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@ThunderFanInMn
And thats what worries me, he's not going for great, just good enough, also we dont look like a 50-58 team at all and wont be with this roster

IF Presti has a choice between being ELite for 2-3 years then blowing things up and rebuilding,

Or being a consistent 50-58 game winner for 10.
In a small market, Presti will take the latter.

This team is being built to win consistentaly for a decade or more, and hopefully at the right point, with the elite player in Durant, and Westbrook developing, and other pieces, A champtionship run or two can happen.

But Presti will not sacrifice, long term viablity for a short term run.

Now, there are a lot of smaller chips and expiring countracts on this team, he may do something this year, but whatever he does, it'll be to build long term, not to shorten the journey to a championship at the expense of long term viablity.

@Crow
After watching the jazz game i really was jealous of their big men, and even if we did make an offer to millsap im sure utah matches, however we could of went after jefferson,and could of probably outright signed lee, other than our assists per game being embarrasing we are getting killed on the boards and opponents are getting more chances, also i think collison/krstic/ibaka/green is the poorest 4-5 rotation in the league, ibaka is making huge strides but he alone isnt enough, imagine if boston had a healthy shaq tonight, seems to me like we are a 2 man team and the fact that only westbrook and durant scored in the 3rd quarter tonight proves that. We havent made any moves in the free agent/trade market the last 2 years and i think it's time Presti makes some moves, we can't wait forever, and mid late first round project big men aren't the awnser

Draft Hindsight may be annoying to some and it can be too perfectionistic; but, if the quality of your draft picks matters a lot, and it does, then draft hindsight is inevitable what if thinking and can be useful if it improves your future draft foresight or prompts action in other player acquisition markets when the draft alone does not fulfill the needs. There is a difference between having a winning vision, making the vision happen and making the success happen. A winning executive will have to win in some combination of the draft (and lottery), trades, free agency, salary management, coach selection (and supervision & management), player development and culture development. The draft is a decent chunk of "the game" and it is a bigger one if you choose to make it that way.

Curry/Evans/Jennings/Rubio are a diverse lot. I haven't thought about what it would actually be like to have any of them but they vary a lot on quality of shooting and quantity of driving. They also vary some of overall quality of passing. (Rubio's reputation and stats don't necessarily agree on his quality.)

Rather than spend time of the hypothetical though, I might turn it back and ask which of these skills is most needed to add in the current situation and how to get that thru rotation change or acquisition but without getting these specific guys who are not exactly on the market right now? (Not I'd want 2 or 3 of them.)

Presti had 2 veteran big men in Collison and Krstic and may think of Green as close to that. Looking at other good western conference teams 2-3 vet bigs who play much is the typical range. Whether the 3rd matters much depends on the guy and the role. It may be more a question of vet big quality than quantity.

Also i dont understand why presti wont go after a veteran big man, so many were available this summer, aldrich is 2-3 years away from contributing

@jdstorm
Yeah but Curry would have been a great fit on our team and would allow westbrook to be more of a scorer and durant to be a pure scorer, harden was a horrible pick that i defended after the draft and all last year because i was drinking the Presti koolaid like everyone else, but that pick could cost us championships im pretty sure Curry/Evans/Jennings/Rubio + Westbrook+Durant would be the best 1-2-3 punch in the nba right now, add Ibaka and we are gauranteed a title with that lineup, with all the draft picks we have had and all the moves we have made we are still a 2 man team...no progress in 2 years, no pieces added since durant(who presti had to pick) and westbrook, it's time we make our next move we can win a title now

@Scott

Draft Hindsight 101 is annoying. there are obviously some talented players that were picked after we had our choice in the last 3 years. but development is about situation and opportunity as much as talent, and Presti has done a good job finding pieces that fit together into a cohesive team.

Its not Perfect, but there is no such thing, as everyone has different theories on what it takes to build successful basketball teams. and while we did pass on some franchise players, the type of teams required to fit around those players doesn't necessarily fit KD's skill set and he is ultimately the guy this team is building around

I know im overreacting but honestly , we could have went with Lopez/Love and Curry/Evans/Jennings/Rubio...Would anyone seriously rather have Westbrook/Harden over Lopez/Curry,Love/Curry,Lopez/Evans,Lopez/Jennings?
Not to mention the asset/trading chip Rubio could have been, also im dissapointed we didn't make a run at Millsap,Lee,Jefferson,Scola, Presti has been solid but he could have done a much better job than he has, also trading away every veteran we have had for rookies turned d-leaguers hasn't helped, and once again there are the Mullens,White,Weaver,Vaden picks...Im not a troll, i bleed thunder blue and will the rest of my life but it's time we start questioning presti a little bit

So critical. Its a bumpy road, right now, these are young and hungry guys...who have a will to win. They'll come out of it.
The early part of there schedule is fairly tough....and down the road it will lighten and they'll find their groove.
Odds are the THunder will finish between 4th and 6th in the west...and the young guys keep developing.

Ibaka +10 tonight in his first start, Against a good Interior Celtics team.

That stat really stands out.

