You had to figure a trade or two was coming since the Thunder do have to meet some NBA guidelines as far a minimum salary and such. This at least gives the impression the Thunder aren’t just going to completely fleece their fanbase with another season of complete bullshit on the basketball court.
If I read the trade right the Thunder gave up a second round pick and got Favors and a protected first round pick as well.
Based on every single commentor on the Sports Animal yesterday after the Thunder’s abysmal performance in the draft…I would suspect a few more trades might be coming to gve the Thunder the appearance of an NBA team at least somewhat on a par with those Hornet teams which played in OKC after Katrina.
I did my only little non-scientific survey yesterday and not one person I know who like me used to schedule their lives around Thunder games plans on doing such unless the organization puts a viable product on the court.
‘Sam Presti…start using that record amount of draft capital you have and start monetizing those picks into real life NBA players instead of physically underdeveloped white kids from overseas who should be in college somewhere or playing overseas.
Let me go a a step further in my little mini rant. OU just hired a young Final Four coach in Porter Moser. Texas just hired one of the best college coaches in the country in Chris Beard. Kansas has Bill Self. O State with Mike Boynton has it going. Oral Roberts was a Sweet 16 team just a few months ago.
You and the Thunder organization might think you’re immune from hoops ticket competition, but you’re not. Currently…you’re not even in the same universe with the OU football program as far brand and ticket relevance in this market.
Get with it and put a real life basketball team on the court.’
If you’re an O State fan and a Thunder fan this was not a good week. Just a complete dud for Thunder fans who went through a season of tanking thinking at the least they might walk away with a Jalen Suggs or Davion Mitchell or maybe even a Cory Kispert with the second first round pick.
Instead, another pimply kid who should be a freshman playing college basketball with a body and game completely not ready for the NBA. For crying out loud, OU offered Giddy a scholarship.
This must be the Presti model.
But he won’t be challenged by OKC’s uber soft media. He won’t take a tough question. But I think what he and Clay Bennett will observe from their tiicket buying fans is a growing faction of indifference, apathy, and absence at Thunder games this season unless there are a couple of trades on the horizon which will make the Thunder watchable this coming NBA season.
I genuninely wonder at this point what conversations are taking place between Shai and his agent after last night’s performance in the draft.
The Thunder needed a big man. Instead, they add another project and another hybrid guard they don’t need.
There’s no way even NBA fan like me will pay face value to see this level of basketball. This is why there’s a G League. This is why MLB and the NHL have minor league systems. Fans don’t want to pay for a night of NBA basketball and instead watch a tanking G League level of basketball.
I’m calm and indifferent for the time being waiting to see if Sam Presti insults the intelligence of his fans in Oklahoma City with another year of bad basketball which goes beyond not just being irrelevant, but more to the point being an insult to the people who pay their money to see a viable product on the court.
This is a market where I wouldn’t just assume the disposable sports entertainment dollar is going to pay for G League ball at NBA prices into eternity.
Youngest player taken in the draft at eighteen years of age. It looks like the Thunder are going to be very young and very much in rebuild again this season.
Cade went first, then Jalen Green, then Evan Mobley, then Jalen Suggs at four.
Poku last season, now Giddey. I wonder why Shai and his agent see his future being in Oklahoma City at this point.
Then the Thunder took another guard with their pick at 16 by selecting Tre Mann from Florida.
Maybe with Covid heating back up in non vaccinated bumblefuck Oklahoma the Thunder aren’t going to allow fans in the building again this season.
I have no idea what they’re doing.
But the league as a whole will be interesting. I can’t wait to start following Cade in Detroit with Jerami.The Bucks of course will be fun. Russell is going to be a Laker…good for him.
It is what it is in Oklahoma City with the AAA developmental team which Adam Silver along with Sam Presti has put in place in the most culturally regressive city in the thirty team NBA.
This is the model moving forward in Oklahoma. This way these young black players won’t have to stay in Oklahoma for more than three years before being dispersed to other American cities which aren’t still living in the 1950’s.
This won’t effect me though because Joe Castiglione at OU makes sure every sports fan in the area can get value when they buy a ticket to an OU sporting event.
My love affair with Big 12 hoops will be special this year as it will be the last season with OU in the league. So…in a way for me it’s okay the Thunder did what they just did in this NBA draft.
