Are the OKC Thunder BUILT for the NBA playoffs? | No Cap Room | Yahoo Sports

Are the OKC Thunder BUILT for the NBA playoffs? | No Cap Room | Yahoo Sports

The Thunder I mean every everyone loves the Thunder I love the Thunder they’re my favorite team to watch um and I think I mean there’s a lot there’s just so much to like about them the thing that I keep thinking about is the way that they kind of don’t play like basically any

Other team in the league which is sort of a function of how they play and then who they play more than anything I mean you know Gordon Hayward is gonna make his debut tonight but they go you know 12 or 13 deep with like real actual NBA

Players and the outlay of that is that they can throw all these like really strange weird looks at you where it’s like you know we have tall jayen Williams and Chad holgren and kendri Williams on the floor at the same time like that’s weird and then we have like

The lud Dort case and Wallace just all ball handler hell lineup and that’s weird and you know everyone on the team is just like this shiny eyed Zoomer they’re like all so fun and I think there’s kind of this pervading sense that when this gets to the playoffs it’s

Going to get real and they’re going to find out that the game is different the game is more phys physical I mean Clippers Thunder I think which is happening on Thursday is like the most POS the most enticing possible second round matchup because it’s the oldest

Team and the youngest team in the league and the kind of thesis I’ve been thinking about is is the game diff so different enough in the playoffs to the point that the Thunder will have to become normal and is that even possible for them and I

Don’t think so like I think D’s a good enough coach and I think everyone is energetic there’s that word again and confident enough that they can just kind of play Thunderball and I think they can win the finals maybe that’s nuts well it’s it’s maybe aggressive but

I don’t think it’s crazy and I think it’s interesting you I love the way that you framed that they because they play five out which like everybody does now or so many teams do or aspire to but you’re right they do it with weird pieces it’s like if you’re playing with

Action figures that come from different like uh you know different IP lines or whatever and you’re like but we’re GNA make them play in that story this guy’s GNA go into this world and he’s not supposed to be there where the the guards are so physical that they sort of

Wind up resolving a lot of the big responsibilities like I would feel as comfortable with Lou Dort boxing somebody out as I would with uh Chad holgren doing it right or like uh Jaylen Williams being like 65 but also like 65 thick like wide enough that he’s like I

Totally comfortable with him guarding fours and so the pieces there are so many that mix and yes exactly I like that sorry um yeah it’s a s square footage type situation no by by all means and so they’ve already had like that initial Taste of they you know in the playin

Last year they win a game they lose a game so there’s a general you know introduction of what it means when it gets more intense but stylistic like they are a top five offense and a top five defense that has been able to play really big and small but still kind of

Physical all around it I don’t think it’s nuts to say that they can make a deep playoff run depending on how this seatings work out I also think like looking at it and saying you know my former colleague you know I know a friend of yours Eric Freeman from bald

Don’t Li we when we would talk you know years ago about the initial iteration of the Thunder he was like a lot of teams have two guys that can guard guys like that but nobody’s got three and obviously the guys differ but SGA Chad and jayen Williams it’s like at some

Point late in the game and we’ve seen it a ton from Oklahoma City this season sgaa is an MVP candidate maybe like one of the two or three favorites at this point and he’s setting a screen throwing the ball to Jay will and saying like or

Jay dub rather and saying go get it like I trust that you’re going to do it and Jaylen Williams has been an amazing crunchtime scorer and playmaker in that regard too so at a certain point yeah maybe they’re too young for it but also like do you got three that can guard

Guys like that I don’t know that you do yeah they’re not scared of anyone either um and the way the way they play five out where it’s just like they use the space like they drive as well as any team in the league I mean Shay famously

Is just so good at driving and Jay is it is Jay dub the little one I mean little is he the shorter jayen Williams yeah yes J Jay dub is Santa Clara Jay will is big is tall Jay will and there’s a third Jaylen Williams who plays for Auburn who

I don’t think is g to get drafted but Sam pry please please yeah just just for the sake of it I mean between that and then they’re being like niika yic Nikola yic and Nicola topic I’m like they’re sort of a you know it’s the simul like when you get to a certain

Level of you know uh NCAA football and it’s like the autogenerated names are just kind of like all cycling through one another you got bobson dougnut and you know Todd bonzalez or whatever coming through like that’s sort of feels like where we are right now but I’m

Sorry go ahead the way they play five out I’m just really glad they didn’t trade for another big I think a lot of the you know famously they have so much trade ammo and they did make a trade um and I really liked meit but I think you

Know Hayward can probably contribute but I’m glad they didn’t compromise the way that they play and play around Chet specifically because he’s not like a good rebounder yet um yeah and like you said the guards can contribute but you know it was Pat Riley who said rebounds

Get Rings or something like that um and like that’s the thing that I sort of worry about them in the playoffs but they’re going to be so nasty on defense too like K Wallace is he’s the real deal he’s so good and him when you have him

And Dort together it’s kind of maybe this is borderline sacrilegious but it’s kind of Celtics Y in that like okay you run you know a small small screen or something and then all of a sudden you have like the different lock down Defender guy instead of the one who was

Guarding you initially and it’s still you know tough sledding and just chat’s Rim protection too I just find so impressive I don’t know just they’re just so fun um and they only tonight against the Clippers is their last time they have to play a fellow top four team

For the rest of the season so you know the standings race is just so wild up there it’s so close and they have the edge on these other three schedule wise and I mean home court is g to matter a lot like OKC is a hard

Building to play in but then like so is Denver and so if you can get sure four home games in that potential series like that really matters yeah it boils down well first off that scheduling note is fantastic that’s very very good I wish I had paid attention to that and looked at

It when I wrote my big thing this morning about like story lines to watch and seating RAC which you can read at Yahoo sports but it won’t include that note you can only get that here on the audio format um but so much the risk of oversimplifying so much of it boils down

To like can we create more advantages than you against you than you can create against us and the way they defend across positions and the way that they like the the multiple ball handlers and Shooters the way that team has entirely like n Mass leveled up shooting wise

Shouts out to chip England I guess um has made everybody an advantage either someone who can create an advantage or extend one and they they erase them on the other end yeah I think it’ll be fascinating to watch how the matchups shake out but I do not think that your

Faith in them is unfounded and I also don’t think I think whether they you know win one series or three series or whatever um the joy of watching them has been one of the coolest things this season like progress isn’t linear with but their like their Arrow has just

Continued to point up which is rad as hell the last the last like way they play note um their best passer is probably either Josh giddy who mostly just can do it from like a pure standstill but is great at it or Jay dub but the collective passing of that team

I think is as good as any in the league um just like they only draft guys who can pass like Chad SAU as a passer is like the thing that surprised me most this season and I just love that like anyone who steps on the floor can make

That like you know get a little Advantage kick it out and then Isaiah Joe has an open three two passes later and just as a collective they’re so good at that and I love watching it

Yahoo Sports NBA writer Dan Devine and Patrick Redford of Defector discuss the Oklahoma City Thunder and whether or nor the team is built for the playoffs or not.

Watch the full conversation here ► https://youtu.be/Ul-0WNgkybg

Be sure to subscribe to “No Cap Room” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Thanks for watching! Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports channel here ► http://bit.ly/YSportsYT

Follow us everywhere!
Our Site ► http://www.yahoosports.com
Instagram ► http://www.instagram.com/yahoosports
Twitter ► http://www.twitter.com/yahoosports
Facebook ► http://www.facebook.com/yahoosports
Twitch ► https://www.twitch.tv/yahoosports

#oklahomacitythunder #nba #nbaplayoffs