RANKING the OKC Thunder ROSTER, Who is Top 100 Worthy?

RANKING the OKC Thunder ROSTER, Who is Top 100 Worthy?

On today’s Locked on Thunder podcast, let’s rank the entire Thunder roster and who on the Thunder should make the top 100 list. You are Locked on Thunder, your daily Oklahoma City Thunder podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Let’s get it going on the Lockdown Thunder podcast. from the Lockdown Podcast Network, your teams every day. I am your host, medium member and beat writer for Thunder on SI, Ryland Styles. Follow me on Twitter at Ryland Styles. Follow the show on Twitter at lofunderpod. Email the show lunderpodgum.com. On today’s show, we’re diving into the Oklahoma City Thunder roster, ranking players 1 through 17 to see where they fit in on this specific team. But also, for the first time ever, Locked On is putting together a top 100 NBA player list. How many members of the Thunder should crack that top 100 list for Locked On? We’ll talk about all that and more with Michael Martin. Let’s talk Thunder on YouTube, Michael Sports, on Twitter. Today’s show is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code lockmbna at monarchmoney.com for half off your first year. Michael, how you feeling right now in the absolute dog days of the NBA offseason? Feeling like a top 100 locked on guest right now. Feeling feeling elite. Here we go. I mean, we’re just pumping out pods about anything and everything under the sun because there’s nothing uh substantial really in the world of news with OKC, but there’s still plenty to debate and discuss when it comes to the Thunder and the NBA. So we are putting together a top 100 list at lockdown with every NBA player ranking how we think that they are going to stack up for this season only. So because the NBA top 100 list is for this season only our Thunder rankings will be for this season only. So it’ll it’ll guys like for example Nola Topic could be lower than what their ceiling could be than what their value could be in terms of like long term. about how will they fare for this upcoming NBA season. That’s how we’re ranking the players on the Thunder and that’s how we’re viewing this lockdown top 100 list which which will come out closer to the season. But for that top 100 list, we’re going to have every host around the network vote on their top 100 players and then it’ll spit out all of our cumulative rankings into the lockedown top 100. And for that we had to submit up to seven players to be ranked in the top 100. And the Thunder roster is so loaded that I did put seven players on the Thunder list. Of course, it starts at number one with SGA. And so I think the SGA is a very good spot to kick off the list. Who is your number two player for the Thunder? I Jaylen Jaylen Williams, JDub had him number two. I think that what we saw from him playing through that injury and just the emphasis that’s now more than ever in the NBA of having a number two option who can score and handle the ball in some of those secondary units whenever Shay is doubleteamed. I think JDub’s got to be the guy. I think we ultimately know and we’ll get to Chet later, but his ceiling could be ultimately higher than Dub, but as we are going into next season right now and what we do know now so far from what we saw in the playoffs, I think it’s got to be Dub for now. Yeah, I agree. It’s got to be JDub number two. and and this is about this upcoming season and then there’s an avenue where Chad could eventually take a step forward and be that number two spot but for now he’s in my number three column and obviously the Thunder have solidified their big three with contract extensions all max deals this off season but with Shay he’s going to be like a top three player in the NBA like period and then for these other guys they’re for sure going to be on the top 100 list in some capacity I would expect Jub to be top 25 obviously in the top 100 list. Chat is going to be an interesting case study for how the other hosts around the NBA will rank him and then of course how he gets weighted from that uh with everyone having kind of a wide range on where to put Chad. But these three are absolute locks for the top 100. Correct. Yeah, it it shouldn’t even really be a discussion. I think that they’re closer to all being in the top 30 than anything nearly having any of them out of the top 100. And then it gets interesting because the Thunder still have arguments from spots four through seven. I think that could land somewhere in the midst of the best 100 players in the NBA. My number four, and this is where I think that the the debate really starts is with Lou Dort. I have Lou Dort at four. His three-point shooting is at a level now with the efficiency where he’s cut out a lot of bad shots. I think that you can’t really project him to get much better. I think that his room to grow has really shrunk because at some point you just have to kind of live with the the negatives of his game, so to say. For example, his rim finishing. We’ve talked for years and years and years about Ludor getting better at the rim. He’s gotten better by virtue of cutting out bad shots and bad drives, but he hasn’t gotten better in the sense of conversion rate for the for the proper shots that he does take. Obviously, if you take a step forward at the rim, he’d be seen as a better player, but he’s one of the best defenders in the league, if not the best defender in the league. and he’s a really solid three-point option for them and a really good one that helped them in massive spots throughout the playoffs. So, I have that kind of valuable archetype as number four for OKC. Yeah, I agree. I had Lou Dord at four as well. I think that he’s one of the few true lock down defenders you can throw out in the NBA right now where he