NBA is Putting OKC Thunder in SPOTLIGHT | Contenders and PRETENDERS This Season

NBA is Putting OKC Thunder in SPOTLIGHT | Contenders and PRETENDERS This Season

On today’s Locked on Thunder podcast, the NBA is putting OKC in the spotlight. And who are pretenders and contenders in the NBA season? 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 on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. I am your host, medium member, and beat writer for Thunder on SI, Ryland Styles. Follow me on Twitter at Ryland Styles. On today’s show, we’re talking about the NBA putting the Thunder on its marquee dates, some pretenders, some contenders for this season, and what we’re excited to watch for with Justin Martinez at Justin Hoops on Twitter, the Oklahoma uh Thunder Trenings writer as well, the best dressed on the beat. Uh Justin, how you doing today, man? First of all, I appreciate that. That’s some high praise. We got some competition, but uh no, I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for the invite. been looking forward to this. It should be a lot of fun. We do have a really really good competition. I would say it’s you and Adam at at the top. Uh you know, Adam Adam is very adventurous. You keep it more uh in your lane, I guess you could say, with with your designs. But both of you guys, 1 A, 1B, any given Sunday, you can take the cake. But whenever you see the leaks and the now kind of first look from the NBA of the upcoming schedule, we’ll get the full thing on Thursday. But kind of the biggest dates uh that everyone kind of rushes to look for whenever they get the schedule in hand have already been announced. And the Thunder are all over this NBA showcase day. When you when you look at the league, it’s kind of structured in a way where if you’re talking about casual fans and how to captivate them, you go to opening night, you go to Christmas day, you go to Martin Luther King Jr. day, and that’s kind of that’s kind of the only regular season days in which, you know, if you’re the league that people are going to be consuming your product and the Thunder have checked the boxes for all three dates. They’re going to play Houston opening night. They’re going to go on Christmas and play Wimby and the Spurs. And then they’re also on MLK Junior day, which we found out today against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland. That’s going to be a lot of fun, I think, uh, to see a heavy heavy Eastern contender against a heavyweight Western contender. And I think that those two teams stylistically match up very well. But what were your thoughts just seeing the Thunder be put back in this spotlight after a lot was made last year of their lack of national TV games? Yeah, like you said, starting off with that, I think a lot of people felt last year that this was kind of the sort of coverage they were supposed to be getting in the first place. So, took a championship for them to do it, but now they’re getting that that respect. And then it’s good to see, you know, I think also the matchups themselves are really good. Like opening night, you’ve got the whole Kevin Durant angle, of course, with Houston. Christmas Day, there’s the Cadet Wimby uh matchup as well. And MLK day, I mean, those matchups against Cleveland last season were great. They’re going to be a good team again. So, yeah, I think that it’s it’s good to see for sure. I mean, every game I always uh ask you what you’re working on that day. Opening night, I won’t need to do that. I I think I know what you’re going to be working on for opening night uh against Kevin Durant and the Rockets. adjusted. When you when you look at these three matchups, which is the more compelling, most compelling to you from a basketball standpoint, from a storyline standpoint, if you could only watch one, which luckily for us, we get to watch all of them, but if you only watch one, would you pick the Rockets matchup, the Cavs matchup as like a little finals preview, or just want to see the Young Spurs? Yeah, I mean, it’s got to be the Houston one. I know it’s kind of the the safe easy answer, but I mean, you’ve got the KD angle, of course. So, you know, people are going to make that night about that. As much as is as much as it is about ring night, there’s also going to be that at the forefront of people’s minds. And also just the fact that this is potentially a Western Conference Finals matchup in itself. I mean, in my opinion, that’s that’s one of the top contenders for a title as well. So, you’ve got the actual, you know, quality of the game, the KD storyline, Ring Knight. I just think it’s going to be it’s going to be absolute cinema, man. I’m excited for it. I think that you’re 100% right. I mean, like, because the beauty about ring night is that it has both. If you if you’re someone who is a basketball junkie and you only care about the X’s and O’s and really digging into what’s happening on the hardwood, this is going to be fantastic basketball between two of the best teams in the West, two of the top three teams in the West at worst. And if you care about the subplot of the drama and the and the storylines and the kind of WWE aspect that the NBA is built on in a way nowadays, it has the best version of that with Kevin Durant back in OKC on ring night when the Thunder raised their first championship banner. You know, the