Latest / Bring The Thunder Podcast / OKC Has a NEW #2… But Who Is It?! 🤯 Chet vs J-Dub Debate
Transcript
- 0:03You're listening to the Bring the Thunder Podcast, a podcast
- 0:07by fans, for fans. Yes, you are.
- 0:11Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode from the Bring
- 0:14the Thunder podcast. We got myself, Gabe and we have
- 0:17Joe today and we have a really unique idea here for a video for
- 0:21you guys and that's last week we kind of talked about this idea
- 0:24of what does Hartenstein mean to the Thunder team?
- 0:26What can they do with him? What can they do without him?
- 0:28What happens if we lose him? We want to do another kind of
- 0:30hypothetical scenario and that's is it time to think about J Dub
- 0:33potentially having a new role on the team, essentially stepping
- 0:37down into that third option role and becoming more of a do it all
- 0:41player. We'll get into more of that as
- 0:43we go with this episode. But with that comes as well the
- 0:45discussion about Chet Holmgren. Does he step up to the second
- 0:48option role? We will talk about all of that
- 0:50in this episode. So Joe, let's get right into
- 0:52this. What are your thoughts?
- 0:53Let's at least start on just J Dub's play since returning and
- 0:56what our thoughts are revolving around this whole concept.
- 0:59Yeah. So it's an interesting since
- 1:01returning he's been absolutely fantastic, but in kind of a
- 1:04different way. Last year we knew J Dub to be a
- 1:07really good defender and actually a really good scorer in
- 1:10the play offs as well, even with the wrist.
- 1:12Like he had his bad games, but the 40 points in the finals is
- 1:15one example. Big game on the road in
- 1:17Minnesota. So J Dub like was our second
- 1:21best scorer. Now he's come back, he's
- 1:24averaging, I don't know the exact number since return, but
- 1:26he's must be averaging a little over 60, maybe 17 points pretty
- 1:30efficiently. But he's doing a bit of
- 1:31everything. His play making has been off the
- 1:33charts. Like I just swear you look up
- 1:35every game, it's 5 plus assists. His rebounding is great.
- 1:38Defense has been fantastic, turning, making the other team
- 1:42fortune turnover, sorry, converting that into points.
- 1:45So that's like where J Dub is. And his athleticism also has
- 1:48been insane. We talked about this a little
- 1:50before. I kind of compare it to an Aaron
- 1:54Gordon on the steroids. Like I think he's better
- 1:57everywhere than Aaron Gordon, a little smaller, but he's better
- 2:00defensively. He's more athletic, which is
- 2:03like not in his in his own way. Like I don't think he could out
- 2:07jump Aaron Gordon. Like Aaron Gordon's insane, but
- 2:10like fast breaks really fast, really good defense, aggressive
- 2:16offensively, he does everything. So I, I don't know if I could
- 2:22call him the third option, but the question to me is like, is
- 2:26it time for him to be the third option offensively?
- 2:29Which definitely could be yes. What and what we've seen from
- 2:31Chet recently has been unbelievable. 30 points last
- 2:35night against the Clippers looked really good. 1521, he's
- 2:38been on a really good streak in the Garden.
- 2:40He had like 7 threes and he was the second option.
- 2:43JW didn't play that night. He's been really good
- 2:45offensively. And another question would be
- 2:47like, can Chet actually become that second option scoring wise?
- 2:51And you know, we could confidently rely on him in the
- 2:53playoffs. Not sure.
- 2:56But I think in my opinion right now for OKC, I think their best
- 3:00option is SGA. Then chat offensively and let J
- 3:05dub do everything else for you. Let him do you know, be the best
- 3:09on defense forcing turnovers. Let him run the fast breaks, get
- 3:13him in the pick and roll. He's an outstanding playmaker.
- 3:15Like I mentioned before like not saying like his offense is bad
- 3:19scoring wise, I think Chet could step up in the second role and J
- 3:23Dub could just be that Swiss army knife utility type of
- 3:26player which is still an All Star level player, just not as
- 3:29many points as Chet. That's what I'm trying to get
- 3:31at. Absolutely.
- 3:32I mean, I think one thing that we think about when we talk
- 3:34about J Dub is he, he's got that killer mentality.
