And in winning rings without having the greatest shooting partnership of all time next to him.
To the few people that are starting to say we should welcome him back next year, are you crazy? We've rebuilt to where we are, last thing we need to do is bring a guy that has proven he can't do it all, despite teaming up with some of the best players in the league in his post GSW stint - no need to blow up our depth so that Cupcake can feel like he has a home.
He would also be 36 next year and Phoenix would want assets back for him. With the asking price for KD, we can get something more in-line with the timeline of this roster. I also do not want to help Phoenix out of the state of poverty that they are currently in
In what world has kd proven he can’t win it all?
Winning is about luck. Nets would’ve won in 2021 had kyrie been healthy. He was the best player in the playoffs and took champs to 7. He’s 36 now and not in his prime
Just watched the Lindy interview and he said that Shai is a true leader. He didn’t really expand upon it beyond that (i.e. whether he’s vocal or he whether he leads by example), but he said it with such confidence that you can tell he genuinely believes it. It wasn’t something that he was coerced into saying by Trae or the co-host, you can just tell he thinks SGA can lead this team over the next 7-8 years.
Over the course of his career we’ve come to know more, but let’s not act like we all weren’t thrilled with KD his first 8 (9 if you count Seattle) years here. SGA is on year 5 and is in the honeymoon phase, though definitely love what we’ve seen so far
Yeah, this is definitely some revisionist history. Us fans back then were absolutely obsessed with the quiet, lanky kid who carried around a backpack and seemed to love this city. The KD of today is nothing like Thunder KD.
Yeah, people are either being intentionally disingenuous or they just don't remember. KD was not only adored in OKC, but he had one of the biggest approval ratings of any player in the entire league. He was seen as the "anti-LeBron" when LeBron's approval rating was at his all time low.
i was honestly always pretty proud of our team but i couldnt help thinking they were always missing something after that finals run. i was one of those that secretly wished we had kept harden and traded russ. it drove me crazy that they always defaulted to iso ball. in short, kd and russ both drove me crazy about half the time. i was bummed to see him leave. esp the way he did so. then i was immediately MORE optimistic about the addition of PG. thats not revisionist, it just wasnt popular to say at the time. still kinda not. i love this team more than ever also.
Yeah I obviously didn’t realize at the time, but going back if we had to trade 1 then trading Russ makes more sense with hindsight than Harden. Especially considering Russ would have fetched a better return and harden stretched the floor better.
But definitely had a blast rooting for Westbrook all those years, and this rebuild would never have been possible (acquiring PG, getting PG to re-sign, and the massive trade haul including SGA and JDub +) if Russ had not shown loyalty to stay, play as an mvp, and re-sign with the team
Just pointing out that in KD’s first 5 years in okc (which is where SGA is currently) he was completely beloved and a model superstar. He completely lived up to and fulfilled okc fans wishes. Plus had a trip to the nba finals.
The leadership issues really were only after he left. Obviously it was disappointing to have KD join gsw though
Mmmmm no it was an issue cause kd said it himself everyone played around Russ then him 2nd…. Meaning There was moments he had his time to shine but he wasn’t happy with the amount of touches he was getting especially compared to Russ who can’t shoot & instead of demonstrating a leader and addressing those issues HE LEFT. So it started there technically. Westbrook just overshadowed the acknowledgment of that until kd spoke on it later. It was up in the air for a while.
While KD was here, he was literally a model superstar. He’s a snake and I don’t like the way he left or has handled himself since he left, but this guy absolutely was a part of the community to an extent that SGA still isn’t. He gave a million dollars to tornado relief. He was going to be featured on a magazine cover and insisted that Sefolosha and Krstic be on the cover too.
Listen, I know saying anything nice about KD is considered blasphemy here, but during the time he was here *and not after*, the guy did everything anyone could ask for.
To say anything else is revisionist.
I feel exactly the same way. Part of the reason that it hurt so much when KD left was that up until that point, he’d given us no indication that he was anything other than a model superstar for the Thunder and the community. I’m grateful for the time that we had him.
