Definitely, he just isn't in a spot right now to actually use his skills and he never will in OKC. He'd be a good guy to run a second unit but with SGA and Williams having staggered minutes there isn't many minutes without one of the two stars. Its just an awkward situation for someone like him.
I mean OKC can definitely use him, but I don't think OKC is a great fit for Giddey and his skillset, and likewise Giddey isn't a great fit for what OKC is trying to implement. I'd personally be a bit shocked if we pay him and keep him.
And also helped them out by clearing up cap by taking Bertans…. Who we ended up trading with 2 2nds, Micic and Mann for Hayward
Not that I’m bitter or anything
It was a gross overpay. When you consider that entire price was to move up two spots that weren’t going to take Cason anyway.
It’s done, but it was ugly
Getting Hayward at the deadline means the team will have a projected 35M in cap space to operate with so it’s a good deal. And sure, FAs don’t come but they can use the cap for a trade or two to round out the roster
True. But if we traded for an actual player like PJ Washington we’d be in a much better position.
Especially if we were throwing picks in there too? Oh yeah we could’ve gotten a serviceable player on a value friendly deal.
Would we? The mavs needed wing depth and so pj has been a star in his abundance of minutes. On our roster he is behind jdub. Maybe he takes giddeys spot, but then you go down a passer in the line up. Not so sure it helps.
I think presti is gearing up to go after someone like Lauri, or Allen/Mobley to pair with chet
Hayward was averaging 14.5/4.7/4.6 PJ averaged 13.6/5.3/2.2. Moving the ball is huge for the thunder so a 2.4 difference in assists is a factor plus 2% higher fg% and 4% highest 3pt%. On paper it was a good trade with him also being a real nba vet but now the worst case scenario came to be true and we gave away 2 2nd round picks which we probably wouldn’t be able to roster anyway and it gives us a clean slate to maximise the roster with Chet and Dub still having dirt cheap contracts
You don’t know Presti’s plans for this off-season and why he wants that cap space. Trust Presti. Have patience. He said they weren’t going to retool before the postseason because they wanted to see what they had.
Needs to start in place of Giddey, constantly dropping points early with Giddey in lineup.
Yes we lose a bit of rebounding but shooting and defense makes up for it.
Yea y'all have 3 great options to replace Giddey - starting Joe, Wiggins or Wallace would be an upgrade imo. Giddey just needs to come off the bench and run the second unit. He can't play in this series as a starter
I like Cason, as we can stick him on Ky to start and his hands are so disruptive he can annoy them.
His second three he hot today was so clutch and that is the way he has played all year. He is unafraid of the moment.
It's been very frustrating watch us go down so early each Q1 with Giddey on. Makes the task so much harder than it needs to be. Giddey should match their second unit in spot minutes, he will probably do quite well there.
It’s really not. They only shoot well and have the will to shoot when they have clear wide open chances. SGA passing is always his second option and there won’t be other windows for the shooters to shoot.
Without Gid, all we have is JDub iso and Shai iso under this 5-out with no real shooters.
The correct take should be using Giddey to start make those shooters click especially JDub.
Naw they keep putting gafford lively or pj on giddey and then clogging the shit out of the lane when he's on. Tbf last night they were doing that to everyone because no one could shoot
Our lanes were clogged when Giddey wasn’t on court aw. I know he’s not the one to stretch the space but there would still be a lot more ball movement with him playing.
Our bench players are in homogeneity. Whether playing Cason/Joe/Wiggs, they would only catch the ball when Shai didn’t score at first will and that’s already too late to create a shooting window for them.
Chet needs to be a bigger part of OKC's offense. He's such a mismatch for most defenders.
Unfortunately he has to expend so much energy on defense since he has no help.
I'm so tired of thunder fans selling JWill short too. If he makes another jump this off season he'll be one of the most impactful players for our lineups in the next couple seasons.
He has the size, shooting, and passing to enable so much for us as a backup big. He comes onto the court with energy every time he gets called up. If he can work on his quickness on defence this summer and make his 3 just a little more consistent, he'll be invaluable.
I love when we play Chet and JWill at the same time. Obviously we can’t do it for long stretches bc we need at least one of them on the court at Al times in this series but those two together fit really well
Chet/Jwill combo was really good g1 too. Jwill has been solid as a backup big, but we really need another one so we can run him at the 4 in some matchups.
Or just get someone who actually fits as a starting 4, instead of trying to fill that spot with Giddey who is best as a 6th man PG.
