Oklahoma City Thunder

Yeah.

Let's even take Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs and pretend they don't even exist in the west.

You're still gonna have [laughs] a lot of competitive teams that feel like they could beat you, right?

Sure.

And then apparently there was like a, I guess they rated them on a scale from, um, from I guess one to 100, and then, uh, they included the ranking compared to other teams.

So like for instance, OKC has a score of 93 for players, but they're ranked first.

They have the best score for players of any team.

They have a 95 for management.

Like give them a score, right? Uh, you know, 90 up is an A and B in, or 80 to 90 is a B or whatever, and then they tell us where they rank among everybody.

Um, a little bit different than the method in the past, but not entirely different.

So not super surprising OKC's number one, San Antonio's number two.

I was a little surprised Boston was as high as three.

Yes, is it plausible that it is pre-insurance on a Deuce McBride trade for a center? Then sure, maybe one of those guys proves essential.

And I eat my words and I reference this podcast hopefully in June and I say, wow, I had no idea John Konchar would be hitting a 70-foot buzzer beater to end the third quarter in a game seven against the Thunder that the Knicks would ultimately win by two points.

Maybe that happens and maybe I'm eating my words.

But odds are none of these guys are swinging the title pursuit.

I, you know, I looked at the last 10 from last year and, uh, it was in order, um, Nuggets, Celtics, Spurs, Knicks, Hornets, Thunder, Rockets, Cavaliers, Lakers, and Pistons.

Uh, and five of those guys were in the top 10 the year before: Denver, OKC, New York, Boston, and Cleveland.

So yeah, there's pretty good turnover, maybe more than you might expect.

And just given all the craziness we saw this off-season, you know, like I think that there's gonna be a, a, a lot of movement in these ranks this year.

Um-

That's right.

So if you look at 2024-25, that top 10 was Cleveland, Boston, OKC, Denver, New York, Memphis, Sacramento, Minnesota, Indiana, and Milwaukee.

Indiana falls off this past year because of Haliburton.

Paul George, third in MVP.

I remember saying, "SGA's gonna be a star," 'cause my friends were like, "Dude, you guys fleeced the Thunder." [chuckles] Some of my friends were like, "You fleeced the Thunder, man." I'm like, "I don't know about that.

Shai's really good, and we gave him a lot of picks." And they were like, "Dude, Paul George.

L- Shai, Shai will be lucky to even be as good as him in his prime." And they were right, but SGA became better than him, Paul George.

It's a hard decision, no doubt.

But when it comes to proof of concept, there is more proof that Oklahoma City will take the regular season more seriously than any other team on the board.

And you don't have that same sort of assurance with even a team like San Antonio, who is my obvious number one pick now, that you've gone OKC.

But the reason I say that is we've seen OKC.

So let's just dig into...

Usman Jang and what we saw from him last year with the Thunder and with the Bucks.

And I mean, first and foremost, what stands out the most is the usage and how you basically just flipped him the keys.

The moment he arrived here in Milwaukee, he was at a 10, 11%, if we round up, usage rate in KC prior to the trade.

And like that spot in catch and shoot, it seemed like, oh yeah, he's taking a lot of catch and shoots and no dip threes too.

He shot 42% on catch and shoot threes last year with the Bucs.

He was at 32 in his time with the Thunder prior to the trade.

He was at 36% last year.

yeah maybe four or five options then it's it's harder

Was it the Pacers, the Indiana Pacers, or was it the Oklahoma City Thunder?

Oh, yes.

Obviously, it was the Thunder.

He was the guy in Indiana.

He gets traded to the Thunder and finishes top three in MVP.

And then him and Kawhi joining the Clippers is like, whoa, watch out.

The Clippers are going to be the team to watch in L.A. and even when he went to the 76ers on a free agent contract or a sign and trade whatever it was it was still like a positive thing it was like they got rid of tobias harris and they put paul george in that cap slot like that's gonna be great and it just didn't work out so this has to be a unique thing and considering the way these guys are wired it has to be a strong motivator for him He told Gary he was reborn.