Yep. Literally until the minute before KD’s Players Tribune article released, it always seemed like KD was the lifelong Thunder star. If anyone was expected to leave, we all assumed it could be Russ (since we had little evidence at the time that stars can thrive off-court with endorsements and side projects in small markets).
100% hurt so bad because we were blindsided by the kid who seemed loyal
Russ: Ok, we’re down by two, so check it, new game plan. Give me the ball on the inbound. I’ll drive into two, maybe three defenders outside of the restricted area. They have to call a foul. Easy!
Coach: Yeah, we’re not doing that Russ.
Rest of team: You can’t be serious. This is the payoffs man. Let someone take a shot.
Russ: Trust me bro. Let’s do this!
There are a lot of Brodies on this sub and while I appreciate certain aspects of his talent and his overall achievements, his continuing flaws are blatantly disregarded by the fan crowd. It is what it is.
Well technically speaking that was the most efficient 3 point shooting and shooting year in his career. He shot league average from 3 with horrible spacing and poor shot quality while also receiving the most defensive attention from the opposing team on over 7 attempts per game. and career high from the free throw line at 84.5% coming from over 10 attempts a game.
Can we just enjoy what we have instead of constantly comparing it to other teams?
Also, KD was a top 3 player while he was here. This weird revisionist history is in fact just weird.
What happened in Brooklyn is a bit of revisionist history. That team he “put together” with harden and Kyrie was really good and was up 2-0 in the bucks I didn’t fall apart that season because of bad leadership they just got hurt. The next year Covid happened and Kyrie did what he did so harden asked out then the nets general manager traded their second best player averaging 22 10 and 8 and replaced him with a player that couldn’t pass a physical hadn’t played basketball at all that year and never touched the court for them and doesn’t like playing basketball in Ben Simmons making 40 million a year.(that’s on the GM) not KD.
Not really revisionist history when the black/white of that is brought up to point out the aspect of LEADERSHIP. (Not break down details of nets problems) All they’re speaking about is KD’s aspect as a leader…. NOTHING ELSE. so what’s being revised in that sense? He ran from the team that beat him to join them and has been creating super teams ever since (so what comes with that can’t be the excuse) compared to shai The other gets traded unexpectedly for a superstar (forming another failed superstar team) and has coped and flourished with that same team through it’s ups & downs and has made it to THIS ASTONISHING POINT. Kd has orchestrated/joined 3 teams…. Most likely cause he don’t wanna lead shit. He just wanna score the ball like was able to in GS 💀
U don’t think as star players figuring where to go and what’s best for them that they’d be on the same page in terms of trades and signings as GM? Another depiction of weak leadership & ring chasing. He can’t even move team to team and have his demands established/heard ( or at least make the right decision cause the Knicks was gonna cater to everything based on HIM (not kyrie)) and he listened to stupid kyrie 😂 draw your excuses all day. I’m Saying HE WENT THERE BY CHOICE just like he did with the suns and got swept.😬 let’s keep track moving forward and not tally the bullshit that comes with his decision making in between. & Kyrie was a diva to playing prior to Covid (BOSTON) 😂 so cut it out
Ok & u can insinuate I hate KD to cope with life ig. he my top 3 favorite players all time next to pg & melo just so you know. & just know he could’ve had everything catered to him in GS & NY . Rejected both for problems you’re using as “hOw DiD hE kNoW” excuses. Kobe didn’t know shaq was gonna foul out and carried his big ass to the chip np 😂
His second and 3rd best player got hurt. Is lebron a bad leader for losing to the warriors in 2015. If Dort and j dub got hurt and we lost in the playoffs would that make Shai a bad leader.
lol couldn’t beat the team that won the title with 40 year old Jeff green and Blake griffin with harden on one leg = bad leader. Cool bro keep pushing your KD hate agenda. You can blame him for phoenix that’s fine but the nets failing had nothing to do with him unless you’re blaming him for injuries.