I hope to see Ja Morant, Cade, Jerami, Russell, Giannis, Trey Young and Devin Booker in person. But I can assure you with what the Thunder are doing I won’t be spending anything this season beyond 30-40% of face value for a Thunder home game ticket.
I’ll be interested to observe Thunder Nation’s reaction to what Sam Presti and Adam Silver did in last night’s NBA draft.
Maybe what they’re saying is they think Josh Giddey is the Aussie version of Luka and since he’s not black maybe he would consider staying in Oklahoma beyond three basketball seasons.
I don’t know. Maybe that was the thinking. Could be.
My…my…my. I just read Tramel’s Thursday story on the make believe bullshit Darwinian-Trump trickle downers in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
And I must say at this point…I’m flattered Berry is reading my blog and following my talking points on this bullshit in Stillwater.
Tell me exactly when and where the state funded institution in which Boone and Carl Icahn leveraged back in the day became such a stalwart of monetary propriety. Was I in a coma? How did I miss this? The instituition which whored itself to the two most notorious financial leverage artists of my time in essence bought a Power 5 conference state institution because it was a lot cheaper than buying the Dallas Cowboys.
And this is the instituion which President Kayse is lecturing economic morals in behalf of in the aftermath of OU simply leaving the Big 12 to go play all the teams Mike Gundy doesn’t have the balls to ever put on his schedule.
Mike Gundy should leave his wife and propose marriage to Kayse Shrum because Mullet King just found his soulmate Mullet Queen.
Tramel…you know I love you almost as much as Dan Jenkins.
Keep reading the blog and keep up the faith that maybe someday the Bolsheiviks will exit Stillwater and Darwinian free enterprise will possibly exist in Payne County.
This was a special okcthunderground.com Op-Ed by Mike Jackson.
If you’re an OU fan…you love Switzer no matter how bumpy the last year of his tenure was for the program. I was literally at Phog Allen Field House in Lawrence on a Monday night for Big Monday on ESPN with Vitale on the air when the shit totally hit the fan with the Sports Ilustrated article on Charles Thompson. But it was the most fun I’ve ever had at a basketball game as Billy’s team beat KU in overtime on the road. Vintage Billy Tubbs. I didn’t think any of us wearing crimson were going to get out of there alive. BUCKET LIST AND I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT AT THE TIME.
As a player unless you’re Troy Aikman still butt-hurt about the fact the Sooners went back to the Wishbone with Jamelle Hollieway in 1985 in that national champinshp season…his players loved him and that’s more than half the battle if you recruit good players.
Obviously…Switzer thinks the Sooners heading to the SEC is a good thing for OU. But he said some things today which I hadn’t even considered. He thinks the fact that OU, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri being in the same pod will give the Razorbacks enough boost to start winning most of their recruiting battles with Oklahoma State…which is a big deal for the Hogs.
Arkansas was something back in the days of the old Southwest Conference. I still remember when Texas and Arkansas squared off in that 15-14 Texas win for the national championship in a game which was played in Little Rock if I recall.
I know Fayetville will now be an every other year trip for our family given we have some property east of town by Lake Sequoyah which in essence runs along the White River and is some of the best trout fishing in America.
Gotta see if our old White River fishing guide who used to be Bill Clinton’s barber is still guiding on the river. The stories that man tells while you’re fishing and sipping Jack Daniels floating the river make for a highly entertaining day.
Of course…I’ve been to Auburn before since my wife is a War Eagle…and I’ve made the Fayetville trip several times to see Aubrun whip the Razorbacks, but maybe this will help Arkansas get some footing back in their program. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful campus in Fayetville.
I’m going to start touring every campus in the SEC both during football and basketball season.
I’ll know better than to evoke my thoughts aloud on the grifter human junk bond Trump, but hell—I had to to do that in Stillwater…so no big change there.
I can’t wait to hit Oxford and see if I can get in touch with John Grisham. My dad actually had an intern in his firm who at one time who was the original lawyer on the famous Dennis Spence murder case which became the basis of the Grisham non-fiction book… The Innocent Man. I would love to meet John Grisham since I’ve read most of his books and talk to him about the Innocence Project.
Sam Presti—I hope you have your game face on because this is an extremely important night for the future of NBA basketball in Oklahoma City.