can guard through one through four, even some fives. If you have a primary score ball handler, the Thunder are going to put Lou Dord on him and more uh times than not, they’re going to feel really confident about their chances. And this is a take that I’ve sort of just um you know done the baby steps on with you behind the scenes and that’s Ludor. I think he might be the best three and player in the NBA right now which is just an incredibly valuable archetype if you’re talking about a guy like we mentioned that can guard all these different positions. One of the few lockown guys there are also shoots at a 40%ish clip from three on a decent amount of volume. Uh, I think that’s a really really valuable player and like you mentioned, if he can increase his efficiency at the rim, then we’re talking about a few more things here. But I think that he’s near the ceiling he is as a player, which is not an insult. That’s still like an incredibly valuable player and a player that we’re definitely going to see in the top 100. And then at number five, I have Isaiah Hartenstein. And this is one of the one of the tiers of the of the five and six for me of interchangeable. Like I could really see it going either way between my number five is I Hartman, number six is Alex Caruso. I could see those two guys swapping places on anyone’s list, but I have Isaiah Hardenstein. Just the the simple fact of he to me is the best backup center in the league if they choose to go that route. And then he gives you such optionality to play the double big lamps that the Thunder like to play throughout the course of the season once Chat returned from injury that I just think that what he provides for this team when it comes to his playmaking offensively, when it comes to his ability to be a safety net for the lead guards with that push shot and defensively that he edges out Caruso just barely when when you look at all-encompassing of you trust to play more in the regular season where you have to protect Caruso a little bit more in the regular season. Uh, and then he’s still very valuable uh, when it comes to the playoffs. Yeah, it’s just really that quality versus quantity thing there. And I had the inverse. I had Crusoe above Hartinstein, but I can see your point. And I would go to the point of, you know, you mentioned best backup big. I think Crusoe, he doesn’t have the scoring chops that we talk about with a lot of sixmen and those guys off the bench, but you’re just talking quality. He’s the best six-man in the league right now, probably. And what he does different than really anyone else in the league is he just sort of amplifies and activates these different thunder lineups that can go to another level because of his versatility on both ends. We saw him guard Nicole Joic, Anthony Edwards, uh Tyresese Hallebert and John Morant, all sorts of guys. And then on offense, he was knocking down threes. He was showing a little bit more scoring. I mean, he’s the first guy ever to score 20 points in the finals after never scoring 20 in the regular season that previous season. So I I can’t really get mad or argue all that much about Hartinstein or bicker all that much between their spots, but for now I give Cruso the slight edge. Yeah. I mean, you look at Caruso and David Lock of course made screen assist famous to kind of qualify how good Rudy Goar is. There’s an element of I don’t know how you’d put it into stats of just I think Dallas Caruso just based on the eye test is the best energy guy in the NBA. If you’re having a situation where you need to inject energy into a game and like have a wakeup call for the team on the court, he can inject that. And if you’re in a situation where things are going good, you put him in there as the next wave of guys and he maintains that level of play and allows you to really grow distance on the scoreboard to where that what he does is ultra valuable. And then come playoff time, obviously the list would change even more of just you would for sure value Caruso more than a lot of guys uh on this list including the Hartenstein interchangeable aspect of things because of what he does at that stage. But whenever you’re looking at it all together, I did give Iheart the slight edge. But again, I’m not going to uh really uh beone anyone who has career so higher. And then rounding out the top seven for me, Kase Wallace. I have Case Wallace at seven. if this is just who he is and he continues to take a step forward in his role of being sort of a three and D guy who’s a nice play finisher because of his ability to float around the around the court as an offball player and his cuts are literally just floating to the dunker spot and kind of slicing through the lane more so than these explosive athletic cuts if that’s just who he is. He’s an exceptionally additive player and a guy who really helps you make winning plays. But I still think that there’s more for him to add in the coming season where you can envision him taking a step forward as a guy on the ball, which he did last season, and especially playing off the catch, which he did to a better degree a year ago. It’s where I have Kase comfortably at number seven for me. Yeah, I mean, um, we’re both leaders in the Kase Wallace fan clubhouse right now in terms of guys that we really, really like. I think that there’s another leap for him to make, too, as a ball handler, playmaker, facilitator. We’ve seen him, like you mentioned, in college and a little bit in the NBA, but I’m hoping that he gets a little bit more responsibility in some of those second units. I think that they had to sort of trim some of those responsibilities responsibilities down the further they went in the playoffs, which made sense. He’s still a secondyear guy. But his transformation from sort of just being a draft darling and like very niche uh talented player to NBA smart guy that people know to now being a real tangible player that like more and more national media people know I think has been really really impressive and I still think there’s another leap from him even on the defensive end because we’ve heard Caruso and Mark talk about that he’s a very instinctual player that he’s not somebody who’s just grinding a ton a ton of film compared to guys like Lou and Caruso who are sort of the top echelon of like film consumers. So, I think that if Kase can sort of implement some of those extra tactics like that from film and then add a little bit more on offense, he has a real chance to jump even further up this list. Coming up, who in the top seven should be on the NBA top 100 list. And I have a very shocking number eight on this Thunder roster. 