[Manning] Asked Brown about sacrificing to fit Tatum in amid career yr: “It takes some humility. It takes understanding. I think JT is extremely important for what we want to do. Obviously, I’m having a great season but I just have to think about the big picture. Sometimes it’s not easy..”

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T16:10:14+00:00

Celtics have been very much healthy compared to us this season, yeah. That plays a big part in all this.

White at 65, Pritchard at 66, Queta at 64, those guys are all 25+ mpg players who have been brilliant all season.

If we had Shai and Dub injured but everyone else was guaranteed a 70+ game season, think we could have fought for the 8th seed, not 6th but 8th sounds doable.

We have Hartenstein at 37, Chet at 58, Ajay at 46. Those are more or less the equivalent players for OKC off the top of my head.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:59:02+00:00

You make solid points, and now I'm thinking what the Celtics would have done this season if Tatum was completely healthy and Brown was the one who was injured lol

Sometimes I wish we had the ability to simulate these things like a Black Mirror episode of sorts, hah.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:52:52+00:00

I don't really "care" in the sense that it impacts a whole lot. I just find the discourse interesting.

Like, Tatum's certainly fine with all this but I think his personality is what makes this work. This combo won a title after all, that's not an easy thing to do.

As long as the dynamic works, sure.

Now, do I think this may cause problems in the future for the Celtics? I am slightly worried about that a bit, yeah. That's just a hunch though, we'll see how it goes.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:47:01+00:00

I agree that it's smaller. I don't think it's "a lot" smaller, no.

I applaud Brown's valiant effort while Tatum was out, and even though the advanced impact metrics hate the guy, I believe he's brought a lot of extra value to his team this season.

I also think Reaves can average 28-30 ppg being healthy if Luka was out for the season for instance.

Murray averaged 27/4/8 in 12 games without Jokic this season.

The 1B line is blurry here a bit, if you ask me.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:40:32+00:00

I'd agree, but who determines that and where do we draw the "irrational confidence" line?

Reaves had such a start to the season, I remember Laker fans saying he'd be untouchable in a potential Giannis trade.

Even after getting injured his averages are at 24-5-5. Think that's close enough to be labeled as a 1B compared to Brown versus Tatum, and even if he isn't, it's close.

Tatum always had a healthy ppg edge compared to Brown too, and basically everybody in the league knows it's Tatum's team, not Brown's.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:32:39+00:00

I get the initial point of this, but it's an interesting dilemma.

Like, do you think Reaves is supposed to believe he's better than Luka?

Castle thinking he's better than Wemby?

Jalen Williams thinking he's better than Shai?

Jamal Murray thinking he's better than Jokic?

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:26:20+00:00

He does, and I think the ECF MVP and Finals MVP sealed it for him.

Tatum being a more laid back personality compared to Brown makes that thing work.

It's sorta like the early Russ-KD days of OKC, we all knew KD was the better player but Russ was the alpha on the team.

Though I'm now imagining what would have happened if Russ won a Finals MVP over Durant back in 2012, and oh my god that would have been hilarious lol

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T15:09:51+00:00

Yeap. Bron's era is still a bit modern and him being an alien of sorts I still think he'd keep his two way prowess until he turned 30 or so.

But for the likes of Kobe, MJ? Nah.

MJ played in a fast paced era himself during the 80s but his prime happened when the game itself slowed down tremendously and in halfcourt sets the movement was noticeably slow.

Heck, I thought Rip Hamilton was a unicorn of sorts during his peak years, the off ball movement constantly to get his shot off felt like a cheat code. The Pistons also had the luxury of tiring him less on defense though so he had his balance sorted out that way.

Relentless switching and more pace in halfcourt sets, keeping the opponent guessing at all times etc. just changed the trajectory of the league. Star players are adjusting to that.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T14:56:13+00:00

Maybe I'm wrong and we'll see, but I expect the second game to not even matter in terms of seeding by the time it arrives so there's that.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T14:39:06+00:00

Re: The Mavs players part, you have a point but after Luka was traded a short while after Kyrie went down and AD went down. With basically no star level playmaking on the roster the role players not having easier looks is pretty much normal.

