The Oklahoma City Thunder are a historically premier NBA franchise...

murksiderock

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...Knicks at #5?
Yeah I'd say on balance the Knicks are a Top 5 franchise. Why do you disagree?
This is likely about to change but how are they a historically premier NBA franchise with no championships?
:mjlol:
They have a championship (1979) and are about to win another...

I don't know why you dudes in here acting like yall never seen a team switch cities and retain history. If the Sonics never come back, that history will remain part of the Thunder's in the NBA's bookkeeping...
The heat 9? Wtf :dead:

A franchise that has been top five in playoff wins since the 90s are somehow below the bum ass Knicks and the one man show Bulls. Hell the warriors are a one man show as well.


Please. :mjlol:
The Bulls won all their titles in an 8-year stretch. The Heat won all their titles in a 9-year stretch. They aint that different, fam...
 

mson

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I'm not talking about right now, I'm talking about the overall context of NBA clubs, and this is relevant given all the talk about "small market" teams...

Let's consider this first, that currently the NBA still counts Sonics history as part of the Thunder's history. This will almost certainly change, whenever the NBA grants an expansion franchise to Seattle again; they'll transfer over the Sonics history back to Seattle. But for the foreseeable future until then, Sonics history is officially Thunder history...

In 41 Seattle years, the Sonics were 1-2 in three Finals appearances; 3-3 in four WCF appearances; 22 playoff appearances; a .524 regular season record and .493 playoffs record. So in their Seattle tenure, they basically made the playoffs every other year. They were consistently relevant...

They've now been in Oklahoma for 17 years, which is 41% of the time they spent in Seattle. Sans a championship, which will likely come in two weeks, they've somehow been more successful in Oklahoma than they were in Seattle. Now in their second Finals appearance; 2-3 in WCF; 12 playoff appearances; .584 regular season record and .508 postseason record. In 17 years they've made the playoffs 12x. They are always relevant...

They've had great players from Jack Sikma up to now. This franchise has a 9-year run with a consensus Top 15 player ever (Durant); a 12½ year (Payton) and 11-year (Westbrook) run with two consensus Top 50 players ever; a guy widely considered a Top 15 coach ever who brought them their title (Wilkens)...

And now they have the third league MVP to play for their franchise in Shai, with a coach in Daignault who is clearly an elite coach in The League today. This is on top of having guys like Scott Brooks, Paul Westphal, George Karl, and Bill Russell coach this team. All guys who were elite at the craft...

This is a marquee NBA franchise, Top 10 shyt, and likely has been most of their history. Whether in Seattle or OKC, whenever they have down years, its never long, this organization is always in the postseason. And the "small market" thing doesn't matter, the Spurs are in a "small market" and are also one of the premier organizations. If I had to rank the NBA's historically premier franchises:

1 Lakers
2 Celtics
3 Warriors
4 Sixers
5 Knicks
6 Spurs
7 Pistons
8 Bulls
9 Heat
10 Thunder

They are a Top 10 organization and the NBA is always fine when their premier franchises are good...


How did you come up with these rankings?
 

duckbutta

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One of the best front offices in sports fr, it’s like they took the mantle from the Spurs in a sense but they just ain’t put it all the way together the same way. Also reminds me of the 70s Raiders, always winning and in the mix but haven’t yet won a title which seems inevitable now.

Definitely should separate OKC and Seattle history. OKC has done more than enough to stand on its own as a franchise atp.
Nope. Presti did exactly nothing but be lucky enough to have the player that Kawhi wanted to play with so he got to bend the clippers over a barrel, and then somehow egregiously tanked under the radar (because nobody gives a single fukk about anything related to Oklahoma) while Hinke took all the heat. They ran Hinke out the league for tanking meanwhile Presti was literally telling Hortford and Kemba to stay at home so he could loose games and suffered nothing because of it.

No GM has had it easier than Presti over the last decade. Got infinite picks tanking to the point you can damn near make a team out of all his misses.

Next season will be the first time his job will actually be located somewhere else other than Easy Street. Shai is up for a massive supermax. J Will made all nba this year qualifying him for one. Highly likely Chet makes it once over the next two years. Let's see Presti keep his core 3 guys together without spending over 80% of the cap on them. Let's see him actually get outside players who want to play there instead of being able to overpay NotBlackenstein because his two best players are on rookie contracts. Let's see him actually have to manage the cap like everyone else, which somehow is the part of a GM's job no one seems to judge, and something Presti hasn't had to do in at least 4 years.
 

number21

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The Bulls won all their titles in an 8-year stretch. The Heat won all their titles in a 9-year stretch. They aint that different, fam...


