Okay, here’s the thing…Oklahoma City easily beat the injury decimated Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night at the Pay.Com Arena by a score of 108-94. The Thunder in fact actually led by 23 points at one juncture which represents their biggest singular lead this season in any game.
Jamal Murray, Michael Porter, and Dozier were DNPs in this game. This Denver team isn’t a contender of any sort without Jamal Murray. As in none.
Denver is a team virtually absent of any defensive rim protection.
Shai was magnificent with a 27, 11, 12 triple double and a +19 rating. Best player on the floor which is saying something since the reigning NBA-MVP Nicola Jokic was on the floor for awhile in this game.
It was the Thunder’s third straight win and elevated their record to 11-19 after thirty games. To keep that in perspective the Thunder were 16-19 last season after thirty-five games before Sam Hinkie-Presti closed down the season and started his Death March tank going 2-23 in the last twenty-five games of the season.
The Western Conference minus Golden State and Phoenix isn’t what we thought it was going to be. Utah is a fake tough guy and every other of the remaining twelve teams in the West are fatally flawed one way or another.
This is what I’ve been writing on here all season…why tank if even if you hit the lottery …why tank if you weren’t going to ante up in 2013 and keep your top three players in tow. What would be different now?
The Thunder have an All-Star in Shai. They could have a unique player in Josh Giddy. They have an alpha sled dog in Lu Dort that Jack London would be proud of. They have plenty of potential depth on this team despite the fact Sam Hinkie-Presti tried to construct this team to be so bad that someone like me wouldn’t be writing this thirty games into this season.
The three vets…Kenrich, Muscala, and Favors are all functional.
So here’s what I’d honestly like to see happen.
I’d like to see Little Nick Gallo and Low Energy Royce Young announce Sam Hinkie-Presti is going to have a special press conference on January 2nd. The theme of the press conference will be for Sam Hinkie-Presti to tell Thunder Nation what he’s learned from the standpoint of team construction in Oklahoma City during his tenure here.
Little Nick Gallo will point to me and say…”Mike Jackson—okcthunderground.com first question.”
My question will be, ” Why tank if you and ownership aren’t committed to putting a championship team together and keeping it together for at least a four year window? What did you learn from trading James Harden and losing Kevin Durant which tells you in your heart Oklahoma City could win an NBA championship even if the Thunder won the lottery three years in a row?”
Get to work Little Nick Gallo. Let’s have a Jan. 2nd presser before the Death March II gets into full swing in the quest to win the NBA ownership rights to Paulo Banchero.
Sam Hinkie-Presti what have you learned which might indicate you need a shooting guard who can shoot to win an NBA ring and a stretch five who can do the same. If we haven’t figured that out…then why tank?
Green Bay fans own their team. I’m assuming they can ask questions like this. Let’s have some people minus Little Nick Gallo and Jenni Carlson asking the questions at your pressers.
Next up…the Thunder at Phoenix and I’m taking a four day blogging break.