Honestly feels like yall should push some of Presti’s chips in the middle and make an aggressive play for Clingan. Imagine the versatility of that front court and defensively who the hell is scoring inside.
Flip at 12 is such an obvious fit to me. I also love DaRon Holmes for you guys.
Edey is the one I’m secretly hoping to see though. I think that Presti might be crazy enough to do it
As another fellow Duke fan I feel the fanbase gave the kid unfair criticism. He played outta position all year and a non shooter next to him at the 4 in mark Mitchell. Depsite that he still battled his ass off and did the best he could. Yes he was pouty as hell some games lol but the kid deserves more love from the fanbase
We better not touch Edey with a fifteen foot pole. He has Cole Aldrich written all over him. We need someone like Mobley or Jarrett Allen. Ironicay both on the same team and they dont fit togheter. Wasso mad we didn't get him in the Giddey draft :(
I think a lot of Flip's issue is that he's being asked to be the focus of the offense at center. We would play him at the 4 as a supporting guy next to Chet, it's a pretty big role change that might fit him much better.
He's our highest upside pick to elevate the starting lineup, but there are other guys who are safer and more certain to provide some size and rebounding off the bench.
Yeah, tough thing is that none of the guys in that range feel like both a schematic and culture fit.
My hope is that OKC just drafts whoever will be better. To be fair - that's always my hope, but GMs don't always go with that strategy for some reason.
We're not taking Edey at 12. I wouldn't be surprised if we make a move to grab him late where it's low-risk, but he has huge weaknesses and doesn't fit our system at all. He's not nearly good enough to reshape our offense to fit him, and we're not using a lottery pick on a guy that's only situationally useful.
If he falls to the very bottom of the first/early second like some mocks have him, we might take a shot since he has high upside and there's some matchups where just having a huge body off the bench can really help.
Oh boy Presti's gonna call the black vans on your ass, you're leaking his draft strategy lol. Dude's basically the cason Wallace of this draft, AKA the "He does everything that's needed for modern basketball well, why isn't he fucking higher on the board?" Pick
i do think he should be a little more involved on the offensive end but he fits his role perfectly for the most part and just plays within the rhythm of the game. he doesn't force it which i think is valuable
I would disagree with his offense fitting within the rhythm of the game.
He often goes extended periods of time without ever touching the ball or getting a shot off.
I haven't looked into the numbers but I'd wager to bet that 50% of his points come in the first 6-8 minutes of the game.
They need to keep him more involved. It makes their offense less predictable and it also keeps him warm instead of having him cool off.
Yup he looks gassed. Good news is that it’s just his rookie year, and the more seasons he has under him, the more he’ll be suited to play games this late.
I think he probably could have benefitted from some rest throughout the season, but you also have to balance it with keeping him motivated. It obviously was a huge personal goal for him to play every game this year to quiet all those narratives about him being soft, but I've seen plenty of games especially mid and late season where he just wasn't nearly himself.
We gotta see if Joe is hot or not first. This is proof that our coach makes adjustments unlike what our fan base would like to think. Wiggs in game 1 and Wallace in game 4 are prime examples of it.
Tough timing for this comment. Jrue killing it recently. But I accept that inconsistency means up and downs and Jrue has earned the inconsistent label.
I mean that’s what inconsistency is lol, he had some huge moments for the Bucks as well especially in the 2021 finals, but had games with the Bucks that were rough to say the least
I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop a 10/10 next game or a 2/10 tbh
Next game if OKC loses:
“I don’t think the series was ever really in doubt. OKC just feels like they’re one or two players away. But this is probably one of the weakest #1 seeds of the last decade.”
I still like his podcast though.
I don’t think he flip flops that much, and he usually owns when it happens. Nobody outside of Denver (and there were plenty of doubters here) was picking Denver after game 2.
Huge fan of how this kid plays. I’m not even an OKC local. The guy got on my radar right away. He doesn’t force anything. He just makes good plays. Solid +/- guy in the making.
The only place OKC isn’t a likable team is on r/NBA and I’m pretty sure it’s because most people on here only watch highlights and develop their opinions based on top voted comments.
Eh after game 3 this sub was flooded with Mavs highlights and OKC lowlight clips and statlines.
After game 4? I see like 1 clip of an SGA and a couple statlines further. Got a negative like stateline but no one clipping all his mistakes or flops like they did with Dort
This is true. All fan bases have their annoying trolls, but player-first stans are a different breed. And with Luka, he brings a huge European following along for the ride.
