Welcome to Down to Dunk. I'm your host Andrew Schlecks. We're part of the Athletic Podcast

Network. And with me today, it's my good friend Michele Abarra. Michele, what's up?

Well, we have a couple of days to analyze what the thunder are and what is the future

because they don't play. So it's a good time to see them maybe trying to analyze the first

part of the season. Yeah, I totally agree. And I think it's a good time to just stop for a second

and reflect on the picks that they have and what this all means and where do we go from here

and how do the thunder accomplish their goals and all of those things. I think a good place to

start, Michele, is in Houston because you look at what the Houston Rockets have become. It is

an embarrassment beyond belief of what they've become. And last night, they lose to the Memphis

Grizzlies 133 to 84. Hey, that's the score to score 85. They struggled with the score 85 points.

They were miserable. I think they shot the worst percentage on like a certain volume of 3's

last night in NBA history. They're just full of just disgruntled veterans and it's not a great

situation. And I would not be surprised if we saw in the next couple of weeks, like a PJ Tucker

or a Victoria Depot. It was reported that Victoria Depot was offered a contact extension. He said,

no, which just means to me, okay, they're going to trade him if he said no to that.

And they're just, they're going straight into the tank. And so we go to tankathon.com.

And I think that a lot of people would look at Houston's record at 11 and 21 and be a little scared

that, oh no, that thunder going to lose this pick. And it's understandable. It's an understandable

take. I think some people would prefer to have just a guaranteed, we're going to get Houston's

lottery pick. It may not be a high pick, but we're still going to get it. And it's top four protected.

So if we get them in like this 7, 8, 9, 10 range, that's better. But I would argue that it is much

better for them to be the worst team than it is for them to be like the 10th worst team. Because

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