Everyone's High On The Spurs, But What About the Thunder?

Mentioned I am in Oklahoma City, uh, spent a couple of days around the Thunder.

And as I'm talking to people here and, and being around the team, I'm starting to wonder like, Is, is, are we sleeping a little bit on Oklahoma City this year?

Is that a weird thing to say about a team that just won a championship like 16 months ago?

Like, like, For, for reasons that make a lot of sense, we've anointed San Antonio as the, as probably the, the overwhelming favorite to win a championship.

The organic growth alone is going to make the Spurs, uh, formidable.

Victor Wambayama looks better.

Steph Cassel, Dylan Harper, De'Aaron Fox is back.

Um, a whole bunch of guys in that roster I think can get better.

But I'm, I'm looking around at Oklahoma City and I'm seeing a healthy AJ Mitchell who wasn't healthy in the conference finals.

I'm seeing a healthy Jalen Williams who wasn't healthy in the playoffs.

Uh, I'm seeing Chet Holmgren with another offseason.

I'm seeing Shay still in his prime.

Um, yeah, they lost some guys, but, you know, I, I think they can replace Lou Dort adequately with Cason Wallace and all the guys they have, you know, in, on the wing.

Uh, same thing with Aaron Wiggins, who was kind of an, an, an auxiliary guy for that team the last couple of years.

He thought he's, I think he's gonna be really good in Atlanta.

Um, You know, are, are we sleeping at all on Oklahoma City here?

Like , should they be considered right there as one A in the Western Conference alongside San Antonio?

Yeah, I, I, I mean, yeah, I, I.

I don't know.

I, I, I could, I could make an argument right now that OKC should be favored above San Antonio too.

I, I can, I can make that argument.

I'm not saying it's necessarily true of 1A 1 B.

Um, I, I think just Victor Wambayama's growth, if he gets any better, he's the best player in the world.

So of course you , you kind of want to hand it to San Antonio at that point.

But OKC, yeah, I would have to search, search for a weakness.

And if anything I can think of is their wing position depth is a little weak.

That's it.

I, I mean, losing Lou Dort, well, he was just, he was thick in size and he could match up against some of the bigger wings.

They don't really have those in-between guys.

They, you know, Caruso can guard up, um, Cason Wallace can guard up, uh, but like the in-between.

Guys, they just, they don't really have that.

Jalen J Dub can guard up, um, but they don't have anybody that matches the size and strength.

Um, luckily for them, San Antonio doesn't really have many guys that have those strength and guys that are gonna pound them like that on the wing, so it really matchup wise, I don't think it bothers them that much.

But for me, I look at this OKC team and I am so bullish on AJ Mitchell.

I think he If, if that dude can stay healthy, I think he could be the starting point guard for a playoff team, uh, like in the future.

I think this, I'm very high on AJ Mitchell.

Um, they're just great, they're, they're great.

I, I, I don't, I'd like, they're just so good.

I, I'm, I'm, I'm very excited to see this season, to see them going, and I think you mentioned it.

Jalen Williams.

Arguably, depending on who you say, is their 2nd or 3rd best player.

A lot of people say Chet's the 2nd, and I understand that, but like, Jay Dub's an All-Star, and he was hurt for practically the entire season.

They let's not sleep on the fact that that one of their most important players was hurt throughout the whole year, and so I just, if he's healthy, this team is just so, so good.

So, I, yeah, I'm with you.

I , I just, to me, it's, I, I know New York, I, I love that team.

I actually was really, I, I truly enjoyed watching them, but if I'm just sitting here from the outside going into this season, I'm saying, OKC or San Antonio have to be the favorites to win it all .

So, here's my question, um, Chet Holmgren is a great player.

There's no doubt about that.

One of the best defensive players in the NBA.

But can Oklahoma City beat the Spurs?

When Victor Wimbayama does to Chet Holmgren what he did last series, last playoffs.

Um, look, they , they almost did anyway.

It was 7 games and they did it without Jay Will, without AJ Mitchell for the back half of that series.

But to me, that's the biggest question.

Now, the Thunder will say like Chet had a great year and he did and he's an all NBA caliber guy and he is, but to me, it's like, Without referencing the Victor Wambayama stuff , it's like, other than that, Mrs.

Lincoln, how was the play?

Like the, the, the, Vic, and Chet is everything here.

Like this is a matchup that I think is gonna define these guys.

Like 25 years from now, we're probably gonna be doing like documentaries on Chet versus Victor because they'll both probably be on the same teams for at least the next 10.

Um, I, I, I'm, that to me, and look, we're gonna see an opening night, right?

Like that's the, the, uh , was that, it's an NBC game, right?

On opening night on Tuesday, uh, not this Tuesday, but Tuesday of, of NBA opening week.

Like, can they, do they need more from Chet?

Like can they survive Victor Wambayama dominating Chet Holmgren in a playoff series?

That, that is to me one of the great questions of the season.

That's why I'll be watching these individual matchups so closely and just to see how much Chet has improved mentally.

Is he in a better place than it seemed like he was against Victor last year?

Look, Victor takes this stuff personally.

Victor wants to go out there and beat the other team, beat Oklahoma City, but he also wants to kick the crap out of Chet.

Like this goes back to like their amateur days .

Like this is, or whatever it was, USA basketball versus France.

Um, I wonder, I wonder what more they need from Chet Holmgren in the playoffs for them to advance past San Antonio.

