OKC Thunder top 2 in the West?

OKC got lucky with getting a team in the first place, second was getting Durant and Westbrook. Third was getting Perkins to anchor the frontline along with young Ibaka.

 

If they do like last season where they raised it up several notches in the playoffs vs how they finished the regular season, it's possible. After completely destroying a few teams after the trade, the Thunder have reverted to inconsistency. If they become a down-and-dirty defensive team in the playoffs, they will be very tough to beat in a 7-game series and I could see them possibly taking the Spurs out in the 2nd round. James Harden (who someone here claims is a bust) and Ibaka need to bring their "A" games.

But the key for them will be defense. If Perkins can guard whatever low-post player the other team has, that frees up Ibaka to roam around and allows their other players to lock down perimeter shooters instead of helping.

Next season, the Thunder can compete for best record. They need to replace Cook with another perimeter shooter from the SF position and (possibly) replace Nazr Mohammed in the rotation with a younger backup C.

 

The grizzlies don't fear the thunder. So, the answer to your question is no. The spurs, until further notice, is #2 and the lakers are #1. I'd also say that Dallas with Dirk, in fact, is #3, and are right now better than the Thunder & Durant.

Going forward, all bets are off. The Thunder have a great shot at being the top team because of Westbrook and Durant.

However.

Don't sleep on the grizzlies. Our core: Rudy and Conley and Gasol, with our mix of defense and we are going to be a demon team in the league.

Consider this: The Thunder have to outscore you to win, and that is not the mark of a championship team. Until they get a championship defense to go along with their stars, they are vulnerable. Point blank.

You want to see championship defense you should check out the grizzlies, because they are playing it.

 

Your name is pretty much how I reacted to your post.


But seriously, I hope the Grizz can finally win a playoff game this postseason.

 

thunders interior defense is seriously better than it was last year with perkins and ibaka manning the paint.

 

Possible with Spurs recent woes.

But Lakers will still come out barring injury.

Too Big, Too well coached, Too experiences, and there's a guy named Kobe who can also help win a few games too.

 

Wouldn't expect a different response from one of the most well known KOFS on this board

 

I doubt that but not this year...However, I do want them to take over Dallas

 

I'm not going to comment on the Grizzlies being future championship contenders. I'm just not.

That said, I am going to ask: what the heck are you guys going to do with Mayo? Is he at all part of your guy's plans? My understanding is that the guy isn't really capable of being a 2, and Conley's the 1. So, what happens to him?

 

What?

 

Rudy is injured, and you said yourself that the Grizzlies can afford to let Gasol go this offseason. Don't make me find that post.

 

Right now OJ is with the team. Going forward, I just don't know.

OJ is a lot better than he's played this year. He admitted recently that he lost his confidence and was trying to get it back.

I think that OJ is going to have a great playoffs and hopefully that will get him back on track, but it is all up to him now.

I also don't think OJ has handled well being relegated to coming off the bench, nor did he like being the 4 option as a starter.

OJ has a lot of talent that he hasn't tapped into yet and he and coach hollins are having to mend a fractured relationship now. Recently, Hollins allowed OJ to start the second have because OJ was playing good. Small beginnings? Now that Young is down OJ is going to be getting even more of an opportunity.

The quick answer is I just don't know what's going to happen to OJ.

 

How is that luck? It is called 'Evaluating talent' and they did a great job of it. The only thing that may lack right now is depth. I tip my hat to the front office, they did one heck of a job in putting that team together.

 

Dang bro do you bandwagon on every superstar player and every rising team?

 

To underscore the point that Randolph is more important to us. If you like me to, I'll say our core is: Randolph, Rudy and Conley. But then I'd have some wazoo saying that Randolph is old. The point being that the collection of pieces we have on this team: our defensive players, Young, Battier, Allen and Darrell Arthur along with Rudy and Randolph, then you add Conley and Marc and OJ and I think you can see that the grizzlies have arguable the most talented and deep team in the league right now.

This is underscored by the fact that there isn't a day goes by that a fan from another team doesn't ask about what we are going to do with OJ. And OJ isn't even a huge factor for our team right now. The same with Gasol. Then we still don't know how Henry is going to work out, but he was the top high school recruit so it's far to say that his best days are ahead of him.

 

No. That isn't arguable. That's basically crazy talk. To compare the talent and depth of the Grizzlies to teams like the Spurs, the Lakers, Thunder or Celtics is absolute madness. Perhaps if you had said "the most talented and deep young team" I could say "Yeah, I guess that's arguable" - but overall? That's just crazy.

 

And yet the grizzlies own an 8 to 6 record against those teams this yeah. And many of the wins or losses we'd had have been without Rudy Gay. We never had Rudy for any of the 4 spurs games, with one of the Celtics and the Thunder games.

Stop feeding the myth that the grizzlies are lucky and start seeing the light.

 

If your roster can get you to 41-49 wins in a season, I don't know how you don't lock that up longterm.