To get us through the late-Summer doldrums of the NBA, we’re reviewing teams from around the league and how their offseasons went.
Key Additions:
Alex Caruso
Isaiah Hartenstein
Nikola Topic (R)
Key Losses:
Josh Giddey
Gordon Hayward
Offseason Review and 2024-25 Season Outlook:
The Thunder were the second youngest team in the NBA last year (24.12 years of age on opening night), but after just two years of tanking and one year of losing in the play-in tournament, the Thunder rebuild exploded. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander became an MVP candidate, Jalen Williams emerged as one of the league’s brightest young scoring stars, Chet Holmgren rebounded from his missed rookie year and excelled on both ends of the court, and Oklahoma City finished first in the brutal Western Conference. The fact that their 2nd round loss to the Mavericks felt like a disappointment is a testament to how incredible this team’s turnaround is after their quick rebuild. 2024 Coach of the Year Mark Daigneault deserves immense credit for leading this team through those tanking years and having them ready to seize their moment.
And they only got better this summer. The Thunder identified that former 6th overall pick/seeming franchise focal point Josh Giddey didn’t make sense in the starting lineup, and when a bench role didn’t work for Giddey, they swapped him to the Bulls for Alex Caruso. Caruso is an extreme improvement over Giddey on the defensive end and had better shooting seasons over the last two years than Josh has had in his career. The Thunder also knew that rebounding and physicality alongside Holmgren was an issue, so they signed former Knick Isaiah Hartenstein to a 3-year, $87M contract. Both Caruso and Hartenstein will give the Thunder a ton of toughness without needing big roles on the offensive end.
Finally, they retained both Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins to long-term deals to bolster a bench unit that also features Cason Wallace, Jaylin Williams, and Kenrich Williams. And I haven’t even mentioned Lu Dortz, whose defense has always been tremendous and who took a huge step forward last year as a floor spacer. And while Nikola Topic will miss his rookie season while recovering from ACL surgery, the fact that the Thunder could snag a guy once considered near the top of his draft class AND not worry about him not contributing this year is blatantly unfair. This is a deep team with chemistry, size, and talent.
Oh, and the Thunder also signed former Saint Mary’s great Alex Ducas on a two-way contract to form a WCC powerhouse with Holmgren and Jalen Williams. That’s rad.
Why We Hate Them:
How the hell did this happen so quickly? Remember the debate about the Thunder three years ago – “here’s another tanking team overloading on picks and rookies, and we all know how often that works out” – and then it did, and at a pace that a vast majority of NBA teams across history would have DREAMED about. They have nine 1st round picks (not counting their own) across the next 5 drafts, including four next year – and even if they’ll never be able to roster all those rookies, Sam Presti made it clear this summer he won’t be shy about trading out young talent if they no longer fit the roster. While growth is never linear, this Thunder team sure looks the part of a contender who will be around for a long time – and they didn’t have to get lost in basketball hell for 16 years to get to this point.
I will admit that one thing I hate about the Thunder is the radical difference in the way the media discusses Shai versus how the media discusses Fox. I can acknowledge that Shai is better than Fox. But Shai is in MVP discussions and Fox is an afterthought, and the difference in their play is not that significant.
I don’t even know that I’d say Shai is better. I think what Shai is asked to do and how his relationship to the officials. Shai doesn’t shoot significantly better, scores less without FTs and when Fox decided to steal more, he caught Shai’s numbers there.
I think the big difference is that Shai has two technical fouls in his career and averages a few more FTA per game. Fox, on the other hand, hasn’t had less than 5 techs in a year since he was a rookie and the last few years has been in double digits. I think it’s justified sometimes, but they’re not officiated the same way.
Excuse me?
Maybe look at the advanced stats, and you’ll see that he shoots more than significantly better. Last season he blew Fox completely away. That’s Shai’s stellar TS% of .636 (similar to Domas!) vs. a pedestrian .567 for Fox.
And then he also had a higher TRB%, a higher AST% with a lower TOV% and a much better VORP and BPM. A better defender too.
Also, hard to ignore that he was the lead player of the team that finished first in the West and managed to win a play-off series, with a team younger and less experienced than the Kings, bowing out to a Finals team.
I know that we are happy that Fox has helped to put the play-off drought behind us, but so far he hasn’t shown anything of consequence in the postseason.
I would bet that 28 of 30 GM’s wouldn’t trade Shai for Fox and a top 10 protected lottery pick, let alone straight up.