- 3:37You know, he really puts his head down, drives to the hoop.
- 3:39He's always going up. Sometimes we might think it's a
- 3:41questionable shot, but we know J Dub, he he hits some ridiculous,
- 3:45he'll hit hook shots, he'll hit running offhand floaters, just
- 3:49ridiculous stuff. And that's just kind of who J
- 3:51Dub is. But what I look at when I'm
- 3:52looking at his stats and you know, this is his fourth year in
- 3:55the league. Three of the four years, if
- 3:57you're averaging up, he's averaged 5 assists.
- 3:59And and that's not something I just ignore.
- 4:01Like you talk earlier, Joe, that like every time you look, he's
- 4:03over 5 assists most nights he is.
- 4:06I mean, that's that's something to not under look because he's
- 4:09on a team where he's been essentially put as the second
- 4:11option ever since we got him. And for your second option, who
- 4:14is there to be primarily a good scorer and play good defense is
- 4:18averaging 5 assists on the side that needs to be looked at.
- 4:21Because one thing we always talk about and Joe, I know you and I
- 4:23especially point on this all the time is J Dub is phenomenal in
- 4:28the pick and roll with Ali. Oops.
- 4:29And we always talk about how he reads it.
- 4:31He sees it, but let's take a step back and let's look at it
- 4:34even further. Not like why is he great at
- 4:36alley oops? It's because he's got the
- 4:37vision, he's got the IQ, he's an incredible playmaker.
- 4:40It's not just alley oops. It's not just pick and roll with
- 4:42Chet. He sees it and someone else like
- 4:44that is AJ Mitchell. But I see J Dub doing it just as
- 4:47much, if not more. And you look at that and you see
- 4:49a guy his size who's able to, I mean, having a guy who's your
- 4:53second option in quotes, who's 6 foot five, 215 lbs going out
- 4:58and, and play making as if he's a guard while not having to be a
- 5:01guy who's scoring. And you mentioned he has been
- 5:03scoring efficiently on the season.
- 5:04Right now he's averaging 17 points and he's been doing it
- 5:07efficiently. The three balls not quite fall
- 5:09in the way that it used to, but it, it'll get around to it.
- 5:11But to be able to score efficiently just when we need
- 5:15it, just when points need to come and when he can find his,
- 5:17his game, that's one thing. But on the side this season,
- 5:20averaging if you if you're actually averaging up, averaging
- 5:226 assists and five rebounds, 17, six and five is that is a do it
- 5:27all. That is someone who you
- 5:28mentioned Aaron Gordon on steroids in the sense of and
- 5:31Aaron Gordon is someone who personally Joe, I respect Aaron
- 5:34Gordon with every fiber of my being.
- 5:35Like, yeah, he kills OK C so he. Kills everyone.
- 5:38Like I just think he's a phenomenal player.
- 5:40He's the kind of guy everyone should want on on your team.
- 5:43He hustles for everything on both ends of the ball.
- 5:45He's he can light you up from 3 some nights and then he's
- 5:49incredibly athletic, he's a great defender, all that good
- 5:50stuff. Well, yeah, they had him
- 5:51guarding Wimby the other night too.
- 5:53So and it was incredibly effective.
- 5:54So J Nub is effectively that same thing, but add way more of
- 5:58a play making mentality, add a younger player, add a player
- 6:01who, like you mentioned, is he's his quick first step is more
- 6:04effective, his lateral quickness, everything in between
- 6:07is it's more effective than Aaron Gordon because ultimately
- 6:09he he's aging. He's not super young anymore.
- 6:11And like you said, no, I'm not saying Jadob can can out jump
- 6:14Aaron Gordon. I'm not going to make it or like
- 6:16that. Aaron Gordon is one of the most
- 6:18impressive dunkers we've seen in a long time.
- 6:20But Jadob is an incredibly athletic player.
- 6:22Like that's never been a question I think of I don't
- 6:26remember exactly which game it was.
- 6:27I think it might have been the first Lakers game, maybe I don't
- 6:29remember, but where where Jadob went the full court and he was
- 6:31dribbling the ball in between everybody.
- 6:32It might have been the Knicks game, actually.