heights that Kevin Durant couldn’t take this team to. But let’s go ahead and move on to our contenders and pretenders list. Let’s start with the Houston Rockets. Like what did you make of their off season? If if you had to uh grade it, is it an obvious A+ with the additions that they made of of course Kevin Durant being at the forefront, but Dorian Finny Smith and Clint Capella? Yeah, I think it’s got to be. I mean, that was one of the main things last season was obviously the defense was there, but were they going to be able to have someone who could close out a game for them. You know, we didn’t see that consistently out of a guy like Jaylen Green. Fairly showed some flashes in the playoffs in that first round matchup. But, I mean, that’s not a problem with Kevin Durant. you know, he’s going to come in and instantly be someone that they can turn to. And yeah, like you said, they also brought in some really good surrounding pieces as well. Doran Finny Smith, I thought was a surprising departure from Los Angeles. I mean, that’s that’s a key piece that they lost. And now going to Houston, you got another big inclin Capella. They resigned Stephen Adams, who I think they saw some really good things out of him uh in the postseason with that that double big lineup. So, that’s something they could potentially show more of uh this season as well. So, yeah, as far as a grade, I mean, I think it’s about as good as you could have hope for. It’s got to be an A+. Yeah, I go A+ as well. And I and in part it’s just because of the methods that they use to execute these moves. Like they they still have so many assets available to them. They they depart from like one positive player in all of this. Like I I think that love them or hate them, Dylan Brooks is a positive player for a roster. They they still have all of the resources possible to go make even bigger moves in the future while also netting Kevin Durant. I I just find their team to be mustwatch television this season because how are they going to work out the double big stuff? You you have so many you have so much front court help. Is that is that to help you navigate the 82 game season and take the load off of of other players or is that because you want to lean in fully to your identity and almost exclusively play a double big lineup throughout the 48minute game? I also want to see their defense because I I I love what Kevin Durant can do scoring the basketball. But if your defense takes any step back from where it was a year ago, now Kevin Durant’s sole offense, you know, being your offensive engine isn’t enough to to help you win at a higher level. So your defense has to be on par with where it was a year ago. And if it improves, of course, be great to make the Kevin D edition the A++ that it appears to be right now. And I think that their defense can get to those heights again. and obviously they’ll work around losing Dylan Brooks, but still I think that they can get there with the young core that they have intact and with how good of a coach that Eay is. I think that Houston is at worst number three in the West. Like they are that good. And I think that there’s a clear uh dividing line starting at four. To me, Justin, it’s OKC, Denver, Houston in that top three. And then once you get to four and below, it’s like, yeah, they’re good teams, but it’d be pretty surprising if they actually pulled this together. Yeah, I agree with you. Actually, I I think if we are putting in that rank and I I like Denver even more than Houston. I know the popular pick is Houston, but what they did this offseason as well. I mean, to to make that trade, swapping out MPJ for Cameron Johnson, I feel like he’s a good fit defensively is going to bring you more than MPJ. Still able to knock down shots. They got a lot more depth. Now, Joic has a backup center for once. I can’t remember the last time they had a really good one. And then yeah, you even got like a team like like the Clippers right outside of that I think are also going to be super competitive. You got a real like 10 11 man roster or rotation that they can go to. So there’s definitely a lot of good teams in the West. It’s going to be uh you know it’s people always say it’s it’s it’s hard to win that first title, but it’s it’s even harder to defend it, you know, and get that second one in a row. And it’s definitely going to be a challenge for OKC. Yeah, I I I cannot wait to see how this unfolds because I’m right there with you. I think that Denver is uh the biggest challenger to the Thunder. you you look at how they revamped the roster. I agree with you. I think that people who are casting aside this Cam Johnson uh Porter Jr. swap as a wash. I think that they’re going to be sorely mistaken once the season actually gets here. I think that Cam Johnson is a legitimate upgrade on top of the added depth, which is an obvious upgrade for this team. On top of Nicole Joic being the first or second best player in the world. I know that Thunder fans get very offended when you call him the best player in the world, but he’s clearly a matchup nightmare. is clearly a guy who can help you win a series by yourself. And you look at what happened a year ago in the second round and just how competitive that they were despite every every facet of their team suggesting that they shouldn’t have been competit competitive and yet