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And I also love their ability to track your monthly purchases, your subscriptions, making sure that you’re on top of what all you truly have going out because we’ve all been there where we’ve signed up for a free trial, forgot we even signed up for it, and now we’ve been perpetually charged for that subscription that we’re not even utilizing, and we can now cancel with Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locknb at monarchmoney.com. 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com code lockdown NBA for half off your first year. We’re back on the Lockdown Thunder podcast on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your teams every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Every single morning, every single day, we’re here for you talking Thunder Basketball. And we’re talking top 100 rankings. We’re ranking every player on the Thunder roster. We’ve we’ve gone through the top seven. And that was the list that we submitted to uh our fellow lockdown hosts to consider whenever they’re making their top 100 lists. Let’s go one through seven. Give me a one through 10 ranking. 10 being like they’re a lock for the list. Like Shay is a 10. He’s a lock for the list. One being you don’t think that they’re going to make it at all with SGA and JW. Clearly we’re at a 10 that they’re that they’re locks. Yeah. Shouldn’t even be a question. I’d put it at 100 out of 10. All all three guys if I were able to. I would put Lou, IHart, and Caruso also at 10. I I I I just struggle to see a world in which you leave them off a top 100 ranking. Yeah, I think that’d be ridiculous, especially coming off the title and things like that where you have sort of I don’t want to say recency bias because these guys deserve it, but it’s so fresh and and sort of in front of our eyes and that taste in your mouth of what we just saw that there’s no way those three other guys are going to be left off the list either. And then Kase Wallace is the big one, the number seven player on the list. Can he crack the top 100 list? He better or we need to we need to question some of the other uh contingencies and contingents and other people voting on this if they don’t have Case Walls as a top 100 player. Uh I think that’d be ridiculous for him not to be on there. I I haven’t done the exercise, but when you’re just talking about top 100 guys and different lists I’ve seen in the past, if I see I know this is one of your guys. If I see Jaylen Green in the top 100 over Kase Wallace, I’m going to lose my mind. We need to factor in winning and actual like talent that contributes to winning basketball games and not just highlight stuff. And Kase Wallace is a tier one guy in terms of that value for me. Yeah, I can’t wait to be exposed with who all voted for Jaylen Green because uh hand up. It might be might be on my ballot, but I I do think that Kase will make it. I would back him down to about an eight just as a margin for error. I think it’ll be on the majority of people’s ballots. I could see a world where some people just forget to rank him or maybe value. I mean, let’s be honest, there’s biases involved whenever you’re doing this list where I I leave a margin for error with Kase, but I me personally, he’s a 10. He’s for sure on my list. But I I will wonder, you know, how the consensus will view Kase Wallace when you get down to this list, which will come out closer to the NBA season. But let’s continue ranking Thunder players. And I think that one of my boldest ranking is my number eight slot where I have AJ Mitchell. AJ Mitchell at number eight. I’m going down with the ship. I I’ve been an AJ Mitchell guy. I I just think that when you factor in what you saw from him a year ago prior to the injury, what you saw from him at summer league that that kind of allowed you to really feel good that he was duplicating the same things at every level. I just think that with AJ, you’re going to get to this point this season where he is your top eight player. He is your number eight spot because he can do so much on the ball uh whenever he’s needed to in the secondary unit. He can be the perfect offball player for Oklahoma City as an offensive weapon. And then defensively, he can just do it all. I mean, you’ve seen him compete as a low man. You’ve seen him switch. You’ve seen him uh be a a passing lanes guru. you’ve seen him be a point of attack guy and that you know that Mark fell in love with that to put him in a rotation every single game that he was healthy for. I just think that AJ Mitchell is the eighth best player on this roster and that’s very uh bold. It’s you know it’s very much so going off of a smaller sample size and what these other players have to work with. But I do fully believe in AJ Mitchell. I I don’t blame you at all. It’s going to be a little bit hot for people who aren’t in the know in terms of watching this team every day