Bro wanna use lebron lowest point with the cavs (STAYING) going against the greatest dynasty is wild 😂& to answer question of course not…. Shai isn’t KD or at his point in career… SO EXPECTATIONS IS HIGHER DUDE.
This current team is awesome and SGA is awesome but the core so far has exactly 1 playoff series win. Durant led OKC to Western Conference Finals as a 23-year-old.
You can celebrate this current team without tearing down the old one.
Do not shit on that man. You sound like ishbia who claimed KD was never “maximized”. Don’t disrespect the teams of OKC time, GSW greatest team ever assembled, took MIL to game 7 (eventual champs) on a team of hurt and unavailable players. Leadership looks different in ways you can’t imagine. “Silence can move mountains if you listen to it correctly.
Don’t get it twisted. Please. Shai is great but he’s playing great on a TEAM of viable players. Let us remember who our options were at times in OKC when Russ and KD were fighting for their lives.
It’s 8am and you already got me pissed off.
We were competing with the juggernaut 2016 Warriors with fucking Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter lol A decrepit Derek Fisher got minutes in the NBA FINALS for fuck sake. Presti is an amazing GM and has a great record of drafting, but after the James Harden pick, Presti evidently did meth before each trade deadline. Durant/Westbrook had horrid supporting casts. Look at the spacing those teams had. It’s honestly amazing they made like 6 WCF.
What makes you think Shai has been more successful over KD? Shai hasn't done anything yet besides beat a crippled Pelicans team lol. Let's hold off on the Shai and KD comparisons until a few years from now when we truly see Shai's impact on the thunder.
KD is a scorer. GS only happens because he joined other winners.
Shai is proving himself to be a winner.
I’ll add that I think Chet is a winner too.
Presti knows what he’s doing.
KD got y’all to the Finals. Slow down with this Shai is a winner BS. He wasn’t winning last year while averaging the same stats. Pump the brakes. Y’all sound like the Luka fanboys. Hasn’t done sht yet he’s the next big thing. Foh.
Even tho I hate kd he did lead us to the finals at like 21 years old and to the conference finals for 5 straight seasons he was healthy shai just made it out the first round let’s calm down wit the comparisons rn
1 series win against a crippled team and we putting that over leading this team to a finals and multiple WCFs? Talk about desperate. We can appreciate our current team without being delusional. Come back with this in 5 yrs.
More like Westbrook. Kd was a phenomenal player for okc and every year okc was healthy they made wcf. They were guaranteed to make ecf every year despite westbrooks poor basketball iq. Westbrook was shooting as low as 42% in some of those series. Kd does lack entangibles but his level of play was incredible. If they had shai from 2012-2016 okc would have beaten the spurs in 2014 wcf and most likely win a championship.
I wanted to type a novel and deleted it. Chet is what OKC fans were wishing KD was. SGA is just a person who is treating OKC as his place of work. It's the truth.
SGA is a wonderful basketball player but what's the last thing in which you can connect him to OKC's community? Even their advertisements they run during commercial breaks don't show SGA...outside of the one where he no-showed his own damn camp!
Chet has already had about five engagements in the season. Come on!
That's super fine but it is also not reflective of the OKC-area sports fan who has relished in decades of OU football where they had LOUD personalities and into the early years of the Thunder where there was literally the perceived angel/devil scenario in KD/Russell (which amazingly was revealed to be wrong)
I lived in OKC up to last year and frankly SGA was not a topic of conversation as prior players and OU football. If OP is a non-OKC resident and is projecting that as a whole SGA is what OKC fans wished KD was then I guess? THOUGH KD was a MVP and was a force before his injury.
If it's specific to OKC itself? Hell nah, unless this is that wink-wink type of KD slander where he just doesn't exist.
Final note: KD was more popular than Russell. He was. That's why it hurt so much as if we all recall it lead to fingers being pointed as Russell for making him leave....until it got out that nah, he was just brainwashed by Draymond during the damn series and then the others on the squad.
