OKC Thunder Mailbag: Trades, NBA Ratings, Christmas Day Slate
Are the Oklahoma City Thunder being overlooked in the NBA’s spotlight? With NBA ratings on the decline, Ryland Stiles explores the reasons behind this trend, including the impact of illegal streaming and the league’s reliance on established stars over emerging talents like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The episode also covers the Thunder’s exclusion from the Christmas Day game schedule, A.J. Mitchell’s contract strategy, and potential trade rumors involving Cam Johnson. Stiles provides an in-depth analysis of how these factors could shape the Thunder’s playoff journey and the broader NBA landscape.
Tune in to discover how these developments might influence the Thunder’s future and the league’s direction.
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31 Comments
First comment yew
Merry Christmas from Thailand
Could the problem be the constant gambling push from ads
The nba has had the Donahee controversy and the fake Lebron v. Jordan debate. This is a made up debate to convince fans that they aren't looking at an inferior product. This not the fault of the TNT guys. Hard disagree fam. I understand this is your passion and profession, I respect that. But the NBA is horrible now.
LeBron bootleg the nba just imagine us
Merry Christmas🎉 from Philippines/Japan. Could careless about the other teams stealing our Thunder. I blame the league for leaning on players rather than teams. And also the TV deals / blackouts
Honestly the reason so many people love the nfl over nba is fantasy football. That’s what made me love and follow football in such an intense way. I enjoy watching the sport of basketball more than football but football is so much better at getting new fans to care about the game. Another huge difference is how common the scoring is. It’s much easier to follow and care about a possession in football because it impacts the game so much more than a bucket.
<Nets Receive>
Aaron Wiggins, Ousmane Dieng, Nikola Topić & Picks
<Thunder Receive>
Cam Johnson
Thunder Rotation ⬇️
<Starters>
PG- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
SG- Cason Wallace
SF- Lugentz Dort
PF- Jalen Williams
C – Chet Holmgren
<Bench>
PG- Ajay Mitchell
SG- Isaiah Joe
SF- Alex Caruso
PF- Cam Johnson
C- Isaiah Hartenstein
+
C- Jaylin Williams
PF- Kenrich Williams
PF- Dillon Jones
Kenrich and Jaylin can fill in if someone goes down with injury.
Example: Chet is out, so start IHart & bring Jaylin off the bench. Caruso recently got injured so Kenrich fills in while he recovers.
They give up Topić but add another player to fill out their core 8 – SGA, Chet, JDub, IHart, Dort, Caruso, Cason & Johnson.
They still have plenty of future picks, and I'm not a fan of Topić as a fit on this team anyway. I'm good w/ Ajay Mitchell. Idc what the haters say.
Although the NFL has its stars and standout players they’re not letting anybody be bigger than the league or even team. NBA fans are fans of players more so than a team.
Although the NFL has its stars and standout players they’re not letting anybody be bigger than the league or even team. NBA fans are fans of players more so than a team.
I had given up on sports, I have no clue who won the superbowl, the cup in Nascar, the national championship in football or basketball, the world series,exc. & I used to know all of these things. I got so sick of sports org's & athletes preaching ideology at me that I switched to E sports & I still watch E sports but the Thunder have such an interesting young team that they drew me back in & it seems the moral crusade has faded to the background & it's about basketball again, so hopefully it stays fun & I can stick around.
Well for years the nba glorified the superstars, mj, Kobe, shack, on large markets. Nba was never the attraction the nfl has and james has got so political and that just turns off fans. The nba over extended their influence. Plus the season is long and most the players don’t put the effort out until the end of the season. So it’s many issues, Availability, political, too many games, cost, engagement. The thunder are fun to watch and check off all the boxes but they don’t get air time and a small market. Sports in general must never forget, it’s entertainment.
Agree about the"tnt" crew, love them but it hurts the product. Watch a regular season game from the"glory"days, it was trash, everyone was taking nights off. I don't want to watch Charles back someone up 25ft. Jordan is the goat, but he also benefited from the Cocaine era. im so tired of hearing about how great it was in "my" time and everything else sucks.
Merry Christmas!
Mailbag questions and some for future:
If you ever get the chance, please bring up to the right party or Mr Silver this concern:
the fact that when i want to watch the Thunder in the nba app, as a customer, there is a 60% chance i can view my team on average. Rights and all i get but ratings will drop if i want to watch my team and cant.
Even the celebrity game or w.e leading up to the in season tournament i couldn’t watch it. So ratings drop and my confidence in watching any games drop. Lastly pricing discounts should be more widely available and accounted for in adverts and demographics. Maybe school discounts or something.
Couch thoughts from a thunder fan lol.