and the way that we do. Like you mentioned, AJ started or didn’t start, he was in the rotation night one against Denver to open the season. So Mark obviously likes him. His teammates trust him. He’s a mature guy who played in college for a couple years. I have him ninth, but uh I have eighth. I have Aaron Wiggins in that spot instead. And it’s mainly I think that he’s the eighth guy because we’ve seen him do it in the playoffs. We saw him do it in some in the finals. There are still leaps for him to make as a defender and a more consistent, I guess, three-point shooter just in terms of the volume. But I really liked what I saw from him off the bench. He’s one of the best cutters, if not the best cutter on this team. I think that he fills in a lot of roles on this team as a playmaker that the Thunder really needed. And maybe that void can be filled by AJ, who’s a guy who I’m super high on as well. But Wigs, I think, also fills another spot for them as just a more a bigger wingiz player than AJ. I think that he’s a not just substantially better defender than AJ, but just by a little bit, and he’s more experienced, a little bit longer. So, I’d give him a slight edge. I think the AJ could end up being higher ranked as we did this ranking at the end of next season, but for now, I still have Wigs eight and then AJ nine. Yeah, I have Aaron Wiggins at nine as well. I mean, in the sense of like inversing these two guys as well at nine for me as Wiggins, I just think that I value him over a guy like Isaiah Joe because he’s the third best at something. And it’s like he’s the third best shot creator on this roster. And if there’s ever a spell in which you don’t have one of your top two guys, he’s going to be the one called on to replace that on ball scoring ability. I think there’s a lot of concerns defensively only because of his role. I think that Wiggins is a better defender than a lot of Thunder fans believe that he is because he’s been tasked with, you know, defending bigger wings that he himself admits he’s not comfortable doing. He’s not capable of doing frankly uh yet in his career. that’s going to be a hinge thing for him this season of of how how comfortable can he get, how improved can he get at that area, but right now it’s not there. So, whenever you see him defend bigger bodies, you think, well, he’s not a good defender. But in the in the lineups that they were able to play later on in the season where you saw Wiggins be able to slide up uh in the sense of defending threes, twos, ones throughout the tail end of the season, you really saw how good he can be defensively when you allow him to defend more comfortable positions and archetypes to where if you mix in a passable level of defense with his three-level scoring with his cutting, with his three-point shot, to me all of that all-encompassing makes him a little bit more valuable than number 10 for me is Isaiah Joe Because with Isaiah Joe, I still believe that there’s a step he can take. He is getting close though to where it’s like it’s like now or never for him to take that step as a higher volume three-point shooter who’s more comfortable off the, you know, off the move coming off of screens, off the bounce, and also just relocating into shooter windows for this offense. Isaiah Joe to me is a competitive defender, is an above average defender, and he’s your best option from beyond the arc, but because it’s on such low volume, and because you can, you know, somewhat take him out of a game if you’re the opposing team by just either running off the three-point line or him himself just missing the threes he gets. And you saw it in the playoffs where his role kind of diminished a little bit throughout the postseason. That’s why he’s lower on this list at number 10. Yeah, I have in the same spot. I agree with you. I think defensively, yeah, average, above average, whatever you want to say. He I think that there is a step above just taking charges like he does. He’s a competitive defender. I really like him as a rebounder, too. I think that’s an underrated part of his game. But you just talk about the three-point volume. If I’m going into next year looking at what I think he can improve on, it’s got to be the volume and then the aggressiveness of his shooting in terms of like if it’s not open, don’t shoot it. That can’t be the mentality. you need to take some shots over some guys, over some close contest. Like, I want to see the growing pains through that the next regular season. Even if that dips his shooting percentage from three by a few percentage points, I think that’s important because those are the shots that are available in the playoffs like we saw in this last postseason and even the year before. And some of those it just doesn’t look like he’s super super comfortable with taking consistently. So, I would try to weed out some of those during the regular season of getting more comfortable with that. But, he’s still a valuable member of this roster. his onoff numbers with I mean everybody’s good with Shay but him especially is really dynamic with Shay as sort of a driver kick out shooter combo so there is space for him to improve but he’s another guy where he might be sort of scratching the surface or getting close to the ceiling of what he is as a player I need to know your number 11 player on this roster because 11 is where I really started to have just questions of what name to put there up until 11 I I’ve known the combination of names names that I wanted. I knew the tiering of names that I wanted, but number 11 feels like a brand new tier, and it’s tough to judge who to actually put there. Yeah, this is tough. Uh, I’ll go with Topic. Maybe I’ll regret this as we keep going on the list, but he’s another guy where we’ve talked about Aaron Wiggins, we’ve