- 6:34No, that was the that was the next game at home.
- 6:37Yes, dribbled through everybody, got down the court in four
- 6:40seconds and reminded me so much of the Russell Westbrook clip
- 6:42when he. Yeah, it's having a guy like
- 6:45Jadub cannot be underestimated because it.
- 6:48It's easy to say that, well, yeah, it's your second option.
- 6:50You know, he's averaging 17 points.
- 6:51That makes sense. But what happens when you look
- 6:53at a team like, OK, C and you realize maybe this guy isn't our
- 6:56second option. Maybe he's our third option, our
- 6:57secret weapon. And that's not because he's not
- 6:59good enough. That's not because it's not
- 7:01working, but that's because you have a team that's capable of
- 7:04essentially saying some nights Chet is going to be our second
- 7:07option. And we're good with that because
- 7:09J Dub can fit into literally any role he can play, make when
- 7:12Chet's on the bench, he can rebound when we need someone to
- 7:14help Chet, he can lock up your one through 5 as we've literally
- 7:18seen him play center before. And and on the vice versa of
- 7:21that, he has nights where he can, I mean, we know he's a good
- 7:24scorer. He has nights where he can go
- 7:25get 20, he can go get his own. So having a guy like that, like
- 7:28we talked about and we'll get into this more, but is this idea
- 7:31of chat becoming the two and dub becoming the three?
- 7:34I see it as chat and dub being the the 2A2B where one night
- 7:39someone's just gonna step up. Like you're never gonna have a
- 7:41solid. It's not gonna be like a team
- 7:43where it's not gonna be like the the bowls where you have Jordan,
- 7:46then you have Pippin, then you have Rob.
- 7:48It's not gonna be that. It's gonna be Jordan and then
- 7:50two Pippins, and it's gonna be who's gonna step up which night
- 7:53and the nights where both of them are on and the entire team
- 7:56is on. There's not a single team in the
- 7:57entire NBA that's going to beat us.
- 7:59Right. The one thing that Mark
- 8:00Dagnall's going to have to figure out for this playoffs
- 8:03alone and into the future, but for really this playoffs,
- 8:05because that's where we're at. It's nice when, yeah, you have
- 8:09two A2B, but in in clutch moments, you're going to have to
- 8:13choose which guy is a #2 And Jalen Williams was that number
- 8:16two last year. Is he ready for that this year
- 8:20coming off all these injuries, the wrist surgeries, the wrist
- 8:23problems throughout the season than the two hamstring injuries?
- 8:26I mean Chet's been around all year.
- 8:28Last year Chet had the same. It was similar to J Dub.
- 8:30He missed 70% of the season last year comes in the playoffs and
- 8:33this is relegated to the third option.
- 8:36And I don't really have that answer.
- 8:38I will say you mentioned it. For J Dub to be averaging like 5
- 8:43assists per game with the efficiency with the 15 plus
- 8:47points every night is insane because SGASGA has that ball a
- 8:51lot. And for Jada to be still
- 8:54grabbing 5 assists and his playmaking to be like that.
- 8:56It's just been it's at a different element to to this OK
- 8:59C team. I think in the playoffs game,
- 9:02it's going to come down to match up.
- 9:04Like if we match up with the Clippers round one, Chet's the
- 9:09second option because he's going to dominate them.
- 9:11He just dropped 30 on them effortlessly.
- 9:14There's no one on that team who could stop him.
- 9:16We go over to San Antonio, probably is going to have to be
- 9:21J Dub. You want to attack the matchups,
- 9:23but OK, CS in a really good spot because both of those guys are
- 9:25easily capable of being the second option on a winning team
- 9:28clearly. And it gives us just more
- 9:32variants, more opportunity to attack the weak spot on
- 9:34defenses. And I've been someone who is
- 9:36like, you know, full heartedly defended Jada.
- 9:39I've been doing it ever since we started this podcast.
- 9:41I defend him in the play offs last year.
- 9:43I've always been defending him. And I'm not by any means saying
- 9:45that we should bump him down to the third option.