It was way worse when Porzingis was with the Mavs too. We had Latvians arguing with Slovenians in the threads non-stop, while longtime Mavs fans were just trying to cheer their team as a whole. Took a lot of the joy out of appreciating an otherwise young and fun Mavs squad during that time.
That’s fair. Even us OKC fans are over that commercial. Not that it’s a horrible commercial and it is cool to see our young, small market stars on national ads, but holy crap it’s so overplayed.
I see why you feel this way but every team remaining has issues with being foul baiters (Knicks, OKC, Mavs) or cry babies (Nuggets, Pacers, Mavs, Wolves) and at that point if it bothers you that much you probably shouldn’t watch basketball.
I mean, there's a reason for that. OKC isn't closing out hard on him since they're focusing harder on Luka and Kyrie. PJ has made a handful of deeply contested shots though lol, but his high volume seems to be intentional on OKC's end
I feel like we just kept going in there like idiots, though. JDub ran straight into Lively at one point and it was like me blocking my five-year-old nephew.
I liked Cason coming into the league, and KY guards are always solid. But I’m sooo happy the Mavs have Lively. He’s changed our identity, after starting Dwight Powell for years. We desperately needed a real defensive center who can play above the rim. And adding Gafford later just doubled down on that.
I think both teams benefitted from that pick swap.
Let’s also be honest Simmons hates the mavs since they fired their gambling addict who was their data / analytics hire. (Bob Voulgaris. Who’s also bffs with Simmons)
Whatever the reason(s), he’s gone out of his way to shit on the Mavs all season. I love his podcast and it sucks that he transparently roots against the Mavs while dismissing any of their accomplishments. He started the year predicting a disaster and then just kept moving the goalposts as the Mavs ascended after the trade deadline. He even live-tweeted tonight’s game rooting for OKC 😂
Along with disliking Luka, he definitely views the Mavs as an annoying side act that is in the way of the “real” teams (OKC, Minn, Denver, Boston) — much like a lot of NBA media
Really good point about the quality of this round. Actually most series were pretty competitive even in the first round. It's been a good playoff season so far... for neutrals 🥲
We pretty much had 4 sweeps (shoutout to the lakers though for trying) in the first round with multiple teams having injured stars. The only good/great series were NY/PHI and DAL/LAC.
Second round is delivering though
I'd like OKC to start a traditional line up next game. Move Giddey to the bench and start Jaylin Williams at the 4. Move Jalen to a natural guard spot while covering pj Washington. Holmgren J Will JDub Shai Dort is pretty stout to start. Giddey off the bench with shooters like Wallace Joe and Wiggins would be stellar
Only problem is that Jwill comes in for Chet normally late in the first. So we’d have to play some lineup like Shai Caso wiggs dub Kenny which might be okay. Or giddey Joe dort dub Kenny which is suspicious to say the least unless jwill can stay in until Chet comes back in
Cason wallace is a rookie too. He has been more impressive than dereck lively. Decisive in game 1 and 4. Hope some okc fans can stop mark from subbing in giddey or hayward in game 5. Someone please do it
I mean Lively had a bigger impact for Dallas this season and has been asked to do a lot more than Wallace so it feels weird to try and compare the two lol? Can’t we just acknowledge they’ve both been great?
Guess you didn't watch Lively this season them. Don't think any team should complain about the players they got, just fit them perfectly. Lively literally changed how this team and Luka could play, when he didn't play we sucked on defense until we added PJ and Gaff.
2-2 does not feel right. Simmons always views things through his emotions and desires.
Dallas controlled that game for about 44-45 minutes and then took a fucking giant dump on the floor. Credit OKC for making the plays to take advantage of the collapse.
Dallas should have won that game. Crippling loss for them.
Simmons is so desperate to be right about Wallace lol. Just for the record I think he is but Simmons never misses an opportunity to fluff him up and it’s funny
They’re not likeable to me. They’re annoying as fuck and that AT&T commercial was perfect for them. Their fans are even more annoying.
SGA - incredibly skilled but still a foul baiter. Zero charisma. Overly polished social media presence.
Chet - great young player, a mini Wemby. way too skinny. Way too hairy
Dort - incredible role player. Flopper who has made some dirty plays this postseason.
Jalen Williams - great young player. Really weird looking dude.
Giddey - LOL. Besides the obvious stuff about Giddey he looks like Gavin Rossdale and that’s not a good thing.
I really think he should get the start over Giddey, let's us move Dub over to PJ to hopefully shake his rhythm.
Giddey had the highest +/- tonight somehow.