talked about with AJ Mitchell of like that value of a guy off the bench as a secondary creator, another ball handler because Shay and Dub can play on or off the ball. You don’t have to have them exclusively on an all ball onball role. But Topic, I mean, it’s just so hard because summer league is an entirely different thing in a completely new bucket. Like I always say this joke about summer league is summer league is only as important as it is in terms of does it verify your takes or not. If you thought a guy was good and he’s good in summer league, then summer league matters. If a guy was bad in summer league and you like him, summer league doesn’t matter. So we’re going to see that in the regular season. I think that he’s a really solid passer, really solid facilitator and ball handler, but how does he hold up on defense? Can he play off the ball comfortably in some of these lineups with Shay, with AJ, with Dub, with Wigs, with these other guys? And can he compete defensively enough where Mark’s going to keep him in the rotation? I think that he has a lot of skill and there’s a lot of potential there, which is why he was so enamoring for a lot of Thunder fans and the Thunder last year in the draft process and other teams before he had his injury. So, I’m really excited to see him, but he’s in one of the more fluid spots, I would say, and I don’t know if you agree with that, of he could go way up or way down, just depending on who you talk to about going to next season of his value on this team. I I for sure think that this is someone that’s really hard to nail down in Topic. I don’t have him at 11. I have him at 12 because of my concerns with him defensively, my concerns with him playing off the ball offensively in a readym made role as a rookie on a really good team on a really deep team and how can you continue to justify putting him on the floor if his defense is not there. Uh, and I do think that there’s an element of the Thunder just have figured things out. Like they figured things out in the sense of understanding how to balance getting minutes for guys who who perhaps aren’t aren’t uh, you know, top eight of the rotation, right, worthy, but for that night, they’re in the top eight of the rotation because they figured out a way to walk that tight rope before. I think that he will get minutes as a rookie because they want to see what they have. But when it’s when everything settles out in the Walsh, I don’t know how uh big his role will be in the biggest moments of the season because it’s a lot to ask of a rookie to figure all this out. The defensive side, which is not up to NBA standards to me, and then the offball aspect of an offense that’s very fluid and outside of Shay and Dub, do not have a ton of like onball ball heavy guys where Topic would need to have a lot of those opportunities. And in the bigger moments, in the bigger games, you’re going to play more Shay and Jdub to where that takes even less opportunities away, you know, even more opportunities away from Topic. So, I’m at 12 just because it’s a cautious placement. You don’t want to put them too low. Uh you don’t want to put them too high either. My number 11 is Jwell. Actually, I just I I think that with Jwell, you have a guy that in every single game in which you need to rest your front court, he’s been able to produce. He’s been able to help you and pitch in. There’s also this element of like you watched what he did in certain matchups like even in the playoffs against Denver. You watch what he did and he can at least provide you some value to where the fact that he’s proven to be valuable in stretches gives him the nod over like an unproven rookie of Topic unproven rookie and sober and Barnheiser that I I do think that Jill is my number 11. Topic is my my number 12. So then who’s your number 12? We flip-flopped again because I had J also. I mean, the three-point shooting we saw was really real last season in a real way where he could come off the bench and knock down some threes and space the floor. The the yoke stuff was obviously very impressive during the playoffs. And also like I don’t think this is breaking news to anybody. I’m going to knock on wood. I’m not wishing anybody bad luck, but like Chat and Hart are going to miss time at some point. I don’t know how much, but they’re going to miss some games and you’re going to need Jay Will in there because as much as we might like Sorber, the viewers, the listeners might like Sorber. We don’t know what he’s going to look like. He’s still a teenager. He hasn’t played an NBA game. We didn’t even see him in the summer league. There’s still a lot that we don’t know. But I know that Jwell’s good. I know he can play as a rotation center in the NBA. I know he can play as a solid backup five. I think that he got a little bit overstretched beyond sort of his comfort zone and his abilities whenever the Thunder did have to start him a little bit last year when both those guys were out. But, you know, the odds are you’re not going to have giant chunks of the season where they’re going to be playing without a center again. So, I think that Jay Will is a guy who can again still really improve. I think that he can improve defensively, moving his feet a little bit better, maybe as a rim protector and not just charges, blocking more shots, maybe as a rebounder. I think facil the facilitation stuff of him at the elbow like we’ve seen with Hart is real and the three ball if he can consistently knock down that three. There’s always going to be space in the NBA now more than ever for a big who can space the floor. I I like it. I like it. And now we go into number 13 and 14 for me are the two rookies. Thomas Schwber and Brooks Barnheiser. I have Swber at 13. Barnheiser at 14. I’ve just fallen head over heels