- 9:48That's not what this means. This is saying we have a team
- 9:50that functions so well that that moves and every every piece
- 9:54comes together perfectly. Some nights where we have the
- 9:57luxury of being able to essentially like weird, really
- 10:01weird analogy here. I, I, I kind of think of it as
- 10:03like a horse drawn carriage. We have a bunch of horses,
- 10:05right? And Shay is always gonna be the
- 10:06leader. He's always gonna be the one up
- 10:07front, but you have two horses in the front and, and having the
- 10:10ability to swap out who that second horse is on a given
- 10:13night, it is insane. I mean, having the ability to
- 10:16have Chet in a, in a game like that where you can.
- 10:18And the thing with Chet is you can tell when he's feeling
- 10:20confident. You can just see it in the way
- 10:22he plays. You can see it in the shots he
- 10:24starts taking. And that's something that when
- 10:26you when it's on, give him the damn ball like he is going to be
- 10:29the second option. Nothing's gonna change it.
- 10:31You saw it with the warriors game last year.
- 10:33You saw it with the Knicks game. You saw it with blast just the
- 10:36other night. It it's just who Chet can be.
- 10:38And that's the confidence that we know Chet has every single
- 10:40game, whether or not he goes in or not.
- 10:42He's he's that man is built different with confidence.
- 10:45But there's games like that, the 40 bomb in the play offs where J
- 10:49Dub is just doing everything right.
- 10:51And if you look at the the tape as well for that, and if you
- 10:53listen to J Dub talk about it, he wasn't like completely on
- 10:57fire hitting all the shots. He was cutting for half of his
- 11:00points. But it was so intelligently, it
- 11:02was so well done. It was cutting at the right
- 11:04moments. It was breaking down the
- 11:06defense. And then once he gets rolling
- 11:08and he's realizing like my points are shooting up, the
- 11:10confidence rolls in. And then he and then he shoots
- 11:12the fade, the spin around, fade away.
- 11:15That was just nasty. And you see him freaking out
- 11:17when he hits that. So having that, that dual
- 11:19wielded sword is just ridiculous.
- 11:21Joe Yeah. Absolutely.
- 11:23And being the nerd I am, I'm doing a lot of like old film
- 11:26studies of like 2014, 2013. OK C&J Dub reminds me, he
- 11:32mentioned it like a lot of a young Russell Westbrook, maybe
- 11:35even more polished than where Westbrook was early in their
- 11:38careers. Like Westbrook was so raw.
- 11:40J Dub's kind of like established already.
- 11:42He's still super young and going to grow.
- 11:43But he reminds me like a lot like that.
- 11:47And I think what went wrong with OK C and in those early years,
- 11:52and you know, the 12/13/14 is when they lost Harden, they
- 11:57didn't have really 1/3 option. They had Reggie Jackson who
- 11:59played really well in a few Memphis series.
- 12:01He stepped up, but he wasn't consistent.
- 12:04They had Surge, but if we're comparing Chet and Surge, it's
- 12:06night and day. Like they're similar in that
- 12:09they're the four and they both blocked shots and they both have
- 12:11mid range game maybe 3. But Chet's way more advanced
- 12:14offensively than Surge was especially early there as well.
- 12:18So the advantage to this OK CS team is they have the three
- 12:22options like KDSGAI compared J dub to Russ and then you can do
- 12:26surge and Chet. But once they lost Harden it
- 12:35this OKC team has way more options.
- 12:37That's all I'm going to say. They have a better bench.
- 12:39They have the three options. OKC didn't have the three after
- 12:42harden left. So OKC looks like really prime
- 12:46now the the comparison I was making with J dub and Russ.
- 12:50I think having Chet Holmgren and like AJ Mitchell and playmakers
- 12:55like guard playmakers takes a lot of stress off of J dub.
- 12:58So he doesn't have to be that guy every night.
- 13:01And I think that's what OKC needed.
- 13:03I think, you know, the the 20 tens OKC and I think that's what
- 13:06they needed with Westbrook. If they were able to keep
- 13:09Harden, they could have run harden that point guard a lot.
- 13:11And Russ was really good at the 2 early in his career.
- 13:14People thought he was a 2 and then he completely transformed
- 13:17into a triple double machine. But like you mentioned, in the
- 13:2040 point game, J Dub barely had the ball.