Another mailbag question for you:
Who would you add as a christmas present for the thunder as a bench player from the east?
Alternatively as a bench player from the west and why?
Have a great day!
The NBA resents the Thunder. They are not melodramatic enough for the league. The league wants soap operas, not young winners. The Ajay Mitchell effect is going to make Joe and Wiggins expendable. They have about 4 new players from the draft coming in next year, so they need to make room. Keep an eye on Adam Flagler. I believe he's injured right now. Merry Christmas.
Nah ,we love football because its physical and a team sport,you can love the nba without trashing the nfl.
Totally agree with you, it's all about perception. Let's put people who love basketball in the forefront, people like you.
Merry Christmas Rylan! NBA wants the bigger markets: Lakers, NYK, DAL, PHIL, BOS even DEN w/ the current MVP. Personally as. FAN, non of these games appeal to me and I’m in LA! Many of these teams are bad right now and on any given night loose vs a OKC, Cleveland, and even PHX. I agree, the NBA will kill its own w/ the negativity on the ratings.
Merry Christmas Rylan! NBA wants the bigger markets: Lakers, NYK, DAL, PHIL, BOS even DEN w/ the current MVP. Personally as. FAN, non of these games appeal to me and I’m in LA! Many of these teams are bad right now and on any given night loose vs a OKC, Cleveland, and even PHX. I agree, the NBA will kill its own w/ the negativity on the ratings.
I’d rather watch OKC vs MEM, but as you mentioned, the NBA doesn’t trust its audience.
I was right on IHart & betting on Cam Johnson for all you mentioned. 💯💯💯
It’s a damn shame this team doesn’t get to play on Christmas
after 40 plus years give up on sports political crap wall to wall
🎁🎄🙏🏿⚡🆙
We only need to get rid of wigs and Ouse
You mentioned NFL and Kenrich, would remenber Andre Roberson again, great guy, looked always Very profissional and glued to rooster, was unable to hit consistent open or free shot until mid 20, retired too early on verge too resign big deal money. Sadly we have sure never Saw Andre Roberson better basketball life, he was florishing skills uncomon Very late when injury retired.
9:20
Amen man, all sports have issues, but the nba, more than any other sport by FAR, has a bunch of fairweather, biased idiot…uh I mean 'critics' who trash the league just to trash it, and it's clear they don't support the sport to begin with. And that's especially the case in your typical online comment cesspool, but the media is to blame as well. "Teh nba is teh unwatchable!" nonsense is a gross exaggeration, and it's a lazy topic that sponge, talentless media types use to get through their shows with little, to no effort.
I was one of the few people that wanted the nba to end it's relationship with tnt, as imo they are one of it's problems. You have these biased 'oldheads' that trash the current product, while they hype up their own massive egos. Shaq rudely told Jokic on one of these shows that he didn't deserve his latest mvp, which is moronic and WAY out of line. The day Lebron broke the all time scoring record, the first thing that moron Stephen A. Smith said was that "Jordan was still the goat"…threatened much?
I've purposely subscribed to lesser known nba channels to get away from these 'doom and gloom'/'teh nba sux nao!' morons, and guess what…they STILL post even on channels like those. It's weird, I don't post on mlb, or nhl vids since I don't care about those sports. Seems like these dummies care, but want to keep pretending that they don't.
I want to follow the nba, not deal with the constant negativity.
Most of the nfl games are on regular tv, and the nba needs to get back to that. For years as a mavs fan, I literally COULD NOT watch them, as they were at the time on ballysports, a fringe cable channel that would have required me to buy an expensive cable package to watch. I believe ballysports no longer exists, and some of their games are on regular tv, but others are on cable…which I haven't had in years.
It's just too annoying to have to chance the nba to watch these games. I went from knowing EVERY current player on the mavs, to even now not knowing who some of the players are, and I'm an nba fan. So, it's even worse for people that barely care about the product.
The Greg Olsen/Shaq comment at 9:12 is spot on, and legit had me shaking my head in agreement lol. I'm one of the few people that don't care about about the nba on tnt crew because of the negativity/jealously. Imo, Shaq is sensitive and jealous, but so is Barkley. For YEARS, he will say he 'loves' Lebron, only to take personally shots at him, while he's hyping up MJ. To me, he stealthily does this to mask the fact that he didn't win a championship, and he feels propping up Jordan shields him of that would be criticism.
They SHOULD be promoting the league and it's stars, but instead go into dreaded 'oldhead' rants, and goofing around. The nba on espn crew on the other hand, just sucks. I have a hard time watching clips of anything that Stephen A. Smith is on, and Kendrick Perkins can barely speak, and has no business being on tv.