they were. And so I think that now you you just look at this as a true test and a true contender out west. So it looks like we’ve settled on OKC Denver to be contenders. Are you are you also going to give Houston the contender title? Oh yeah, for sure. Like you said, the concern is is the scoring. you know, is Katie gonna be enough? Because they did lose a 20 points per game score and Jaylen Green. Uh, but other than that, I mean, defensively, they’ve got it there. They’ve got the versatility. Yeah, they they got to be a contender for sure. We’ve got three contenders. Can we find any more in the Western Conference coming up? The first one say right now, but our friends over at FanDuel, folks, John Matier should have been using FanDuel and trying to avoid using Vinmo for this kind of stuff. August 26th, the official FanDuel uh futures day. Make sure you start the brand new holiday for football fans who live with a bold prediction and pre-season launches right now. For just 24 hours, FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you’re casting your MVP prediction, you’re eyeing the long shot for the division winner, or you’re ready to go for the crown for the Super Bowl champion from week one before it even kicks off, this is your moment. So take that flyer in the MVP race. Perhaps Patrick Mahomes can get back into the MVP conversation. Take the swing at who’s gonna win the Super Bowl in August. Maybe the Chiefs gonna get redemption. Visit FanDuel today and the FanDuel app to start planning your future bets now because FanDuel Day is one day and one day only. FanDuel, play your game. We’re back on the Lockdown Thunder podcast on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your teams every day here talking with Justin Martinez from the Oklahoma. He’s a thunder writer. He’s a trendings writer. He’s a media luminary and the best dressed on the beat. And the and the guy I love to talk to the most on the beat. Jay Mart is what I call him personally. I don’t know if anyone else has adopted that nickname for you, but let’s talk contenders and pretenders. We have three solidified contenders. And this is a list that I’m very comfortable with so far. Let’s go down the list in the Western Conference and jump to the Purple and Gold, the LA Lakers. And I think that for their off season, like if you look at what they had at their disposal, they did a good job of navigating this summer because yes, they lost Dorian and Finny Smith, but I think that getting a guy like Jake Loravia, bringing in Marcus Smart, bringing in DeAndre Aon, like those names are the best they could have done financially speaking with the assets at their disposal. And I like to gamble on a guy like DeAndre Aton who has to get it right this season, who should be playing desperate this season. And if you were to create somebody who was made in a lab to maximize the skill set of one DeAndre Aton, you would spit out Luca. And so I just think that they gave themselves some more optionality from the teams they had a year ago. I think that you have JJ Reic who showed you flashes of a good coach last year. Now in year two, Luca Donuch, I mean, it’s been the summer of Luca this whole summer. He He’s I mean, he’s in men’s health. He’s in Euro Basket. He’s having a lot of fun. I think that he will get back to a more comfortable spot and be able to reach those heights again in LA that he did in Dallas where he drugged the Mavericks to two Western Conference finals, including the NBA finals in 2024. There’s the LeBron James drama. Who knows how that sorts out, but come on, Jark. LeBron LeBron’s going to finish out the year in the purple and gold. So, do you give the Lakers contender status or pre-tender status? With all that being said, which I do agree with a lot of that, I’m going to call them pretenders. I’m too concerned about the defense there. Uh, when they were at their best at the end of last regular season, the defense was incredible. And I think we kind of saw that maybe that was just, you know, not exactly what everyone thought it would be in the playoffs. It did not pan out. I don’t really see any of the additions that they brought in really helping in that department. I do like the DeAndre Aiden aspect. Uh being a rim runner, he’s going to pair well with Luca. You know, a guy like Jake Larivia, but in terms of the defense, I still think that’s going to be an issue. And in the postseason, I think they’re really going to struggle going up against some of these other contenders that we have listed. So, I’m going to call them pretenders. Still a playoff team, still going to have success. Luca is still dangerous, but in terms of winning a championship, I just I can’t really see them contending for that. So, I agree with you. I think that the parody era in the NBA uh is a double-edged sword, right? Like it is it is a parody era at the NBA for the top of the West like the OKC Thunder. Like they’re going to have a hard time repeating. But it’s also harmful for teams who are where the Lakers are at where it’s like in years past perhaps you only had one or two legitimately better than you teams in the in the conference to where you you could kind of make the case that you were just significantly better than the rest of the field and you only needed to pull off one upset. But now you look at it and it’s like, are the Lakers