Thunder lineup analysis and other commentary

[Crow]

Starters with Joe instead of Giddey plays 1 minute per game. Should try 10-20 and see what happens.

[Crow]

Thunder are a 3rd seed right now but only 2 games above being in the 8th seed.

[Crow]

7 of next 8 games are at home but pretty tough schedule. What will the W-L split be? After that, it is 22 H - 28 R.

[Crow]

11 man rotation right now.

2+ first round picks expected next summer.

Who doesn't play next season?

[Crow]

Conceivably, there could be reasonable deals for Santi Aldama or Gordon Hayward.

[Crow]

Thunder have surprised me... and just about everyone else.

But it is still a pretty long way to April.

[Crow]

First 3 FGM game of Micic's season.

Thunder destroyed on the boards tonight.

[Crow]

On Holmgren

https://x.com/bballstrategy/status/1743 ... 02969?s=20

https://x.com/bballstrategy/status/1744 ... 50687?s=20

On Jalen Williams and diverse skill role players:

https://x.com/bballstrategy/status/1740 ... 51522?s=20

[Crow]

Adding Hayward, Biyombo, possible a new 2way guy and maybe more.

Minutes allocation and lineup management will need new checks.


Biyombo is an adequate rebounder but not elite.

[Crow]

2 way guy added a few minutes ago is Flagler.

In G league he had far lower FTA rate but also far lower turnover rate. Intentional by player and / or organization or just what happened?Flagler in conference play / harder competition shot lower 3pt fg% in 3 of 4 years. Affected or random can't immediately say. A super lightweight as a rebounder. Time will tell if these are important clues or not.



Last roster question til summer is probably does Poku remain on roster or get waived? But Sarr isn't totally secure.

[Crow]

35 pt loss tonight.

Down to 4th seed at the moment.

[Crow]

Fwiw, the month to month trajectory of the defensive ratings of all 5 starters has been steadily down all season, with just a few 1 month pauses (and one tiny upstick).

[Crow]

The 7 game stretch before Sunday had worst W-L record of season at 3-4. 2 recent wins gets out of that. Plenty of time left for good and / or bad streaks to affect seeding.

[Crow]

Will 11+ man rotation whittle down to 9? Fine tune the 9 in coming weeks or just change to it in playoffs?

[Crow]

Hayward tenure seems more likely to disappoint than please or please more than expected imo.

Defense probably limits minutes or net effective minutes. Shots will have to given up by others to amount to much and I kinda doubt folks will or will be forced to.


What happens in next few months will determine if Thunder try to retain or have much chance to do so. I start out skeptical on both.