for these two rookies. I think that with Sorber, I I just think that it’s really hard to find a big that fits the Thunder style perfectly, and they’ve done that with Sorber. And I’m really encouraged by what you saw from him as a prospect. And when we’re getting to this part of the list, who he’s competing against are guys like Kendrick Williams, guys like Carlson, guys like Jen, who I I just think that he’ll get more natural opportunities than those guys to show uh how talented he is. And and with that opportunity, I think he’ll prove to be more talented than those guys to where I have Swber at 13. Barnheiser, everyone loves Rick Barnheiser. Everyone in Oklahoma City loves Brooks Barnheiser. He is the quintessential Thunder player. And I think that he’ll be the next in line of a shocking two-way guy that gets more run than you would expect early in the season. And then you’ve got to find a way to convert him at the trade deadline as they’ve been doing. But who’s your 13 and 14? 13? I actually had Kendrick Williams. And the reasoning behind this is whenever we were doing this exercise and I thought of it personally was about the best players. And I think that Kenrich is going to be a better player next year than Thomas Sorber, but he might not get those opportunities. But if we’re doing just pure value, who’s going to be better in a game tomorrow? I think it’s still Kenrich. But I can see why you would have Sorber over him. I have him 14 in that next spot. And it’s one of those things where it’s like I’ve seen the heat checks from our friend Derek Parker. I’ve read some of the draft reports. I’ve watched the highlights. I still don’t know tangibly how good this guy is, but I like the skill set. I like what I’ve seen. I like hearing from the the smart pundits who talk about the draft and what they say about him. I can see some of those sort of young IRA comparisons and sort of trying to emulate parts of his game. But for now, I still have Kenrich above him and then sort of right after, but I agree with you on the sentiment that he’s going to get more opportunities than Kenrich. But just in terms of value, I’d still say Kenrich for now is a better player than him. Yeah, I have Kenrich at 15. I just I think that heading into this season, the best of Kenrich to me is less than the good of Sorber uh and Barnheiser to where I just think that Kenrich is a guy who’s way more beneficial off the court than he is on the court at this stage of his career. And I have him a little bit lower um than those two guys. And I just think that when you factor in this ranking, I did try to add in just just if we’re ranking it for this season, then who’s going to play more minutes this season is is sort of in my DNA. I think that Kendrick is of course a more proven player than a lot of these guys on this list. and he shouldn’t be 15 in terms of like what he’s proven. But heading into this season, I just think that he’s at a point in his career where it’s tough to to see him making a huge huge impact on the court. And I think that with Kenrich, it’s kind of the chicken or the egg thing. Like I think that he could have made a bigger impact two years ago in that Dallas series than he ended up making because the Thunder didn’t play him for whatever the reason. So like two years ago, I would have been way higher on Kri on this list. But right now it it’s kind of been beating beating into me a little bit about Ker just not getting to play for Oklahoma City. So I have him at 15. Who’s your 15? So you have influenced me a little bit here. I’ve moved Barnheiser up to 15 after we’ve been talking a little bit more. He’s a guy I really like. I I think that he actually has a lot of Kenrich DNA in him as a guy who’s around the same size, can shoot the three a little bit, really hustles, does all this stuff. I think that he’s going to be a quintessential Mark Dagnel guy of a guy he just wants to give opportunities to and just throw out there because he likes the way he plays and he’s not a guy who needs the ball a lot. So, he could sort of just be added to any lineup you want. And the Thunder, I don’t think is going to be breaking news. Once again, they’re going to be up by a lot in quite a few games. So, they’re going to have opportunities and minutes to spare. I think that Brooks Barnheiser is going to be one of those guys who really seizes that opportunity. But I’m really excited to see what he looks like in a more structured style NBA game and how his game sort of highlights in those circumstances. And then to round out the list coming up, let’s talk about the final two names on this roster and where we think that we could be the most wrong once this season ends. We’re back on the Lockdown Thunder podcast. National Lock on Podcast Network, your teams every day. That segment got away from us a little bit. Apologize to the powers that be. But to round out the list, the top 17 players on the Thunder roster because they have not signed their last eight their last two-way contract yet. 16 I have Brennan Carlson and 17 of course that means I have Usman Jen because this is where I just completely defaulted to just what have they done? I mean, for forgetting about the tantalizing uh nature of like a guy like Usman Jang, who in theory could be very very good, in theory could could continue to develop, etc. On the court, Brandon Carlson has shown to be a more valuable player on an NBA court, which is crazy to say because he was an undrafted guy and he was a 2A guy last year, 2A guy this year. But this is a guy who I think can be a very serviceable big man and a stretch big offensively nailing threes. The rim protection that he offers you uh at the G-League level and NBA level. And when we’re looking at a team that has question marks about like what how you