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Hail to the amazing Oklahoma City Thunder tank job

Under the radar, the Thunder have lost 14 straight games with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Al Horford out.

Apr 27

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Fighting Forms, Franz Marc

Lottery reform and the new play-in games truly have changed the calculus for tanking in the NBA, and in my opinion that’s to the benefit of fans. For neutrals and partisans alike, stakes just add more excitement to the nightly slate of NBA games. And while there were morbid stakes in the all-encompassing tank wars of years past, rooting against players you like — especially young players — is toxic. Unless, of course, you pull together a grand production as Sixers fans did during The Process and create opponents out of critics while getting buy-in from at least one big personality amid the tankers. Not every market has fans like those in Philadelphia, of course.

Coming into the season, there was one team clearly still interested in losing as much as possible this season: the Oklahoma City Thunder, who traded Chris Paul for picks, Kelly Oubre, Ricky Rubio and spare parts; traded Oubre for picks; traded Rubio to move up in the draft to pick 19-year-old hypebeast Aleksej Pokusevski; traded Danny Green for picks and also Al Horford; traded Steven Adams for a pick and George Hill (who was later traded for a couple of second-round picks).

While other young teams either sought pieces to uplift their developing players or retooled around young superstars while hedging bets, the Thunder went all-in on Process-style pick-hoarding, really keeping only one high-quality player: 22-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who almost messed around and made the All-Star team.

In fact, SGA was so good early this season that OKC was kind-of alright. They certainly were not as bad as most teams who do this sort of rebuild … like the Sam Presti Sonics/Thunder of the late 2000s. At the midpoint of the Thunder’s season, OKC was 15-21: tied for No. 11 in the West, tied for the eighth worst record in the league.

Gilgeous-Alexander played five of OKC’s next seven games in the two weeks after the All-Star Game. He has not played since and, after recent injury updates, I’d been surprised if he suited up again this season. The Thunder report he has a foot injury.

Meanwhile, the Thunder put 34-year-old Horford on ice about a week after SGA left the lineup, announcing that they wanted to give their young players more opportunities. This is akin to saying that you’re benching grilled cheese sandwiches for a couple months to focus on eating more pancakes when you’ve been eating pancakes for two meals a day all year already. OKC was playing the hell out of its young players with Horford in the lineup off and on. Now it’s just pancakes all day every day.

Even Luguentz Dort, part-time hero in the 2019-20 bubble playoffs, is sitting here and there with nicks and bumps. This is not to cast aspersions on the OKC medical team, but we’ve seen this play before. Teams know how to be extra extra careful to prevent injuries and victories simultaneously. Maybe SGA’s foot is really hurt. Maybe Lu Dort is really banged up. But pardon my suspicion while Theo Maledon, Isaiah Roby, Darius Bazley and Ty Jerome roll the ball out.

The result of all this bad/good luck and/or roster chicanery: the Thunder have quietly lost 14 straight games and 17 of 19. OKC now has the fifth worst record in the NBA with a real shot at getting to the third worst. Having the third worst record is key: the worst three teams have equal odds of getting a top-3 pick and No. 1 overall. At the fourth worst record and beyond, your odds begin to drop. So if you’re in the market for a Cade Cunningham and you’ve been a little too competent to start the season, you need to aim for that third worst record. OKC is 20-41; they need to slide under two of 19-43 Detroit, 18-43 Orlando and 18-44 Minnesota to get there.

By the way, Detroit and Minnesota beat playoff teams on Monday. OKC started a lineup with two 19-year-olds, a 20-year-old, a 21-year-old and a Kenrich Williams and got drilled by 31.

I want to be clear that none of this should be read as criticism. This is art. In an era where Sam Hinkie is considered a martyr (and as the team he began to build competes for a championship, for what it’s worth), in an era where tanking has become passé, one of the original tank captains, the guy who landed No. 2 (Durant), No. 4 (Westbrook) and No. 3 (Harden) in consecutive drafts after trading away Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, is building a monument to the tank. Sam Presti, I salute you. Let’s all applaud a master of the form. He shouldn’t have to fly under the radar for his efforts this time around.