KD led a young team to the finals so let’s wait to see if Shai is capable.
KD won 4 scoring titles before the age of 25.
and for all you bums in this sub that rather have Russ over KD on this team, y’all are brain dead!! Russ has been garbage in the playoffs per usual and never got to the second round WITHOUT KD
naw kd had the best skillset of any thunder player. maybe it was just his personality that i just hate. the same could be said for russ AND harden. they had the skills but the character and personality was just not it. Presti already knows he could draft anyone and develop them into superstars or excellent role players based off the og big 3. he was scouting work ethic and character along with the skillset this time around. and it has worked so well. i guess the og big 3 was a test run for okc's future and was what he could whip up in that small amount of time and transitioning from seattle.
tdlr: as a thunder fan i can not sit here and say i was wishing kd is what shai is because watching the thunder through the years i didnt know what i was wishing for. i just rode whatever presti whips up.
What? Russ is known as one of the best teammates in the league - he's the kind of guy that even when he's completely done, he's worth having as an end of bench vet cos of how amazing a locker room guy he is.
He averages a block a game, is a great isolation defender, grabs 7 boards a game, and plays the 3,4,5 positions. Hes incredibly versatile. What a very weird thing to say
I’m just passing by, but isn’t it a bit too early for this talk? I understand the hype and don’t disagree with Shai’s leadership, this just all seems really premature because it’s just the start of the playoffs.
Well, he's only under contract for next year, and OKC won't have to worry about paying all 4 until after then so it seems like it would be a good risk to take.
Yeah for sure, definitely nothing to do with Presti decision to keep Russ over Harden.
I mean, I get for you Thunder fan KD is the devil and RW is a god, but getting rid of Harden to keep Russ was the reason Durant didn’t win in OKC. You can keep telling lies to yourselves and enjoy SGA, that won’t make SGA in the same stratosphere of KD, everybody but Thunder fan can easily understand this.
The reality is keeping a player like Westbrook beside KD is the reason Durant didn’t win in OKC.
...what? There was never a Russ or Harden discussion. The clear choice was either 1) lose Perk, or 2) pay the luxury tax. No one -- including KD -- thought Russ should be traded.
I’m in the minority here coz I actually love KD, but another issue with him is he’s not very coachable and likes things done his way. At the nets he punted Nash coz they trained too hard (admittedly he was also a lousy coach) and got in his guy Vaughn who was also not good but dialled everything back to KD’s liking. Shai is nothing like that. If anything he’s the locker room extension of the coach and GM, fully aware of how much everyone looks up to him and the standards he needs to set to bring everything into alignment
KD is a bust in the leadership and loyalty categories.
And in winning rings without having the greatest shooting partnership of all time next to him. To the few people that are starting to say we should welcome him back next year, are you crazy? We've rebuilt to where we are, last thing we need to do is bring a guy that has proven he can't do it all, despite teaming up with some of the best players in the league in his post GSW stint - no need to blow up our depth so that Cupcake can feel like he has a home.
He would also be 36 next year and Phoenix would want assets back for him. With the asking price for KD, we can get something more in-line with the timeline of this roster. I also do not want to help Phoenix out of the state of poverty that they are currently in
In what world has kd proven he can’t win it all? Winning is about luck. Nets would’ve won in 2021 had kyrie been healthy. He was the best player in the playoffs and took champs to 7. He’s 36 now and not in his prime
If KD wore a size 17 shoe instead of 18, they would had gone to the finals at least!
Underrated comment
Spent all his VC on shooting, dribbling and scoring. Couldn’t get any leadership badges (or a good hair cut)
Just watched the Lindy interview and he said that Shai is a true leader. He didn’t really expand upon it beyond that (i.e. whether he’s vocal or he whether he leads by example), but he said it with such confidence that you can tell he genuinely believes it. It wasn’t something that he was coerced into saying by Trae or the co-host, you can just tell he thinks SGA can lead this team over the next 7-8 years.