definitively better than the top three? Absolutely not. Are they definitively better than a team like Minnesota? Absolutely not. Are they are they for sure better than the than the even the old LA Clippers? Like no. So they get lost in this pool of when you’re trying to figure out like can the Lakers be a contender? That means that you’re winning at least three playoff rounds to be a contender and be in the finals. And to me, that’s too much to ask for, for it to all line up for the Lakers to pull that off, even with the the the star power, even if everything works out perfectly with DeAndre Aton. I think that they can be a team that does pull off an upset. But the problem in this new parody era is it’s no longer just one upset that you need. You need three or four upsets to be able to get this done. Look at the Pacers last year who had to fight tooth and nail to get to the NBA finals unexpectedly. Like, that’s hard in the East. It’s even harder in the West. And the Lakers, I just don’t think have enough to pull it all together. But let’s go to their little brother, the LA Clippers, who finally have their own arena now. What a beautiful arena it is. Justin, are the Clippers contenders or pretenders? Are they in the retirement home? What are they? Yeah, I I like the Clippers a lot. I like I said earlier, they’ve got an 11man rotation. I think they’ve got a lot of things they can do. I’m gonna call them contenders though just because sorry pretenders just because I can’t bank on the health. I can’t bank on what version of James Harden we’re going to get in the postseason. These are all things that I just think there’s too many question marks to call them contenders. But I will say they’re not a team that I want to face in the playoffs without a doubt. If I’m OKC and I’m, you know, looking at like let’s say a um an eight a seven type of matchup that that’s one of those teams that I just I would hope to avoid. They’ve got a lot of depth. I like the addition of John Collins. You still got some good guard play off the bench. Well, not sure how much Chris Paul is gonna play, but Chris Dunn, like him a lot. Um, they actually have some big man depth now as well with Brook Lopez coming in. It It’s the age, it’s the injury concerns that keep me from saying that they’re a championship contender, but they’re definitely a scary team for sure. I I completely agree with you on the Clippers of just like even if you even if you swore to me that everybody would be healthy for the whole playoff run on the Clippers, which is already a big if, but if you swore that to me, but then you but then you said, “Well, it’s just going to be a normal James Harden playoff run where it’s not it’s not he’s not going to have some like disastrous game.” I can tell you that. But he’s also not going to he’s not going to change his reputation of what he is as a playoff player. That alone makes me want to say that they’re that they’re pretenders. And we know that just the the odds suggest that you shouldn’t bank on them being fully healthy come playoff time. So there’s two there’s just too many ifs. Now I will say if you want to add another if to the to the Clippers case. If we played this on NBA 2K, right, where we could turn off injuries and just have fun and and watch basketball, I would give them contender status. But we know that there’s more to this than that. We know that there’s going to be injuries. We know that the James Harden saga, it is what it is at this point. I mean, I I don’t know how many times you have to watch James Harden in the playoffs continue to fail and then not just call him a failure in the playoffs. Like, it’s just he’s just one of those guys that does not get it right in that setting. But now, let’s move on to the Minnesota Timberwolves. And my first instinct, Jay Mart, was that the Timberwolves losing to Kil Alexander Walker. Big deal. It was It felt like a really big deal. And it still feels like a big deal. He’s an awesome player, cousin of Sheay, if you didn’t know. But I look at how they have guys like Jaylen Clark and how they have Terrence Shannon Jr. and the developmental track that that organization has been on uh with some of their in-house guys and I feel pretty confident by the end of the season they can replace his production really well in in the playoffs. And then we did this thing at lockdown and it’ll be released closer to the season where all of our hosts including myself like like put together our top 100 players listed in the NBA. And when you really sit down and examine the league and it took days to get this done, you look at Minnesota, they have the second most top 100 players in the NBA for me. Like that’s how good I think that this roster is. So I I do I do understand that there’s some playoff um question marks, especially with their role players and especially with Rud Bear. But I look at last year’s team and had Denver pulled off that upset, like had Denver had a healthy Aaron Gordon and beat OKC in game seven, I think that Minnesota’s in the NBA finals. So given the history of like teams repeating as champions don’t make it out of the second round in the last seven years, and given that they’ve made two straight Western Conference finals, and given that for this example, do we want to say making the West Finals is contingent status because you’re one round away? I will