u/Stxtic1441

One of the things I was hoping Shai would sharpen is his off ball play and being more impactful there. Looks like he’s already making it an emphasis after seeing how teams like the Spurs guarded him.

The 3 point and off ball leap hopefully are coming from SGA.

Link to the quote: https://x.com/cooperjnba/status/2072099846975352947?s=46&t=TcmkHW3tQqA4SYBnSqRW8g

Note: This is NOT from the Paul George trade also. In 2023, The Thunder acted as a third-party facilitator to help the Clippers trade for James Harden. To make the deal work, the Clippers needed to send assets to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Thunder agreed to send one of their own 2026 first-round picks (the least favorable of their own, Houston's, or the Clippers') to the 76ers . [1, 2, 3]

The Compensation: In return for facilitating this transaction and helping them clear the hurdle to get Harden, the Clippers gave OKC an unprotected 2027 first-round pick swap.

With the clippers trading Kawhi today, they are going to be one of the bottom teams in the west this year.

This might be another stroke of genius by the man himself.

It might be a controversial take but I think he will be end up being more impactful than either Joe and Wiggins for us (especially in a playoff setting). He essentially combines both of their skill sets while having a real playmaking skill set on top.

For one he is a lights out shooter who can play on or off the ball. Can shoot pull up 3’s, is a great pick and roll ball handler with super high feel player for the game, be a reliable ball handler and playmaker all really from day 1.

An underrated part of his game is he was a *great* rim finisher on one of the slowest offenses in college basketball. He was near a 70% FG at the rim while mostly being self created and unassisted.

It’s just a perfect fit and brings more than both Joe and Wiggins with his shooting, rim finishing, and ball handling and playmaking.

The biggest question mark is probably his defense but he’s an underrated team defender and I think will buy into defense even if he’s not the greatest athlete (similar to McCain). He was basically asked to be his whole teams offense at Iowa and rarely ever came out of the game so it will be a much different ask here in OKC where he can focus more on that end without the offensive burden he had to carry.

TLDR: While it sucks losing fan favorite guys like Joe and Wiggins to the second apron, OKC is more than positioned to absorb their roles and in fact upgrade from them in the near future with this kid.

Adding Mara who’s a phenomenal big man passer to a room that already will feature iHart (assuming we resign him) and JWill is something no team can say they’ve had.

Mara is gonna have a lot of mentors in his time to enhance that skill even more. Hoping he picks up the Hart through the legs passing and hand offs.

Not only would emulating his game help him a bunch instead of trying to be KD, he needs his mental makeup. If you ever watched prime KG, he was a fierce ruthless competitor mentally and took shit from nobody.

Chet needs to have a KG like mid range/face up game to rely on vs Spurs when he can’t get to the rim.

Permanent career smearing kind of performance nobody will forget in his career. Chet flatly got exposed and let his team down, no other way to put it.

Didn’t fight back at all while Spurs walked all over him punking him at every turn.

Not much needs to be said. Chet needs to get in the gym and work maniacally getting stronger and just flatly better offensively.

18 combined points, 4-6 from 3 in 25 minutes. He pretty much took the Joe/Wiggins small allocation of minutes and was primarily matched up on Keldon.

I’ve been hoping he played more this series and he did a fantastic job matching Keldon Johnson’s physicality on defense and on the glass.

He hit some big 3’s yesterday and was a +7 in his 8 minutes. Hoping he continues matching Keldon on defense and hitting his shots.

He’s been quietly a very solid contributor and a good adjustment from Mark to turn to.

First Thunder game in OKC ever was last year vs Denver game 7. TTFU!!

Caruso really showing he doesn’t give a damn about the regular season. 😂

We’ve already seen guys like McCain, Cason, Caruso, JWill take their games to another level since the playoffs started and win games.

With 2/3 of our healthy primary ball handlers hurt now it’s gonna take a collective effort to be able to make up the difference.

Been a big difference from past years to now.

Fast forward to today and he is winning games off the bench for the defending champs in one of the most hyped western conference finals ever.

McCain is just 6/22 from 3 this series, but has had a MASSIVE impact on both ends of the series.

From tough mid range bump jumpers, to contact layups over Wemby, to making hustle plays on defense.

He is simply a hooper, does everything you need out there.

Shai said it earlier that McCain is not just a shooter he flat out is a scorer.

Jared McCain: 24 points (Thunder career high) on 55% TS, tied for a team high +28 today

Alex Caruso: 15 points, 3 stocks, 78% TS, tied for team high +28 today

Jaylin Williams: 18 points, 5/6 from 3, +22 today.

When you don’t have 2 of your big 4, you get a big 3 off the bench like tonight!