Melo has simply regressed even further thanks to age mostly. He is an equally bad offensive and defensive liability (both -1.8 OBPM and DBPM), contributing to the Thunder being outscored by 4 whenever he is on the court. His WS/48 have continued to decline, his .070 WS/48 will be the worst number he's put up there in his entire career. His 3.5 WS will also be the lowest mark of every season he has played at least 45 games in. In comparison, PG, WB, and Adams each have at least 7 WS. In comparison to our roster, the only rotation player of ours with a lower WS/48 than Melo is Eyesore Joe.
OKC as the 7th seed is just meant to be. Let’s be honest it would be easily the best first round series to watch.
OKC may still miss the playoffs. Only 1 loss ahead of Denver now and they lose the tiebreakers with Denver, New Orleans, and Minnesota. Long shot, but stranger things have happened.
I'll take a 1st round match up of Durant vs Westbrook any damn day. Durant does not have Curry to fall back on. He will have to beat Westbrook on equal grounds. Seeing how the teams are close to equal if you take away Durant/Curry/Westbrook from the equation.
Are you sure they're losing the tiebreakers against all those teams? Because that would be actually huge since they have to play in Denver, if they lose against us and in Denver well...it's very possible they will end up 8th or 9th...
Saw the highlights... Klay didnt even have a monster game. Seemed like Swaggy P and Cook had more highlight plays even with Klay's 20. Can't say OKC is this dream stopper matchup for gs anymore. OKC should focus on what really matters...getting russ to avg another full trip dub.
OKC doesn't hold any tiebreakers against Pels, Nuggets or Wolves.. That's crazy when you think about it.
Minnesota and Denver play each other twice before the season ends. Those games will also be huge for playoff seeding...
My dream scenario is OKC plays GS in the first round, upsets them, then loses to us in the WCF. Paul George then feeling confident in the team because they made the WCF resigns with OKC and the lakers miss out on their prize.
It is true but probably won't matter. In this 5-team battle for 4 spots , it is highly likely one of the others finishes with more losses than OKC. I think Saturday's win over the Pels might have secured OKC's playoff spot. I consider the Spurs a lock. If you assume Utah is also, then it's 4 teams battling for 3 spots.
What probably saves the Thunder is that Minny and Denver still have to play twice. MIN/DEN either have to split or Denver has to sweep for there to be a chance at OKC missing out as one of them will have at least 36 losses...2 more than what OKC has now. Based off the schedules, Denver sweeping would be the better outcome since they also have to travel to the Clips and get Portland at home while Minny has to travel to the Lakers and gets Memphis at home. That would allow Denver to lose one of those other games and still have 36 losses while Minnesota would more than likely finish with 36 losses. New Orleans would also need to win at least 3 of their last 5 (Phoenix, at Memphis, at GSW, at Clips, and San Antonio) to only have 36 losses. OKC has to lose at least two of their last 3 (at Houston, at Miami, Memphis) to finish with 36 losses. Again, long shot, but stranger things have happened.
Are you counting the Clippers or the Nuggets out? Five teams still have a legit chance to get the last three spots.
Thunder, T-Wolves, Pels and Nuggets are battling for the final 3 spots. I'm counting the Spurs and Jazz in and the hopeless Clippers out. You can stick a fork in them and Doc Rivers.
After the comeback against the Spurs, Clippers have a chance. Not a good one, but they remain in the chase. Considering they were swept by OKC and have two more losses, they won't be the team pushing OKC to #9.
