All eyes are on THIS Thunder update...

We're about to find out exactly where the Thunder are at to begin this season when you've got San Antonio in the ultimate litmus test on the other side. Now, the Thunder had to do it shorthanded against the Spurs in the postseason last year without J-Dub, and there's a good chance they have to do it shorthanded in this season opener as well, yet again to get this season kicked off. So we're going to go into the injury report and what we know as of today, two days away from the Thunder getting started with this brand new season we're going to go into the availability of one of the Thunder's best players in Chad Holmgren who as of right now continues to await the official confirmation on whether he will or whether he will not play as he did not play at all in the preseason and as of now all that we have gotten from Chad Holmgren is some workout videos including this one taken from this morning where he's over on the right side there getting up some jumpers and Di Maria was over on the other side getting up some three-point shots but Chet Holmgren has been doing some light work in practice and that is all that he has really done and his confirmation for play has been far from confirmed at this point in time so we're going to go into what we know about Chet Holmgren why he has been limited and whether or not the likelihood is that he will play or not and then from there obviously just going over this game and what it means for Oklahoma City as well as that we do have our subscriber goal with this season getting rolling my idiot itself didn't update this clock, so it should be two days away instead of eight days away. But thank you guys so much for the love. 11k subs by the start of the year. Appreciate you guys for supporting. So yeah, go hit that subscribe button if you have not. But let's go get into today's video. But first, here's a word from Anson, our sponsor. If you're anything like me, then you'll understand that frustrating struggle of finding the perfect belt to go with a great outfit. And that's exactly why I'm excited to have Anson Belt and Buckle as the sponsor of today's video. And instead of holes, Anson uses a micro-adjustable track system, so your belt's going to fit you perfectly every single time. And if you're wondering what is so special about Anson, well, they are family-owned and operated, and they have been since day one. And because Anson Belt & Buckle is sponsoring today's video, when you click the link in the description or scan the QR code at the bottom of your screen, and you go to build a box set, which is two straps and two buckles, you will get two bonus pieces, another buckle and another strap, completely for free. That is three total buckles and three total straps for nine unique belt combinations all in one pristinely packaged box. It's an exclusive deal that you will not get anywhere else. So click that link, scan that QR code, build your set, and upgrade your belt game today. Trust me, your wardrobe will thank you. It's a quad contusion that is officially keeping out the Thunder star defensive player and third team all NBA player as well. And this is the typical word salad answer that you're going to get from Mark or from Sam Presti when they talk about anything related to the inner workings of this team. Everybody did something at practice today, varying degrees based on individual situations. I'll leave that to the injury report, which you know they don't have to give out until tomorrow night, Monday night, the night leading up to the game. So we won't know anything about Chet's status. I would imagine he'll be listed as a questionable player in this game, but obviously he is one that could benefit the most from going out there and having a good showing in the first game of the season against San Antonio after what he did in game seven of the conference finals his PR taking a hit that we haven't seen in a long time and as a result of that game in the game seven where he scored four points Chet has taken a lot of the brunt of the Thunder criticism here this offseason and obviously you see how stark of a difference it is in his performances against San Antonio in 11 games versus everybody else in 71 games from last year and you know even with all of that aside the Thunder are obviously a better team by far when Chet Holmgren plays this dude is so important to what the Thunder are going to do this year whether you guys believe it or not and Chet Holmgren is a better player than what people give him credit for far and away you look at the net rating spike the offensive rating spike the defensive rating how much better it is as well Chet Holmgren is one of the most valuable players on this team so without him you're going to have to get very creative in taking down San Antonio because if he sits you're going to have to see some different lineups we may see Isaiah Hartenstein's role even more important like with what he did in the conference finals last year when he was the one who kind of stepped up and went one-on-one with Wimby in a couple of those games early in the series and then another thing is after this whole drama with Di Maria and Baskin Zaragoza and he Mark gave a statement on that just saying I'm going to stand by what the team and the NBA have said here over the last couple of days this may be a humongous test for Di Maria the guy who you labeled as could he be a wimpy stopper can anybody be a wimpy stopper that's the big question and at seven foot three he may get a big big role in this game if Chet Holmgren cannot play now if he does obviously you're going to get to see this team healthy for the first time against San Antonio since the regular season and we're going to get a true litmus test into just exactly what these offseason moves did to the Thunder and where it's going to be their kind of launching point in game one. This is the current NBA's greatest rivalry at this point in time. Thunder and Spurs, two young cores that don't like each other. And Devin Vassell, he added some fuel to that fire this past week that the Thunder aren't going to care about, of course, because the Thunder, they try to move all outside noise away from the equation, whereas the Spurs they love to talk we all know this there is nobody that loves to talk more than Victor Wembanyama does there's no team that likes to talk more than this San Antonio Spurs team and it's created plenty of drama for them inside their closed doors with Dylan Harper you know saying that he needs to be in that starting lineup creating all the controversy with De'Aaron Fox and all the things that you see from San Antonio they're a young team that loves to run their mouth the Thunder they're going to give credit to San Antonio but they're going to look more internally at themselves and what they failed to do against San Antonio in that seven game series as opposed to this is San Antonio and we've got to take this personal and put this chip on our shoulders to beat this team but Devin Vassell kind of setting the tone for this next rendition of this rivalry this coming season talking about two teams not liking each other at all and it's starting absolutely right there on game number one on October 20th saying we hate the Thunder right so okay that's fine I mean they can do that and at the end of the day the Thunder have something to prove here San Antonio still does too but this is a game for the Thunder where they're not necessarily going to care about the logo and the team that it is on the other side of this now I think that they should a little bit take it personally what happened last year and the fact that your team overall took major