Thunderous Intentions Roundtable: Staff Thoughts after Six Games
By Tony Heim
Welcome to Thunderous Intentions Roudtable!! Every Monday the staff gets together and discusses the current state of the Thunder. We might as well let you all in on the talks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tony Heim: Through six games the Thunder are 5-1, atop the western conference with two big wins against LA and Minnesota. Could this season have started any better?
Heather Koontz: Technically, sure. I mean, 6-0 would be better on paper. But I didn’t expect a win again Golden State so, personally, it couldn’t be better.
Chris Hughes: I think with the win against the Clippers we’ve outshone expectations, but the other opposition should have all been W’s. I think the next week, with the Raptors, Heat and Clippers will be the real test.
Rich Condon: I agree with Chris. Clippers aside, the other teams we beat combined for 79 wins. That’s less than the games played in the regular season.
Jeremy Lambert: Getting the split against the Clippers/Warriors was a huge win. They are already proving to be better than last year’s regular season team. 5-1 is about as good as you could ask for, except the whole Warriors game
TH: I’ll be honest I was expecting them to go 3-3. I didn’t think they’d be able to beat the Clippers or the Warriors and I figured they would play like Thunder teams of the past and drop one of the easier games. But this team just has a different feel to it…
Related Story: Player Grades from Blowout Win Against Minnesota
RC: I don’t know about you all, but I’m super excited to see Steven Adams vs. Hassan Whiteside on Monday. Towns was unreal last night. Of course this team has a different feel to it, Dion Waiters isn’t on it anymore.
CH: Yeah considering how many points Karl-Anthony Towns got yesterday, it’ll be interesting to see how Hassan does against Adams.
HK: I’m excited to see Steven Adams play anyone.
TH: Whose fault were the fourth quarter collapses? KD’s or Dion’s? Remember: the Thunder came back against the 76ers, the Suns AND they closed the door on LA in the final minutes.
JL: Let’s blame KD cause it’s obvious that Russ should have been taking all the shots.
CH: Yeah I agree, blame Durant for everything.
TH: You don’t know how many times I’ve blamed Kevin Durant for my awful GPA.
JL: I bet your GPA was still higher than his three point percentage in the playoffs.
RC: In all seriousness though, I feel like something is missing still. Offensively, they’re kind of a disaster. And Russ’s high usage rate is already starting to worry me.
JL: Agreed, Rich. Offensively it’s still a lot of “Russ does his thing.” They need Kanter to dominate second units, otherwise their scoring options are limited. Adams being good in the post certainly helps though.
CH: I would say I’ve rated our depth so far this season. I now Sabonis and Christon still have a lot to learn, but I do genuinely rate them highly, Grant too.
TH: Chris brings up a good point. Sabonis was AWFUL in the first four games but you can tell how much more comfortable he is with the NBA game already.
JL: I really liked Sabonis’ game against Minnesota. He’s already a better passer out of the post than Kanter. Sabonis feels a lot like Adams in his first year. You can see the talent, but he’s raw and a little too excitable when he’s playing. We see how good Adams is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sabonis makes a similar leap in a few seasons.
More from Thunderous Intentions
- Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
- Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
- 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
RC: He’s got a really versatile offensive game, like his father did. And before last nights game he had the highest 3pt% on the team.I wish they’d feed the Big Kiwi more. He doesn’t force things and if his shot isn’t there, he almost always kicks it back out to reset. And, if we learned anything from Serge last year; the more you feed the big guys on offense the more engaged they are on the other end.
TH: Here’s the thing with Adams. Every game they start with a pick and roll with Adams/Russ and every time it ends with an easy dunk for The Big Kiwi. That’s the Thunder’s best play, yet they only use it in the first four minutes of the game. It’s virtually impossible to guard.
RC: It drives me crazy! Adams seems to have 8 points 2 minutes into every game and then we barely see him again. I wish they would use that action to start almost every possession. They also had a neat little side pin down play in the first couple of games that left the four wide open for a corner three that I haven’t really seen since then. Maybe I missed it though.
JL: Donovan should start staggering Russ and Adams. Cause that second unit needs some help.