say Minnesota is a contender. Yeah, that’s fair. I think it really does come down to how you define that. I I personally view it as a team that can reach the the the finals and contend for it. And in that case, I still think that they are a ways away from a team like OKC. We saw last year’s playoff matchup. Um I think there were clearly levels to it and I don’t really think Minnesota did much to get any closer to close that gap. So I would say that I don’t see them contending for that final spot and the championship. But yeah, I do think that they they put some things together with Julius Randle. It was a little bit of a slow start, but I think he found his rhythm, integrated himself well. Like you said, I think they did bring in or they have enough to kind of replace that production of Nikil. I did know he was Shay’s cousin. That’s that’s uh that’s something I’ve heard a few times. Glad you were doing your reading on that. Yeah. Yeah. Um and even a guy like like Rob Dillingham, you know, they’re hoping that he’ll be able to step up, make some some strides as well. So, I think it is a good team, but in terms of contending for a title, I’m not quite ready to say that yet. I got to see what these young guys do. Um, how much they develop. Uh, until then, I’m I’m going to say they’re pretenders, but it’s close. It’s close, though. Yeah, they’re close. I I I agree with you. If if we’re going to if we’re going to put it in the finals, which we probably should, I will say that they’re pretenders for now because I want to see what they look like against Houston in particular because to me, like you just watch how the Thunder off how the Thunder defense overwhelmed Julius Randall and overwhelmed this team. If Houston can replicate that, well then now you have two teams who can just take you away offensively and then a team in Denver that we’re both very high on to where it’s like you’re quickly fading out of the realistic options to go win the West if everything’s considered equal. Now, if they match up with Houston better than they did with OKC, like then this can change throughout the year. But for right now, I think that you’re right in being safe with putting Minnesota in the contenders in the pretenders pile coming up. Can anyone shock us and jump into the pret contenders list or are they all just stuck with being pretenders? Plus what you should watch for for this Oklahoma City Thunder season. We’re back on the Lockdown Thunder podcast from the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your teams every day here talking with trending trending sports reporter for the Oklahoma Justin Martinez at Justin Deoops on Twitter. J Mart, we’re going to go through the rest of the West real quick. We don’t have to dive into this too deeply, but are the Warriors contenders or pretenders? I think it’s a pretty easy pretender to me. They’re a fun little team that that can uh get hot at the right time with playoff Jimmy and with Steph, but getting to the finals, uh that’s that’s a pretender to me. Yeah, for sure. I think we saw some good things out of them. the close out last season, the playoffs, you can kind of scrap that obviously with the way it ended with with Steph getting hurt. Uh it’s a good team. There’s a lot of good teams in the West, but I don’t think they’re quite at that level of of, you know, the Houston, the Denvers, the OKCs of the world. I look at Minnesota. I look at Memphis and I just think that they’re an obvious obvious pretender. Uh Memphis, I don’t think got their coach hiring right based on what we saw a year ago. like other like it’s it’s funny that there’s a complete and total opposite reaction for me from David Alman and being around him in that second round and being around the Memphis head coach. I I just think that David Alman’s like a great great coach and I don’t think that Tom is uh is going to get it done in Memphis and losing Desmond Bane hurts them a lot. It feels like a signal that they know that this is not the core to actually go compete and so whenever the front office is telling you that I’ll also tell you that they’re pretenders. Yeah, exactly. That’s right. I think tells you everything. If they felt like they were contenders, they wouldn’t do that move. So, I think they’re telling themselves that they’re, you know, just going to stay right outside of reach of a title. They’re going to be one of those good teams. And I think maybe later down the line if they get some progression, they can reach that. But for right now, yeah, they kind of took a step back strategically. I think it’s it’s pretty clear that they’re pretenders. I think that Kings, Suns, Pelicans, Jazz, Blazers would just be lucky to be in the playin and that’s kind of and they don’t even make the top six. So, let’s move on to Dallas, who I think is a pretender when it comes to like winning a championship. But I do think that to your point earlier, like the Thunder even getting the one seed for the third straight season, they’re going to have a harder path than ever before because the eighth seeds the last two seasons have been putrid. And if Dallas is the eight seed this year and you’ve got to go through, let’s say you let’s say you see Denver underperform again and you got to go through Dallas, Denver, Houston, and that’s a that’s a bloodbath of a path because Dallas, while they can’t win