Scores

Spoiler Night in the NBA!

Hawks 86, Pistons 100 — Road game on no rest without Trae Young against a young team that plays hard, it’s going to happen.

Lakers 114, Magic 103 — Anthony Davis is starting to get his legs back, Dennis Schroder is keeping L.A. afloat.

Thunder 90, Sixers 121

Spurs 146, Wizards 143 — Instant classic duel as the warm Spurs end the hot Wizards’ streak in overtime. Look at DeMar DeRozan helping the Raptors in the standings! This is a wild statistic.

Jeff McDonald @JMcDonald_SAEN

Five players in tonight's game topped 20 points without any of them making a 3-pointer: Beal (45), DeRozan (37), Murray (25), Westbrook (22), K Johnson (21). My last name ain't Elias, but it has to have been years since that's happened in the NBA.

Suns 118, Knicks 110 — Tremendously clean game here. Devin Booker got hot early, Derrick Rose had a good game, both teams hit some wild shots in the fourth and Chris Paul slammed the door shut on this brutal road trip. I really enjoy these teams and look forward to seeing them face each other in the NBA Finals.

Cavaliers 96, Raptors 112 — Here’s a viral clip that appears to show Kevin Love frustrated with his teammates.

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

What is Kevin Love doing 😅

Here’s some context that softens it considerably, though obviously it’s still something you don’t want to see your vet leader do. Love apologized to his teammates.

Bulls 110, Heat 102 — If you’re inclined to give up on the Heat turning it on before the playoffs, a good reason would be that it doesn’t appear anyone else is going to consistently join Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler in playing like they did in their Finals run.

Jazz 104, Timberwolves 105 — Minnesota swept Utah this season. Incredible! D’Angelo Russell has quietly been really good off the bench for the Wolves of late. Will he play that role next season, too? DLo’s game-winner will not be appearing on Rudy Gobert’s DPOY highlight reel.

NBA @NBA

D-Lo answers with 4.2 remaining and the @Timberwolves get a stop to hang on in Minnesota!

Clippers 103, Pelicans 120 — New Orleans just has the Clippers’ number, for whatever reason. The Pels hit more than half of their threes. L.A. is now two games out of No. 2 and three games out of No. 1, and just one game ahead of No. 4.

Grizzlies 96, Nuggets 120 — I did not realize Nikola Jokic was working on a 43-game streak with 10-5-5 until he almost lost it on assists in this game.

Mavericks 106, Kings 113 — After sweeping a two-game set with the Lakers to climb out of the play-in and close in on the No. 5 seed, the Mavericks lose to a Kings team without De’Aaron Fox. This team must be infuriating to root for.

League Pass Cupdate

The Hawks had a schedule loss here exacerbated by Brandon Goodwin having to be rolled off the court in a wheelchair with an ankle injury, and it’s going to basically knock them out of League Pass Cup contention. One more win by either the Spurs or Knicks fully eliminates Atlanta from contention; the best the Hawks can do now is tie New York for the title.

Schedule

A weird Tuesday, even by Tuesday standards. All times Eastern.

Thunder at Celtics, 7
Bucks at Hornets, 7, NBA TV
Blazers at Pacers, 7
Nets at Raptors, 7:30
Timberwolves at Rockets, 9
Mavericks at Warriors, 9:30, TNT

Links

TIME named the NBA one of the 100 most influential companies and got a long interview with Adam Silver out of it. Good questions and interesting responses, especially on business relationships with the Chinese government and the perception of a more injury-filled season.

The NBA is reportedly suffering a shortage of referees due to COVID-19 protocols. Speaking of refs, here’s a piece on how the NBA’s five full-time female officials are pushing for progress.

On Kyrie Irving’s conversion to Islam.

Jackson Frank on Matisse Thybulle’s elite defense and what’s next in his development.

Kelly Dwyer on the Bulls’ win. ($)

Howard Beck on the end of the tanking era amid lottery reform and the play-in tournament.

Kevin O’Connor with some power rankings with less than a month left in the regular season.

And finally: this is not a surprise to longtime readers, but I don’t know that there’s an NBA player from this generation I respect more than Russell Westbrook.