This is where you either have a really good night or the concept of sustainability takes a hit in a market where the margin for error is very thin.
You guys screwed around and won those games against Boston and the LA Clippers in the last 25 games of the tank and that’s regrettable, but this is where you earn your ownership equity in the Thunder.
OKC is at 6, 16, and 18 in the first round with three picks in the second round. I’m sure like me you realize the Big 12 while unraveling as a football league became the best basketball conference in the country these past three seasons.
In our very backyard Texas high school basketball has become something very special.
My top six picks are 1 Cade Cunningham, 2 Evan Mobley, 3 Jalen Suggs, 4 Jalen Green, 5 Davion Mitchell, and 6 James Bouknight. I have Cory Kispert at either 10 or 11. Let’s keep that in mind
Giannis was the 15th pick in his class. Khris Middleton was the 41st player in his draft and Jrue was a non-lottery pick as well. My point? Value for teams building to be contenders doesn’t have to come from the lottery picks exclusively.
I would assume we’re keeping Shai who was the 11th player taken in his class.
I don’t think Troy Weaver is in any way parting with Cade so I see that as not on the table. But I think everything else is on the table including Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs who would both be great fits with Shai.
Let’s see if we could intimidate either the Cleveland Cavaliers or Orlando Magic while they’re on the clock. Never give a sucker an even break and kick him when he’s down. Just saying.
‘We’ need a contemporary NBA center. Evan Mobley could be special. I’m assuming you’re with me on that. If you can’t get him then maybe you tilt the table to get Jalen Suggs to be the running mate with Shai and Lu in the OKC backcourt. If it takes too much to get Jalen Suggs then go with the kid from UConn James Bouknight… I’m actually fine with his game.
‘We’ need the next Duncan Robinson. I would see that as possibly Cory Kispert from Gonzaga who probably won’t go til the 10th or 11th pick. I’d see if I could bundle 16 and 18 and go get get him. With Muscala heading out we need the next Duncan Robinson.
I’d use one of our second round picks to acquire sleeper big Jericho Sims from Texas. I’m sure you have several foreign players in mind…we’ll see how that goes. Another big who could shoot would be nice. Hopefully, the Serbian Express has gained some weight this summer.
If you have to deal Ty Jerome at some point in the night then I’d fill his spot with Austin Reaves with a second round pick. I wonder how little it would take to acquire Tyler Herro given how his season ended? Buy low, sell high. Let’s buy Tyler Herro low if we can. I would think Tyler Herro would be in a very motivated state of mind just about now. Can we imagine Tyler Herro and Austin Reaves on the same NBA roster? If nothing else we’d have the All NBA White Boy Smirk Team.
Sam Presti…I’m ready to go. I hope you’re ready to go as well. This is a very big night for the future of NBA hoops in Oklahoma City.
Bob Stoops, the same Bob Stoops who repunted to Tyreke Hill in 2014 wrote a spot on column in The Oklahoman. I would suggest Doug Gottlieb and the other Oklahoma State people read the piece.
Jim Traber doesn’t need to read the piece because he agrees with me and is way more adamant on why O State is in the position it now finds itself in with OU and Texas moving on to the SEC hopefully as soon as next season.
Which I believe will happen because West Virginia should be the next domino to fall in the Big 12.
This is nothing more than the free market separating the strong from the weak.
The markets decide your viability. Ask the former Big 8 and Southwest Conference about market viability. Poof…gone, just like the Big 12 is going to be sometime in the near future.
I would guesstimate around 85% of the O State season ticket holders are adamant supply side trickle down Donald Trump faux fiscal conservative advocates. Maybe even 90%. I would also guess both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden would be booed at a football game inside of T Boone Pickens Stadium.
So what am I missing here?
At what point in Stillwater do free market economic practices attract these Donald Trump free market advocates?
Socialism much…President Kayse and Doug Gottlieb.
Stewart Mandel of The Athletic wrote a piece in which he checked the top thirty television rated games from this current version of the Big 12. You know what his research revealed?
It revealed that out of the top thirty television rated games from this Big 12 that 26 out of the 30 involved either OU or Texas.
That’s why it might have been prescient for Team Mullet in the last decade or so to have been playing Auburn, Michigan, LSU, Oregon and other legit teams instead of of Tulsa, Missouri State, and Stephen F Austin.
