In this episode of Hold My Banner with George Balekji and Ountae Campbell, we’re focusing on the Oklahoma City Thunder and what lies ahead for this exciting team. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren leading the charge, there's a lot to discuss:
OKC Thunder Preview: We break down the Thunder’s roster, strategies, and what to expect from their upcoming season. How will Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s playmaking and Chet Holmgren’s versatility shape their performance?
Season Bets: We analyze the best bets for the Thunder this season, including win totals, player performance, and key matchups. Get our top picks and predictions to stay ahead of the game!
Whether you're a die-hard Thunder fan or just looking to make some informed bets, this episode has you covered. Don’t miss out on our in-depth analysis and expert insights! Catch 'Hold My Banner' every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on NESN's Youtube, Twitch, Facebook, and wherever you listen to podcasts. For the full episode click here:
GET NESN 360: https://nesn.com/download-the-nesn-app/
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/NESN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NESN
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NESN/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nesn
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nesn
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/nesn/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. - Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless. - Have it to get 30, 30, 30, about to get 20, 20, 20, about to get 20, 20, about to get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month, so. - Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. - $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes of detail. - This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create cloud connected mobile experiences, and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's azure.com and sign up for a free account to start building in the cloud today. - Yeah, all right, let's talk about a good team. The Oklahoma City Thunder probably going to be the number one seed in the West. That's a little spoiler for me. How do you feel about the OKC Thunder going into the 2024, 2025 NBA season? - I loved them last year. Big physical shoot really efficiently. Have a top four player in the world right now with SGA as a leader of their offense, both ends of the floor. But then they go out and sign in Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein over from the next Caruso. Of course, sign from a separate team, but good wing defender, good shooter and Caruso. Big strong physical, a vet to show these guys. And Hartenstein is someone that you run everything through SGA, like he's one stop shop. He is the offense, but Hartenstein can run it from the nail at the free throw line and do a lot of things out of the post. They just didn't have that ability to before and he takes pressure off of Chet. Chet can go out on the perimeter, be that guy. That is a huge mismatch for teams to face. Well, Hartenstein can do a lot on his own as well. So I think they've vastly upgraded. They've re-signed Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins as well. I love the J-Dub and J-Will, the guys they have there. It's more than SGA. But on how good they're top three players. And it is an addition by subtraction, really, to bring in Alex Caruso to replace him. But Josh Giddy out of here, where when it comes time for the playoffs, teams can't defend them the same way. Like, they can't keep one guy open and it helps them out when you're playing four on five basketball and just dare Giddy to shoot 'cause he's terrible at that spot. They have a true threat in this offense. I love SGA, I love the Thunder. I think this is a team I expect to get to the Western Conference Finals. So that reflects in a different way you say and they're gonna be the one seat in the West. Would not be shocked at all. - Yeah, I was looking up Caruso stats as you were talking because I thought the same thing. Like, you're losing Giddy, but you're getting the guy who fits more into your system now. I think Giddy might have an opportunity to be a better player over his career than Alex Caruso is, just off a basketball talent. But you didn't need what he brought to OKC on the Thunder. You need that more in Chicago, right? A guy who's an on-ball guard who really needs to ball in his hands to score, facilitate and get things done for his team on the offensive end. He doesn't need to be in the corner waiting for a shot, playing off closed outs. He needs to be playing pick and roll. And we saw that while Australia. And I'll talk more about him when I talk, when we talk about the Chicago Bulls. But with Caruso, you got a 40% three-point shooter now added to his SGA's team. So you got him, you got Dor who's obviously became a way better shooter throughout his time being there with the Thunder over his career. You got Wiggins, who's gonna be a lights-out shooter for their team. You have the good J-dub, excuse me. Dailin Williams number eight, you know what I'm saying? It's a bucket-getter supreme. He plays super well off the ball. He shoots the ball extremely well. And then you have a center with Chet, who can stretch the four-out as well. Kind of like what we see with Porsingas here in Boston. He stretches the four outs at 30 plus feet. And he makes defense be aware. You have that now surrounding SGA. This team is gonna be really, really dangerous. And Caruso's a better defender right now in his career than Josh Giddy is. And then on top of that, like you said, you're adding Hardenstein. They had Biambo, you know what I mean last year. What was Biambo doing for them? Nothing. Sitting on the bench. Nothing. And they replaced that and get Isaiah Hardenstein, who did a lot for the Knicks this year and was a huge part of their success, honestly, throughout the season and the playoffs. So adding that, those two guys is gonna be huge for this Thunder team. I think they have a chance to be, honestly the best record in the entire NBA. Yep. No question about that. Is there any, I wanna ask you this though, do you think Shay has a chance? Or how good of a chance? If you could scale it on a one to 10th scale, one being he's not getting MVP at all, 10 being he's for sure getting MVP. How would you rank Shay on that scale in terms of getting final, I mean NBA MVP? O.K.C getting the one seed says they're having a better record than Donchich and Yochich, who are both betting favorites ahead of SGA to get regular season MVP. Yep. And I just think how good his game is getting, how it's evolving, and the better surrounding cast, they have a better spacing, better depth, better everything. Yep. One to 10, 10 is basically he got it. So if even if I gave him a nine, there's that space to leave open. Yep. (sighs) I'd go eight point. Eight point three. Eight point three. And it's high probability. Yeah. I mean, this is a guy, you can bet him six to one to win a league MVP. Yep. But we see what the favorites are. It's