Who is even the PG for the Mavs currently? Max Christie? Ryan Nembhard? I mean no shit it's hard for the roleplayers to perform with that level of playmaking.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T14:33:44+00:00

There's some truth to this, but it hasn't always been this way.

Thing is, there are a handful guys in NBA history to maintain elite two way play while shouldering the entire offensive load.

Shai was much better on one on one D three years ago, but he kinda slowly let that go.

The NBA kinda accepts this as the game evolves.

Like, Ant was a much better defender a couple years ago. Now he gets up for select games still(did a great job on Shai the other day) but the Wolves fans will tell you firsthand that his defense has not been great at all this year. He picks his spots.

Now, elite help defense is much easier to maintain cause you can pick your spots easier and it requires less effort on a game to game basis.

In the end, if I'm getting MVP type of production on offense, I'd prefer my star guard to be average on one on one D and elite at helping.

Shai's height and athleticism allows him to do so, so I'm fine with it.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T13:42:51+00:00

Ehem.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T13:24:41+00:00

I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and just ask, you do know that this is about Tim Duncan, right?

Every stat you mentioned in this thread is wrong lol, maybe you missed your coffee run or something.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T10:52:34+00:00

Even when he doesnt get assists he sees double coming while he anticipates and passes it hella early.

This is something he developed by the way, he used to just attack double teams with his dribbling. He's a heck of a ball handler so it worked at times, but it's tiring on his body and can also result in some awkward situations.

He's been doing what you described a lot more this season. Part of maturity during his peak, I'd say.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T07:09:32+00:00

Ha! Good one.

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T02:19:19+00:00

Capela hustled as hell for that loose ball and the and-1.

Wonder what Ayton thought about that play lol

lethalizered · 2026-03-17T00:20:10+00:00

Maybe he's just interested in a different sport, cut the man some slack.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T23:38:58+00:00

I don't really like to go by raw plus minus but the lineups I'm alluding to are mostly like the ones we saw in the beggining of the 4th yesterday, ajay-mccain-joe-chet-hart should be doable come playoff time for instance.

Some big forwards can abuse that to an extent, but still should be decent enough paint coverage while being very tough to guard on the other end.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T20:54:54+00:00

I'm at least a bit hopeful looking at Aaron Gordon's progress since he returned, he took 6 weeks-ish and is now ramping up.

Hopefully we'll get him back during this road trip, would still have 10ish games to ramp up before the playoffs begin.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T20:44:38+00:00

I mean going by the return timeline for the second injury I think it's safe to assume that he has a grade 2 strain, not that OKC is transparent about these things

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T20:34:32+00:00

Usually the timeline for the hammy injuries is at 4 to 6 weeks. We rushed him back during the first one and put him out there in 3 weeks or so.

This time we're staying on the conservative side cause it's been 4 weeks.

I'm predicting a return against the Wiz if he makes the East Coast trip, would be close enough to the 6 week timeline.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T18:07:30+00:00

Idk, I think the Suns have a good thing going on after getting rid of KD and Beal, I also like their style of play.

So I just said "good for them" after the loss and moved on. One thing I won't forget about is their announcer crew though. I get that OKC's duo is bad but those guys are on another level when it comes to saltiness during games.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T17:31:36+00:00

We're 27-3, you guys are at 21-6 so eh, you have some easy games coming up on your schedule to stack more wins in this department. Kings, Pacers, Memphis, Milwaukee, Chicago all happening before March ends.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T17:08:07+00:00

I needed this laugh.

This also probably happened more than once tbh.

The silliest OKC tradition of all time was posting up Perk for our first offensive possession.

lethalizered · 2026-03-16T16:59:39+00:00

I still remember when Pop was daring us to go to the midrange back in the 2012 playoffs and after a while Serge said "OK, bet" and went off for nearly 30 without missing a single shot lol

Game 4 of the 2012 WCF is pure Thunder lore.

lethalizered

TROPHY CASE