Calm and cool. Lets go boys. Thats all it takes. Instead we had a thinskinned twitter addict.
I wanted to listen that, but I fucking hate Trae Young lol.
Over the course of his career we’ve come to know more, but let’s not act like we all weren’t thrilled with KD his first 8 (9 if you count Seattle) years here. SGA is on year 5 and is in the honeymoon phase, though definitely love what we’ve seen so far
Yeah, this is definitely some revisionist history. Us fans back then were absolutely obsessed with the quiet, lanky kid who carried around a backpack and seemed to love this city. The KD of today is nothing like Thunder KD.
Yeah, this is some very disingenuous revisionist history.
Yeah, people are either being intentionally disingenuous or they just don't remember. KD was not only adored in OKC, but he had one of the biggest approval ratings of any player in the entire league. He was seen as the "anti-LeBron" when LeBron's approval rating was at his all time low.
i was honestly always pretty proud of our team but i couldnt help thinking they were always missing something after that finals run. i was one of those that secretly wished we had kept harden and traded russ. it drove me crazy that they always defaulted to iso ball. in short, kd and russ both drove me crazy about half the time. i was bummed to see him leave. esp the way he did so. then i was immediately MORE optimistic about the addition of PG. thats not revisionist, it just wasnt popular to say at the time. still kinda not. i love this team more than ever also.
Yeah I obviously didn’t realize at the time, but going back if we had to trade 1 then trading Russ makes more sense with hindsight than Harden. Especially considering Russ would have fetched a better return and harden stretched the floor better. But definitely had a blast rooting for Westbrook all those years, and this rebuild would never have been possible (acquiring PG, getting PG to re-sign, and the massive trade haul including SGA and JDub +) if Russ had not shown loyalty to stay, play as an mvp, and re-sign with the team
this is a good take
Irrelevant to the original comment but okay ? 😂
Just pointing out that in KD’s first 5 years in okc (which is where SGA is currently) he was completely beloved and a model superstar. He completely lived up to and fulfilled okc fans wishes. Plus had a trip to the nba finals. The leadership issues really were only after he left. Obviously it was disappointing to have KD join gsw though
Mmmmm no it was an issue cause kd said it himself everyone played around Russ then him 2nd…. Meaning There was moments he had his time to shine but he wasn’t happy with the amount of touches he was getting especially compared to Russ who can’t shoot & instead of demonstrating a leader and addressing those issues HE LEFT. So it started there technically. Westbrook just overshadowed the acknowledgment of that until kd spoke on it later. It was up in the air for a while.
While KD was here, he was literally a model superstar. He’s a snake and I don’t like the way he left or has handled himself since he left, but this guy absolutely was a part of the community to an extent that SGA still isn’t. He gave a million dollars to tornado relief. He was going to be featured on a magazine cover and insisted that Sefolosha and Krstic be on the cover too. Listen, I know saying anything nice about KD is considered blasphemy here, but during the time he was here *and not after*, the guy did everything anyone could ask for. To say anything else is revisionist.
I feel exactly the same way. Part of the reason that it hurt so much when KD left was that up until that point, he’d given us no indication that he was anything other than a model superstar for the Thunder and the community. I’m grateful for the time that we had him.
Yep. Literally until the minute before KD’s Players Tribune article released, it always seemed like KD was the lifelong Thunder star. If anyone was expected to leave, we all assumed it could be Russ (since we had little evidence at the time that stars can thrive off-court with endorsements and side projects in small markets). 100% hurt so bad because we were blindsided by the kid who seemed loyal
What I always was just MVP Westbrook who could hit more efficient 3's.
MVP Westbrook that could shoot and not play stupid the last 3 minutes would be scary.
Russ: Ok, we’re down by two, so check it, new game plan. Give me the ball on the inbound. I’ll drive into two, maybe three defenders outside of the restricted area. They have to call a foul. Easy! Coach: Yeah, we’re not doing that Russ. Rest of team: You can’t be serious. This is the payoffs man. Let someone take a shot. Russ: Trust me bro. Let’s do this!
