OKC Thunder fail to impress in Lowe’s annual NBA League Pass ratings

The OKC Thunder will play their final preseason game this evening. Following that back-to-back match against the Denver Nuggets, Mark Daigneault will have five days to prepare for the launch of the 2021-22 regular season which begins on the road in Utah.

With the season inching closer it’s the time of year when copious articles and podcasts focus on predictions for seasonal awards, over/under records, and power rankings.

As for the latter, writer Zach Lowe of ESPN offers up a bit of a twist on typical power rankings ranking the best to worst teams to watch on NBA League Pass.

While the upper echelon of the league gets plenty of burn, there is also typically at least one (or a few) NBA League Pass darlings. Those squads are clubs that are just too much fun to watch and regardless of the result offer a few hours of must-watch TV. Last season, those teams were the Memphis Grizzlies and Charlotte Hornets (when LaMelo Ball was healthy).

OKC Thunder fair poorly in Lowe’s annual NBA League Pass power rankings

A decade ago, Zach Lowe started this annual column ranking every team from worst to first for the best NBA League Pass squads. The premise as he notes isn’t on “best team” rather it focuses on “watchability”. years ago and jokes he can’t believe

Lowe grades teams in five categories on a scale of one to ten, such as playing style, broadcast crew, intangibles like drama from the players or coaches as well as jersey and court design. The latter two categories are items Lowe seems to be more invested in than some fans but hey – it’s his ranking list.

Extra credit goes to teams with players who serve up highlights such as a glorious LaMelo or POKU dime or jaw-dropping dunk from Ja Morant or Anthony Edwards. Likewise, teams who have coaches or players that will offer great sounds bites — think Coach Pop at halftime or Draymond Green speaking his mind or causing in-game conflict also earn extra marks.

Given those parameters, Thunder Nation probably won’t be that surprised by Lowe’s placement of the OKC Thunder in last place with 18 points. The following list is where he ranked the teams in 29th to 11th:

• Tied in 29th: Cavaliers/Magic (21.5 points)
• 27th: Spurs  (22.5 points)
• 26th: Rockets (24 points)
• 25th: Pistons (25.5 points)
• 24th: Pacers (26 points)
• 23rd: Wizards (26.5 points)
• 22nd:  Raptors (28 points)
• 21st: Kings (29.5 points)
• 20th: Clippers (30.5 points)
• Tied 19th: Wolves/Blazers (31.5 points)
• 17th: Heat  (32 points)
• 16th:  Knicks (32.5 points) — Um I beg to differ on this rank but then again I think Lowe lives in New York, and it is the Mecca so we’ll cut him some slack.
• 15th: Celtics (33 points)
• 14th: Grizzlies (33.5 points)
• 13th:  Mavericks (34 points)
• Tied 12th:  76ers/Jazz (34.5 points)

A follow-up article provided his top 10 list which can be viewed in its entirety via this link.

• 10th: Suns (35 points)
• 9th: Pelicans (35.5 points) Umm seriously? Am I the only one who is bored of watching repeated Pels games waiting for Zion to turn into the next LeBron? The fact he hasn’t even begun running after the uber secret offseason surgery to repair a Jones fracture leaves his return date very much up in the air. Williamson enters his third season having played only 24 and 61 games in his rookie and sophomore seasons. He’ll be playing for his third coach in as many seasons and this setback marks his third serious injury in two seasons as a pro.
• 8th: Bulls (36 points)
• 7th: Hawks (36,5 points)
• 6th: Nuggets (37.5 points)
• 5th: Hornets (38.5 points) They were the darlings of League Pass last season both for LaMelo Ball’s inventive passing and joy of playing. Moreover, Charlotte never gave up on a match, always threatening to pull off the upset. With the upgrades they made and the expected growth of Ball and his other young teammates, I’d be tempted to rank them even higher than Lowe did on his list.
• 4th: Warriors (39 points)
• 3rd: Bucks (40.5 points)
• 2nd: Lakers (41.5 points)
• 1st: Nets (43 points)

As for his thoughts on the OKC Thunder fans shouldn’t take too much umbrage with the placement. It’s not that SGA’s super smooth glide or Dort’s incredible defense isn’t worth watching. Rather, this team won’t likely be an offensive juggernaut and doesn’t have a coach or players who will throw shady curveballs.

Lowe’s full reasoning is available via the above link — a portion of the excerpt is below…

"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — who appears to move in cinematic jump cuts, as if he is constantly buffering — and one of the league’s most unusual players in terms of skill set in Aleksej Pokusevski.Poku is 7 feet and weighs only a little more than I do. He is physically implausible; he looks as if he plays on stilts. He is a gigantic perimeter player, with decent vision, a knack for blocking shots, and a tendency to throw way-too-ambitious passes in random directions."

Lowe goes in deeper on POKU than the above clip and wonders if SGA will even be playing in the last 20 OKC Thunder games (because of the tanking effort). He notes the understated brilliance of Kenrich Williams and Ty Jerome. A big fan of Lu Dort it was a given he would homage to the defensive master the nice touch was Lowe referring to him as “one of the NBA’s secret delights“.

In addition, he cites Mark Daigneault as a coach to watch and ponders how rookie Josh Giddey will fit into the mix.

Although it sucks to be ranked last, fans shouldn’t take it too hard as most of the bottom-ranked teams are clubs expected to be lottery teams.