Category Archives: Offseason Beat

A look at Thunder happenings during the offseason.

NTTB Rank: Top 2

Offseason Beat, Rankings, ,

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Previous Player Rankings: 20-16 | 15-12 | 11-8 | 7-5 | 4-3 |

Think back to last season. The Russell Westbrook show. What an amazing ride! The 42 triple-doubles. The insane finishes. The record usage rate. Another MVP season for Oklahoma City. But with all the beauty, you also had to take the ugliness. The packed paint. The box-and-1 defenses. The clanging of long-range jump shots. A first round exit. The dependency on just one player.

Last season was great on an individual level. Westbrook had a season for the ages. But it was a season that was necessitated by the departure of Kevin Durant. If Westbrook doesn’t got supernova, the Thunder likely struggle to make the playoffs. And thankfully for the Thunder, Westbrook is not one to go quietly into the night. But last year’s team was not for just Westbrook. It was designed for both Westbrook and Durant. With one of those components gone, the Thunder were a walking identity crisis for 87 games. Continue reading NTTB Rank: Top 2 →

NTTB Rank: 4-3

Offseason Beat, Rankings, ,

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Previous Player Rankings: 20-16 | 15-12 | 11-8 | 7-5 |

We’re into the heavy hitters now. The top four players on a team usually establish the foundation for the team. Show me a team whose top four guys aren’t necessarily established, and I’ll show you a team that has a shaky foundation. Show me a team that has a strong foursome, and I’ll show you a team that has a strong foundation and is likely a top-10 team.

The craze nowadays is to accumulate a big 3. Get three superstar-level players, and the rest will work itself out. But, on all of those teams, there was a fourth player that was usually the glue between the superstars. For the Boston Big 3, Rajon Rondo served as the glue between Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. For Miami, it was Udonis Haslem, Mario Chalmers, and Shane Battier alternating as the fourth guy during different seasons. And most recently, Klay Thompson has been that guy for the Golden State Warriors. Have a strong no. 4 guy and your team is destined for great things. Continue reading NTTB Rank: 4-3 →

NTTB Rank: 7-5

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Previous Player Rankings: 20-16 | 15-12 | 11-8 |

Now we get into the meat of the rotation. From here on out, these are likely the players that will eat up the bulk of the minutes played and will likely be the ones finishing out games. Injuries to any of these players will have a big effect on the team moving forward.

7. Enes Kanter

YEAR TEAM MIN FG% 3PT FG% FT% REBS ASTS STLS BLKS PTS
16-17 Thunder 21.3 .545 .132 .786 6.7 0.9 0.4 0.5 14.3

Kanter Continue reading NTTB Rank: 7-5 →

NTTB Rank: 11-8

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Player Rankings: 20-16 | 15-12

I have one amendment to an earlier list.

20. Rashawn Thomas

YEAR TEAM MIN FG% 3PT FG% FT% REBS ASTS STLS BLKS PTS
16-17 TAMCC 33.7 .524 .378 .721 9.0 2.7 1.6 2.0 22.5

rashawn thomas

Earlier this summer, it was reported the Thunder had agreed to a partially-guaranteed deal with Thomas. My thinking was that it was just for summer league and possibly for the G-League when it came time for that. But it still stuck in my head whether he would be with the Thunder during training camp or not. So I decided to ask the source, himself. Continue reading NTTB Rank: 11-8 →

NTTB’s Weekend Programming 

NBA, News, Offseason Beat,

On Friday night, Nike, in conjunction with the NBA, unveiled their Statement jerseys. Each team had a representative to show off their team’s new alternate jersey. Paul George held the honor for the Thunder. The video focused on the Thunder from 5:55 to 6:55. Enjoy!

NTTB Rank: 15-12

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Player Rankings: 16-20

We continue the NTTB Rank with the players that I think should be on the Thunder’s 15-man roster. Because of contract situations, this is not likely how the roster will shake out. But, in a vacuum, these are the 15 best players on the roster from here on out.

15. Semaj Christon

 Year Team  Min FG% 3pt FG% FT% Rebs Asts Stls Blks Pts
 16-17  Thunder 15.2 .345 .190 .548 1.4 2.0 0.4 0.1 2.9

Continue reading NTTB Rank: 15-12 →

NTTB Rank: 20-16

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It’s that time of year again. With about 35 days until the season starts, it’s time to start ranking players. Sports Illustrated has started their Top 100 list. ESPN has followed suit. But ranking 100 players is just too much for me. Especially, since I mainly just focus on one team.

I’ve decided to do an Oklahoma City Thunder players ranking based on the 20 or so players that are currently involved with the franchise. This first installment will look at players ranked 16-20. These will likely be a combination of training camp invitees, 2-way players, and/or under-performing veterans.

20. Unsigned Training Camp Invitee

Technically, the Thunder still have one more spot available for their 20 man training camp roster. There are still plenty of unsigned free agents looking for a chance to make a roster. For every run of the mill training camp invite that ends up getting cut, you sometimes ends up with a player like Lance Thomas that works on his game and takes advantage of the training camp opportunity to earn a roster spot. Continue reading NTTB Rank: 20-16 →

Daily Thunder Rumblings – 11 August 2017

NTTB Rumblings, Offseason Beat, , , , , , ,

img_4133-5Hello, Friday. It feels like it’s been a week since we last talked. Here are the Rumblings:

Berry Tramel looks at the Sonics/Thunder franchise records, especially the scoring record: “The Thunder, of course, once were the Seattle SuperSonics. And the Sonics had quite the history before relocating to OKC. Payton. Jack Sikma. Downtown Freddie Brown. Gus Williams. Shawn Kemp. Dale Ellis. Xavier McDaniel. Lots of great players over the years. When a franchise moves, there’s always debate about what to do with the history. Leave it in the original city? Take it with you? The answer is easy. The emotional stuff, you leave behind. The colors, the retired jerseys, the trophies, you leave behind. Oklahoma City shouldn’t and doesn’t care that Sikma’s 43 is retired. If Dakari Johnson wants to wear No. 43, let him.”

Kevin Durant talks about the combination of Russell Westbrook and Paul George: “But they got Russ and PG and Steven Adams to be their Big 3. I think if they feed off each other, it could be great. I’m a fan of the game. So I can see if something is going to work or not and I think that’s going to be a really, really great pairing. It’s going to suck for us and the rest of the league. But as a fan of the game, it’s going to be tight to see how they work that thing out.” Continue reading Daily Thunder Rumblings – 11 August 2017 →

Patrick Patterson undergoes successful knee surgery

News, Offseason Beat, ,

On Wednesday evening, Oklahoma City Thunder forward Patrick Patterson put out the following cryptic tweet:

The speculation on the tweet ran the gamut from people thinking Russell Westbrook was going to sign his extension to Patterson, a noted horror movie buff, being excited about the new movie Annabelle:Creation coming out.

Well, we now know why today was a BIG day. Per a media release from the team, Patterson underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript tweeted that Patterson had been feeling discomfort in the knee since last season. Instead of letting the problem linger throughout the season, the Thunder decided to have the proactive procedure performed on Patterson now, instead of waiting for it to possibly worsen during the season.  Continue reading Patrick Patterson undergoes successful knee surgery →