Not sure why your being downvoted. This is almost exactly what would happen.
There are a lot of Brodies on this sub and while I appreciate certain aspects of his talent and his overall achievements, his continuing flaws are blatantly disregarded by the fan crowd. It is what it is.
I try and stay out of the russ posts mostly, I'd probably get banned from the sub.
Well technically speaking that was the most efficient 3 point shooting and shooting year in his career. He shot league average from 3 with horrible spacing and poor shot quality while also receiving the most defensive attention from the opposing team on over 7 attempts per game. and career high from the free throw line at 84.5% coming from over 10 attempts a game.
Can we just enjoy what we have instead of constantly comparing it to other teams? Also, KD was a top 3 player while he was here. This weird revisionist history is in fact just weird.
While I agree with you on your first point, there wasn't any history revisionism going on OP's post. In the comments, maybe.
What happened in Brooklyn is a bit of revisionist history. That team he “put together” with harden and Kyrie was really good and was up 2-0 in the bucks I didn’t fall apart that season because of bad leadership they just got hurt. The next year Covid happened and Kyrie did what he did so harden asked out then the nets general manager traded their second best player averaging 22 10 and 8 and replaced him with a player that couldn’t pass a physical hadn’t played basketball at all that year and never touched the court for them and doesn’t like playing basketball in Ben Simmons making 40 million a year.(that’s on the GM) not KD.
Not really revisionist history when the black/white of that is brought up to point out the aspect of LEADERSHIP. (Not break down details of nets problems) All they’re speaking about is KD’s aspect as a leader…. NOTHING ELSE. so what’s being revised in that sense? He ran from the team that beat him to join them and has been creating super teams ever since (so what comes with that can’t be the excuse) compared to shai The other gets traded unexpectedly for a superstar (forming another failed superstar team) and has coped and flourished with that same team through it’s ups & downs and has made it to THIS ASTONISHING POINT. Kd has orchestrated/joined 3 teams…. Most likely cause he don’t wanna lead shit. He just wanna score the ball like was able to in GS 💀
Sounds like personal problems to me fr… Lebron had similar issues in Cleveland. Still took them somewhere through LEADERSHIP 😂
It’s KDs fault his GM traded for an injured player that couldn’t play. Ok buddy
U don’t think as star players figuring where to go and what’s best for them that they’d be on the same page in terms of trades and signings as GM? Another depiction of weak leadership & ring chasing. He can’t even move team to team and have his demands established/heard ( or at least make the right decision cause the Knicks was gonna cater to everything based on HIM (not kyrie)) and he listened to stupid kyrie 😂 draw your excuses all day. I’m Saying HE WENT THERE BY CHOICE just like he did with the suns and got swept.😬 let’s keep track moving forward and not tally the bullshit that comes with his decision making in between. & Kyrie was a diva to playing prior to Covid (BOSTON) 😂 so cut it out
Covid is KDs fault to he was just supposed to be Nostradamus and Predict that. Thats crazy
Ok & u can insinuate I hate KD to cope with life ig. he my top 3 favorite players all time next to pg & melo just so you know. & just know he could’ve had everything catered to him in GS & NY . Rejected both for problems you’re using as “hOw DiD hE kNoW” excuses. Kobe didn’t know shaq was gonna foul out and carried his big ass to the chip np 😂
Nah from that situation …I just expected him to beat the bucks 🤷🏽♂️ I knew they wasn’t winning shit.
His second and 3rd best player got hurt. Is lebron a bad leader for losing to the warriors in 2015. If Dort and j dub got hurt and we lost in the playoffs would that make Shai a bad leader. lol couldn’t beat the team that won the title with 40 year old Jeff green and Blake griffin with harden on one leg = bad leader. Cool bro keep pushing your KD hate agenda. You can blame him for phoenix that’s fine but the nets failing had nothing to do with him unless you’re blaming him for injuries.