know how many of the A2 games do you want Chad and Iheart playing in whenever you’re trying to manage an 82 game marathon that you hope will be parlayed into a second season where you’re playing again into the deep to the depths of June. I think that Carlson has immediate value and immediate production that US just has not had yet. I just don’t think that has had the NBA production that Carlson has, which is kind of crazy to say because of where the two guys are at in their careers. Yeah, I agree. But to play devil’s advocate, I guess I would say is the Carlson versus thing to rank us higher would be just the positional value of they don’t have as many guys in that sort of log jam of like big wingsiz guys as a big four or a big three. So, I think that there are going to be opportunities for him. Carlson is also a guy I think they have locked, you could correct me if I’m wrong, locked up for a little bit longer, so they have more time to sort of squeeze the juice out of that. Whereas, it’s kind of now or never sort of time for him. And I think that they are going to try to give him some opportunities and see what they have from him because he we’ve seen him at times flash it where he has pieced all the parts of his game together and it looks like a really solid NBA player and a guy who can be a role guy and off your bench for a really long time. and really tantalizing skill set to steal words that you said, but like I just don’t know if he’s going to be able to piece it together of sort of the aggressiveness on both ends, the energy on both ends and sort of just all of that stuff together. So, I guess that would be the only part that I would push back on is that’s maybe potentially his path there is just that there’s not as much of a log jam positionally for him as there is for a guy like Carlson. Yeah, hypothetically the Thunder should be able to have Carlson back on a 2-way deal next season because you can get three two-way spots before you’re ineligible for two. You know, you can sign three two two seasons before you’re eligible sign a 2A again. Whereas like you got to make a decision on. I do think that from a Thunder standpoint, you know, if their birdies are listening that the Thunder should hope that I’m the most wrong on Usman Jen because ideally for OKC, Usman Jen becomes a very talented contributor who’s already an NBA level defender at a position in which, like you mentioned, they don’t have a ton of guys who are 610, 611, 220 lbs that can really defend one through four. They don’t have a ton of true fours on this team like Usman Jen. So, if he can put it together offensively and play with the force that he needs to around the rim, he was dreadful at the rim this season on on layups. He shot like 38% on layups this season. That’s got to improve. But if he can if he can maintain his solid catch and shoot rate, which was like 38% as a catch- shooter this season, uh on very low volume and get more volume out of that and become a more aggressive player on the glass. Like then you have a really functional player who entering restricted free agency in the in the current landscape of the CBA where we’re seeing teams, they’re not handing out big contracts to RFAS anymore under this new CBA because they don’t want to be stuck paying the piper on that deal. Whereas in the previous iterations of the collective bargaining agreement, teams would just lob out outrageous contracts on RFA deals just because you know that that team had to match it to retain their player and kind of stick someone else um with a bad deal. with us. If he puts it together this season, then the signs point to a guy who right now the writing on the wall seems like he’s not going to be an OKC next year. But if he puts it together, he’s now not only an OKC next year, but on a very very very friendly prove it deal uh to get you a costc controlled contributor for a team that’s going to become very expensive as these extensions kick in to where I do think that when we’re looking at where we could be the most wrong at the Thunder organization should be hoping that I’m most wrong on Usman Chang and he becomes a very upront player. Where do you think on this list if you had to guess you could be the most wrong at? Who do you think could elevate their status or plummet their status uh to a degree in which you got to really come back in uh in June and be like, “Ah, I missed the boat on that one.” I would guess maybe Topic would be the one is that I had him a little bit higher than consensus. I think I only had him one higher than you and we don’t know what the consensus is, but like he’s the only one of just maybe he’s not ready or maybe the opportunity isn’t ready isn’t there for him to play big minutes on this team because I think we’ll see him a lot. But it’s a matter of those consequential minutes and those games that really matter and maybe he’s just not ready for that. Whether it’s as a shooter, maybe the minutes aren’t there, maybe it’s defense. I think that’s the one where it could blow up in my face the most. But overall, I pretty I feel pretty confident in this list. And like you mentioned, I think that the Thunder could make a lot of money betting against our opinions on some of these takes here. I hope works out. And even if it doesn’t, you mentioned the restricted area uh free agent sort of area right now. That’s also a valuable trade piece for other teams if they’re sort of interested of like, you know, we have more minutes. We’ll take a swing on this guy. So hopefully we are wrong on us, but um who who else do you think you might be able to be proven wrong or right about? Yeah, I I think AJ Mitchell being eight already on my list could be a bit premature that we look back on this and say I jumped the shark on AJ. The rookies, I completely