The Thunder

who do you think they will take with that many picks? i see them trading 1 or 2 of them for players that will help win games this season. they already have projects and developing players.

None of the picks are lottery so I wouldnt get too excited. They have everything going in thier favorr. Youth, depth after this draft, and a pair of all-stars. But you cant just throw dynasty out there like that. They still need a big man difference maker. Jefff Green should be a 6th man. Ibaka, Mullens and whoever they get in the draft will all have promise, but not gonna scare the lights out of anyone. Good time to be a thunder fan right now. I was checking out their stadium and downtown area last week, lots of people seem into the team. And on a side note, I went to Stilwater and checked out Oklahoma State’s campus as well. Went to a bunch bars, fun sports place for sure in Oklahoma.

don’t they already have like 12 guaranteed contracts for next season? I don’t think they will have a 15 men roster by tomorrow.

If they deal up to Indiana’s pick at #10, who makes a difference for them? If they keep their three picks as is, who are these difference makers. I know about the hope that comes with the draft, but it wasn’t long ago Bulls fans thought Paxson and Skiles were geniuses and even less time ago that Pritchard was the supposed genius. A to B is much easier than B to C.

i think hareden has potential hell be there 2 for the future just not rite now

Harden didnt have a consistent season, but his style fits great. He will be a 40% 3 point shooter and is unslefish as it gets. Just needs to focus on defense so he can start alongside durant and then sefolosha can move to the bench.

“Look no further than Ibaka whos on the thunder what was he drafted 24th and hes exciting. They are just doing a lot of work and was just giving them props.”

He is also not very good at basketball, which can inhibit teams looking to win basketball games come May and June.

Ibaka can play. He defends well, is a good lane filler on the break and has the ability to become a very good perimiter shooter. He’s still young. Dont know if he ever becomes a dominant post presence though. But I think he will be a starting big for the thunder for the long haul

and take the best big available…

He should of started last year butthey like Sefolsha’s defense.

Harden will more then likely have a huge jump in production this year, 18pts, 5reb, 3.5ast is reasonable to think.

I hope they get there ready center this year, BJ is a good progect but not close.

yea i think he had a hard time adjusting to the nba but he’ll be a starter next year

why is everyone bashing on Thabo? he’s a lock down defender which is what every team needs and thats why he gets and deserves the minutes. he doesnt take stupid shots and doesnt get in the way on offense he just needs to work on a shot which is easier to learn and work on then learning defense.

Harden is much better fit then Curry or Evans. Evans is way too ball dominant, and Curry, even though he’s a great player, is tweener and will always be a liability on defense. Harden could end up being one of the best 6th men in the league. Thabo will probably start as long as he’s there because he’s an outstanding defender, and while Harden will probably turn into a good defender, as well, his real value comes from his scoring. If he were to start he would be the 3rd option at best, while if he comes off the bench he can be the 1st or 2nd option while the starters rest and really prove his worth.

Ibaka could be anywhere from Chris Anderson to a poor mans Dwight Howard, but I would imagine the Thunder would try to prepare for the worst, and take a bigman with some promise. Orton may be a good prospect, but he’s years away from being a contributing player. They already have a player like that in Mullens. Since they arn’t really needing to rebuild for the future(they won 50 games this past year and took the lakers to game 6!!) it would probably make more sense for them to take a guy like Aldrich at #10. He can make an impact right away and at worse replace Nick Collison, and for a whole lot cheaper. At best be can be a Perkins/Noah type starting center, and that could be by his second year…

Yeah, your coach wasn’t in the NBA.

Once again, did people not watch the Finals? Or did I watch a different Finals where the big men were long, athletic, dumb, and unskilled? Why is it that the teams with the long, springy athletes who don’t know how to play were gone and the supposedly old and supposedly unathletic big men of the Lakers and Celtics were playing in the Finals? There has never been a team that has won with a guy like Ibaka playing any sort of meaningful role. When the stakes are raised, the presence of limited players on the court hurts playoff teams. It hurt the Celtics that Tony Allen and Rajon Rondo couldn’t hit 15-footers. It hurt the Thunder against the Lakers that Serge Ibaka couldn’t do anything when there wasn’t a 20-point lead one way or the other. Teams can’t win titles that way.

bothteams, ibaka is like 21 right? Way too early to write his obituary. Didnt he have like 8 blocks in one of those first round games too? I agree about it being hard to win with an offensive liability on the court whoch is why thabo needs to be a bench player eventually. Kobe gaurded him the same way he gaurds guys like ronnie brewer and tony allen, leaves them alone and says shoot, we want you to. That provides a huge disadvantage for the opoosing team. But im not gonna put ibaka in that category yet. He can develop into a contributor and a very solid offensive player.