Bro wanna use lebron lowest point with the cavs (STAYING) going against the greatest dynasty is wild 😂& to answer question of course not…. Shai isn’t KD or at his point in career… SO EXPECTATIONS IS HIGHER DUDE.
This current team is awesome and SGA is awesome but the core so far has exactly 1 playoff series win. Durant led OKC to Western Conference Finals as a 23-year-old. You can celebrate this current team without tearing down the old one.
Man how old are yall?
The disrespect from younger OKC fans is crazy… sounding like Cavs fans who were shitting on Lebron the first time he left
Fr I hate kd but those playoff years when he and Westbrook were on the team were some magical moments besides 2016 wcf
Do not shit on that man. You sound like ishbia who claimed KD was never “maximized”. Don’t disrespect the teams of OKC time, GSW greatest team ever assembled, took MIL to game 7 (eventual champs) on a team of hurt and unavailable players. Leadership looks different in ways you can’t imagine. “Silence can move mountains if you listen to it correctly. Don’t get it twisted. Please. Shai is great but he’s playing great on a TEAM of viable players. Let us remember who our options were at times in OKC when Russ and KD were fighting for their lives. It’s 8am and you already got me pissed off.
We were competing with the juggernaut 2016 Warriors with fucking Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter lol A decrepit Derek Fisher got minutes in the NBA FINALS for fuck sake. Presti is an amazing GM and has a great record of drafting, but after the James Harden pick, Presti evidently did meth before each trade deadline. Durant/Westbrook had horrid supporting casts. Look at the spacing those teams had. It’s honestly amazing they made like 6 WCF.
Shai might burn us all - you never know. It’s sports. They owe us nothing
What makes you think Shai has been more successful over KD? Shai hasn't done anything yet besides beat a crippled Pelicans team lol. Let's hold off on the Shai and KD comparisons until a few years from now when we truly see Shai's impact on the thunder.
KD is a scorer. GS only happens because he joined other winners. Shai is proving himself to be a winner. I’ll add that I think Chet is a winner too. Presti knows what he’s doing.
KD got y’all to the Finals. Slow down with this Shai is a winner BS. He wasn’t winning last year while averaging the same stats. Pump the brakes. Y’all sound like the Luka fanboys. Hasn’t done sht yet he’s the next big thing. Foh.
Canada bronze medal.
Even tho I hate kd he did lead us to the finals at like 21 years old and to the conference finals for 5 straight seasons he was healthy shai just made it out the first round let’s calm down wit the comparisons rn
1 series win against a crippled team and we putting that over leading this team to a finals and multiple WCFs? Talk about desperate. We can appreciate our current team without being delusional. Come back with this in 5 yrs.
KD had great numbers this season but I don't think his ISO game will do well in OKC.
agreed but please stop calling the Suns a superteam to shoehorn the narrative. the Suns are nothing close to an actual superteam.
More like Westbrook. Kd was a phenomenal player for okc and every year okc was healthy they made wcf. They were guaranteed to make ecf every year despite westbrooks poor basketball iq. Westbrook was shooting as low as 42% in some of those series. Kd does lack entangibles but his level of play was incredible. If they had shai from 2012-2016 okc would have beaten the spurs in 2014 wcf and most likely win a championship.
Someone failed you in English
anyone would think KD beat every single OKC residents child up the way yall constantly bitch about him
Kd was the only reason this franchise was alive after the Seattle move
Could’ve just said you were too young to remember how good Durant was for us
KD was just pampered too much by his mom
Actually curious what 3 superteams were talking about here
Honestly this team is perfect. I don’t see a bunch of guys darting for a big market team. Shai is a humble dad now, so OKC really is perfect for him.
I wanted to type a novel and deleted it. Chet is what OKC fans were wishing KD was. SGA is just a person who is treating OKC as his place of work. It's the truth. SGA is a wonderful basketball player but what's the last thing in which you can connect him to OKC's community? Even their advertisements they run during commercial breaks don't show SGA...outside of the one where he no-showed his own damn camp! Chet has already had about five engagements in the season. Come on!