- 13:23Like he was cutting backdoor cuts, alley oops, quick two
- 13:27dribble pull ups. Like that was the whole 40
- 13:29points. It was nothing flashy until the
- 13:31end where he made like a crazy fade away but that was it.
- 13:34That was like his flashiest shot of the night.
- 13:37So Ferroque should have had like J Dub off off ball with SGA on
- 13:43ball and then Chad as well and then everyone else.
- 13:46It's going to be really hard to beat him.
- 13:48And, and one last thing, I just want to compare these two teams
- 13:50because I'm such a fanatic. So I, I was, I was watching that
- 13:562014 first round series. I believe against the Grizzlies.
- 14:01We were the 2, they were the seven and KD was on ball a lot
- 14:07too. But the difference is SG as on
- 14:10ball was 0 turnovers and KD is was he had to do a lot for the
- 14:15team and he wasn't as polished as with the ball in his hands.
- 14:18This team is just night and day better than them.
- 14:21And I think that team was one player away from winning a
- 14:24championship in the 20 tens. I think this team has everything
- 14:27they need and I think they're primed to win multiple.
- 14:30I think they're going to win it this year.
- 14:32I think by the end, you know, they're all all their contracts.
- 14:35I'm not saying 3 peat, 4 peat, I'm not saying that, but they
- 14:38they should be able to get to like close to 3/3 championships
- 14:42around, which is insane to think about.
- 14:43It's crazy how I can compare those two teams and it's very
- 14:46similar. But yeah, like the J Dub and
- 14:48Russ thing is so spot on for me. The energy, the play style, it's
- 14:54all similar. And then but this OKC team is
- 14:57able to have J Dub as even 1/3 option or a second, you know, So
- 15:00it's like, it's really nice. I think the misconception
- 15:04becomes this idea of is if J dub drops down to that third option,
- 15:08does that mean less volume? Does that mean less points?
- 15:10Does that mean less efficiency? It it doesn't because think
- 15:13about what he's this is kind of how we started off this episode.
- 15:15I'm gonna go back to it again. It's the other things that he's
- 15:18bringing. He doesn't need to average 20
- 15:20points because he's averaging 6 assists.
- 15:22He's averaging 5 rebounds. He's never in his career with
- 15:25with us averaged less than 1.1 steals.
- 15:27Not once he's been over that one steal mark every single season
- 15:31he's played with us. Like you can be concerned sure,
- 15:34if if his points drops to to 12 or or even lower than that, it's
- 15:39not even remotely looking like it's going to even when he is in
- 15:42that third option and he still isn't healthy like 100% he still
- 15:46gets his points, He still gets the efficiency.
- 15:48But it's outside of that it it's not needing him to do what he
- 15:50did last year where he was averaging 22 points in the
- 15:53regular season. We don't need that.
- 15:54He can average 7A176 in in five. It is more efficient than a than
- 16:01a 21 and 3, for example. And last year I know he was
- 16:04averaging 21, five and five and that was fantastic.
- 16:06But that's without Chet as well. You know, Chet's not not having
- 16:09him is going to affect it greatly.
- 16:10But Dub coming in and averaging a 17 points, 6 assists, 5
- 16:14rebounds, that is as valuable as it gets.
- 16:17That is worth the contract. That is worth everything because
- 16:20it it, it's a puzzle piece. He's fitting perfectly.
- 16:23But The thing is, the puzzle changes every single night.
- 16:25And he can change as a piece to fit literally whatever puzzle we
- 16:29need. That's what you needed.
- 16:30Need a guy like that on your team.
- 16:31And that's why the Nuggets are successful.
- 16:33Aaron Gordon is their puzzle piece.
- 16:35He is the missing link. And that's what JW is becoming.
- 16:38And like I said, that means maybe one nights he is, maybe
- 16:41some nights he will be our second option and he will drop.
- 16:4330 works option even like in the playoffs like.
- 16:46Oh, he can, he can step up and do that 100% other nights.
- 16:49Maybe he's not even our top 4 scorer.
- 16:51Maybe AJ, AJ Mitchell outscores him.
- 16:54He ends up at 4th. But it it doesn't matter because
- 16:56odds are he's gonna have 6, he's gonna have 8 assists, he's gonna
- 16:59have 7 rebounds. He's he's gonna have two steals.