Yeah, I agree. Shai is a tier or two above Fox right now and it’s not that close. One is the leader on a title contender and legit MVP candidate, the other arguably isn’t even the best player on the team, not even all-nba, and hasn’t lead his team to postseason success.
Monte better be one of the twenty eight.
Shai is a good player that wins games. Fox is a good player. MVP leads to team wins.
Is it because his team is better?
Is it because Shae is better?
Both debatable. Shai being better than Fox is not really debatable. I have not heard any consideration of Fox being an MVP.
Domas will take away MVP discussion from De’Aaron. You won’t see both on that list of MVP candidates. IIRC, Domas has been in the Top 10 (Top 7?) the last two seasons.
Officiating wise – who gets officiated better/worse; Fox or Sabonis?
Foul Grifting-Alexander.
I’m so jealous of OKC’s rebuild and future. They missed the playoffs for just 3 years, but did it right by knowing when to cash in their chips. Even though Durant walked for nothing, they flipped Westbrook at the perfect time, bought low on PG13 then flipped him to an overpaying Clips team. The used their cap space and quick rebuild to accumulate picks and have built a team that will compete deep into the playoffs for a decade or more. They are now the the Vegas favorite to win the West and they have so many future assets. Sam Presti knows what he is doing.
I think this highlights the importance of drafting well. If you draft well, you can keep or trade for more assets and rebuild quickly. If you draft poorly, you get a 16 year playoff drought.
I’d say it’s more asset management and good trades.
Their drafting hasn’t been spectucalar, until the 2022 draft. SGA was part of the Paul George trade.
Since 2015 they drafted Cameron Payne, Terrance Ferguson, Brandon Clarke, Quickly, Giddey, Tre Mann and Sengun in the fisrt round. They were mostly willing to trade away young good talent and questional talent early to improve the team’s longterm outlook, and avoid getting pennies on the dollar later, when a player’s faults were completely on display. Might have whiffed a bit with Sengun, though.
I agree with this.
But team management starts at the top. The very top.
Sacramento’s 16 year record setting drought was led by an ownership team of the Brothers Maloof and then Vivek Ranadive. Result- drought.
Ownership hires and directs the GM team. Geoff Petrie was a Top Exec until the Trust fund Tycoons decided to tank the team. Petrie still wears that – he could’ve moved franchises.
Ranadive hired Pete D’Alessandro, co-managed the team, failed, hired GM Vlade, failed worse until real GM Monte McNair sat in the front office chair with Wes Welker.
Drafting improved greatly from the Jimmers, Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, Nik Stauskas, Georgios Papagiannis history but that mess of management would have likely soured any potential sweetness that could ripen. You can’t convince me that Klay or Kawhi or Giannis would have been the stars they became had Adam Silver (or David Stern) announced them as headed to Sacramento.
In the same vein, Sam Presti is smart enough that had he been offered a position in Vivek’s front office he would have declined.
Those days are passed, Monte and Wes have led the Kings to a new kingdom and I am thankful.
Roster construction is 4D chess and always moving. Sac won’t be OKC’s young exciting overachieving team, but I am looking forward to what they can be this season in the competitive Western Conf. They have a voice- let’s see what it says.
No way that Petrie wears anything simply because he did not switch teams. Maloofs ran out of money. Petrie did what every GM without any money is forced to do.
I do not see this current team as a “kingdom” built by Monte and Wes. One playoff appearance is not a kingdom.
I disagree. As the inimitable Jack Reacher has been penned to say “In for a penny, in for a pound”.
GM Petrie was honored for his sharp assembly of the exciting Glory Day Kings of 20-25 years ago. That he decided to stay and trot out a bad, often awful, product that we fans had to endure – he represented the team, he managed the team, people supported the team because of him (In GP We Trust) and he was an integral part of the captain’s crew. He was complicit in the failure to the fans. He had to know that. You may feel he nobly did the best he could with the situation. I found him disingenuous and deceitful by his actions. He decided to stay on board and use that status to his personal advantage. He thus wears a heavily tarnished crown, IMO.
As for the word kingdom, it is used metaphorically. I am sure you can come up with a term that is more to your own liking. And I am still thankful.
It’s the kingdom of the blind, and we are happy that Monte has one eye and that Vivek hasn’t poked it out (yet).
Monte must wear that vest for protection so that he doesn’t get exposed!
An interesting version of history.
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