I think the bigger problem is that there is a lack of ball movement to create shot opportunities. That didn't happen as much last season. I get the impression that the standing around is as much of the expectation that Westbrook or Durant will do something rather than by dint of coaching strategy.

Joshua G :
So according to the comments during this game (albeit from different people), Durant sucks, Westbrook sucks, Harden sucks, Krstic sucks, Thabo sucks, Cook sucks (I’ll agree with this one), Green sucks, Brooks sucks, and Presti sucks.
Pretty amazing that they’re 3-3 if you ask me.

and Khan should be our GM

So according to the comments during this game (albeit from different people), Durant sucks, Westbrook sucks, Harden sucks, Krstic sucks, Thabo sucks, Cook sucks (I'll agree with this one), Green sucks, Brooks sucks, and Presti sucks.

Pretty amazing that they're 3-3 if you ask me.

justin :

Scott :Face it Presti has been a disappointment, he gets way to much credit, and not enough criticism

I agree he doesn’t get enough criticism for what he’s done wrong or hasn’t done at all but he’s done a lot of stuff right; and considering the general competency level of NBA GM’s (including the three previous GM’s of this franchise before Presti), I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

You wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth? What does that mean?

@nick
*silly.

I'm done with this argument. I'd rather discuss the chances that anything changes this season as far as our offense and defense go. I do think Collison will help somewhat, but is there any chance anything else changes?

@Scott
I've never argued that Presti was great. But look around the league at what many GMs have done to their teams. Presti has been very comptent, and potentially very good if he manages to turn the assets that we have into the pieces that make us a true contender. That may or may not happen, but to argue that Presti deserves to be fired is sill.

Scott :@DizzyDaiKahn is active at least we needed beasley more than minnesota did, him and durant were even childhood friends, and you cant say a backcourt of rubio-wes johnson has less potential than westbrook-sefolosha/harden..

LOL. Go away, troll.

@DizzyDai
Kahn is active at least we needed beasley more than minnesota did, him and durant were even childhood friends, and you cant say a backcourt of rubio-wes johnson has less potential than westbrook-sefolosha/harden..

The team's done nothing but improve since Presti has taken over. What happens when / if (probably when) the team plateaus will be the determining factor in rating his regime.

Scott :Face it Presti has been a disappointment, he gets way to much credit, and not enough criticism

I agree he doesn't get enough criticism for what he's done wrong or hasn't done at all but he's done a lot of stuff right; and considering the general competency level of NBA GM's (including the three previous GM's of this franchise before Presti), I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

@Scott

You'd rather we had Kahn? If you are going to get rid of anyone it should be Brooks.

Face it Presti has been a disappointment, he gets way to much credit, and not enough criticism

@Joshua G

It's true to an extent, but if he's the difference between last year's defense and this year's then he should get DPOY.

I think the main issue is all the small lineups we go to. Our defense seems to go down the tubes mostly with the three guard lineups or KD / JG at PF.

It's just one game. We need unkie Jeff and Nick asap!! stay the course. Go Thunder!!

nick :@Scott

Westbrook? How about getting 2 first round picks just for taking Kurt Thomas? I’m not a huge Thabo fan, but trading for him had a major impact on our successful defense last year. The jury is still out on Alrich, but getting a potential legitimate big man doesn’t seem like a bad move. How about drafting Ibaka? I’m not the Presti worshipper some are, but you’re being ridiculous.

Those picks turned into Cole Aldrich right? He's a bench role player at best,and we could use kurt thomas in the locker room as a good veteran and thabo obviously wasnt the reason our defense was so good seems like ron adams gets that award..cook was a terrible pick up and we added no rebounding, i will give him credit for ibaka though, ibaka is the truth....and lets not get into the Mullens,White,Weaver,Vaden picks those i could go on for hours about

@Scott
Hindsight is always 20/20. At least try to be reasonable.

NBA TV guy pointed out that we're missing Collison. He said that Collison helps to clean up some of the imperfections of the perimeter defense. I wonder if this is true and how big of a difference it might make.

justin :@Scott

We have guys on the team to take the pressure off Durant. Williams gets assists because NJ runs an offense, which is centered around a highly skilled offensive big man who can finished. We don’t have an offense.

Lopez cpuld be our highly skilled big man with Curry at point along with Durant and Green...doesnt sound awful to me..but presti went another direction..

@Scott
Westbrook? How about getting 2 first round picks just for taking Kurt Thomas? I'm not a huge Thabo fan, but trading for him had a major impact on our successful defense last year. The jury is still out on Alrich, but getting a potential legitimate big man doesn't seem like a bad move. How about drafting Ibaka? I'm not the Presti worshipper some are, but you're being ridiculous.

@Scott

We have guys on the team to take the pressure off Durant. Williams gets assists because NJ runs an offense, which is centered around a highly skilled offensive big man who can finished. We don't have an offense.

@Scott

The Westbrook selection looks pretty good. Ibaka selection looks good, as well as the trade that created that selection. Thabo trade was pretty decent.

I agree that Presti will have to be judged on what he will do from here on out. It's not hard to get to this point...

justin :

Scott :I would love to trade Harden for Terrence Williams right now and he went 15 spots later, messing up that draft is really gonna hurt the thunder long term, we passed on 10 future all stars for the only guy in the nba with a beard….facepalm

Terrence Williams isn’t going to hit shots either if he’s not being passed to.