- 17:02He's gonna have a block. And and it's the energy you talk
- 17:05about Joe, when you compare him to Russ, like it's the energy
- 17:08and he's got so much energy in it.
- 17:10It's electric. It bounces across every single
- 17:12player out there. So I'm going to take a very
- 17:15efficient 17, six and five and one steal per game on on a fish
- 17:20and shooting any day of the week.
- 17:22And and if that's his new normal, if that's what he
- 17:24stepped into now, and because at one point it was talks about his
- 17:28ceiling is Kawhi Leonard, he's going to be the next Kawhi.
- 17:30And I liked that. I liked that comparison.
- 17:33And I do think he was on the right trajectory to do that.
- 17:36This injury sucked. There's no other way to put the
- 17:38injury sucked. It hurt him, it hurt his
- 17:40confidence. I think it's put him back.
- 17:42But like I said, if a new normal for him is essentially becoming
- 17:46a Scottie Pippen, a do it all sidekick, a guy who's going to
- 17:49come in and just get you what you need, give me that.
- 17:52Give me that over a Kawhi Leonard, who?
- 17:54Don't get me wrong, Kawhi's had a phenomenal career, but it if
- 17:58winning more rings and being a more successful franchise means
- 18:01J Dub needs to become this transitional piece that does
- 18:04whatever we need, he's going to do it.
- 18:06And he's going to do it really, really damn well.
- 18:09The really good teams have had have had a guy to to relegate
- 18:12into that situation differently, like Draymond Green, when they
- 18:17got KD, he stopped shooting the ball.
- 18:19Now we need J Dub to score, right?
- 18:22So, but like, you know what I'm saying?
- 18:23Like Draymond completely went from if they win that game seven
- 18:27against Cleveland, I think Draymond's final is MVP, but
- 18:30then the next year he steps back and he he's not shooting.
- 18:33It's all KD, Steph, Clay. But he knew that's that's how
- 18:36they were going to win. And without Draymond, I mean,
- 18:39who knows where that team ends up.
- 18:41So J Dub's like he's perfect. I think he's Russell Westbrook,
- 18:46just bigger and just in a bit of a different situation.
- 18:48But it's so similar. It's so similar to me.
- 18:52But that's all I have. I guess the last question here,
- 18:54Gabe, would just be like playoffs, Game 7, two minutes
- 18:59left. Who's your second option right
- 19:01now offensively? And I'm talking about bucket,
- 19:05not we need an assist, we need a playmaker.
- 19:07Like I'm talking about put it in the basket.
- 19:09Joe, the aliens got the death beam pointed at Earth.
- 19:16I just, it's in, it's in my head, it's in my heart.
- 19:20I'm taking Jalen Williams, but I understand if you take Chet.
- 19:26I understand. But ultimately, I do think J
- 19:30Dubs got a little more of the confidence in that scenario.
- 19:32I think Chet Holmgren feels like he needs to be on one to to take
- 19:37over like that. Whereas J Dub, I really think
- 19:40he, while I mentioned he's been set back with his injury, I
- 19:43think he's always got the confidence of if I need a
- 19:45bucket, I'm going to go get a bucket.
- 19:47And he might not always get it. He's not going to be as
- 19:48efficient as Shay, which hell no one is.
- 19:51But I do believe that that Dub is going to be a more efficient
- 19:56we're we're winning the game right now kind of player of the
- 19:58channel ultimately, but I'd love to hear you.
- 20:01Yeah, I, I agree with you right now, I think Chet's making
- 20:03strides to become that player, which is really dangerous, which
- 20:05is why we're having this conversation right now, which is
- 20:09really exciting. It just right now it's J Dub
- 20:13from a few games this year. You could see Chet has it in
- 20:15them. That Knicks game last night, all
- 20:18the all the 30 point games he had this year, I think he had
- 20:20like 4, but he has it in them. It's just got to be more
- 20:24confident. And honestly that comes with
- 20:26being that second scoring option.
- 20:28So I'm curious to see where it goes, but I will say with all
- 20:32that being said, I'm 10 times more confident in this team that
- 20:36I was last year's team and last year's team on the phone.
