Shai is already 25, our young core is age 19-22. So there's that. SGA's peak years should be almost done by the time Alpi, for example, reaches his prime. Memphis is also on about the same timeline as OKC with their young group. Those two teams should be battling with each other in the next few years--we won't be in that mix for at least a couple more years, maybe even three or four. Portland and San Antonio may have closer timelines to ours, but we'll have to see what happens with their player development before we start worrying about them.
The Bulls never matched up well with the Rockets either and they still won chips or at least are always around the Finals..... That is not an excuse not to do well..... there is always an arch nemesis or two. The Clippers are old and not really a future team, they are 1 or 2 injuries away.....so not worried. We are talking about 3 years from now and quite frankly only the Celtics have bragging rights as their stars are fairly in their prime..... And maybe if Luka actually joins Antetokounmpo.... By then even Jokic and Embiid are getting older.... We'll see what happens with Edwards and KAT.
Chet is not going to last and Jabari is going to put on 25 lbs in the next 2 years. We are a good sg away from being a 4 seed next year. OKC is going to be great, but so will we.
IF you even have a core that you drafted that are all in a similar age bracket, there's only going to be 3 of those guys max. Even if you have an MVP caliber player already, you're going to be looking to free agency/trades and possibly young draft prospects that can contribute to put your team over the top. Things in the NBA can change fast and this stuff isn't linear. It doesn't matter one bit who appears to be winning the arms race right now....It's all about striking while the iron is hot and making the right moves at the right time. Remember when James Harden said "They ain't even that good" about the Warriors? That's because we had been beating up on them when they had Mark Jackson. Busting their ass. They get Steve Kerr, added Andre Iguadola in FA and BOOM, Dynasty. Couple years later they got Durant. The Clippers core of CP3, Deandre and Blake was supposed to be next up and they never even got to a conference finals. Matter of fact before we got Harden ourselves we were on a mediocrity treadmill. Just one move can completely change your franchise.
Yeah I just dont really see that. Superstars are like Curry, Durant, Lebron, Giannis, Jokic....SGA just kinda a guy that manufactures points but doesn't really have any game breaking abilities. We'll see. Feel like his game is tuned more to the regular season than the playoffs. Sengun in his prime will likely be a more dominant player.
I really don’t think it’s fair to compare us to the Thunder. For one, the Thunder started their rebuild in 2019, whereas we didn’t trade Harden until 2021. Second, the Thunder are better because of Shai. We didn’t get a player the caliber of Shai in the Harden trade. Take away Shai from the Thunder and which team is better? Other than the Thunder, I think we’re in a better position than any other rebuilding team, though time will tell.
Jeez. Your standards are extremely high. Hes 31/6/6 on 65.0 TS% Top 5 in every advanced/impact metric He’s by far the best player on a team with the 2nd best point differential in the league. He was first team all nba last year and is essentially a lock to be 1st team again this year and probably the next several years to come. The above is not possible without game breaking abilities. It doesn’t really get any more “superstar” than SGA unless you are one of the 20-30 best players of all time.
SGA is a top 5 player in the NBA (maybe top 3? you could argue #1 this year) and he's 25 years old. This is his 6th year. The thunder didn't even want to make the trade for him and they didn't want him. You can't really compare the rebuilds. I'm sure if we had a player like that on our team it would make all our guys look better too. I don't think OKC is comparable to Houston at all unless you want to compare the rosters without SGA and pretend he doesn't exist.
I'm talking long run and teams need a guy that can score on the perimeter in crunch time. You know this or should know this.
I’m not even that high on Josh Giddey, but atp even he’s a better player than Green…and he’s basically the overlooked, expendable part of OKC’s young core
Shai is #3 on the Kia MVP Ladder behind Embiid and Jokic. https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-jan-19-2024-edition
Booker is probably better than SGA and I wouldn't consider him a superstar. Tatum as well. Not a superstar. Really really good player, but not a superstar. I don't have "high" standards. I just know what superstars look like. And SGA doesn't look like one. The Thunder will ultimately go as far as Chet Holmgren takes them. He's the potential superstar and the main reason why they're suddenly a #2 seed in a very stacked West. Take Holmgren away and replace him with a normal center and they're probably a 8-10 seed. Having a sniper from 3 who is also the best rim deterrent in the league is huge. SGA isn't hard to stop. He does just fine in the regular season kinda like Harden did. But when teams get really good in the playoffs, the Thunder will flame out because you can guard him one on one with elite wing defenders. Sengun/Holmgren for example you can't. Hell even Jabari Smith could be this as well. You have to send a double because Chet/Jabari will shoot right over you and Sengun you can't handle in the post.
I like the thread topic, but its hard to make comparisons. This is first year our guys are trying to win. Are there comparable teams on the same trajectory? OKC is definitely better. The Jazz have been better recently and are ahead of us in the standings. The Grizz are decimated by injury. The Pistons are the Pistons. The Hornets have been trying to win (sort of) for a while, but failing miserably. The Nets are said to be trying to win, but after a good start have fallen in a black hole. The Rockets, by extrapolating their current win% are on course for a 39-43 season. Hard to predict where they will end up exactly though. They are so good at home and bad on the road, should either change, could dramatically change their season. I suppose I should be happy with where they are at and seem to be heading. But I let myself get overhyped after a 6-3 start to the season and flirting at being a top 6 team. Those first 9 games were biased heavily in home games. Now that that has evened out some, so has their record. I dont think they will get appreciably better than they are right now until they make some roster changes. Will that be at this years trade deadline? Over the coming off-season? Next year some time? Who knows?
I think Giddy is just an ok player. Chet is putting them over the top. I doubt he has a long career, but they will be near the top as long as he and SGA are healthy. I agree SGA will struggle in the playoffs when the NBA puts in the fix and let’s their favorite teams hold, grab, undercut, and give 3 to 1 ft differentials
Our peers should be the past tanking teams since each's last playoff appearance (before the tank): 1. Thunder 2. Magic 3. Cavs (1 year ahead) 4. Pistons Rockets had a mini reset during its rebuild. Oladipo, Wood and KPJ didn't work out. It's less what CF believes, but what the front office believed. Team also shed KJ, Usman, Josh and Tyty. Some of the other teams had more hits than misses. It's also not an excuse that Rocket's growth had been slower. FO and Silas should have done better. We had to get better vets, because the guys I listed above didn't work out. Thunder and Magic's young guys are mostly still in rotation. Spurs, Jazz, Blazers and Wizards are underclass men, they shouldn't count since they started their rebuild after us.
They are playing better and might even beat us tonight. I'm counting them less since they haven't gone full tank and moved off of Rudy and Donovan after us.
