Here we are in the dog days of August. The NBA’s G-League is underway. I won’t watch all that much of the Thunder’s games since they won those two late season games versus Boston and the LA Clippers and foolishly won two games and missed out on a top five pick.
Josh Giddey’s first game as Thunder lasted five minutes before he fell down and sprained his ankle and was a DNP the rest of the game in what is a developmental league.
OKC behind a very crisp performance by guard Theo Maledon beat Cade Cunningham’s Pistons’ by a 76-72 count.
Cade struggled and was not stellar in this game.
The Pistons play Jalen Green’s Houston Rocket club tomorrow night in what will give us a game featuring the top two picks in the draft. This will be a game I make sure and watch.
I see no reason to watch all that much of the Thunder in the summer G-League because in fact they’re primarily going to be a G-League level team this season for 82 games. The questions in Oklahoma City will be how many games Sam Presti allows Shai to participate in this season and will Lu Dort become a small forward like PJ Tucker?
Shai on this Thunder team will make OKC a G-League team on steroids with a ringer.
The next question in Oklahoma City is if Presti has his overall roster bad enough at this point to stay in the 22-25 win range this season in a non-tanking NBA season.
If I recall..Vegas had OKC at 22.5 wins over/under last season on a roster which started with Big Al Horford and George Hill alongside Shai.
I feel for Shai, but he just reupped on his contract so I’m to assume being relevant in the legue isn’t a thing for him right now. Trey Young reupped, but he’s on a team which just made the Eastern Conference Finals.
Hopefully…in the next Thunder G Laegue game this summer Josh Giddey can keep from falling down and give Thunder ticket buyers a reason to buy some tickets if in fact the Thunder allow fans inside of PayCom Arena this season.
OKC along with Portland and Chicago never allowed fans last season inside of their arenas with their team Covid protocol.
Cade vs. Jalen…I can’t wait.
Moral of the story…when you’re tanking don’t beat the Celtics and Clippers in late season games you needed to lose.
I bet Sam Anderson of NY Times fame like me…thought to himself Operation Bongo never ends in Oklahoma City….does it.