agree that like naturally speaking, we could be the most wrong on the rookies. Uh either up or down. Like for example, for me, I I have Kenrich below every rookie on this Thunder roster. If this is the year that they finally give minutes to Kenrich consistently, I’m going to be completely wrong because every time that they actually do play Kenrich, he produces, I just don’t believe that they’re going to actually play Kendrick a ton uh this season. It’s like I could be very wrong just based upon Mark’s rotation that I don’t have any control over. Uh even though, you know, if you want me as an adviser, Mark, you know how to how to reach out to me. Uh, but I I I think that it’s AJ at eight that I could be dead wrong on just because of who guys like Wiggins and Joe and even Jill have proven to be over a larger sample size that I think that AJ would still need to take a step that I’m projecting there with AJ this upcoming season for who he can be at the end of the day. And then Kenrich and Brandon Carlson and like those are guys where specifically as we already went over I could be dead wrong on or I could be taking a victory lap at the NBA trade deadline and as and liking our positioning on this list. Would there be there’s no argument that the Thunder should have more than seven players in the top 100. Is there any other team that you look at that should have up to seven guys on this list? And I’ll tell you, you know, it was after the after the number three spot, it was optional for teams to include for hosts to include seven players for their teams. And the teams that did include seven players, the sixth and seventh guys like Max Struce, Sam Morrow, Quinton Grimes, VJ Edgecom, Zack Edy, Zachary Reach. I think that Nikquil Alexander Walker with the Hawks could put the Hawks in that echelon of having six top 100 guys, but I don’t think that Reese Shay will get there to where like six would be the leader in the clubhouse to me outside of the Thunder having all seven. And that’s kind of it for me. Yeah, I I I think that it would have been really interesting if the Pacers ran this team back and Hallebertton was healthy. I think they might have had a run at it with guys like Nimhard, Naymith, Seakum, TJ McConnell, all those guys and if they got Miles Turner back obviously, but right now I I think that six is even stretching it for some of these teams and you’re just seeing how talented the league is right now that I think that it’s really really hard to get that many guys, but the Thunder right now are in a very very advantageous situation. So maybe their other teams can get five or six in, but just off the top of my head, it’s really tough to think about because even you’re thinking about like I like what Denver did this off seasonason. I still don’t think they have like seven guys that I put in there, but you know, only time will tell and I’m really excited to see your voting and the rest of the voting from locked on to see where everybody falls. Yeah, I’m very curious how many that Denver actually get. Clearly they’re going to get Jamal and and Yoitch. Uh and I think that Cam Johnson will for sure be on there. Gordon will for sure be on there. That’s four locks. Christian Brown, is he on there or Brown? I think that Christian Brown could could be on the top 100 list. I I think that I’m going to vote for Christian Brown in the top 100, but I again that’s still only five players. It’s like getting to 67 is really really hard. Uh and the Thunder are the only team that have like legitimate cases. Could the Rockets do it? the rackets with KD, Fred Van Vleet, Amen Shenon. Yeah. Jabari, Tari. Yeah. If if you if you put Tar on there, then they’re for sure gonna have six. Okay. It comes down to like how you feel about Tari E. cuz cuz Jackson only nominated six guys and those were the six guys that he nominated. So, it’ll be very curious how many of these submissions that we actually, you know, think will will transpire. I think that the Sixers putting seven on there h no chance no chance that the Sixers get seven guys on the list. But all due respect to my guy VJ Edgecom and my Sixers, I’m a big Sixers guy as we all know from last week. But Michael, this was fun. Let us know your rankings for the Thunder 1 through 17 down below in the comments. And until next time, go check out Lockdown Thunder where your podcast from. Check out Let’s Talk Thunder on YouTube. And until next time, be good and be good to

Thunder’s roster depth under the microscope: Who makes the top 100 NBA players list?

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads a talented Oklahoma City Thunder squad, but how do the rest of the players stack up? Rylan Stiles and guest Michael Martin rank the entire Thunder roster from 1-17, debating the merits of rising stars like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. The discussion heats up as they consider which OKC players deserve spots on the NBA’s top 100 list. From Lu Dort’s defensive prowess to Isaiah Hartenstein’s potential as the league’s best backup center, no stone is left unturned in this comprehensive analysis of the Thunder’s depth.

Tune in for expert insights on how Oklahoma City’s roster compares to powerhouses like the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets. Will the Thunder’s young core surprise the league this season?

0:00 Intro: Ranking Thunder roster and top 100 list
5:20 Debating Lu Dort vs. Isaiah Hartenstein ranking
10:54 Which Thunder players make NBA top 100?
15:55 Ajay Mitchell surprisingly ranked
25:27 Rookies Cason Wallace and Keyontae Johnson’s rankings
29:32 Rounding out bottom of Thunder roster rankings
34:51 Where rankings could be most wrong
38:45 Comparing Thunder’s depth to other NBA teams

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