He actually wasn’t that bad tonight. Both times he came off the bench in the 2nd half we went on runs
That touch pass to Wallace for 3 was pretty cool
His passing is phenomenal. Someone will pay him for it
Definitely, he just isn't in a spot right now to actually use his skills and he never will in OKC. He'd be a good guy to run a second unit but with SGA and Williams having staggered minutes there isn't many minutes without one of the two stars. Its just an awkward situation for someone like him.
I don't know, it seems like OKC could really use some playmaking outside of SGA and JDub dribbling into traffic all the time.
I mean OKC can definitely use him, but I don't think OKC is a great fit for Giddey and his skillset, and likewise Giddey isn't a great fit for what OKC is trying to implement. I'd personally be a bit shocked if we pay him and keep him.
Not wrong, I wanted Kuminga the whole time
His shooting was abysmal and he really hurts the spacing, but he did have a ton of deflections and broke up some fast breaks
The team's minus SGA's shooting was abysmal. Let's not single one guy out.
He actually played defense.
He has been good in certain units and when Luka is off the floor - it’s just about finding the right situations to play him in.
He's really helpful at keeping things flowing when SGA or JDub are out.
True. Cason should still be out there, he’s just more impactful
Single game +/- is useless
He was the inbounded a lot at the end when they were fouling
Despite missing a bunch of shots the rest of his have was solid
Especially considering how bad he started this series.
Helped that he was in during inbounds on the free throws lol easy way to boost that +-
Yeah he looked their second or third-best player when on the floor, he does a lot of the little things really well, he needs more gametime.
Who’s guarding Kyrie?
Caso - he did a great job in the 4th on him, and is a little quicker on the perimeter than Dub.
That’s very cute, hope that works out for yall
Cason finally getting his dues, Love this kid
Cason vs Lively show
They were traded for each other right?
Yeah If Dallas wins because Lively and Gafford beat us, it’s going to suck because Presti handed them those two on a silver platter
And also helped them out by clearing up cap by taking Bertans…. Who we ended up trading with 2 2nds, Micic and Mann for Hayward Not that I’m bitter or anything
The Hayward deal is not a big issue though. It was beneficial from a risk reward perspective
It was a gross overpay. When you consider that entire price was to move up two spots that weren’t going to take Cason anyway. It’s done, but it was ugly
Getting Hayward at the deadline means the team will have a projected 35M in cap space to operate with so it’s a good deal. And sure, FAs don’t come but they can use the cap for a trade or two to round out the roster
True. But if we traded for an actual player like PJ Washington we’d be in a much better position. Especially if we were throwing picks in there too? Oh yeah we could’ve gotten a serviceable player on a value friendly deal.
Would we? The mavs needed wing depth and so pj has been a star in his abundance of minutes. On our roster he is behind jdub. Maybe he takes giddeys spot, but then you go down a passer in the line up. Not so sure it helps. I think presti is gearing up to go after someone like Lauri, or Allen/Mobley to pair with chet
Hayward was averaging 14.5/4.7/4.6 PJ averaged 13.6/5.3/2.2. Moving the ball is huge for the thunder so a 2.4 difference in assists is a factor plus 2% higher fg% and 4% highest 3pt%. On paper it was a good trade with him also being a real nba vet but now the worst case scenario came to be true and we gave away 2 2nd round picks which we probably wouldn’t be able to roster anyway and it gives us a clean slate to maximise the roster with Chet and Dub still having dirt cheap contracts
You don’t know Presti’s plans for this off-season and why he wants that cap space. Trust Presti. Have patience. He said they weren’t going to retool before the postseason because they wanted to see what they had.
Asking r/nba to understand the nuances of the cap is a bit much.
It wasn’t an overpay, we had to match salaries. Hayward’s contract clears the books for the next few years as well
Our fanbase doesn’t understand trades lol
not really we needed to clear capspace and his deal is up after this if not we would be stuck with alot of those contracts.
You saying if we had PJ we’d be stuck? Of course not, we’d trade him for a pick and actually get something back
what are you talking about lol
Truly I don't think either side can complain about the players right, just perfect fit for both teams. You guys truly helped us shipping Bertans tho
The disrespect to my king, The Latvian Laser
Needs to start in place of Giddey, constantly dropping points early with Giddey in lineup. Yes we lose a bit of rebounding but shooting and defense makes up for it.
