2025 WEST FINALS: (1) Oklahoma City Thunder Vs. (6) Minnesota Timberwolves

To be fair, they made the WCF with Kat and Gobert, their Defense is still good.

Twice now.

They are physical and good but lack more natural Offense and they prey on injuries on the other team.

 

I said it then, it was a mistake to trade Kat.

Dude is uber talented, and yeah he's not a Batman but he's one hell of a Robin.

Randle is just not the more complete player, older, and has much more of an injury history. Randle's a good player, but I feel like he's more of a 3rd option on a championship team, not a second.

 

I am not watching the Pacers, well, I should but the OKC like Rockets can spam things...

OKC spams steals, deflections and SGA.

Rockets spam offensive rebounds, 2nd chance opportunities, gets off on momentum.

Other teams don't have that luxury when everything goes to the dumpster.

Seems the Pacers are too clutch.

 

Jabari is something different but not in the same category.

 

Reminds me when Dame and Portland made it to the finals that year

Rocket River

 

Was that year that Kawhi won the Championship with Canada and GSW won over Blazers.......

FVV and Lowry.

 

I think we can all agree that the Thunder are the team to beat.

It’s a hugely popular narrative around here to say that any team emerging from the East can’t really be any good and that they would have never even made the playoffs if they were in the Western Conference. One way to assess if this is true is to look at the two remaining teams in the East and their regular season record in games only vs. teams in the West. Then compare those numbers to the records of top 8 seeds in the West, also only in games vs. teams in the West.

Granted the sample sizes are different, since you play ~51 games within your conference and ~31 games against the other conference, but I think we’d agree that 31 games is a pretty decent sample size. With the caveats in mind, here’s the rankings in games vs. the West in the regular season. The Lakers appear to be a statistical anomaly, since they also had a LOSING record in games vs. the East (14-16).

Thunder 0.750
Lakers 0.692
Pacers 0.677
T’wolves 0.635
Nuggets 0.615
Rockets 0.596
Knicks 0.567
Clippers 0.558
Warriors 0.558
Grizzlies 0.529

 

nobody says that teams like the Pacers and Knicks wouldn’t have even made the playoffs if they were in the WC

they are just not on the level of what you’d typically view as a legitimate contender

 

I thought OKC's swarm of wing defenders would frustrate Ant and Randle. OKC are fast guys capable of defending multiple positions and get so many deflection. Ant has been okay but his impact feels small.

Randle has been taken out of the first two games. He also doesn't look like he's playing with a chip on his shoulder like he did against the Lakers or Golden State. He was bullying LeBron and Draymond as if he was trying to prove himself. Not really seeing that same fire against OKC.

 

Delete

 

Randle can't find favorable matchups like against the Warriors because nearly all of OKC's defenders savagely attack his dribble and he has no answer for it. Whenever he does get into the lane, they can swarm him like bees. Unless his 3-point shot is falling like in the first quarter of game 1, Randle is a liability to their offense.

If Naz Reid is hitting 3s, substituting him for Randle solves the problem. IMO, he should go to the corners and let 'em fly.

 

Shai is going to win the championship. Once you get the whistle like it's over

 

delete

 

This is what bothers me
because this is mainly Refs picking champions

Rocket River

 

If

• They hadn't sent out so much Value (Draft Picks) for Gobert
• They had traded Towns sooner and hopefully gotten more Value than they did in the trade for Randle
• Randle was better
• Gobert was more dynamic - flexible
• Conley was younger

 

1st Team
Kevin Durant 5X
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 3X
Russell Westbrook 2X
Paul George 1X

2nd Team
Russell Westbrook 5X
Kevin Durant 1X
Chris Paul 1X

3rd Team
Russell Westbrook 1X
Paul George 1X
Jalen Williams 1X

**********

Durant - 2007 Draft

• Portland picked Oden #1
• Seattle picked Durant #2

Westbrook -- 2008 Draft

• Chicago picked Rose #1
• Miami picked Beasley #2
• Minnesota picked Mayo #3
• OKC picked Westbrook #4

SGA -- 2018 Draft

• Phoenix picked Ayton #1
• Sacramento picked Bagley #2
• Atlanta picked Doncic #3 and traded him to Dallas
• Memphis picked Jaren Jackson #4
• Dallas picked Trae Young #5 and traded him to Atlanta
• Orlando picked Mo Bamba #6
• Chicago picked Wendell Carter #7
• Cleveland picked Sexton #8
• New York picked Kevin Knox #9
• Philadelphia picked Mikal Bridges at #10 and traded him to Phoenix
• Charlotte picked SGA #11 and traded him to the Clippers
• The Clippers picked Miles Bridges at #12 and traded him to Charlotte

