it’s pretty understandable.
They deadass got 49ers level injury luck this year
They got a substation right next to the arena?
Do Oil Rigs count?
LMAO
3 starters and their best role player out genuinely sucks so much ass
And two of those starters are All NBA guys.
And almost all 4 injured players could have gone for all defensive team…
Another top 5 pick coming their way
That was happening regardless, they have the Clippers pick
That Clippers pick could be a long shot to be top 5 the way they’re playing. The new lottery odds make it harder for a bottom 3 team to get a top 5 pick than a team that barely missed the playoffs.
Weird thing to say when we’ve had 1 top 5 pick since harden (17 years)
Again, people who talk like they know ball but dont. Ball aside. Dub is just a good dude. Shai is just a good dude. Same with Chet, JWill etc. Shai was crying in his post game. This team is a brotherhood. And as much undeserved hate this team gets, we always gotta build our roster and develop. Other than PG, we’ve never had a FA superstar signing. The injuries across al l major sports this year us staggering though. Makes you wonder what the reason is
More like their mvp is buns and can’t carry without 4 all defence level players and all stars.
Won’t be the only time this happens lmao 🤣 we suck with our current injuries
Right there with you
Only having like 40% of the roster injured could make them seem mortal
Since Acuff is getting these comments I guess its time to paint SGA as a “good stats bad team guy” /s
We are officially back to 2022 hoops baby
Making us Kings fans look bad not seeing clear sarcasm…
Dunno what you expected
Its almost as if they are down 3 starters, it is what it is
still a solid nba team
Shai should show how much of a superstar he is by getting through the season with a trash ass roster. People make so much excuses but nows the time.
I already see so many poor shai comments…sga,ajay and mccain are all skilled guards who can go downhill and he still has 1 solid starting center and a talented rookie center. Its still solid talent.
Right, now please list out their wings? And the fact that they can all go downhill isn’t the problem, nobody can fucking shoot!!
Dude they literally have Jared McCain an undersized 2 starting at the 3. They literally have no wings left.
Lebron had bunch of excuses playing with Superstars and didnt win a chip.
So funny how comments like this get downvoted when it’s literally the truth. All that talk about SGA being one of the greatest point guards of all time and he can’t even carry a team lmaoooooo
142-115 was also the score of that game where Jordan McLaughlin went off for the Wolves in a huge win over the Kawhi & PG Clippers in 2020
https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202002080MIN.html
They need to blow it up. I’m unbiased btw.
gotta trade Lil Jared McCain before that extension comes up
people gonna realize why he saw little mins in Philly soon, man is SLOW
It’s crazy how quickly OKC’s season has gone south.
They about to miss the playoffs
giggles in gollum
It’s because chumps pushed the narrative of SGA getting too many calls and the team as a whole is being punished while Luka and all the other FT merchants get all the calls still just because they can’t win like SGA can
This is the dumbest comment I’ve read in a while and I spend a lot of time on rnba so that’s saying something
If I were being a hater like you I’d say it seems like Shai can’t win without a stacked team.
Luka Doncic is the only player in history who’s teams can start the playoffs 2-1 without him (2022) then straight up win a series without him (2026) and still be considered to be playing with ‘bums’.
The fact that SGA gets more shit losing 2 regular season games than Luka does for that means they are held to different standards.
Different standards for different levels of greatness.
That houston series was a chokejob by them and their #1 was also out. Utah was on his last legs and brunson had 2 great games but luka still finished them.
TBF who would?? There is literally no “one man show” in basketball. Every superstar/face of the team needs well rounded teammates to do anything. Shai was getting double and triple teamed this game and last; it’s impressive he scored at least 20 points when others wouldn’t even make a shot aside from FTs.
And while I don’t think it’s completely true that all refs stopped calling fouls against OKC every game, I do think it was true against the Clippers and Jdub’s injury could’ve been prevented.
So why do Lillard and Luka gets ranked lower than guys who have rings when they never were in a true contending situation
Too bad he did win and got 2 MVPs unlike Luka who got traded for being punked by Tatum and was in street clothes while his team won a series without him
Jesus man this sub actually upvoting this garbage lmao
Correct because he never had a stacked team like shai lmao. Even playing field like in 24 and it’s not so clear
That’s sports though. Ultimately if you actually live in Oklahoma you’ve already lost
This comment gave me AIDS
Just accept your season is over. Making crybaby comments like this is not a good look bro.
Leave it to OKC fans to cry about not having a ref advantage
Supposed all time great player can’t carry a team like LeBron, Jokic, shit even Westbrook. Fake ass b2b MVP
I am shocked and/or appalled
Well we traded away 3 bench pieces then 4 of our starters got hurt for MONTHS
So here we are playing rookies
KD had to do it to them
This almost happened in the title year, we lost to Houston by like 15 and then LA magnet ball got us by almost 30.
Lose your first team all defence starting PF plus your starting SG and SF that both were on second team all defence in the past and yea… your defence is gonna suffer. Also having to play literal G-league players actual minutes is also hurting our chances when the bench comes out so that any lead the starters get, the bench pretty much loses in the minutes they are out there. Just a really tough situation rn.
he’s 2 games into what jokic luka lebron giannis all have gone through lol
U give same tea. To giannis or other top players, they carry. SGA benefits but cannot benefit teammates. Not a floor raiser.
bad take, Giannis is doing worse rn on a team with more healthy talent
Go eat some more glue, kid.
They give up on games a lot, did it like twice in the playoffs last year against San Antonio. Shai subs out at the end of the third in a winnable game and just doesn’t see the court again.
That’s his normal rotation that he’s had for the past 4 years. He plays all the first quarter and third quarter, sits until the 6 minute mark of the second quarter and 4th quarter. In the 4th If the game isn’t close he doesn’t come back in, if the game is a blowout he doesn’t come back in. That’s why for the past two years he has sat out so many 4th quarters, because he would sit down with a lead and then Dub would extend it to were Shai didn’t have to come back in.
Feel bad for their team and clubhouse. DO NOT feel bad for their fanbase.