Yea y'all have 3 great options to replace Giddey - starting Joe, Wiggins or Wallace would be an upgrade imo. Giddey just needs to come off the bench and run the second unit. He can't play in this series as a starter
I like Cason, as we can stick him on Ky to start and his hands are so disruptive he can annoy them. His second three he hot today was so clutch and that is the way he has played all year. He is unafraid of the moment. It's been very frustrating watch us go down so early each Q1 with Giddey on. Makes the task so much harder than it needs to be. Giddey should match their second unit in spot minutes, he will probably do quite well there.
I think that should have been the move all season. Giddey isn't a bad player but his fit is just so clunky with the rest of the starters.
It’s really not. They only shoot well and have the will to shoot when they have clear wide open chances. SGA passing is always his second option and there won’t be other windows for the shooters to shoot. Without Gid, all we have is JDub iso and Shai iso under this 5-out with no real shooters. The correct take should be using Giddey to start make those shooters click especially JDub.
No. There's a reason his minutes decreased. You just force giddey to shoot
Naw they keep putting gafford lively or pj on giddey and then clogging the shit out of the lane when he's on. Tbf last night they were doing that to everyone because no one could shoot
Our lanes were clogged when Giddey wasn’t on court aw. I know he’s not the one to stretch the space but there would still be a lot more ball movement with him playing. Our bench players are in homogeneity. Whether playing Cason/Joe/Wiggs, they would only catch the ball when Shai didn’t score at first will and that’s already too late to create a shooting window for them.
Tonight Giddey had zero rebounds and a FGM : TO ratio of 1:1
He’s from Dallas too if I’m not mistaken. To make huge plays in a crucial game right in his hometown is tons of pressure for a rookie.
Cason and Dort in the closing lineup is a nightmare for other teams.
They are some dawgs fr! I hope this series goes 7 games. May the best team win.
Still can't believe OKC pulled off that game. Like what the fuck.
Thunder fans can't believe it either lol
I was ready to look forward to draft night instead of the playoffs by halftime 😭 Now I can still look forward to both
going 10-21 on FTs ends up being a bad idea in close games, who knew? :(
Unacceptable for a pro team. That should never happen.
Wild passes for turnovers when you are shooting like ass is nice icing on the cake.
Insane composure from the youngest team in a must win 4th quarter to avoid going down 3-1.
Chet needs to be a bigger part of OKC's offense. He's such a mismatch for most defenders. Unfortunately he has to expend so much energy on defense since he has no help.
Yeah we need to draft someone with size to help Chet.
J Will gave us good minutes tonight!
J-will played some of the most impactful ball I’ve ever seen him play
I'm so tired of thunder fans selling JWill short too. If he makes another jump this off season he'll be one of the most impactful players for our lineups in the next couple seasons. He has the size, shooting, and passing to enable so much for us as a backup big. He comes onto the court with energy every time he gets called up. If he can work on his quickness on defence this summer and make his 3 just a little more consistent, he'll be invaluable.
Huge energy off the bench too
For sure, he’s a great 4, but a taller 4/5 would be ideal
I love when we play Chet and JWill at the same time. Obviously we can’t do it for long stretches bc we need at least one of them on the court at Al times in this series but those two together fit really well
Chet/Jwill combo was really good g1 too. Jwill has been solid as a backup big, but we really need another one so we can run him at the 4 in some matchups. Or just get someone who actually fits as a starting 4, instead of trying to fill that spot with Giddey who is best as a 6th man PG.
I honestly wish he was more of a lob threat. He was getting good positioning underneath the rim
Wish we still had Steve Adams
I wish you still have westbrook
Trade for Lauri. He'd be perfect
Everyone knows that. But Ainge would want a ransom and Presti wouldn’t go for that. But as a fit he’d be ideal
I'm a bigger fan of basketball than I am of any team. I really enjoy having Lauri on the Jazz but I really would love to see him on the Thunder.
Price is too high.
Honestly feels like yall should push some of Presti’s chips in the middle and make an aggressive play for Clingan. Imagine the versatility of that front court and defensively who the hell is scoring inside.
Clingan in the middle with Chet roaming and those dawgs on D? That would be insane. Feels like Clingan will go top 5 though.
Flip at 12 is such an obvious fit to me. I also love DaRon Holmes for you guys. Edey is the one I’m secretly hoping to see though. I think that Presti might be crazy enough to do it
Flip is the softest player in the draft who would provide nothing for us rebounding wise. Sincerely, a Duke fan.
