OKC Thunder’s Biggest Roadblocks to Another Ring
Hello, I am Nathan and this is Thunderup Talk. Today I want to talk about um who I think are some of the biggest road roadblocks for the Thunder, particularly in the Western Conference. Uh I think we all know the the East this year looks pretty weak. Um, but I’ll probably do a video on who I think might be the the biggest contenders um versus the Thunder uh in the East. But for today, I’m just going to focus on the West. Before I get started, I would like to say that I think the Thunder are in a tier of their own. I really do. I think it’s just tier one Oklahoma City Thunder in the West and I think in the rest of the league to be very honest with you. Um I was talking to a friend. I think we have the talent to win 70 games. If they want to mess around and do something kind of silly this year, I think they’re more than capable of doing that. Now, will they have different priorities of uh just trying to make it to the f make it to the playoffs healthy and all that? That’s definitely something that might happen. Um, but yeah, I think with the Thunder, you have guys who are still getting better, and that has to be emphasized. Jaylen Williams will be a better player than he was last year, most likely. Chad Homegrren coming off that injury will be better. Isaiah Hartenstein, I think he’ll be more integrated, especially with the the double big lineup. I think he will be better with the team. Uh Aaron Wiggins, I think he has this confidence of, hey, I can go out and score 40 nights, 40 points on a random uh night, and I can play in the finals and hit really big threes in the playoffs. All of that, I think, allows him to know that he can be a better player as well. And on and on and on down the the line of players. AJ Mitchell, he’s going to get better. Shake Alexander. I don’t know if he’s capable of being any better than he was last year. Um, but yeah, we’re just so young and we’re going to get better. We won the championship without Chad playing the majority of the year with Jaylen Williams having a messed up ligament in his hand in the entire playoffs. We didn’t shoot at very good at all during the almost all of the playoffs and we still won the championship. So to me it’s very clear that the Oklahoma City Thunder are a tier one all in all by themselves at the top of the mountain. Now the tier two um I think it’s pretty obvious. I think it’s the Houston Rockets. I think they with what they did getting Kevin Durant. I think obviously even at his age is still a a really big thing. Um to add his scoring, his shooting, um it’ll kind of stretch the defense because you obviously always have to worry about him. Um just his pedigree, you know, like he’s won big games. He’s been in big moments his entire career. I think losing a Jaylen Green, I know this is going to going to sound harsh, but I think it’s uh an addition by subtraction. I’m just not a big fan of him. He’s was super inconsistent. He would have these flashes, these highlight reel moments where he might make a top 10, you know, play for the night, but and he might score 40 points in a random game, but then he would follow it up with games of five points, three points, seven points, and especially in the playoffs, he was benched several times just because the coach didn’t trust him. So, um I think that is huge for the Rockets. And then you add the fact that um uh they added, uh Dorian Finny Smith, who um I’ve always loved. I thought he would have been a great addition uh a year or two ago to the Thunder. He’s just a great um 3 and D wing and uh I think that will help them as well. And then the second team that I think will be the biggest roadblock for the Thunder. Uh we know very very well that’s the Denver Nuggets. They pushed us to seven uh in a crazy fun series. Uh it is always fun because we won. It would have been awful if we were on the other side of things, but uh and the scary thing about them is I think it got a little bit better as well. So, um I’m not a big Michael Porter Jr. fan in just in general. I don’t He’s okay, but he doesn’t play great defense for his height. Um he should be more he should be more versatile on the defensive end. And uh I just like Kim Johnson a little bit better. I think having a new face in Denver, I think that’ll be great for uh Joker. And then I do like the addition of of Yonis Valenunis um because just having kind of a backup big especially throughout the course of the regular season I think is really big for that team as well. Maybe he doesn’t play very many minutes during the playoffs. He’ll probably get run off the court playing against the Thunder, but that’s still some added depth that I think is uh really important for Denver. And then they signed some guys like Bruce Brown. He’s been good for them obviously uh in the past. And then um Tim Hardway Jr., he’s hit or miss, but when you have a guy like uh Joker who can pass like crazy, he could he could really, you know, find guys like that. Um and if Tim Hardway can find his shot, you know, that could help a little bit. But, uh, yeah, I think it’s very clear that the Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets are in that second tier, um, for the Thunder. I think those could be phenomenal, either team. Hopefully, they’ll match up against each other before we have to play them in the Western Conference Finals. Um, and that would be really cool, too. Watching Dallas or watching Houston versus Denver would be really, really cool. The next tier I have, I’ve got the T- Wolves. They’re just always around. Edwards, he’s really good. Um, the team is always really solid. They did resign uh Nas Reed, which I think is good for them, but what I didn’t like and didn’t quite understand was uh them not making sure that they got uh Nikil Alexander Walker. When they played us, he was one of their better players and he was still improving. He’s a nice young wing. Played really good defense and hit shots. I thought it was kind of crazy that they let him go. I would have definitely made a way to keep him on the team. So, I do think that will be a net negative for sure for their team. And I think it does move them down a little bit in the pecking order because I think, like I said, the Thunder, Houston, and Denver will all for sure be better than them. And so that’ll be that’ll be interesting to see. I just I don’t fear the Timberwolves at all. But I do put them in that third tier kind of with uh another team I’m about to talk with talk about the Clippers and then I might throw in the Lakers in there just because Luca and LeBron, but them as a team as a whole, they don’t really scare me at all either. um unless they magically learn how to play defense. Um but yeah, I do want to talk about the Clippers cuz they’re really interesting. I think if there’s any chance that they stay healthy, they just have this super solid OG team of guys like James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, we know Bradley Bill, Brook Lopez, Chris Paul, like you just know all those guys know how to play. Now, I’m really really hoping that the majority of these guys can stay healthy cuz I want to see what that looks like. Is this a good enough talented team even in the the advanced years in in their uh careers to go far? Like, could their top potential be as good as a Denver or a Houston Rockets team? I tentally know, but I I would love to find out. Now, what will actually happen? I’m just assuming that those guys will get injured and, you know, they’ll kind of flame out, but uh it will be fun to watch. It’ll be fun to see what happens for sure. Um and then I again I touched on it a little bit. The Lakers, I think they they’re kind of part of that third tier. Uh, Luca can carry a team. I I I don’t want people to forget that he is probably a top three or four player in the league when he’s in shape. Uh, he carried that Mavs team to a championship. He he did have Kyrie, of course. Um, but he was really stinking good for uh the Mavs when he did that. So, um, that’ll be kind of interesting to see as well. But, uh, yeah, I’ll basically leave that at that. Um, I’ve got Thunder tier one, Houston, Denver. I probably go T-Wolves at this point. Then I’d start thinking about the Clippers and Lakers. Um, but yeah, I will uh I I’ll leave it at that. Let me know what you think, if you like that order, if you would change things up at all. Um, and as always, if you wouldn’t mind uh subscribing, liking one of my videos, and of course, I always love it when you uh leave a comment. So, with that, I will talk to you later. Thunder up.
The Rockets and the Nuggets are the biggest roadblocks to the Thunder out West. The third tier of teams don’t really scare me.
