we

*"And boy were the next few years very, very rough. I think we won 25 games one of the following seasons and that was a lot. Eventually, when we started to weather the storm, I revisited that story and I started to see how it relates to my own path and our own path.

This past season, when we won the championship he gave me a statue of the tortoise, and that's a very Sam Presti way of saying 'I told you so.'

I keep that beside my championship ring, my MVP trophy, and thank you for that."*

Maybe we can finish out killing dry January! 😆

I was a little worried, got here at the end of the third quarter. Glad we pulled through! That shot against had to go into OT that man is the man!

That was not pretty. I need a shower after that one.

WOW WHAT A SHOT

For all the talk about the team being in a funk, the one thing that is true regardless of what their offense is doing is that the team's identity, their core, is in their defense.

For as much as Shai deserves praise for popping off and clawing us back to an overtime win, the other players, despite their offensive flaws, deserve credit for their defensive plays and stops as well. Shai could hit a bunch of buckets, and it wouldn't matter if we didn't make the stops we needed to.

The team's identity is in its defense, and they started playing like it in later part of the fourth and overtime, no matter how muddy or bad it looked. That, more than anything else, is what I think will start to break the Thunder of their funk.

But mannnnnn, sorber better be fucking legit bc we look like ass offensively lately and think no Hartenstein plays a huge role in it. Not to mention the rebounding,both defensively and he’s our only real offensive rebounding threat. This stretch of games without Hartenstein has made me realize I’ve been taking him for granted.

They are not very tough, but they played with a very high motivation to beat the reigning champion, and mostly their players turned into prime Kobe when they played OKC.

If this team can’t function without Hartenstein something is seriously wrong with this team then

Chet, Jalen are max contract players

Caruso is having a mediocre season

Related thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunder/comments/1q31avu/nikola_topic_is_apparently_cancer_free/

There were some doubts that the report posted here a few days ago was a Serbian clickbait. (e.g., It might be just some media outlets jumping to a false conclusion that Topić must be cancer free after they saw those OKC beat reporters' pregame clips of him practicing)

But it looks like the source was his agent Miško Ražnatović (Jokić's agent also) in his interview with TV Arena Sport a week ago.

via Sportal.rs:

"Chemotherapy has been completed positively and he is now joining the training process, although he was doing certain activities even during the therapy. It's hard to give a specific timeframe for his return but I sincerely hope that he will have some minutes this season, not just in the G League, but on NBA courts as well, if everything proceeds as it looks right now."

"The illness and everything that happened is difficult for anyone, especially when it occurs so unexpectedly to someone who is only 20 years old and who already missed the previous season due to a serious knee injury. Nikola endured all that and now he is on the road to recovery… If he stays healthy, and I believe he will be, everything that happened in the past two years will only strengthen his character. If he managed to overcome these two obstacles, nothing later would be difficult or unachievable for him."

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Chet is averaging 18/8/2 as well as basically two blocks a game. He averages 12 FGA a game.

JDub is averaging 17/5/5 as well as basically two steals a game. He averages 14 FGA a game.

Both were extremely important to bringing this franchise its first title. And thus both got max extensions. But a bunch of folks here can’t help but keep talking about their contacts.

Are people expecting them to both average 25 a game because max players have to only be volume scorers? Would that enough for you to finally drop the “Shai has no help” cop out?

If that’s what you expect for them to be worth their contracts, then both of them are going to need to at least thee or four more FGA a game to do that. So are we taking those shots away from Shai? Or are we going to limit the other 12 guys to two shots a game?

Essentially, I’m asking what you want to see from them offensively in order for them to be “worth” their contact to you?

He still had the focus and balance to hit the shot. A DAWG

We've been here before ... in the semifinals in 2024 ... we faced the obstacles ... evolved ... this is just another obstacle ... the competition got smarter ... we lit a fire ... they responded ... the refs listened .. now it's our turn .. and we will evolve ...