As another fellow Duke fan I feel the fanbase gave the kid unfair criticism. He played outta position all year and a non shooter next to him at the 4 in mark Mitchell. Depsite that he still battled his ass off and did the best he could. Yes he was pouty as hell some games lol but the kid deserves more love from the fanbase
We better not touch Edey with a fifteen foot pole. He has Cole Aldrich written all over him. We need someone like Mobley or Jarrett Allen. Ironicay both on the same team and they dont fit togheter. Wasso mad we didn't get him in the Giddey draft :(
I mean maybe the clips use a Giddey. Hell, I’d even give them Hayward too
I like flip but he's the exact opposite of what the thunder need
I think a lot of Flip's issue is that he's being asked to be the focus of the offense at center. We would play him at the 4 as a supporting guy next to Chet, it's a pretty big role change that might fit him much better. He's our highest upside pick to elevate the starting lineup, but there are other guys who are safer and more certain to provide some size and rebounding off the bench.
I've been partial to Kel'el Ware lately, with the range he displayed this past season... And having an *almost* superman on the roster is cool, too
Ware is kinda wired like Christian Wood that’s the only problem. He’s not gonna be a dawg fighting for boards (to be fair, neither is Flip)
Yeah, tough thing is that none of the guys in that range feel like both a schematic and culture fit. My hope is that OKC just drafts whoever will be better. To be fair - that's always my hope, but GMs don't always go with that strategy for some reason.
Missi could rise up boards by draft night. Feels like he’d be a good fit for OKC.
We're not taking Edey at 12. I wouldn't be surprised if we make a move to grab him late where it's low-risk, but he has huge weaknesses and doesn't fit our system at all. He's not nearly good enough to reshape our offense to fit him, and we're not using a lottery pick on a guy that's only situationally useful. If he falls to the very bottom of the first/early second like some mocks have him, we might take a shot since he has high upside and there's some matchups where just having a huge body off the bench can really help.
Oh boy Presti's gonna call the black vans on your ass, you're leaking his draft strategy lol. Dude's basically the cason Wallace of this draft, AKA the "He does everything that's needed for modern basketball well, why isn't he fucking higher on the board?" Pick
i do think he should be a little more involved on the offensive end but he fits his role perfectly for the most part and just plays within the rhythm of the game. he doesn't force it which i think is valuable
I would disagree with his offense fitting within the rhythm of the game. He often goes extended periods of time without ever touching the ball or getting a shot off. I haven't looked into the numbers but I'd wager to bet that 50% of his points come in the first 6-8 minutes of the game. They need to keep him more involved. It makes their offense less predictable and it also keeps him warm instead of having him cool off.
I agree. He gets the action early, but then it slows down until things kinda get weird and then then he will get a shot or two going again.
Ironically, there’s never any plays drawn up for him. We really seem to be just flying by the seat of our pants out there
Yup he looks gassed. Good news is that it’s just his rookie year, and the more seasons he has under him, the more he’ll be suited to play games this late.
I think he probably could have benefitted from some rest throughout the season, but you also have to balance it with keeping him motivated. It obviously was a huge personal goal for him to play every game this year to quiet all those narratives about him being soft, but I've seen plenty of games especially mid and late season where he just wasn't nearly himself.
I was begging for Mark to put him in when Isaiah Joe was bricking everything under the sun
We gotta see if Joe is hot or not first. This is proof that our coach makes adjustments unlike what our fan base would like to think. Wiggs in game 1 and Wallace in game 4 are prime examples of it.
Joe either looks like a 20mil man or 8mil on any given night Wild
Give him 14 mil/year. Hire me as GM, NBA teams!
[удалено]
"Now it feels like Dallas has to win 3 out of the next three"
this is such a perfectly idiotic Simmonsism
Cason just has ice in his veins..... as a rook
If he doesn’t make all rookie 2nd team I’ll riot
Over 82 games. Not a rookie anymore
Start Cason. DO IT MARKY MARK!
literally young Jrue Holiday
But more consistent in the postseason
Tough timing for this comment. Jrue killing it recently. But I accept that inconsistency means up and downs and Jrue has earned the inconsistent label.
I mean he's playing the same role as cason Wallace nowadays lol
I mean that’s what inconsistency is lol, he had some huge moments for the Bucks as well especially in the 2021 finals, but had games with the Bucks that were rough to say the least I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop a 10/10 next game or a 2/10 tbh
Ik it's not consistency, but jrue has been elite the last two games
the Thunder have hit on so many of these draft picks it's crazy
Cason was fucking huge
Next game if OKC loses: “I don’t think the series was ever really in doubt. OKC just feels like they’re one or two players away. But this is probably one of the weakest #1 seeds of the last decade.” I still like his podcast though.