production hits against San Antonio you look at the record the point differential versus the Spurs versus everybody else you look at the points per game all the other stats on there and obviously the Thunder had a Spurs problem last year but you can claim a lot of that kind of being with what you did not have and the Spurs are going to give us a good look kind of at what their new system is going to be like here in game one as well Mitch Johnson has already announced the starting lineup for Tuesday's opener and they're going to go with their guard heavy lineup they're going to put both Fox and Harper in there. They're going to have Castle and Vassell in there as well, so no Champagnie in the starting lineup. They're going to go just with four guards and Wemby. That is their plan. They're going to play small in this opening game, and so the Thunder, do you react accordingly? Not necessarily with your starting lineup. We know that Mark Daigneault, he's going to do what he wants to do with the starting five, and we saw him do that time and time again when you put Lou Dort out there in the starting lineup, and he just got fried in the first five minutes of every game of that conference finals but this obviously in my eyes I think is so much more than just an opener I view this as a massive litmus test for this team in just what this year may look like and just how you're going to match up against the Spurs because the Thunder obviously are a different team this year than what they were last year you get rid of Lu Dort one of your starters you're playing with Cason Wallace now as a full-time starter on top of that you bring in your set of rookies that are going to be able to make their debuts here in this coming game you've got Jalen Williams coming back and fully healthy and you've got the Spurs who they're not just going to sit around and twiddle their thumbs the Spurs went out and they got better as well they go and they sign Tobias Harris and and they're obviously going to continue to get better with their young core so this is a humongous test for the Thunder and if this is a game where you feel the same problems that you had in last year's conference finals I think there's going to be a lot of frustration out there and I can understand it but I think that one thing that's encouraging is that this man is back for this game he is fully healthy and he provides you so much value when he is in that starting lineup now the Thunder haven't necessarily had a ton of success against San Antonio but J-Dub last year actually averaged more points per game against San Antonio than he did against any other team though it was a limited sample size he averaged more rebounds per game against San Antonio know than he did against any other team as well and you see the numbers that he was able to put up in some of those playoff games against the Spurs 26 points on the 17th 26 points on the 19th as well he was a big reason why the Thunder were up in this series 2-1 before he injured that quad yet again but on the forefront of this entire matchup on Tuesday night will be the two MVP frontrunners will be the two best players in the world Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama Two very different positions, two different thumbprints into the basketball game, but two players that without them, their teams would be lost wandering the desert. So Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and what he does for the Thunder's offense, Wimby, what he does on both ends of the floor. There are some keys to winning this game, and I'm going to make a whole video talking about this on Tuesday morning before this game begins. But since you've made it this far in the video, I'll give you a couple of keys that I've been writing down right now. test number one in this game is creating good shots offensively that was a humongous problem for the Thunder against San Antonio throughout the course of last season whether it be NBA Cup whether it be Christmas Day game whether it be the games you had in February or obviously the seven games that you played in May Wimby was a huge interior problem for a team that likes to get downhill and attack the basket and when they had to get away from that identity it didn't go very well so Shai he's gonna need some help with those extra ball handlers but he's also gonna to need help in bringing the ball up the floor, helping relieve some pressure. He had a ton of on-ball pressure, even just going the 94 feet up the court when he was in there at your primary point guard. He can't abandon your identity either. And then on the other side of the floor, defensively, stopping San Antonio, your guard athleticism is going to be tested immediately. Your defensive chemistry is going to get put right there on a spotlight in the very first game. Cason Wallace is going to get a chance to show exactly what he can do in a ton of extra minutes. A.J. Mitchell, who people have been unimpressed with in the preseason in terms of his offensive game, he's going to get a major opportunity off the bench. Shea, going to need to be really, really stout defensively. J-Dub, same thing. And then obviously down on the front court, you've got to be physical with Wimby. You've got to knock him around when you can. Get him off of his spots. He's tall. He's lanky. He's not afraid to run his mouth. We all know this, but the Thunder's best way of getting to him is knocking him off of his spots, making him feel a little bit shaken, and you've gotta be the aggressor in this game. And then the other thing is you have to crash the glass. The Thunder lost the rebounding battle in the series, and that's why, one of the big reasons why they lost the seven-game series, they couldn't close out possessions defensively. Last thing in the video, let me know down below in the comments what matters most to you in this season opener. Do you just care about getting the win no matter the cost? show me or tell me what players you're most interested in getting to see in this game tell me how you're feeling about Chet Holmgren if he is healthy and ready to go and what you would expect from Chet Holmgren so uh come a couple of our comment spotlights now our first comment spotlight coming from kiamo saying that he's worried for this spurs game because of how massive this matchup is don't blame him at all honestly i think we're all going to be anxiously watching that game another comment as well this last spotlight coming from Josie and talking about the possibility of Moore starting some games this regular season I definitely could see that happening and honestly if Chet Holmgren doesn't play in this game we may see the Thunders 12th overall pick start in his first ever career game now if I were to project I would say that the Thunder would be most likely to go with a bit different of a lineup I would see them probably rolling out something more like this where you have Alex Caruso in there as an extra presence especially with the Spurs saying that they're going to go with a quadruple guard and Wimby starting lineup I would see this being most likely but if Chet is unavailable in this game then Adai Moore is going to get a lot of extra minutes into this matchup being really the only other true big man available for the Thunder aside from Isaiah Hartenstein and we still have not seen Thomas Sorber no idea when this dude is going to eventually play but hopefully it's sooner than later. But appreciate you guys for watching the video. Again, help us reach our subscriber goal. We just got to 10,400 subscribers. Go hit that sub button if you're enjoying the content lately and we'll see you guys later here on the channel.