a championship, what can they do? I think they can defend their butts off every single game and turn this into a grinded out type of contest. Now, lucky for OKC in a grinded out game, you have the best bucket getter between the two teams in SGA. They might have the top two best bucket getters uh between those two teams and SGA and JDub in that tight spot, but Dallas is a team that could make a little bit of a uh run in the playoff for their seed. Like for the seventh seed, for the eight seed, they could push a team to seven. They might upset a team, but I don’t think so. So, I would say pretender overall, but not a team that you can just kind of scoff at like you can with the Kings and the Suns and all those guys. Yeah, I agree completely. Even with Kyrie out, they’ve got like an actual 10-man rotation that I think they’ve got a lot of really solid players. They’ve got a lot of size as well. They can cause some mismatch mismatch problems for teams. Uh Cooper Flag, I’ve heard he’s going to be pretty good from what people are saying. So, um even as a rookie, I’m expecting him to be an immediate contributor. Uh so, yeah, that’s one of those teams that I definitely would not want to face in the first round. I could see them getting an upset if they maybe sneak into like a a four five, maybe a 36, but they’re going to give some team a problem in the playoffs for sure. I just not ready to call him a contender, obviously. So, I I hear I see that you’ve heard the good news of Nico Harrison and his masterful plan, and he’s kind of sold you on that pretty well. But, uh, Jart, let’s talk Thunder. Man, the the Thunder have returned a roster looks very, very similar to last year. I mean, the only one standard contract player is deported and it was Dylan Jones. And I think Thomas Sorber’s already done more than Dylan Jones has and he didn’t even play summer league. So, it’s like they they really lost nobody from their standard roster. Uh Alex Ducas went to play in the NBL and Flaglers now with this with the Spurs and training camp. So, they really have their entire team back from a year ago for the most part. But that doesn’t mean that they’re going to stay stagnant. like what are you what are you watching for this season that you want to see this young team work on or these individual players develop in like where what are where are you at with this upcoming season? Yeah, like you said, they’re kind of at that point now where they’re not going to go out and make this this splashy signing. They’re they’re trying to strategically stay in position to avoid the second apron later down the line. So, they’re not going to go throwing money around anymore. They’re really banking on on the individual progression of of this young core at this point. So, you you know what to expect from Shay. you know to expect from Dub. Hopefully Cadet is able to stay on the floor, work his way into like an all-star consideration um type of play. Then even guys off the bench like Wallace I think has a really well-rounded game, but you would like to see him maybe improve in terms of some some passing, some playmaking, being able to run that second unit more. Another young guy like AJ Mitchell showed some promise. Uh he figures to have a you know a real role on this team as well as like a secondary playmaker. These are like the types of jumps in production that you want to see out of guys in order to make up for the fact that they’re not going out and signing anybody or making any big trades like the rest of the league is. You know, they’re going to have to bank on that that progression for sure. So, that’s what I’m looking out for. Now, Jar, I want you to close this out. Talk about Nicole Topic, what you saw in Vegas and also what you wrote today, which I think that every Thunder fan needs to go read. If if you’re someone who cares about the thunder so much that you’re listening to Lockdown Thunder on August 13th, 2025 in the year of our Lord, you should be reading Jar and you should be reading about Nola Topic because you’re clearly a thunder sicko and we both love you for that. But what what did you see from Topic kind of what’s the what’s the cell on this great article? First of all, I appreciate that. Um yeah, I mean I think we saw you know what people were expecting to see in terms of you know his strengths. We know he’s a really good passer. We definitely saw that. I thought the game started to slow down for him as he kind of shook some of that rust off. You know, I think he had seven turnovers his first game. Slowly started to uh reduce that um as things were starting to come to him a little bit easier. Um the shooting is obviously going to be something he has to work on. He’s able to do that. That’s going to, you know, really help him stay on the floor. Luckily, he’s got a great shooting coach there with Chip to help him who’s obviously done some some great work. Um, and yeah, I just I just feel like as of right now, you can expect him to to come in, play his role. He’s going to get some some spot minutes. It’s not going to be a huge, you know, thing where they’re relying on him. But I think as he starts to get his feet wet, as he starts to get adjusted to the NBA level, you’re going to see the playmaking that he’s able to do is going to be passing to some much more capable scorers than he did in summer league. You