What an awful evening of sports on Halloween night in Oklahoma. Just brutal.
The Thunder without four of their top six players for the second game in a row were blitzed on the road. This time by the Houston Rockets who themselves didn’t have Fred VF available to play. Not much to watch there except Shai will have no chance to three-peat with the team we’ve seen on the court these past two games.
Micah Peavy might help a little, but another player will be needed through the Disabled Player Exception. I’m not sure who the Thunder could sign for that $14 million dollar window which has some rigid restrictions attached.
My thoughts on Chet previously make it clear what I think Sam Presti will eventually need to do, that being, trade Chet to the Eastern Conference for a legitimate top tier wing who like Dub allows Shai and the Thunder as a whole to be the best version of themselves.
It’s all about the Window, and this roster with what happened to both JDub and Cason doesn’t have the luxury of Chet if the Thunder want to stay in the Window.
Nothing personal against Chet, but with a diminished Dub coming back, the Thunder simply cannot afford a expensive, fragile player like Chet who can’t be depended on to be the team’s second best player, or even third.
Maybe this is something all of us can do as Thunder fans this season as we watch the Eastern Conference teams. I think it needs to be a younger player and one who would graciuously accept the role of being Shai’s Batman while waiting for his own stardom to evolve.
A perfect example of that might be Philly’s VJ Edgecombe currently being superstar Tyrese Maxey’s third or fourth once LeBron calls it quits.
Nothing against against Ajay, but I think it needs to be a player with a greater defensive presence. The Thunder need defense, athleticism, and high basketball smarts right now.
I’m grateful to see Coach Mark get serious and curtail Josh Dix’s minutes. Josh may be a great young man, but if the Thunder want to at least attain a No. 6 seed in the West those 240 minutes can’t be wasted. I still see enough athleticism in Barnhizer along with his spirit, toughness, and grit that I would keep feeding him 5-7 minutes a game and see what happens. Coach Mark, please jot that down, my friend. You’re gonna have to do some serious coaching, dude.
It’s amazing how quickly this Thunder’s little mini-baby dynasty spiraled downward from being the favorite two weeks ago when ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins suggested Sam Presi was cheating and gaming the season…. to the Thunder now being in a positon where even making the play-in games might be a chore if the Thunder take one more bad injury.
It’s stunning and illustrates how fragile perceptions can be when two or three of your top paid guys go down simultaneously.
I will strive to be gentle, encouraging, and positive because this isn’t like tanking. The Thunder had no control over these injuries with Dub and Cason. Chet is another matter of which now is the not the time to address. See MJ as Mr Positivity if you will.
I’ll be okay as an NBA fan because the Sixers have been my favorite team in the East since childhood, and given I’m now a resident of Deer Creek, Oklahoma and a semi-dual resident of the Denver area… the Nuggets are here for me to slide into my team in the West if the Thunder situation gets any worse. I’m what you would call an versatile Swiss army knife blogger.
Besides… the USA might become Brazil or Venuezuela next Wednesday or Thursday if the election doesn’t go Baby Boy Trump’s way. My guess is–it will start with that nonsense in Alaska and then possibly escalate from there. What a bunch of Democratic dumbasses in Alaska for even giving Trump this opening. This is why I’m an Independent and have never been a registered Democrat… in that they just seem bent on self-inflicted electoral destruction and losing elections to the likes of a Donald Trump.
I may or may not get to OU and O-State football for at the least a week. I’m banning myself for blogging even a sentence on either of those teams so as not to diminish my Yogananda MJ Guru sense of divine love coupled with widsom.
Please enjoy the Emirates NBA Cup and the beginning of the college basketball season as I will be in Norman on Monday double-dipping with both the OU men and women.
It’s all a matter of self-moderation and persepective. Plus, I’ll have Yaxel Lindeborg to watch of whom Sam Presti should have bundled in the recent NBA draft. Would Yaxel be the perfect fit right now for the Thunder or what?
There was a rumor former Jayhawk Ochai Agbaji would become a member of the Thunder, but the Thunder pulled off of him after Chet’s most recent lengthy injury absence was announced. Sam Presti needs an athletic wing for certain. We’ll see what happens with the Thunder’s roster.
Love, MJ.