This just made OKC even more dangerous...

Man, oh man, oh man, this Thunder preseason opener's got me feeling like a kid at Christmas. You ask for the $500 toy, you throw it at the end of the list and think, my parents are never going to get me this, but then guess what, you sit down in front of that tree, you open up the gift that's stuffed in the very back, and next thing you know, you've got yourself a star in the making. The Thunder went over to Tulsa today, and they were without pretty much everybody in their starting lineup, and several prominent bench players as well, and that gave us what ended up being an incredibly good look at this Thunder young core of Adai Mara, Bennett Sturtz, we saw a lot of Jared McCain tonight, and then we saw some of the other rookies as well, and what Adai Mara did just gave a lot of people a ton of faith, and the hype that I'm feeling right now could only be shared in a video with you guys here on the channel. You know, the Thunder actually did lose this preseason game, believe it or not, I mean I kind of got everything started with this video midway through the third quarter, and if we're going to keep it with the Christmas analogy, the first half was everything you could ask for and more, and the second half, Jack Frost came down the chimney and kicked your ass in front of your grandma, I mean, that was the worst performance ever by the G League, D Team, Plumber Team, they blew the lead, the Thunder were up 23 when they finally came back and won that game, but you see the stats right there, and we're going to break down exactly what it was that was incredibly, incredibly useful tonight for the Thunder, starting with Adai Mara. First before we do so, let's get a quick word from Anson, and then we'll hit it right back after that. 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And because Anson Belt and 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. To stay on the theme of belts, I mean, if you're gonna click that link down below, go get involved in that deal that we've got with Anson, but Adai Mara was handing out belts left, right, and center in this pre-season opener. He was guarded and guarding Yves Missy and Derrick Queen, and he made those guys both look like they were rookie players, they were having a welcome to the league moment. Adai Mara, in just 18 minutes of action, he didn't play in the second half, 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and a perfect five of five from the field, and for the concerns around his free throw shooting, he was two of two from the line in this game as well. The Thunder were without their six best players, and the Pelicans played their starting lineup almost the entire first three quarters, and even still, the Thunder gave absolute fits to New Orleans all first half long, and it started with Adai Mara. This dude was posting up on Yves Missy, getting the block, running the floor, showing so much more athleticism and dexterity than he showed in Salt Lake City in the Summer League. He gets up for an alley-oop there, and this sequence right here is just absolutely ridiculous. He gets the block on one end, he chases it all the way down, and you're going to watch him get a putback here on a Jared McCain three. Adai Mara was just doing anything he wanted to against the starting Pelicans lineup, and that being the case, this is something that could create so much better of a situation than any of us had thought. I mean, I saw projections out there from plenty of the experts saying that Adai Mara is going to need a year to fully get ready for the NBA game, but if you remember, the Thunder sent their brand new trainer that they hired this summer to Spain with Adai to personally overlook his training while he was there for the FIBA Cup qualifiers, and it seems like a lot of that work has paid off. Marc Dagnall touched on that himself, really worked hard from the end of Summer League until he came back to Oklahoma City for the start of training camp last week. A lot of days that he's stacked up with his head down, focusing solely on his conditioning, on his body, and it showed up tenfold tonight. I mean, this dude, this is kind of, if you really think about the Carl Anthony Towns and Boogie Cousins meme, this is kind of that, but Adai is Boogie Cousins and Zion Williamson is Carl Anthony Towns. You guys know which meme I'm talking about. Adai was a brick wall tonight, and he wasn't the only one either. Obviously, we're going to talk about Bennett Sturtz and what he did tonight as well, because he was incredible, but there was this contingent, this faction of the league, of the fans, some of you may be watching this video, some national experts that I kind of follow online that had shown a lot of worry for Adai after the Summer League and how maybe poor he looked at times, and I made a video on that. My panic meter on him was a two out of ten, I think, and my biggest reason for it is because the dude was literally playing alongside plumbers and accountants. That Thunder Summer League team was horrific. I mean, they were bad enough to blow a 23-point lead tonight. If you had the misfortune of sticking around and watching that third and fourth quarter, you see exactly what I mean, but Adai Marwan, he's got playmakers around him, and he didn't even get to share a floor with Shea. He didn't even get to share a floor with Kayson Wallace, with Chet Holmgren if they go double big, Isaiah Hartenstein, same thing. The Thunder didn't play any of their starting lineup tonight, and Adai Marwan's playmaking was off the charts, so I'm so excited to see what this man can do, and what him along with Bennett Sturtz did tonight showed me that these rookies absolutely deserve a role, and if you missed on what I'm talking about, Bennett Sturtz, he hit on his first three three-point attempts of the game. He started three of three right