O State…this is called your brand footprint on the market and Oklahoma State while perhaps having a legit Top 25 team or so marketed their program with little if any vision or acumen.
I actually love the mullet…just so you know. In fact…what I think Gundy should do at this point to attract attention from PAC 12 viewers this season is to grow that mullet to his ass and paint his sideburns orange and black in an effort to get the Cowboys to the East Division of the PAC 12.
But in reality—this is just basic free market Econ 101 and how ironic it is that in Stillwater, Oklahoma of all places we’ve discovered Bernie Sanders should be the Prez for this sleepy hardcore right college community.
Actually…I kind of envy you guys. You gotta remember I was born a United States Navy kid back in the day in San Diego. That must be where I got my extreme ultra left wing John McCain view of the world in which we live. Fight On, Cowboys. Show me something.
I was just driving home for an early break from work and former Eddie Sutton transfer Doug Gottlieb was on the air with Mark Rodgers on the Sports Animal.
I know there is a lot of emotion on this SEC deal for the O State people because they in essence aren’t going to have OU and Texas subsidizing their university’s athletic program much longer.
But Doug Gottlieb…get a grip.
Texas could care less about anybody but themselves, but to say OU stabbed O State in the back is absurd delusional stupidity. David Boren could have easily moved the Sooners to the SEC back when Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas A&M left the conference. The A&M Chancellor literally begged the Sooners to make the jump to the SEC and take the spot Missouri now occupies.
Instead…OU stayed and carried this piece of junk bond football league and made O State’s marketablility whatever it is today.
OU begged the other schools to expand to twevle teams but ADs like the ultra cheap Mike Holder didn’t want want to dilute the TV payout shares from ten to twelve.
OU was on board with Louisville and if the parasitic ADs like Holder were serious about making the Big 12 a legit league– Bob Bowlsby who by the way was AD at Stanford at one point in his career would have only had to find one more team to make the league whole again. My choice would have been Cincy to pair West Virginia with a regional partner in the league.
I love Big 12 hoops—so it’s not like I’m not losing something in all of this as well.
Others in this state begged O State to play a nationally relevant non schedule to upgrade their national brand.
But again no go from Holder and his chosen one Mullet King.
So you know what Doug Gottlieb…cry me a river.
You see… I think in the end this is going to be good for O State guys like you and Mike Gundy who apparently never grew up from their college days and could assimilate into real everyday living. The enabling by OU is going to come to an end. It’s time to grow up.
Since Kirby Holcutt the AD at Texas Tech used to be involved at Stanford and was recently on the College Football Selection Committee….what I would suggest is that Kirby and President Kayse go meet with the PAC 12 and see if Colorado, Utah, and both Arizona schools would be interested in absorbing O State and Texas Tech into that PAC 12 divison….or vice versa by those four coming to the Big 12.
I’d also challenge my football coach to show the rest of the football world that his program is worthy of being in any league by beating the Sooners on November 27th inside of Boone Pickens Satdium.
And here’s the real irony for you Doug Gottlieb…if O State had been invited…my guess is Gundy would be hesitant about making the move because he’d have to play real opponents every week instead of playing in a league in which half of the teams should be in the AAC.
If I were you I’d do some thinking before ever going on the Mark Rodgers Show again and talking delusional nonsense. You sounded like a Little League mother who’s baby didn’t make the traveling team.
On a sidenote…Mark Rodgers you were extremely weak on your show today. Extremely weak. If you’re going to host guests on the air…then at some point please inject some truth into the interview. I find it amazing you haven’t become a regular contributor at the Daily Thunder.
My friend, Little Doug Gottlieb chewed you up and spit you out and you just sat there.
What a great day in Oklahoma. Our football team is going home to a conference where you can hit and tackle the other team. Then…right after the announcement….the skies literally darkened and monsoonal storms came on a day when there was only a ten per cent chance of rain.
We had almost 3″ of precip out here in my official rain gauge.
I can’t believe the storms weren’t related to the fact we as OU fans no longer have to feel responsible for Oklahoma State football fans in any shape, form, or fashion.
It is over. This is all on Mullet King’s legacy check list at this point moving forward. Even Boone is off the hook at this point. Boone….Sooner Nation feels your pain. It’s not your fault.
And you know what…at the end of the day…if the best you can be is the best team in the AAC…there’s nothing wrong with that.