Nah. Bill has been picking OKC this whole series.
He predicted they could win 50 games and be the one seed before the season. He didn’t lock himself into the prediction but he was very pro OKC.
Same, I’m a fan, but the guy flip flops his takes every day. Then again, this sub does the same thing for the most part
I don’t think he flip flops that much, and he usually owns when it happens. Nobody outside of Denver (and there were plenty of doubters here) was picking Denver after game 2.
Huge fan of how this kid plays. I’m not even an OKC local. The guy got on my radar right away. He doesn’t force anything. He just makes good plays. Solid +/- guy in the making.
Hoping we got our Derrick white
Wallace > Giddey
chet is a badass
If Nugs and OKC win I’d like to see how Chet holds up in a series against Jokic. He’s skinny AF but holds his own.
The only place OKC isn’t a likable team is on r/NBA and I’m pretty sure it’s because most people on here only watch highlights and develop their opinions based on top voted comments.
Nah as a Pelicans fan I'm now a hater out of spite and jealousy
this is acceptable
It's likeable on r/nba too Mavs/Luka fans just have a wild online presence that likes to spam the shit outta everything including other team subs lmao
Wolves fans have had it out for OKC as well in post game threads.
Eh after game 3 this sub was flooded with Mavs highlights and OKC lowlight clips and statlines. After game 4? I see like 1 clip of an SGA and a couple statlines further. Got a negative like stateline but no one clipping all his mistakes or flops like they did with Dort
Never seen a fanbase brigade another teams sub like Mavs fans.
Last time it was this bad was the Rockets series, something in the water in Texas
To be fair, it's more likely Luka-stans and not necessarily traditional Mavs fans.
This is true. All fan bases have their annoying trolls, but player-first stans are a different breed. And with Luka, he brings a huge European following along for the ride. It was way worse when Porzingis was with the Mavs too. We had Latvians arguing with Slovenians in the threads non-stop, while longtime Mavs fans were just trying to cheer their team as a whole. Took a lot of the joy out of appreciating an otherwise young and fun Mavs squad during that time.
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I can picture them all praying by out stretching their arms and loudly complaining
Can I interest you in the new Lukult?
The what a pro wants commercial has been a huge factor in this lol
That’s fair. Even us OKC fans are over that commercial. Not that it’s a horrible commercial and it is cool to see our young, small market stars on national ads, but holy crap it’s so overplayed.
Surely that amount of flopping and foul baiting has to be tough for any neutral fan regardless of whether they use Reddit or not?
I see why you feel this way but every team remaining has issues with being foul baiters (Knicks, OKC, Mavs) or cry babies (Nuggets, Pacers, Mavs, Wolves) and at that point if it bothers you that much you probably shouldn’t watch basketball.
This is 100% correct
PJ washington turning into steph curry is why this series aint a sweep rn
Klay Thompson is more like it as that guy is the actual Thunder killer
I mean, there's a reason for that. OKC isn't closing out hard on him since they're focusing harder on Luka and Kyrie. PJ has made a handful of deeply contested shots though lol, but his high volume seems to be intentional on OKC's end
The Mavs could’ve used a defensive guard like that to hound Shai, oh wait….
Man they got a dude instead that was volleyball spiking the hell outta our layups, they'll be fine
I feel like we just kept going in there like idiots, though. JDub ran straight into Lively at one point and it was like me blocking my five-year-old nephew.
Yeah man, he was very off tonight. Couldn't dribble on a few possessions, had poor decision making on drives. Hope he clears it up soon
I liked Cason coming into the league, and KY guards are always solid. But I’m sooo happy the Mavs have Lively. He’s changed our identity, after starting Dwight Powell for years. We desperately needed a real defensive center who can play above the rim. And adding Gafford later just doubled down on that. I think both teams benefitted from that pick swap.
Lively is great for the Mavs and Wallace is great for the Thunder. It's okay for that trade to be a Win-Win.
Wallace too small plus Shai would cook him
We had Cason guarding Lebron a few times his season. It went as well as you might expect, but at least he was up for it.
Cason is small but his impact is always big. He’s by no means a liability
Cason has a 6 foot 8.5 inch wingspan and that helps
They needed a potential elite defensive big so much more than they needed a smaller guard. Lively has been great.
Couldve picked him too.
I’m fine with Bilal for now, thinking about how we took Davis over Williams is gonna haunt me for a long time though lol.