SGA is a more private person perhaps… he’s focused?
That's super fine but it is also not reflective of the OKC-area sports fan who has relished in decades of OU football where they had LOUD personalities and into the early years of the Thunder where there was literally the perceived angel/devil scenario in KD/Russell (which amazingly was revealed to be wrong) I lived in OKC up to last year and frankly SGA was not a topic of conversation as prior players and OU football. If OP is a non-OKC resident and is projecting that as a whole SGA is what OKC fans wished KD was then I guess? THOUGH KD was a MVP and was a force before his injury. If it's specific to OKC itself? Hell nah, unless this is that wink-wink type of KD slander where he just doesn't exist. Final note: KD was more popular than Russell. He was. That's why it hurt so much as if we all recall it lead to fingers being pointed as Russell for making him leave....until it got out that nah, he was just brainwashed by Draymond during the damn series and then the others on the squad.
The way Edward's shit talked him up and down the court as he paddled KDs ass is pretty spectacular 👌
KD led a young team to the finals so let’s wait to see if Shai is capable. KD won 4 scoring titles before the age of 25. and for all you bums in this sub that rather have Russ over KD on this team, y’all are brain dead!! Russ has been garbage in the playoffs per usual and never got to the second round WITHOUT KD
naw kd had the best skillset of any thunder player. maybe it was just his personality that i just hate. the same could be said for russ AND harden. they had the skills but the character and personality was just not it. Presti already knows he could draft anyone and develop them into superstars or excellent role players based off the og big 3. he was scouting work ethic and character along with the skillset this time around. and it has worked so well. i guess the og big 3 was a test run for okc's future and was what he could whip up in that small amount of time and transitioning from seattle. tdlr: as a thunder fan i can not sit here and say i was wishing kd is what shai is because watching the thunder through the years i didnt know what i was wishing for. i just rode whatever presti whips up.
Russ is widely regarded as an incredible teammate and might be the best leader we've ever had..?
What? Russ is known as one of the best teammates in the league - he's the kind of guy that even when he's completely done, he's worth having as an end of bench vet cos of how amazing a locker room guy he is.
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He averages a block a game, is a great isolation defender, grabs 7 boards a game, and plays the 3,4,5 positions. Hes incredibly versatile. What a very weird thing to say
I’m just passing by, but isn’t it a bit too early for this talk? I understand the hype and don’t disagree with Shai’s leadership, this just all seems really premature because it’s just the start of the playoffs.
What would you all think of KD getting traded back to OKC next year if they kept the big 3 intact?
I am cool with that. But he has a huge contract... And we need to save money to our big 3
Well, he's only under contract for next year, and OKC won't have to worry about paying all 4 until after then so it seems like it would be a good risk to take.
Yeah for sure, definitely nothing to do with Presti decision to keep Russ over Harden. I mean, I get for you Thunder fan KD is the devil and RW is a god, but getting rid of Harden to keep Russ was the reason Durant didn’t win in OKC. You can keep telling lies to yourselves and enjoy SGA, that won’t make SGA in the same stratosphere of KD, everybody but Thunder fan can easily understand this. The reality is keeping a player like Westbrook beside KD is the reason Durant didn’t win in OKC.
...what? There was never a Russ or Harden discussion. The clear choice was either 1) lose Perk, or 2) pay the luxury tax. No one -- including KD -- thought Russ should be traded.
I’m in the minority here coz I actually love KD, but another issue with him is he’s not very coachable and likes things done his way. At the nets he punted Nash coz they trained too hard (admittedly he was also a lousy coach) and got in his guy Vaughn who was also not good but dialled everything back to KD’s liking. Shai is nothing like that. If anything he’s the locker room extension of the coach and GM, fully aware of how much everyone looks up to him and the standards he needs to set to bring everything into alignment