re: November Non-Pels NBA Thread

The ball doesn't even bounce anywhere near him. If anything, Prince was lazy going after the ball.

That ball bounces baseline in an area where his teammate was. He controlled the zone in paint if the ball bounces in this area but the ball bounced sideways well away from him. That is no way or shape should have any negative connotation on his effort especially how he carried that team today.

If you have issues with the Bucks, it should be on Dame who basically scored 0 points in the 4th while playing horrific defense. The Bucks without Middleton cannot hide his defense and it's costing them games.

a what?
an iliac wing?
Chet is a human right?

Some players are just goddamn mature and easy to root for.

OKC and Sam Presti somehow figure it out to keep small market teams relevant, lowkey want them to win a ring (not at our cost obvi)

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I didn't know players were allowed to talk about being injured and actually care about the fans they play for. I might just be an OKC fan for the future. I at least rooted for an OKC team for a short time with CP3/West, so there's some connection.

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I love how transparent he is with the fans and community. Imagine if Zion did this- how much would that help our frustration knowing that this dude actually cares. Instead he and the organization hide and play games with his injuries. Theres a bond those players/team have made in the short time with that OKC community that the Pels organization has never done since they been here.

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Some players are just goddamn mature and easy to root for.

OKC and Sam Presti somehow figure it out to keep small market teams relevant, lowkey want them to win a ring (not at our cost obvi)

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This goes way back to the first Presti empire. He and all fans were just devastated when KD sent an article on 4th of July saying he was leaving. He never did it personally and to the fans, just an obscure article and then he left the country.

That same day Russ Westbrook was taken aback and posted his famous insta and it had 35 cupcakes (KDs #).



At that moment every fan expected Russ to bolt and Presti to leave and be a bottom feeder forever. It was looking bleak for the franchise.

And then a month later Thunder announced a special gathering at the arena. Some speculated Presti leaving. But Russ made an appearance and said he was staying. I can’t stress enough how monumental that was. He became a defacto hero to the whole city and state. Its why Russ is loved here, he then drug that years team to the playoffs with a roster not so great. Won MVP.

He changed the trajectory of the franchise. Presti was then able to get PG13 to come. And some others. Once that didn’t work Presti was able to parlay PG into the massive haul with LAC. Many other moves were made too when Russ left and CP3 too. Presti got major value out of all of them. Its like he’s been on a mission to rebuild but better overall.

One thing the Thunder do is get all players active in the community. The first place Presti takes every new player in the Bombing Memorial. He gets them involved and that build fan/player/team bonds. I’m sure most other teams do it to but they really have a great program.

One thing about the current team, they are young. But our HC and players mostly grew up together. HC was our G League coach and migrated up when Billy left. So most of the players have grew up with their HC and believe in him. And the team has such great camaraderie not normally seen at the pro level. They care for each other and the fans.

One example of them. Last year in playoffs they refused to be interviewed on court after the game until the local TV guy did it first. Every game for past few years instead of just one player getting interviewed, that player would wave the other players over so it became a group on court wrap-up interview. Then at the end they would all bark and its become a thing. They do it to this day. Mainly it shows they don’t have ego’s and like playing for and with each other.

I don’t think Chet comes back until after All Star break but they have a few good players coming back soon so will be ok. Will miss Chet but will stay in playoff hunt. But Presti has a lot of talent on the team depth wise, just short of centers until IHart gets back soon.

Someday when Russ is done he’ll get a statue here. Just because of what he’s done and meant to the fans. He easily could have bolted but gave us some extra years of fun. He was always around town and would always stop and talk to anyone. I know his path and play hasn’t been the greatest since he left but he gave fans here a lot to cheer for when KD left. He has the key to the city.

And Presti is so loaded with picks and players I don’t know how he’s going to manage it all. That guy is a genius. He only traded Harden because owners did not want to go into tax so early. But they have changed and realize when you get in the window you only have so many years to win it all. This time around he has a chance to do it over these next 1-4 years.

8-10 weeks isn't how long he'll be out. 8-10 weeks is when the team will release a timeframe on how long he'll be out because he won't be able to even begin rehab until then. Going to be quite a bit longer. Will be lucky to get him back by early March.

JALEN WILLIAMS TODAY

31 POINTS
7 ASSISTS
5 STEALS
2 BLOCKS
6 REBOUNDS
10/18 FGA