So aside from Daryl Morey, another GM who is regarded as one of the best is looking pretty bad right now... His first mistake: drafting Jeff Green. This guy is BALLS as a PF and gets beaten around by almost every PF in the league. His second: James Harden. Harden's tweet after tonight's loss: "I need a change" The Thunder could have had Tyreke Evans. Some may argue that Tyreke wouldn't fit with Westbrook, but I think it would do just fine. Bring Tyreke off the bench with a point guard who is a deadly 3 point shooter and that would arguably be the best bench in the NBA. Maybe the Thunder don't have the best future in the league after all... we'll see if Sam can trade these losers for better players.
Well, the only other player I would have drafted over Jeff green (who were left on the board) was Joakim Noah, so I think it was a pretty good move. And as for James Harden, they really shouldve just traded that pick for a proven bigman
James Harden will be very good but i see your point on Jeff Green. He's not a championship team guy, actually he's the offensive version of Josh Smith. They say Josh Smith is a defensive guru, but beside his flashy blocks he cant guard a important pf in this league on the post. If they can somehow trade Jeff Green for a rebounding-shotblocker tall C they will be instant contenders, Nenad Krstic can play pf spot, and I'm sure he will do it better than Jeff Green.
Lee and Hill for Harden and Green. It's all about coaching and putting players in positions to succeed.
Harden has game but doesn't get enough touches with Durant and Westbrook dominating the ball. Green...he's the enigma. He's built like a tank (Otis Thorpe) but soft in the post and settles for jump shots WAY too much. Could use a change of coaching and who knows.
I agree about Jeff Green. He is not a PF anyway he is really a SF. I disagree about drafting Tyreke Evans and bringing him off of the bench. If you say drafting Harding was a bad idea because he wants change why would you suggest that they draft Tyreke Evans and bring him off of the bench? I'm sure if he was coming off of the bench he would also want change.
So far this season: 1 KD is shooting like Rafer. He was worse than terrible last night. 2 OKC's offense is stale bread and predictable with little movement off the ball and a lot of isolations 3 They clearly miss Ron Adams. Their defensive effort and focus is just not there. Part of it is when OKC's offense goes into the tank, they are letting it affect their effort on defense. 4 James Harden is playing like complete dog meat. Something is seriously wrong with this guy. He has no confidence when on the floor. 5 Thabo Sefalosha is a giant liability in half-court offense and teams are exploiting it like never before. The Thunder have the ability to turn it around. After falling behind by 19 points in the 1st half to the Clippers, Brooks called a timeout. The Thunder then went on a 12-0 run and completely dominated. They looked like last year's team (except KD still couldn't hit a thing). The gear is still there but I have a feeling something is wrong in the lockerroom. But I don't think KD's shooting slump is related to anything else.
"Sometimes players are drafted by the wrong team." Harden is a guard, and guards needs the ball in their hands, Not going to happen with KD and Westbrook on the team.
not sure if they were necessarily "mistakes" Green had all the tools in him to be the perfect 3rd option and at nights he looks that way the biggest problem with Green and which sadly hasnt changed since his rookie year is that he is terribly inconsistent. You never know what type of production you will get out of him night in and night out. Harden...I guess people can disagree with him I think I would still give him a chance its 4 games into his second season here and he was envisioned to be the scoring guard next to durant and westbrook and I think he still can be to be honest he just needs to sort of find where to settle in and the coaching staff has to find a way to get him touches. I havent seen too much of the thunder this season outside of the Bulls game but Harden still looks a bit lost at times. I think Harden can improve and still be a very good player in the NBA if not a borderline all-star he is that talented but jury is still out on him if he can develop his playmaking abilities even further and his defense. Presti has done a remarkable job though in the draft lets not forget Ibaka who just has been great. If Aldrich starts to get going then they have all the makings of the "team of the future" but a lot has to be developed internally. Question next season will probably be: is Scotty Brooks the coach to take this team from really good to great? I am not sure right now if he is.
Jeff Green wasn't a mistake, the only guy I'd take over him if the draft was redone is Noah, and projected he would break out the way he's done. Green's an SF being forced to play PF right now, of course he'd look bad Also one of the reasons Harden isn't a good fit for the Thunder is because he needs the ball to be effective, and the Thunder would rather give the ball to KD and WB. Evans needs the ball even more than Harden does, why would he be a good fit? In fact he would eb a worse fit since he can't shoot 3s. Bringing Evans off the bench would be the exact same scenario with Harden. Regarding "mistakes" every GM makes mistakes. With Presti, I think he whiffed on Harden with the 3rd pick, he should have traded Green with the 3rd for a prime big man like Griffin or Gasol. However, its not like any of his mistakes are monumental ones, and it still doesn't take away the fact that he built his team the right way and surrounded KD with guys who will grow with him, instead taking the LBJ/KG rout and going all in every year (and failing).
Then why pick Green in the first place if he'll be forced to play out of position? Evans would be a good fit simply because he is more talented than Harden, he doesn't have to be in line-up with Westbrook always anyway. Good players know how to adapt to each other, look at Wade and Lebron, nobody thought they'd click given their matching skill sets. I still have faith in Presti, in fact he is probably aware of these guys who don't fit, I'll give him a year to turn it all around.
Harden sucks. It was sam's mistake for sure. You think evans would be playing this bad for the thunders the 2nd year?
Its called drafting players by BPA, Green was the 2nd rated SF on the board, and the most well rounded player left in the draft by pick 5. Also at the time they probably thought Durant could play some SG ala Tmac, so maybe they thought they could have a Durant/Green SG/SF tandem. As for Evans, I think he's somewhat overrated. His averages look really good, but at the same time he chucks the ball quite a lot to get his stats. Who knows, maybe Harden could have put similar stats if he touched the ball as often as Evans does.
correct me if im wrong, but OKC is going to have a lot of cap space, plus a lot of draft picks this summer... presti is doing a great job IMO. i believe harden will pull it together. they are almost impossible to beat when he scores off the bench.