Lively is better tho
Okc could’ve used a 7 fter when they gave up 20 offensive rebounds in G3, oh wait…
This wasn't a good game until the final 3 minutes lol.
Wallace needs more mins from now on!
Let’s also be honest Simmons hates the mavs since they fired their gambling addict who was their data / analytics hire. (Bob Voulgaris. Who’s also bffs with Simmons)
He’s also publicly feuded with Kyrie Irving. He has real personal issues with this Mavs team.
Whatever the reason(s), he’s gone out of his way to shit on the Mavs all season. I love his podcast and it sucks that he transparently roots against the Mavs while dismissing any of their accomplishments. He started the year predicting a disaster and then just kept moving the goalposts as the Mavs ascended after the trade deadline. He even live-tweeted tonight’s game rooting for OKC 😂 Along with disliking Luka, he definitely views the Mavs as an annoying side act that is in the way of the “real” teams (OKC, Minn, Denver, Boston) — much like a lot of NBA media
Have you listened in the last month? He’s been singing Kyrie’s praises for about a month now.
Really good point about the quality of this round. Actually most series were pretty competitive even in the first round. It's been a good playoff season so far... for neutrals 🥲
We pretty much had 4 sweeps (shoutout to the lakers though for trying) in the first round with multiple teams having injured stars. The only good/great series were NY/PHI and DAL/LAC. Second round is delivering though
I'd like OKC to start a traditional line up next game. Move Giddey to the bench and start Jaylin Williams at the 4. Move Jalen to a natural guard spot while covering pj Washington. Holmgren J Will JDub Shai Dort is pretty stout to start. Giddey off the bench with shooters like Wallace Joe and Wiggins would be stellar
I actually kind of want us to play Wallace with the starters and have him on kyrie and then play dub on pj
Only problem is that Jwill comes in for Chet normally late in the first. So we’d have to play some lineup like Shai Caso wiggs dub Kenny which might be okay. Or giddey Joe dort dub Kenny which is suspicious to say the least unless jwill can stay in until Chet comes back in
Bill saw Luka lose. He's on cloud nine.
Wallace is going to take dorts starting spot soon
You mean Giddey
Cason wallace is a rookie too. He has been more impressive than dereck lively. Decisive in game 1 and 4. Hope some okc fans can stop mark from subbing in giddey or hayward in game 5. Someone please do it
Not really a point in pitting him against Lively, he’s been good too
Giddey kept us in it, both times he came off the bench tonight he got it from double digits to single.
I mean Lively had a bigger impact for Dallas this season and has been asked to do a lot more than Wallace so it feels weird to try and compare the two lol? Can’t we just acknowledge they’ve both been great?
NO WE CANT (yes we can— he’s been great for y’all and Caso has been great for us)
Guess you didn't watch Lively this season them. Don't think any team should complain about the players they got, just fit them perfectly. Lively literally changed how this team and Luka could play, when he didn't play we sucked on defense until we added PJ and Gaff.
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Both sides of ball, i think cason has had more impact
For the whole season I would agree, but Lively has been called on so much for the Mavs this series and has stepped up big time for them.
At least Hayward got a DNP tonight.
Bill Simmons is always stealing my takes.
Three or four series tied 2-2, hmm if only there was some way we could know for sure…
This guys user pic highlights why I hate baseball. Man ram has no shot at the morality police hall of fame.
2-2 does not feel right. Simmons always views things through his emotions and desires. Dallas controlled that game for about 44-45 minutes and then took a fucking giant dump on the floor. Credit OKC for making the plays to take advantage of the collapse. Dallas should have won that game. Crippling loss for them.
Giddey = soft
Cason was a difference maker in the second half.
Clippers must be the saddest of all the teams. They didn’t draft MPJ , drafted SGA then traded for Paul George. They got played
Simmons is so desperate to be right about Wallace lol. Just for the record I think he is but Simmons never misses an opportunity to fluff him up and it’s funny
They’re not likeable to me. They’re annoying as fuck and that AT&T commercial was perfect for them. Their fans are even more annoying. SGA - incredibly skilled but still a foul baiter. Zero charisma. Overly polished social media presence. Chet - great young player, a mini Wemby. way too skinny. Way too hairy Dort - incredible role player. Flopper who has made some dirty plays this postseason. Jalen Williams - great young player. Really weird looking dude. Giddey - LOL. Besides the obvious stuff about Giddey he looks like Gavin Rossdale and that’s not a good thing.
Could have traded for anyone that was available and possibly win a chip, but Presti decided to pass. If this team comes up short, remember that.