Yeah but he had 9 assists last night and we are dead last in assists, also he could take pressure off durant, who is trying to be too much of a playmaker and not a scorer

@justin
I honestly wonder what practices look like, or what training camp looked like. What do we do when we're "focusing on defense" in practice? Does Scotty just tell them to play hard? How about offense? Do we just run some random screen plays for KD and call it a day? If Royce is reading this and could find a way to actually see a practice, I would be very interested to know what it looks like.

nick :@Scott

Oh stop it. Presti isn’t perfect, but he’s done a good job so far. We have salary cap space, youth, and assets. Has he made mistakes? Yes. Are we in a good position? Also yes. Its whether or not he takes the plunge and uses those assets to make us a legitimate contender that will decide if he’s really done his job.

Name 1 move Preti made besides having Durant fall in his lap that made us better...

Scott :I would love to trade Harden for Terrence Williams right now and he went 15 spots later, messing up that draft is really gonna hurt the thunder long term, we passed on 10 future all stars for the only guy in the nba with a beard….facepalm

Terrence Williams isn't going to hit shots either if he's not being passed to.

I would love to trade Harden for Terrence Williams right now and he went 15 spots later, messing up that draft is really gonna hurt the thunder long term, we passed on 10 future all stars for the only guy in the nba with a beard....facepalm

@Scott
Oh stop it. Presti isn't perfect, but he's done a good job so far. We have salary cap space, youth, and assets. Has he made mistakes? Yes. Are we in a good position? Also yes. Its whether or not he takes the plunge and uses those assets to make us a legitimate contender that will decide if he's really done his job.

nick :@justinI’d feel better about our utter lack of an offensive gameplan and our focus on defense if it actually looked like we, you know, focused on defense. Right now we don’t do anything except play hard. We’re talented enough for that to keep us in some games, but boy is it frustrated to watch.

It's no coincidence IMO that our defense has looked a lot like our offense with the departure of Ron Adams. Brooks reminds me a lot of Byron Scott as a head coach. Good motivator and great player's coach but poor X's and O's system guy. He needs good assistants.

william :WE Miss 20pts from Jeff green tonight!!!

This.

The Don :

Grolgar :

The Don :

Grolgar :@The Don BTW, I’m talking to you.

By the way, sweetie pie, NONADS is a calculated mis-spelling of his name attacking the fact that he has “no nads” and is soft.Get it? You are a a tad slow, so let me know if I need to explain it a 2nd time

Nice try, but I’m commenting on you spelling his last name correctly. GO back and check that and get back to me. And who is the bright one here. LOL.

I am not even gonna add anything to this, you’re doing a good job of humiliating yourself for me
LOL @ fighting over a missing letter in Nonads’ last name
You = fail

What is wrong with your brain? After 200,000 emo posts you should know how to spell Krstic's last name. There is no argument. Learn to spell and grow up.

@justin
I'd feel better about our utter lack of an offensive gameplan and our focus on defense if it actually looked like we, you know, focused on defense. Right now we don't do anything except play hard. We're talented enough for that to keep us in some games, but boy is it frustrated to watch.

What is wrong with the Thunder?

The Don :

Grolgar :
I can’t believe how good of an NBA role player Big Baby Davis has become… He really helps them a lot.

Another guy, along with landry, bledsoe that Presti gave away during the draft

Fire Presti Please, Would solve all our problems, We need Daryl Morey a real GM that is constantly making moves to improve his team, we should of signed Dampier before the rockets but Presti was probably busy thinking up his next amazing draft night deal like when he traded Ray Allen and Glen Davis for Jeff Green..

James Harden with only two FGA in 19 minutes is ridiculous. He was open constantly.

Are these commentators on loan from Boston? Did they really just applaud Paul Pierce for trying to hold KD's hand while "boxing out"?

Beast :You guys need to play nice. What’s to stop us from stealing Adams away from Chi? We obviously need him back, just based on our games so far this year. Then, what Offensive guru would you guys prefer? This Budenholzer guy? What are his strengths? What about a Utah Offense savant? Who would that be? Or what other systems would be suitable for the team’s “TALENT”?

He's from Chicago and he's friends with Thibodeau.

Wow the refs aren't even watching the game.

nick :@justinHe really does just get left alone. Scotty should institute a rule when Harden’s in that KD and Russ have to kick it out to him every third possession just so they get used to doing it sometimes.

He won't though because offense just takes care of itself. These are winnable games we're losing, I don't think the Celtics played especially well tonight. We just have no gameplan.

You know, I'm going to give the Jeff Green lovers some credit. For this team, since there is no offensive system at all, we need another guy who is at least capable of going to the basket and scoring.

You guys need to play nice. What's to stop us from stealing Adams away from Chi? We obviously need him back, just based on our games so far this year. Then, what Offensive guru would you guys prefer? This Budenholzer guy? What are his strengths? What about a Utah Offense savant? Who would that be? Or what other systems would be suitable for the team's "TALENT"?