alongside Jared McCain. They were going on their best rendition of the Vintage Splash Brothers at Golden State, and they just put the full throttle to the Pelicans in the first and second quarter because of the three-point shooting. This guy started eight of ten from three. They shot 75% from distance in the first half, and it was led primarily by Bennett Sturtz. He finished this game with a team-high 15 points. He was six of nine from the field, had three from distance, six assists, five rebounds, and he played more minutes than any of the guys that really anyone cares about, but as soon as Bennett came out of this game, he left the game in the mid-fourth quarter. He stepped on the foot of a Pelicans defender. He rolled his ankle, and he was down for about 15 seconds. I lost my breath. My heart sank. He got back up. He walked off under his own power, and he was talked about tonight by Mark Dagnall in the postgame, so it seems like we don't need to necessarily be worried about Bennett Sturtz and his health. Maybe they don't play him tomorrow on the second night of a back-to-back. We'll see about that, but Mark also had to say, you know, during the week, he was really kind of trying to figure out what his role is going to be in this preseason, the calibrating and balancing that aggression with the ball in his hands, without the ball in his hands, being a good defender, being an off-ball player. Today, Mark said, was his best day since training camp started, and he did it in a game, and he did it in a role that the Thunder really just kind of threw him out there, like I said, in the second half with guys that had no business being on the floor, and Bennett, he did his thing, and he's another one that when he gets the spacing and the benefit of having the starters, having the actual rotation guys out there, Bennett Sturtz can be such a good relief to this team as an extra shooter alongside Jared McCain. I mean, this could be huge for OKC. So altogether, this rookie duo had 27 points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists in their first ever game, and Adai Mara played one half, and Bennett Sturtz played a little bit more than a half. He played three-ish quarters in this game. So the rookies did exactly what they needed to do. They did it alongside Jared McCain, who was really the most prominent Thunder player that played in this game. I mentioned that he made a trio of threes. Here's a quick look at those. On the dribble, step back, able to hit that one from the right wing. This one, the same thing, on ball, step back, three-pointer from here, and this one you see is a quick catch, shoot, square up, top of the key, and cash. He's able to score any different way he wants to, and Jared McCain and the work he's put in with SGA, the work he's put in by himself, he went on some run with Chad Holmgren in the offseason as well. Jared McCain may have been the hardest working member of this roster in the offseason, and that was acknowledged by Mark Dagnold after the game, saying how hard of a worker this man is, how beloved he is, and how energetic and how much life he brings to this team. There's no doubt that Jared McCain is one of the X-Factors of this Thunder team for the rest of the season, but you cannot absolutely go after this game, walk away from this, and think there's no place for these two gentlemen in the Thunder rotation, because there absolutely is, and there has to be minutes for both of these guys, because Adai Mara and how much he bullied the Pelicans frontcourt, I'm not saying he's going to do that every single night, and he may have a little bit of a learning curve against some of the best big men in the league, but Adai Mara is an incredibly valuable seven foot plus player that can get you some playmaking on both ends of the floor, and Bennett Sturtz is a sharpshooter, and he's going to be able to give you some excellent floor spacing, and another guy that you're going to have to respect from pulling the trigger from anywhere that he wants to, and he's going to be able to do it off the ball. If you're curious about the Pelicans box score, I'll show you that really quickly before we get on out of here, they played 45 players, they asked me if I wanted to check in for the last 30 seconds, I declined, but you see how long they had their starters play, Trey Murphy, Herbert Jones, Sadiq Bey, Yves Misey, and DeJounte Murray all played 19 minutes, and then Jeremiah Fears played 17, Derrick Queen played 17, Benedict Matherin, this dude who tore us up in the finals when he was on Indiana, he played 16 minutes, Jordan Poole played 16 minutes, Zion Williamson played 16 minutes, I mean these dudes were going full tryhard, and they got their win, so props to New Orleans, but what really matters is that when the Thunder had their starting lineup out there, and again, Shea wasn't available, Dubb wasn't available, Chet's not there, Hartenstein didn't play, Kaysen didn't play, and I can go down the list of guys that did not play in this game, your lineup of Adai Mara, AJ Mitchell, Kenny Hustle, Jared McCain, and then you threw in, you know, whether it be Bennett Sturtz, Ortega Oweigh, whatever, those dudes played better than the Pelican starting lineup in 24 plus minutes of action, so that's the big takeaway alongside what this does for the Thunder going forward, it looks like Sam Presti's got himself a couple more good ones, let me know your thoughts on them down below, interested to get your guys' opinions on Adai and how he played in this first game, Bennett Sturtz, who do you see as more valuable right now, who do you want to get more minutes as the Thunder go into the regular season here in a couple of weeks, appreciate you guys for watching this late night upload, we'll have more tomorrow, the Thunder are going to play against the Bucks tomorrow night, and we'll see you guys then here on the channel.