After losing a free throw contest in their first nationally televised game since the NBA bubble, the Oklahoma City Thunder are exactly 50% of the way through the 2022-2023 season. From a mathematical standpoint, this seems like a perfect time to analyze the state of the franchise. Let's start with the ultimate question:
Are they any good?
This is a loaded question. From a base assessment, the team is a meager 18-23, winning just 43.9% of the time, sit in 13th place out of the 15 Western Conference teams, and last in the Northwest Division. That's not great.
If viewed through the lens of expectations, though, the Thunder are really freaking good. Coming into the season, realistic fans understood that this would be another season of "roster evaluation" -- a term coined by the team's management to justify being intentionally bad. The past two seasons have seen a lot of this. It involved planned shelving of the most effective players followed by extended minutes for G-League level talent.
The purpose of this was to: 1) assess whether end-of-the-bench players could contribute to the team long-term, 2) make the team bad enough to maximize the value of the draft picks determined by the team's record, and 3) drive Sports Animal callers insane.
While Sam Presti promised he would allow the team to "declare itself" in the early stages of the season, he also preached the need for patience, so most expected that to lead to the familiar plan as the season progressed. Those who wanted more of the same, though, were thwarted by the plan working.