They need more.

I could not agree more.

That is a massive, massive storyline.

But I cannot stress enough, a healthy Jalen Williams can counteract the offense that Chet wasn't bringing.

Chet was the #2 scorer pretty much, or supposed to be, like their, their second option when Jay Dub was hurt, and Chet wasn't scoring against Victor.

So Victor's eliminating Chet, which is horrible for OKC and probably that that that is a huge issue, but I'm just, I, I cannot stress enough a healthy Jalen Williams playing at top level.

You're talking about an All-Star.

Like that guy can, it can counterbalance some stuff.

So, um, I just, I want to see these two, both teams, like, extremely healthy.

And by the way, on the flip side, Dylan Harper is now 1 year older.

Dylan Harper is an absolute stud.

So let's talk about development for other teams too, right?

If Jay Dub is gonna be back and playing well, then what?

About Dylan Harper being better.

I, I've just, I love it.

It's incredible.

These two teams bring the drama that you absolutely just crave.

And uh yeah, it's just, it's worth talking about and I know you want to also mention about San Antonio, right?

You're talking about San Antonio a little bit.

If I'm talking about a weak, a weakness of San Antonio, I would say they don't have elite shooting.

They have good shooters, and Champani can make some shots, um, you know, uh, Harrison Barnes can hit some corner shots, but like, majority of their players, the guys that they rely on out there, Vassell is a good shooter, like, they don't have any of those elite, elite shooters, and I do wonder, and that's why I kind of craved.

Maybe instead of Tobias Harris, I want him to get someone like a Rui to put in the corner, one of those guys who shoot like 45% from 3, or put another, you know, unbelievable shooter, like a Kard or somebody out there that can also get a little bit more spacing.

Um, because I just, I think at the end of the day, when you talk about an OKC team, and they just start hounding you, and they just start jumping on top of you and all the different things, if Victor had some elite shooting around him, I think that would help a little bit.

Um, but again, I'm just nitpicky here.

I'm, I'm trying to find things, but that would be my one thing about San Antonio.

Yeah, I agree, um.

I think Harris, was he mid-30s, mostly last couple of years from three point range.

Harrison Barr, I think he was at 38, which is good.

Tobias, Tobias Harris, I'm saying when they, 00, I'm sorry.

Yes.

00, no, no.

Tobias Harris is low 30s, yeah, yeah, and he's, I, well, I think he's a, they probably think he's a more reliable 3-point shooter than Kelton Johnson.

Like, I mean, I feel like that's one of the reasons they went out and got him to, to take up or compete for at least some of those minutes.

But, but if we're talking about that, then it's like.

I don't know.

I just don't know how useful that'll be getting a guy who's, Tobias was great last year in the playoffs, but he needed to be that role.

I just, I, I like Tobias Harris.

I'm just saying.

When you're coming down to it, and by the way, this is the start of the season.

They can recognize what the needs they have by trade deadline and figure this out.

Um, but again, this is me being nitpicky here, but that's, that's kind of where my head goes.

Yeah, on the flip side, I don't think Oklahoma City is gonna have any problem with perimeter shooting.

Um, Shay can still knock it down.

Jarred McCain is gonna get more minutes with Lou Dort gone.

AJ Mitchell.

I talked to AJ Mitchell for a while earlier in this week, and to your point, they are expecting.

A breakout type of season.

Like last year was a breakout year, like year 2 breakout year for AJ Mitchell.

They, they think he can get to an all-star level this year.

Like he was kind of on that way, that trajectory, uh, early in last season .

Um, he's gonna compete, I think for 6th man.

Um, I, I, there's a lot of, of hype or a lot of expectation.

Around AJ Mitchell with Dort gone.

I just think with Chet, Chet's like the variable here.

I think if Jalen Williams is healthy, he's great.

He's all NBA second team type of player, two-way guy.

Like he can do a lot.

Shay is Shay.

Like, don't be surprised if we're like into January.

It's like, huh, we have to vote for Shea again for MVP.

Like we're gonna have to do it.

Like, uh, like if, if Wambayama gets hurt for any stretch or has to sit out, you're gonna be like, all right, well, Oklahoma City is number one and Shay's putting up ridiculous numbers once again.

There's a level of consistency.

And a level of high expectation with a lot of guys on that team.

Chet to me is the one variable here.

You know, he's gonna be really good.

He's gonna be all-star level.

It's just these matchups with Wambayama are going to be watched with a microscope.

We're gonna watch every single possession.

To see if Chet's physicality has picked up, to see if he's mentally looking to go at Wembayama, if he's able to score, going at Wembayama.

Like, here's my advice to our friends at NBC.

Like, let's just have a Chet and Wemby cam for like that first game.

Like let's just have one camera on the two of them at all times.

I want to see that matchup.

Uh, I was.

For 40 whatever odd minutes they decide to play.

Yeah, no, well, how about this?

Like, no matter what's happening in the game, no matter who's going off or whatever happened, every walk-off interview has to be one of them.

I mean, Wemy is gonna be one no matter what, but Chet, just, just ask them about each other the entire game.

I mean, Wemby will probably answer it in a way that will.

Wemby doesn't shy away from questions, man.

Like he doesn't shy away from giving real answers.

Oh God, thank goodness for Wendy.

Thank goodness for, OK.

I just love the NBA right now.

I love it.

I'm gonna that opening night is gonna be wild.

That's gonna be a great game, no doubt about it.