The heat has been a competive franchise since the 1990s. They been in a thick of things before and after their franchise goat.

What has the bulls done after MJ? Its that different. :dahell:

And what has the Knicks done to even be above the Heat as well. :dead:
 
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Yeah I'd say on balance the Knicks are a Top 5 franchise. Why do you disagree?
Well only you knew the criteria for "premier" that you outlined below...but your OP simply alluded to team success. So a team that hasn't won a title in 52 years for me can't be above the Spurs who have won 5 in that time and have had 2 players (Tim Duncan or DRob) better than any Knick in that same 50 year period...
 

2Quik4UHoes

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Nope. Presti did exactly nothing but be lucky enough to have the player that Kawhi wanted to play with so he got to bend the clippers over a barrel, and then somehow egregiously tanked under the radar (because nobody gives a single fukk about anything related to Oklahoma) while Hinke took all the heat. They ran Hinke out the league for tanking meanwhile Presti was literally telling Hortford and Kemba to stay at home so he could loose games and suffered nothing because of it.

No GM has had it easier than Presti over the last decade. Got infinite picks tanking to the point you can damn near make a team out of all his misses.

Next season will be the first time his job will actually be located somewhere else other than Easy Street. Shai is up for a massive supermax. J Will made all nba this year qualifying him for one. Highly likely Chet makes it once over the next two years. Let's see Presti keep his core 3 guys together without spending over 80% of the cap on them. Let's see him actually get outside players who want to play there instead of being able to overpay NotBlackenstein because his two best players are on rookie contracts. Let's see him actually have to manage the cap like everyone else, which somehow is the part of a GM's job no one seems to judge, and something Presti hasn't had to do in at least 4 years.

Fair critique but that doesn’t change that he just as easily could’ve squandered things and made all the wrong moves. But sure, let’s see if he can handle those types of challenges. But then again, if he makes moves to avoid those challenges then what’s the problem?

Why exactly does he need to make a big free agency splash? Isn’t the point to put a winning team on the court? I’ll say, if he can navigate the challenges you brought up then that’s just another feather in his cap.
 

murksiderock

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You guys acting like Oklahoma the first franchise to move to a new place but have all the old history...

Just in the NBA:

•Grizzlies first 6 years were in Vancouver, the Memphis team retains all that history;

•Clippers first 8 years were in Buffalo, next 6 years in San Diego, the Los Angeles team retains those 14 years of history;

•the Nets first year was in New Jersey, next 9 years on Long Island, next 35 years back in Jersey, and yet the Brooklyn team retains those 45 years of history;

•the Kings first 12 years were in Rochester, their next 15 years were in Cincinnati, spent three years partly in Omaha and 13 years in Kansas City, and yet the Sacramento team retains that 40 years of history;

•the Wizards spent their first two years in Chicago, and the next 10 years in Baltimore, but the Washington team retains those 12 years of history;

•the Jazz spent their first 5 years in New Orleans, but the Utah team retains that history;

•the Hawks spent their first year between Buffalo and Moline, Illinois, the next 4 years in Moline, the next 4 years in Milwaukee, the next 13 years in St Louis, and yet the Atlanta team retains those 22 years of history;

•the Pistons spent their first 16 years in Fort Wayne, but the Detroit team retains that entire history;

•the Sixers spent their first 17 years in Syracuse but the Philadelphia team retains all that history;

•the Warriors spent their first 16 years in Philadelphia but the San Francisco team holds all that history;

•the Lakers spent their first year in Detroit, then the next 13 years in Minneapolis, but the Los Angeles team retains all that history...

This is just the NBA, this is commonplace in every major league. I don't know why yall come on here tripping bout normal shyt...

The Sonics have one championship in Seattle. The Lakers won 5 in Minnesota and claim all those. The Sixers have a title in Syracuse and claim it, the Warriors have two titles in Philly and claim em, etc...

But its too much to consider Sonics history part of the Thunder's. Its going back to Seattle if they get an expansion team but as it stands now, that Sonics history is Thunder history...

Sometimes you dudes get up here bytching bout the wrong shyt 🤣
 
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