Even they lost a key player for a chunk of the postseason, but the two (maybe 3, with Holiday) who mattered the most were healthy.
And even without Porzingis, they had the best, and most balanced, starting five of all the playoff teams.
I’d say that the West is deeper overall but also not filled with powerhouses. That should change with OKC growing and improving. Denver and Minnesota could be in the mix but they both may need to add some guard help. San Antonio is probably 2-3 years and 2-3 players away. Teams like Phoenix, N.O., both LA teams, and Golden State don’t look like real threats and may be rebooting. Houston is interesting but I see them more in the 4-5 seed range for a while.
I realized that I didn’t even mention Dallas. This run seemed a little flukey to me. I guess if they can somehow add a third offensive threat, they can remain in the mix.
OKC needs Chet to bulk up and find another big because Chet got abused by Gafford and Lively. I would have to think that Presti will use Giddey along with a billion 1st round picks to get a wing player who can shoot.
They could also package some of that draft capital to get Clingan in this draft. However, I think they have $30mil-ish in cap space, so they could also go after either Hartenstein or Claxton in the FA market.
If they do trade, I’d appreciate them sending Jaylin Williams out, to reduce the confusion.
The inverse of this is that Boston came back from 0-3 last year to force a game 7, just for Tatum to roll his ankle and be totally ineffective. Otherwise, you could easily be talking about 3 straight years of Eastern Conference Champs.
IMO re: Chet, they need to figure out how good a shooter he is. If he and Dort had made their 3’s vs. the Mavs, they may well be in the Finals instead. All of the drive and kick 3’s that the C’s got and made in the Finals, OKC either missed or were reluctant to take.
I don’t know how much I care about him getting bullied. It mattered–all players have weaknesses and they always matter to at least some extent. But rebounding is probably the cheapest skill to buy and lots of different kinds of players have it. Post defense matters against, like, 1 team and they’re clearly not guaranteed to face it. It’s also cheap to buy.
In any case, prioritizing anything other than the guy you think will be the best player at your pick in the draft is a bad idea. These guys don’t develop fast enough and their hit rates are low enough that fit is irrelevant. Even if by chance the guy becomes the thing you think he’s going to be, 90+% of your team has turned over by then. We even have a super concrete example here–recall the last time OKC had an awesome young core that could compete for a title
What do you mean by this? Seems very elite for his size no?
I saw that Chet had like the 2nd most unassisted baskets this year among rookies which is highly impressive considering he was on a very good team with very good guards.
Think if he’s healthy he’s clearly a regular AS level player, and 2nd or 3rd best guy on a title team. So I agree with you on not worrying too much about one playoff series performance and over adjusting
Like, if he’s only going to knock down 35% of his 3’s on meh volume and reluctant to take open looks, I think the Mavs sag + rim protect strategy will work for other teams. And I think we have seen that the Mavs talent wasn’t actually that incredible.
The most likely outcome a few years from now is that he’s probably an above league average shooter who can confidently bang in open pick and pop 3’s? That’s what I think is a typical aging curve? But if he’s not I’d guess his value was mostly on defense and that there’s not a ton of value over playoff 5’s there? Which maybe makes me think about designing the team differently. I dk, file under speculative.
Chet will be fine. You just have to replace Giddey with another player that can shoot. Someone (Zach Lowe?) said that the OKC aren’t really a 5 out team because they have Giddey in the dunker spot.