@ BothTeamsPlayedHard

When you say there has never been a team that won with a guy like ibaka playing any meaningful role. do you mean except for the pistons with Ben Wallace and also the bulls/pistons with Dennis Rodman? I dont see why your hating on the guy so much. He Plays with high energy, good defense, and hustles on the boards. im surprised you didnt think of big ben when you were saying that considering your pistons profile pic.

Wallace and Rodman knew how to play the game and was not as dumb as Ibaka. Never in their careers were they that raw. They were not as unskilled, because both Rodman and Wallace could pass the ball and operate in an offense. You don’t judge defense solely by rebounds, steals, and blocks. Both Wallace and Rodman guarded Shaq in his prime, and gave him fits. Was the Lakers-Thunder series that long ago that you forgot that Pau and Bynum were having a fun little time in the post against them. Defense requires an intelligence that he does not have. Ibaka plays like a guy who just recently started playing the game, mostly because he hasn’t played for long. If you want to believe in him that is fine, but don’t compare him to those two. It makes you look like an idiot.

I also don’t remember Rodman or Big Ben being able to take jump shots like Ibaka can. He has offensive, and defensive promise thats hard to ignore. Look at Howard. The guy has been in the league for years, but still his offense is horrible,and he’s still one of the best when it comes to defense. Name me a team that didn’t have trouble with the Lakers length? You sound silly using that as a example. The Lakers are the team of the decade, and the Thunder are still young.

Dwight Howard is 280 lbs of muscle, and 90 percent of the time doesn’t need to have polish in the post because he makes such a good living simply being the best athlete around. His physical gifts are a big reason his skills have not come around. The same was the case with Shaq early on. You cannot compare him to Ibaka because there is that little matter of 50 lbs. of muscle.

That team whose logo you post didn’t have problems with the Lakers length. They had problems with the one-day break between cross-country flights, but the Lakers bigs did not have a decided advantage over Boston.

Really? So the Lakers just got offensive rebounds because the Celtics had to fly across the country? That sounds ridiculous. And thanks for bringing them up. You say that Rondo, and Allen hurt the C’s; yet that Celtics team won a championship, and made it to another one pretty much with Perkins, Rondo, and their bench having no offense. All a team needs is good defense and chemistry to thrive in this league. You saw it with the Spurs, and the Pistons back in the day. It’s not like we’re saying Ibaka is a franchise changer, but he could be a great role player for a great team.

Harden did not start because the Thunder don’t really have scorers off the bench and Thabo is a lock-down defender. He is like Ginobli for the Spurs-instant offense off of the bench and they are not in a rush to make Harden the starter. They are pushing him along gradually to give him time to truly learn the game and won’t go in and make stupid young player mistakes like Westbrook did his rookie year. Remember, they don’t want to win now!!!

dude you are just stubborn. you were wrong 20 minutes ago but you just are incapable of seeing it. Neither ben wallace or Rodman were anywhere near as promising as Ibaka at 20 years old. the kid has so much potential and the thread is about the thunder growing to be a dynasty. Hes gonna be a key member of the team over the next 5 years and hes going to be an important piece of them becoming a contender.

The league has a long list of dynasties in the making that never come about. Thinking a guy like Ibaka can help a title team tends to be a reason they don’t come about. If you don’t want to ignore everything that happens in the playoffs in constructing an opinion of how teams should be built, feel free. OKC can certainly do some nice things because they have Kevin Durant, but I’m not going to pretend that his supporting cast is any good simply because they wear the same uniform. I am feeling pretty good in my position of Serge Ibaka not having the intelligence, awareness, or on court impact of Ben Wallace or Dennis Rodman. I feel pretty good knowing that OKC would be much better with Kendrick Perkins in the middle than Ibaka. On a team like the Thunder, Perkins would be a 15-12 guy. See I have this nasty habit of watching the playoffs, and I saw Perkins sans KG put up 12-12 and take Orlando to Game 7. I have seen him battle the Lakers, Cavs, and Magic. You guys are slurping a guy in Ibaka who does not know how to play because you are impressed by jumping. Have fun with that one.