know, with guys like Shay and Dub and Chad and all of them. And then yeah, if that shot comes around, then I think that’s going to be a big game changer for him. I I can’t wait to see kind of his development. I think that that’s going to be obviously something that’s under the microscope a bit this season, but it it’s just he clearly has the long-term tools. He clearly has the skill set to be a good player in this league. That’s why that for now two straight cycles of the draft, you’ve heard NBA scouts say that he would go top five in each draft, which is more impressive to say about this year’s draft than it was last year’s draft. But still, you know, Bobby Marks and them are saying that. So, I I I just think that when you look at Topic, it feels like he’s still a year or two away from getting up to where he needs to be to play for this specific team, a team this good, a team that’s this versatile that that kind of demands him to play off the ball offensively and demands more defensively from all five guys. But, I still think that the future is incredibly bright for him. And we’ve seen the Thunder be able to walk this tight rope of of exploring their roster as Mark would say, but not sacrificing their ability to win to do so. Having a strong baseline of all the other stuff that they do on a night-to-ight basis that they can that they can foster development as well. And this is why Jar I think that this season you’re going to see the method to the madness of all the Marcisms of all the stuff that like previously listeners would roll their eyes at like it’s going to come to fruition this year because if they are going to be the one seed for the third straight season if they are going to be historically great again it will take the zero and zero mentality and the one of 82 mentality that this that this organization has been trying to instill in these players since they were a 21 team. And so I’m really curious to see kind of how that uh translates to now coming off of an NBA championship. Jart, no one’s going to hold you to this because we’re going to for sure have you back on as much as you’re willing to come on the show. Uh and we’ll of course do this closer to the start of the season. Do the Thunder and I’m going to put you on a on a warm seat, not a hot seat. Do the Thunder. Just simply make it out of the second round for the first time in seven years as defending champions. Yeah, I I think they could do that. I think they’re back in the conference finals. I could say that. Not fully full confidence. Obviously, there’s some really good teams as we talked about, but I I think that they they’re going to bank on that progression. I think guys are going to continue to get better. Um, and that’ll be enough to to definitely stay within within reach of that title. J Mark, this was fantastic. I cannot wait for our next pod whenever you have the time to do it. But it this was great and uh we’ll for sure have you back on to preview the season as we get closer to training camp and coming out of training camp and who knows may maybe a lot more than that. But Jart, let them know what you what you’ve got cooking up because you also do trending stuff for ROU fans listening or OSU fans listening. Let them know where they can find you across social media and kind of what you’re doing head and head of training camp. Yeah, you know, trying to stay busy. Uh one thing we’ve been doing lately is ranking the top 50 Thunder players of all time. That’s been a lot of fun. Uh we’re getting into that 30 to like 21 range is coming out. That’s it’s one article every every week like 10 players at a time. Uh so we’re getting into some really some really good names, some Thunder Legends. That’s going to be a lot of fun. Uh so stay tuned for that. And then yeah, helping out with some of the other uh programs and teams around the the state as well. Uh so definitely staying busy and yeah, anytime you you’re ready to have me on, I’m all for it. Let’s do it. Go follow Justin Martinez. Go read the Oklahoma.

Western Conference Shakeup: Thunder’s National TV Spotlight and NBA Contenders

The NBA schedule release ignites fierce debate over Western Conference powerhouses. Oklahoma City Thunder secure coveted national TV slots, signaling league-wide respect after their recent success. Host Rylan Stiles and Oklahoman writer Justin Martinez break down OKC’s marquee matchups, including a Kevin Durant showdown. They analyze top contenders like the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets, dissecting roster moves and championship potential. The duo also tackles the Lakers’ and Clippers’ chances, Minnesota’s dark horse status, and the Thunder’s path back to the conference finals. Will OKC’s young core, led by Chet Holmgren and Nikola Jokic, propel them to new heights? Tune in for expert insights on the Thunder’s upcoming season and the evolving Western Conference landscape.

0:00 Intro: NBA spotlight on OKC Thunder
5:57 Houston Rockets’ offseason moves and outlook
10:48 Lakers and Clippers: Contenders or pretenders?
15:15 Evaluating the Timberwolves and Warriors
21:28 Assessing other Western Conference teams
24:38 Thunder’s roster stability and development goals
26:56 Nikola Jovic’s summer league performance and potential
30:24 Closing thoughts and upcoming content

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