OKC’s traumatic injury, small sample theater & Texan teams with Slightly Biased | The Kevin O'Connor Show

Kevin O'Connor (0:00)

Welcome back to The Kevin O'Connor Show. Today, Slightly Biased is joining the show to answer 12 NBA questions from the first week of the NBA season. All right, now join me to discuss the NBA Slightly Biased. Slightly, what's up?

SPEAKER_2 (0:20)

Just happy the NBA is back. This feels like a great season already. The energy is great across the league. We've had fights, we've had shoving matches, we've had arguments, we've had media going back and forth in the press conferences. I mean, what else could you possibly want a week into the NBA?

Kevin O'Connor (0:37)

We've had it all. We've had traumatic injuries, unfortunately, as well.

We'll get into all of it in today's episode. We're going to hit a bunch of teams. We can't hit all 30 teams. We're probably going to hit 15 or so of them. I have four categories of questions for you slightly. Injuries, small sample theater, contenders in Texas. Which category do you want to begin with today?

SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

I guess let's get the dark cloud over with and go with the injuries.

Kevin O'Connor (1:04)

All right.

SPEAKER_2 (1:05)

So Jalen Williams, we're hitting all four, right?

Kevin O'Connor (1:07)

We're going to hit all four.

SPEAKER_2 (1:09)

Let's get the injuries out the way.

Kevin O'Connor (1:10)

All right. Injuries. Well, the bad news first, Jalen Williams suffered a traumatic injury on Sunday near the end of the thunder wind. And he was structured off the floor and what looked like a Gordon Hayward-esque bend on his ankle.

Jalen Williams, it's definitely some type of ankle dislocation. We don't have the exact word of how the severity of this injury. There's also a fracture that Hayward suffered when he had a very similar type of bend in his angle afterwards. SGA had tears in his eyes after the game and the postgame pressure saying he just feels bad for Jalen Williams, as does everybody in the NBA community. So many players posted prayer hands and sending best wishes to J-Dub for this injury after suffering a lot of injuries last year, too.

It sucks slightly. I mean, obviously this sucks. And OKC was my pick to win the finals. And one of the reasons why I picked the Thunder to win the finals was because I felt like Jalen Williams, they were there in a game seven against the Spurs without their all NBA, all defensive player, Jalen Williams. And now in all likelihood, they're going to be without him again for the whole duration of the season. Do you think OKC is still the finals favorite?

SPEAKER_2 (2:18)

Oh, man, I don't know how you could say yes, because I thought they would win the fight. They were my pick to win the finals as well. And that was a big reason why he played 33 games last year, got injured during the playoffs twice, and they still went to seven against the Spurs. It's just... I know the Spurs have gotten off to a slower start, but they're going to be the San Antonio Spurs by the time the playoffs get here. And I don't know. It's so hard for the Thunder to win four straight series without J-Dub. Like, he is the release valve for Shea.

Fantastic defensively, obviously. It allows them to have, you know, stretches of time where Shea's on the bench and he can run the offense. Now, AJ Mitchell took a big step forward last year. And let's not forget, he missed that game seven against the Spurs as well. That was a big storyline in that. So maybe we see more, a little bit more progression from AJ Mitchell. If he is like a top 50-ish player in the league, could they still be the favorites? Maybe? My guy, I was a huge Bennett Sturtz fan coming into the draft.

Could they lean on him a little bit as somebody who could be sort of an offensive engine type, run the offense in the second unit? Is there something that J-Dubb usually does without Shea? I don't know, but we're not even 12 hours. That happened 12 hours ago. As it stands currently, I think, yeah, that probably knocks them out, in my opinion. But man, they're still really good though.

Kevin O'Connor (3:39)

Yeah, they're still unbelievable, obviously. I mean, they're still loaded. I'm not even really that word about them offensively this year. I think part of the problem last year and why they did have the offseason that they had getting rid of Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Lou Dorton, creating minutes for more guys who can handle the ball, drafting a Daimara, drafting Bennett Sturtz. It's a team full of guys that can handle the ball. So offensively, AJ. Mitchell can step up and do more. We'll see how other guys respond. Jared McCain, have him off the bench as well. Some of the younger guys, maybe you will have a little bit more a Daimara playing through your Bigs more coming off the bench. Bennett Sturtz is going to get opportunities over the course of the year. And obviously, SGA can handle more if necessary.