Yochich, it's Donchich, it's still Janice up there too. Mm-hmm. But I just think it's going to be the MVP of someone that comes out of the West. I think it's where the better basketball is. And even if you look at the East, like a guy like Tatum, top seven player, but not going to win MVP. Mm-hmm. Jalen Brown, great player, not going to win MVP. Janice is a good threat. Maybe Jalen Brunson, but I just don't see the Knicks being that one seed. I just need a really good regular season team. Yeah. And I think OKC is the best chance to be a really good regular season team. Because they added in the off season, they added and they addressed where they were missing pieces. And there isn't that big loss. Like the Nuggets roster-wise, like losing a case, they're not as good as they once were. Yep. When you lose someone who's a great shooter and perimeter guy like KCP. Yep. But then the magic got better because they brought in defense and spacing. And even with the Mavericks, that's one that's up in the air. You bring in Clay. He has to be your third, fourth best player. Playing off a dodge to try to help him. The Mavs got better. But the Thunder were so good and they just got even better. And you talked about the growth of a door of the Williams and what those guys are. Their top three players are still SGA. Jalen Williams. Yep. And Chet. Yep. Or you could say even Lou Dorton, that how elite a defender he is as well. Because of how good this team is, but it's clear-cut who their best player is. I like SGA's chances to win MVP a lot. Yeah, I do. I actually would bet it. Like you said, plus five fifty. Six to one. Six to one. You know, I would. Depending where you go. Depending on where you go. Yeah, I got it from Fandall. But yeah. So I love that real quick. We just see the, why you should always look at different books. Where you got a better number for the jazz wins on Fandall. I got a better number for SGA MVP. Over at draft. So yeah, maybe I'll switch it over. And I'll go like how you said after this episode. It's pretty a couple of dollars now. I'm not a betting man. But yeah, I think SGA has a great chance because of all the things that you said. I personally think that they're going to have the best record in the entire NBA next season. I know the West is a tough, tough case, but I think it's going to be some growing pains and Dallas when you figuring out how to play with clay. I think there's going to be obviously a slow down for the nuggets. Like you said, because it seems like every year guys keep getting post off their team, you know, Bruce Brown two years ago. Now KCP, you know, getting post off of their team and going to the Orlando Magic. They keep losing guys and they're not adding much back in the draft and that worries me for the Denver Nuggets. So I think while those teams are figuring it out, okay, C is going to come out. They got it solved. And they're going to have it already figured out because two plug and play guys with Caruso with Hardenstein, they're going to be ready to go from day one. I think this team is going to be the best team in the NBA in terms of records in the regular season. And then on top of that, I think SGA is going to continue to light people up 30 points a game. And he's going to have more assists because Giddy is gone until they lost their second facilitator and they got more shooting. - Yeah, it's a perfect put of like, they just had to do the small tweaks to this roster. Already we're a really good team. She had to make those small adjustments to get even better. And this is with a Mavericks team coming off an NBA championship run with mileage. Timber Wolves will be better. I mean, they drafted well and obviously Ant-Man, just the confidence goes up. I didn't even think that was possible with him. But what OKC has at that core and then it is the best team in the NBA and clear cut best player, that's perfect marriage of SGA getting a league MVP. No matter what though, you look at top four players in the league. Yokich, Donchich, Janus, SGA, none of them American born. Don't forget, Shay is from Canada. He's a maple leaf guy, right? Loves his, what is it? Maple syrup up that way, eh? - And it's Tim Horns. - Yeah, Tim Horns is fired. I'm a big Tim Horns fan. Duncan's great, Duncan's great. But like you're up there, like Tim Horns is good too. So we always wonder like, what's a local chain to go to certain countries? Tim Horns, that's that good stuff. I take Tim Horns over Starbucks. - Oh, that's a hot take. - Oh yeah. - I want to ask you, if you have any other hot takes on bets that you would like to take on this team? - On the Thunder. - Yeah. - Ooh, so I kind of, you know, played my cards on that. But seven to one, the win the whole thing. Now, it's also when you look at the number where it's a Celtics plus 295. - Yeah. - And the next shortest odds is OKC 701. Like that's a huge line to draw. - Yeah. - But second best odds, just seven to one. Now I would tell you too, bet the Celtics at plus 295 because they cruised through the regular season and they cruised through the post season and they cruised through the finals to win. It was nuts what they did. They never, never, never really faced like hard adversity. I know, KCP going down all that stuff. So I would bet that Celtics team plus 295. But if you're taking a team out of the West, take the Thunder 701. Now you could fall a dollar under and go, I'm a bet on this team to be a regular season team. SGA, MVP, six to one. Those are two bets I like with the Thunder of. You're telling me the second most likely team to win the NBA title, seven to one? - Yeah. - Seven to one right now. I would take that number. - Yeah, so on FanDuel, they have one of most regular season wins. And I already talked about how I think they're going to be the best team in the regular season this year because probably KCP, we're not getting him back until December, maybe January here in Boston. I think that OKC is going to take advantage of that. You can get them at five to one on FanDuel for most regular season wins. And obviously, I think I want to take that because of all the reasons that we stated before it. - Yeah, think about it. So then it goes into regular season wins five to one. SGA MVP, six to one. If they get the most wins, SGA, very likely to get MVP. But of course, there's that factor of how much everyone loves Ant-Man, how much and how good Luca has been does he take another leap? - Yep. - Where maybe those T-Wolves or Mavs don't finish with the best record, but they get MVP anyway. You got options. You believe in this team as a regular season team, five to one. - Yep. - And again, that's, you bet that. And then regular season concludes, you go nice. I'm in a good spot. - That's it. I got my winnings. That's it. I don't have to sweat this thing out to the NBA finals. But $200 difference between winning the whole thing and winning the regular season. - Yeah, 100%. - Want to hear more on the latest in New England sports? Download the Neston 360 app to stream live Red Sox games. Highlights, game recaps, and more. Sign up or log in for free with your TV provider to start streaming now.