Paul George -- 2010 Draft

• Washington picked Wall #1
• Philadelphia picked Evan Turner #2
• The Nets picked Favors #3
• Minnesota picked Wesley Johnson #4
• Sacramento picked DeMarcus Cousins #5
• Golden State picked Ekpe Udoh #6
• Detroit picked Greg Monroe #7
• The Clippers picked Aminu #8
• Utah picked Gordon Hayward #9
• The Pacers picked Paul George #10

Chris Paul -- 2005 Draft

• Utah picked Bogut #1
• Atlanta picked Marvin Williams #2
• Utah picked Deron Williams #3
• New Orleans picked Chris Paul #4

Jalen Williams -- 2022 Draft

• Orlando picked Bancero #1
• OKC picked Chet Holmgren #2
• Houston picked Jabari Smith #3
• Sacramento picked Keegan Murray #4
• Detroit picked Jaden Ivey #5
• The Pacers picked Mathurin #6
• Portland picked Shaedon Sharpe #7
• New Orleans picked Dyson Daniels #8
• San Antonio picked Sochan #9
• Washington picked Johnny Davis #10
• New York picked Ousmane Deng #11 and traded him to OKC
• OKC picked Jalen Williams #12

**********


Durant - 2007 Draft

• Portland picked Oden #1
• Seattle picked Durant #2

Westbrook -- 2008 Draft

• Chicago picked Rose #1
• Miami picked Beasley #2
• Minnesota picked Mayo #3
• OKC picked Westbrook #4

SGA -- 2018 Draft

• Phoenix picked Ayton #1
• Sacramento picked Bagley #2
• Atlanta picked Doncic #3 and traded him to Dallas
• Memphis picked Jaren Jackson #4
• Dallas picked Trae Young #5 and traded him to Atlanta
• Orlando picked Mo Bamba #6
• Chicago picked Wendell Carter #7
• Cleveland picked Sexton #8
• New York picked Kevin Knox #9
• Philadelphia picked Mikal Bridges at #10 and traded him to Phoenix
• Charlotte picked SGA #11 and traded him to the Clippers
• The Clippers picked Miles Bridges at #12 and traded him to Charlotte

Paul George -- 2010 Draft

• Washington picked Wall #1
• Philadelphia picked Evan Turner #2
• The Nets picked Favors #3
• Minnesota picked Wesley Johnson #4
• Sacramento picked DeMarcus Cousins #5
• Golden State picked Ekpe Udoh #6
• Detroit picked Greg Monroe #7
• The Clippers picked Aminu #8
• Utah picked Gordon Hayward #9
• The Pacers picked Paul George #10

Chris Paul -- 2005 Draft

• Utah picked Bogut #1
• Atlanta picked Marvin Williams #2
• Utah picked Deron Williams #3
• New Orleans picked Chris Paul #4

Jalen Williams -- 2022 Draft

• Orlando picked Bancero #1
• OKC picked Chet Holmgren #2
• Houston picked Jabari Smith #3
• Sacramento picked Keegan Murray #4
• Detroit picked Jaden Ivey #5
• The Pacers picked Mathurin #6
• Portland picked Shaedon Sharpe #7
• New Orleans picked Dyson Daniels #8
• San Antonio picked Sochan #9
• Washington picked Johnny Davis #10
• New York picked Ousmane Deng #11 and traded him to OKC
• OKC picked Jalen Williams #12

**********

Perhaps my history is wrong, but maybe something like this for the three players (SGA, Paul George and Chris Paul) that OKC traded for.


SGA -- The Clippers wanted to get K Leonard to sign as a Free agent. K Leonard wanted another star (Paul George) to join him and OKC extracted a huge package for Paul George.

Paul George -- He was unhappy in Indiana and the Pacers took the package (Sabonis and Victor O) from OKC.

Chris Paul -- Had a falling out with Harden and Houston traded him for Westbrook.


Maybe on the SGA and the Chris Paul trades, the owner (Balmer) of the Clippers and the owner (Fertitta) of the Rockets influenced (meddled) in what their respective Front Offices were doing.

 

Look at Ant out there looking JUST like jalen

 

OKC’s offense trash yet again on the road