Find, discover, and embrace your inner peace.
You know how I love Sting medleys with him singing to buxom European women in Italy and Germany.
The perfect After Dark fit for me on a perfect college football day.
I haven’t blogged in almost a week since I basically nailed the last four games of the NBA Finals.
I don’t know if Dan Patrick takes the week off following the NBA Finals, but Mike Jackson does just to stay mentally fresh.
This SEC story broke last week in a story from the Houston Chronicle in which a Texas A&M sypathizer made it be known the Sooners and Horns are headed for the SEC.
I’m a Sooner fan. I bleed Crimson. I went to my first Sooner game in 1965 with Bob in Norman. It was a Bedlam game actually. It turned out to be Gomer Jones’ last game as the Sooners head coach after the Sooners lost 17-16 that day and ended their year with a dismal 3-7 record. They hung Gomer in effigy from one of the windows of a nearby frat house after the loss.
Turns out a guy named Jim McKenzie became the Sooners’ next head coach and brought two assistants along with him named Chuck Fairbanks and Barry Switzer.
The rest is Sooner history/lore and I’ve been a Sooner ever since even though I never attended one single class at OU. I have two degrees from UCO and one degree from O State, but from the day Jim McKenzie’s Sooners beat Texas in 1966 I became a Sooner football crazie.
I bleed crimson.
It’s not that I disdain O State football, it’s just more of a case of indifference with me. They never did anything for me as a fan. I mean … how can you have Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, and Hart Lee Dykes and not beat OU one single game?
Trump doesn’t like POWs who get captured. I don’t like football teams who can’t ring the bell every now and then. At least I’m honest about it. O State never won enough for me when it mattered. I like winning..it’s fun.
So today OU and Texas made it official. They have smartened up and decided the Big 12 is long-term loser in the rapidly ever evolving landscape of college football finance.
Let’s use this poker analogy…the SEC is a full house with aces over kings while the Big 12 is a pair of jacks. Which cards are you gonna play new O State Prez Kayse Shrum? Hopefully, you answered aces over kings. I’m going to ignore some of your earlier comments from last week and assume you’re smarter than how you came across last week.
I love women. I think they’re smarter than men generally. Not even close. But you were awful with some of those statements. Instead…you should be openly challenging your head coach and fan base this is the time to step out from OU’s shadow and be great. Great setbacks are the genesis from which great accomplishments occur. Kind of like when Gomer went 3-7 in 1965.. This is that time.
OU ABSOLUTELY DID THE RIGHT THING. If they had done differently it would be fiduciary malpractice. David Boren…bless his heart—thankfully wasn’t part of this decision.
OU is a football blueblood whoch should be sitting at the opposite end of the big SEC poker table from Alabama. This is where the Sooners belong. OU is a football school of royalty. OU’s economic survival is related to its fixture as a football blueblood. OU in no way is O State’s designated hand holder or baby sitter.
Maybe if Mullet King had taken some of Boone’s savvy advice and upgraded O State’s abysmal non-conference scheduling they’d be headed for the same SEC pod as OU, Missouri, and Arkansas.
Maybe. But I’m not on here this evening to denigrate Mullet King. Boone has passed. Holder has retired. This is Mike Gundy’s moment to show if he has what it takes to lead a football program from the abyss of a $38 million cash flow shortfall to college football greatness.
Tramel wrote just a superb piece today on how this is actually a blessing in disguise for O State football if they could land in the PAC 12’s Eastern Division.
The blessing is that Mike Gundy at 1-15 versus OU minus the repunt by Big Game Bob doesn’t haven’t to coach against the Sooners ever again unless Kayse Shrum is stupid enough to make her school play the Sooners again.
President Kayse…play Texas or Auburn or maybe Michigan State, but pass on the Sooners. It’s a curse which transcends the legal tenets of cruel and unusual punishment. Don’t make Mike Gundy ever again play the Sooners.
Hold his hand and build him up.
Or maybe beat the Sooners in Stillwater on November 27th in what could be the last ever Bedlam game.
There needs to be a profound attitude change at O State in their football program regardless of which conference OU is a member. I don’t know if Boone ever did this with Gundy, but maybe this would be the time.
Winning begats confidence. Confidence begats greatness. Dream big instead of just dreaming 8-4. Dream big.