- 20:38So. Yeah, we, we talked about that a
- 20:40lot on the live the other night. Like I, I, it's hard.
- 20:43It's crazy to say that because we felt so we felt so damn good.
- 20:48We felt so powerful last year. Like I was getting a little, I
- 20:51was getting a little power hungry last year.
- 20:53I was like, this team is unstoppable.
- 20:55And now we're sitting right now and I'm like, dude, the matchups
- 20:58are nice or healthy, Things are clicking.
- 21:01Our team is better. We have shooters, we have
- 21:03playmakers, J Dubs looking like dog.
- 21:06It it's it's still. So our our All Stars are still
- 21:10so young. That's what I'm saying.
- 21:12Like Westbrook was making All Star teams, but he didn't become
- 21:1728 and 10 for a little while in his OKC career.
- 21:21So it's it's getting there like 2016, the year that we lost to
- 21:25Golden State in that playoffs, that's when Russ really became
- 21:28like, to me, like decisive. Yeah, that guy, he was always
- 21:35electric. But I think our guys are going
- 21:37to get to that point too. It's going to get really, really
- 21:40fun. And I think they have a good,
- 21:42good opportunity this year to go back-to-back.
- 21:44But Gabe, that's it for me. I think this was a a great
- 21:47topic. And it's only going to be it's
- 21:49just going to continue to become a better topic as the season
- 21:51goes on. Because like you mentioned, Joe
- 21:54a a couple months back, I, I think we all agreed maybe except
- 21:57for Savvier, but I think most of us agreed that J dub is like J
- 22:01dub has the potential to be locked in as our second option
- 22:05unless Chet steps it up, unless Chet becomes confident, unless
- 22:08he moves up a notch. And right now Joe, he's fighting
- 22:12for it, he's fighting hard for it.
- 22:14And that's all I want to see. Like I've mentioned before, I'll
- 22:18take an inefficient game from Chet if he's taking the type of
- 22:21shots that he should be taking. Like I'm OK if he has a rough
- 22:24game, if he's doing the things he should be, because there's
- 22:27games where you can just tell he's not feeling it.
- 22:29He he's, he's passing up shots. He's he, it's the games where he
- 22:32pump fakes his threes. He thinks about every single
- 22:35shot. But but instead you have nights
- 22:38like the other night against LA where he just from the get go,
- 22:41his threes are falling. He's dunking with so much,
- 22:45ripping the hoop down. It's when he gets started on
- 22:48those on those cuts, on those alley oops it it's the same as J
- 22:52dub that confidence of OK, I'm start.
- 22:54I'm starting to feel myself. Suddenly those shots start look
- 22:56that the rim starts getting bigger and I think Chet we're
- 23:00seeing that from him. And that's something that I'll
- 23:03I'll admit it. I didn't think we'd see that
- 23:04yet. I I thought we'd have another
- 23:06year until we got there. And if he keeps it up, man, it's
- 23:10going to be a quick post season. It's going to get it's going to
- 23:13be a lot of fun. I I can't wait.
- 23:15I'm assuming everyone out there can't wait either.
- 23:18If you guys have an opinion, drop it in the comments.
- 23:22Is J dub still the second option?
- 23:24Is Chet taking that from him? I think this is the best J dubs
- 23:27look ever to be honest. And this is just like a small
- 23:31sample size of it. I think he's going to continue
- 23:33to grow, get better offensively. The defense is still there.
- 23:36These two kinds. It's so funny.
- 23:37We're talking about second option.
- 23:39They're like the best offenders on our team.
- 23:40So I mean, OKC is an just an absolute beast, but that's going
- 23:45to do it for us today. I hope you guys enjoyed Bring
- 23:47the Thunder podcast episode 45. Gabe, that's insane.
- 23:51Shout out to all you guys for supporting the channel.
- 23:52It's been a heck of a ride. Can't wait for these playoffs to
- 23:55start. And if you like this video, you
- 23:57might as well like it. Subscribe to the channel, turn
- 24:00post notifications on and we'll see you guys.
- 24:04You'll see this early tomorrow. We'll see you guys live after
- 24:06the game tonight. So see you then and done a row,
- 24:08baby, let's go.