2026 Playoffs: West Semifinals (1) OKC Thunder Vs (4) LA Lakers

shoutout to daryl morey for giving okc mccain for free

what a moron

 

Thunder has cracked the code of the Silver parity era with all these draft picks and SGA , unlike many others franchise players , has stayed healthy so far .

Only SAS with some strong young guards can be a problem for them .

Lakers haven't even played that bad so far.

 

It’s really hard to recreate what the thunder did. It’s extremely improbable.

You have to trade an all star to a team that overpays you to the tune of 5 firsts, 2 swaps, a good player and a young player that turns into the MVP. Both of these things are so unlikely that the two of them in a single trade is almost impossible. You also have to trade your recent MVP for two additional firsts, two swaps and an all star.

That’s 7 firsts.

You then trade your new all star (Chris Paul) and the good player (Danilo Gallinari) for two additional firsts. You then pull off 14 trades over 14 months accumulating 36 total draft picks. Players like Jerami Grant, Al Horford, Kemba Walker are involved.

You end up with 18 firsts and 18 seconds over the next 7 years.

You select players like Sengun and Giddey that you trade for future draft picks. And keep players like Chet and Jalen Williams. You also make fantastic additions like Hartenstein.

Now they’re in a situation where they trade their talent for future picks and hope they pick and develop replacements. But that’s a big assumption - if it was easy to just replace all star or great role players with draft picks, no one would ever trade their picks.

I’m pretty sure they’ll drop off once they have a few of the guys on max deals and have to get rid of their depth and the new picks don’t work out.

 

yeah, the thing you didn't mention was that it took SGA long enough to develop/get ref help into a superstar that he didn't get a supermax on his first contract. same with chet and williams. all on regular maxes for various reasons. that's huge, financially, and what allowed the hartenstein acquisition.

no one can replicate this any time soon, and most teams that try will end up like the hinkie sixers, who tried it first and failed because they didn't have the same luck. and sorry, SGA was luck. i know doc rivers is claiming different now, but nobody--not even the great presti--knew they were trading for an mvp. not a chance. that's what the eleventy zillion picks were for.

anyway, SGA's supermax starts year after next, where they're slated to be over the cap with just their top three salaries, essentially. to avoid the second apron at that point, they'd have to basically let every single one of their support players walk in the interim, banking on replacing them with draftees. i don't think that's likely, tbh.

now, do they have lots of ways to mitigate this? of course. but to replicate having a big three that cost basically the same as one giannis/luka/jokic that includes a guy considered on that tier? those days are over.

 

The 2020 Lakers team makes this OKC team go home crying to their mamas. It’s a shame Rob had the perfect championship formula and veered away from it.

 

well, that team would have aged out by now, but yeah, the westbrook trade was a bad choice on several levels. the league was (and has continued to) trend the opposite way in terms of team building (best teams less old and top heavy).

 

Lebron and AD would be the best players on the court. But we also missed out on playing the other two best teams that season in the Bucks and the Clippers. You can only play what’s in front of you, but that team gets lion-ised for the role players when it was our two stars that were world destroyers. I think the supporting cast gets a bit overrated at times for 2020.

 

Can I also say to the people who think OKC is so much better, Luka that bubble year took two games off the clippers who had Kawhi, PG, Beverley, Morris, Zubac with Lou and Montrezl averaging 36 off the bench. Luka’s team was Maxi Kleber (the chosen one), Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr and DFS.

The year after he took 3 games off them. The year after that he made Booker cry alongside Chris Paul, Mikal Bridges and Ayton. Reggie Bullock, DFS and Dwight Powell were starting with Luka and Brunson.

If he was healthy after his tear in March, with that form, we’d be 1-1 at the very least going home. You’re telling me that Luka with LeBron, Reaves, Austin, Smart, Ayton, Rui, Kennard, Hayes isn’t a real contender this year? We take OKC to 7 - minimum.

 

He effed it up. I tried

 

i don't think we beat okc AND SA even with luka this year, but no, you can't count out a luka-led team. he just does a lot of things offensively that there's no real counter for.

 

Luka is a playoff riser. He averages 31/9/8 in the playoffs. He is actually disgustingly good. Here are a few stat lines:

19-20: 6 games
42/7/9
43/17/13
38/9/9

20-21: 7 games
39/7/7
44/9/4
42/8/14
46/7/14

21-22: 15 games (injured)
45/12/8
35/5/7
33/11/8
35/10/4
42/5/8
40/11/3
30/14/9

22-23 he averaged 30/10/8 on one leg. If he was healthy, we could have won it this year, no doubt in my mind.

 

I think there's some under rating going on here about OKC.
They're coasting this series, yesterday no player played over 32 minutes, SGA was at 27. This without J-Dub. They also have not been playing at their highest level, like they did in our last matchup in the regular season.
So I don't think just by adding Luka we would win this because I think they would play differently too.

This is in no way to discount the great showing we are putting on the floor, I'm proud of how the team is trying to maximize their ceiling and keeping the games competitive.
It's also true that you never know what can happen with Luka playing. He can absolutely take over a game by himself. But I imagine it wouldn't be enough based on everything we have seen from both teams all year

 

SGA is a great basketball player but I’m sorry, you aren’t the Most Valuable Player, AT ALL. A plus 18 while you chilling prove that.

We go in the tank when Marcus Smart sits for Christ sake. LeBron and Luka are more valuable.

 

I'm not so.sure.about this SGA.numbers.went down last year in the olayoffs and everyone knows that game 7 was going either way till Hali got hurt

They look better without Jdub as they got more shots to guys like mitchell and mccain who are more reliable from 3 then williams.

Plus from a Lakers perspective they are different team with Smart. He doesn't have the boxscore impact as a guy Luka but this guy makes the Lakers go. He's every bit as important as the big 3 from a team standpoint and he missed all the regular season matchups I believe

 

Don't sit there and tell us how basketball works. Your team operates by an entirely different set of rules.

There's physical and then there's fouling every single play and that's what Dort does, that's what AC does and that's what Wallace does. You let Smart get away with that s*** and you score single digits every game "Mr MVP"

I'm not even getting into the flopping, foul baiting, kicking or tripping. Those aren't physical advantages, that's manipulating the game by being cheap, dirty cheaters

 

Chet is a complete embarrassment to the game after that flop in which he pretended that he got hit in the face.
Alien Boy should be ashamed of himself. Obvious preferential treatment is rampant not only when it t comes to the whistle, it exists within the rigged draft, as well as in the mechanics of trade imbalances.

It’s fine to let a Franchise build up a dominant team(to an extent), but then to give them all the calls in a playoff series is just theatre. It’s not basketball.
No wonder many have soured on the NBA.
I have too, but I’ve been a Laker fan for nearly 40 years.

Also, SGA is a douche for wearing sunglasses in doors.

 

Look who's talking
f*** you and your whole Thunder up nation
For last 2 seasons SGA shoot 1552 FT
it's more by 425 FT than next player-
Giannis