I have no idea.
The Thunder stand at 18-40 coming out of the All-Star break. The league best Phoenix Suns are in town on Thursday night in a game in which Chris Paul will be sitting. If CP3 was playing…this would probably be the fourth Thunder game attended by me so far this season.
Instead as a passionate NBA fan …I’ll stay out of the cold even though I could get a lower-level seat behind the Suns’ bench for a steal. Like so many NBA fans the TNT national doubleheader is a winter staple for me on Thursday nights.
Good games featuring the best teams in the league all trying to win games to improve their seeding position heading into the playoffs.
Some in this Thunder basketball market which has no real local coverage are talking about trading Shai in exchange for the Thunder getting another top five pick in this draft. I don’t know if I would do that.
It’s not SGA’s fault he’s being asked to sit because Sam Presti has no other option available to him given elite black players don’t want to play in godforsaken Proud Boy Nation. This is the only option Sam Presti has in his toolbox.
If you are an elite culturally polished black man is this really where you want to play? I don’t think so. My ass would already be in Cali near the beach.
The OU football program on the other hand will continue to have a storied program with a history of being trendsetters for black equality within their program. Plus, Norman is perceived as a purple college campus.
Barry Switzer, Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley, and Brent Venables all are perceived as being racially hip coaches. BTW…in the ESPN+ preseason football poll the Sooners with their great work in the portal and one of their best recruiting classes in the past ten years is picked to finish No. 7 next season…. despite Lincoln Riley leaving for USC.
But back to Shai. I wouldn’t trade him. But I would damn well make sure he and his agent are not asked for Shai to sit games again next season.
It’s shit or get off the stool time for Sam Presti next season in Oklahoma City. The Thunder lead the entire NBA with around $31 million in available cap space heading into this summer. The Thunder’s own pick should be a top four pick if they don’t screw this up in the last twenty-four games.
Shai is an All-Star caliber player who’s been asked to diminish his league position rank and brand to accommodate the fact the Thunder play in the least hip market in the NBA minus Utah or Sacramento.
Josh Giddey in my view is this season’s second or third best player in this rookie class…. only behind Evan Mobley and right there with Cade Cunningham.
Players like Lu Dort, Darius Bazely, Kenrich Williams, Aaron Wiggins, and Tre Mann have shown me they can be really nice NBA role players. So those are my current top seven in the Thunder rotation heading into this June.
I would keep Mike Muscala at No. 8 as a player coach in the mold of Nick Collison. For me Muscala would see the floor maybe two out of every five games.
Then of course you still have Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, and Isaiah Roby at No. 9 thru No. 11 rotation-wise.
In my view what the Thunder need is an athletic center who can run the floor maybe in the mold of a Bam or Clint Capela type and another solid wing can shoot the three ball and defend. I’d keep an eye on Oscar from Kentucky in that regard. Walker Kessler might be too slow afoot.
Then…I think we’ll see if the little puppet G Legaue coach is really a coach. What I would do is utilize both Shai and Giddey in a manner in which their minutes are staggered so I have one of them out there almost the entire forty-eight minutes. Both should probably tally around 34-36 minutes a game.
Obviously…you want them out there together at closing time. But with a real coach who’s coaching to win instead of losing by design. A real NBA coach should easily be able to figure this out.
But, hey, Mark D deserves a shot to see if he can go into pressers after games where both teams are trying to win the game.
But I wouldn’t trade Shai. You’d be trading a very talented, rested player who hasn’t done anything wrong except help the team in culturally regressed Oklahoma catch up talent-wise because Kevin Durant and Paul George both said adios to Proud Boy Nation.
I mean, Pau Gasol is white and he wouldn’t even consider coming here. Domestic terrorist barbarians without ballet and opera…. and a real theatre….sigh.
Oklahoma City, it’s not them…it’s you. Grow up if want to be an NBA city.