Rylan Stiles | Locked on Thunder Podcast and Sports Illustrated Writer

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, the Pacers haven't even touched down in Oklahoma City and they're having some issues with their travel.

I mean, by the time they actually get to the games on Thursday, I think they may run into some other issues as well on the basketball court. Joining us right now to talk about these Oklahoma City Thunder, where they've been, how they got here, what we can expect moving forward is someone who covers the team. He's the host of the Locked on Thunder podcast.

You can catch him and his work covering the Thunder for Sports Illustrated. Joining us right now is Ryland Stiles. Ryland, how are you, man? I'm doing good, man. How are you doing?

I'm excellent. Thank you for taking the time to join us. I mean, everybody is basically OKC on a title watch right now. Is everybody just waiting for this one to get done or are people kind of just cautiously optimistic? Yeah, right now, I mean, the feeling around Oklahoma City is that everybody is only nervous about how not nervous that they are for this matchup against Indiana. I mean, the heavy favorites in Vegas and the heavy favorites with the national media pundits, the heavy favorites locally.

Now they have to just go do it. I think that some of that is a little bit of a disservice to Indiana. But another part of that is this has been a dominant team all season long in route to sixty eight wins. Historically, three defense that got better in the playoffs. And you have the best player on the court, which oftentimes in the NBA, having the best player on the court has kind of been the one fact that you needed to win the series. And the Thunder have that with SGA. So it is their best chance to ever win one because that 2012 team ran into the desperate Miami Heat heatles. And this team runs the three Halliburton. So it's much different than the last time they were in the finals.

Everybody is super excited. What is the biggest threat? What are the Pacers have? What is the biggest threat, if I may ask?

What has people worried if there's anything? It would have to just be Indiana's three point shooting because the Pacers have protected the ball at an extremely elite level. So have the Thunder this season. The Thunder's historic defense is built on creating controlled chaos and forcing turnovers. And then they kind of use that to have an avalanche like effect where they rack up five turnovers in a row, which leads to fast break points, which leads to a gap on the scoreboard. And if Indiana is able to keep the basketball on their side of the floor, then you're going to see them whip the ball around to the corners where the Thunder typically let up the most corner three point shots in the league. And those open corner threes will be taken by players who are capable of hitting them, unlike in previous rounds for Oklahoma City. So the pathway for Indiana to get an upset win in these games, in this series, is by protecting the basketball and finding the corner three point shooters and knocking them down, which they've done at an elite rate throughout the postseason. Ryland Stiles is here with us, covers the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It's the JR Sport Reshow coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Ryland, when you think about this team and what took place last year and where they've grown and what is the biggest factor here? Is it just a matter of experience? Yeah, it's certainly experience is the biggest key to all of this. I think experience in this postseason is the biggest key. I mean, the fact that Jalen Williams, Jay Dove has followed up that game six in Denver with that game seven against Denver and then went on to help this team win the West.

That's just a maturity that you didn't have a year ago. I mean, when things went wrong for Jada the last postseason and round number two against Dallas, they kept being wrong and he never could figure it out offensively. It took him a year to get that part of his game elevated. And even for as great as this team is, had they had a repeat of last year's Dallas offense from Jalen Williams, they wouldn't be in the NBA finals right now. So his experiences and his ability to get better led to this happening.

And it would try to home raise the same way. And then they also added two excellent players and Alex Crusoe and Isaiah Hartenstein. And Crusoe has been a postseason, just absolutely elite player for the Thunder compared to the cold body you have on the floor in Gordon Hayward last year, who was out there in name only was dead on arrival with that trade from Charlotte. So that's a huge upgrade to your playoff rotation with the intensity and the leadership that Alex Crusoe has brought in the versatility that Crusoe has brought. I mean, he defended Nicole Jokic in that game seven to frustrate him and get the Thunder a game seven win. So they improved their roster externally, but they especially improved it internally.

And now they're sitting here four wins away from a championship. Rylan, everybody talks about Shay Gilgus Alexander and the players on the roster, even Sam Presti, but the head coach Mark Degnault, he doesn't get a lot of attention. How has he kind of flown under the radar here?

Yeah, I think that, you know, last year when the coach of the year award was the only time he's ever been acknowledged, because I think that some of it is still the the perception of him. Like whenever he got hired, he got hired from the G League. Nobody knew who he was.

His birthday on the Internet was inaccurate. Nobody knew anything about this guy whenever he got hired. And people kind of dismissed it as like, oh, they're hiring this guy to bridge the gap for the rebuild. He won't be long. And no one took the time to kind of understand who he was.

And then, you know, you go down this this run now, this path with the Thunder. He was not the guy just for the rebuild. He was the guy. And he's been in every bit the part of the guy as the head coach for OKC. He's still one of the youngest coaches in the NBA, but now also one of the most tenured coaches in the NBA.

Whenever you look at that time, people are getting fired today. So he's been around the block now. And now he's having his moment, you know, in the spotlight at the NBA Finals. I think he's one of the best X's and O coaches in the NBA. But I also think almost more importantly, with a team this young, he's one of the best leaders in the NBA of how he approaches things, how he approaches relationships with his players and how he approaches the game. Rylan Stiles is here with us, Thunder beat writer for Sports Illustrated. And so given what we've seen, there's no way that, you know, he's getting the boot like some of these other great coaches that we've seen over like today or the past year or so. Right.

He's going to be sticking around for a while. Yeah, I mean, there's the stats that are flying around about winning coach of the year dooms you. That's not what dooms you. What dooms you is you have a bad you have a bad front office. You have bad ownership and you have a bad team. The Thunder haven't none of those things as a bad aspect. Their owner is a completely hands off owner who does whatever it takes to help the organization.

There's nothing to kind of take the spotlight. Their office is the best in the sport and their team is set up for long term success. He has really no reason to worry long term. I think he's going to be here a while.

When you think about the roster construction and Shay Gilgas, Alexander, and you got a bunch of other young guys who haven't yet jumped on some of these these massive deals and contracts, what is the likelihood that this team stays together in such a way? Because we know that eventually, quote unquote, the tax man cometh. I mean, that's true. This is the first NBA Finals where neither team is a tax paying team since the luxury tax has been a thing. And so obviously, the bill will come due in the Thunder and a willingness to pay that that tax. I think that people misconstrued the James Harden trade with an unwillingness to pay because the Thunder paid the luxury tax for teams that were getting bounced by Ricky Rubio. I think they paid the luxury tax for teams that were not any good, frankly.

And so they're willing to do it. And the Thunder will do it. What's going to change about this team is that about the top three, they'll be able to keep Shay and Chet and Jada. What's going to change with this team is, you know, guys in that seven through 18 slot on the roster, you're going to have to cycle through with all of these draft picks and continue to hit on these cash controlled counts.

Once the bill comes due on some of these role players, they have to go somewhere else. And you have to use your abundance of draft picks that hit again on more really impactful role players who are now reset on the contract timeline of when you have to pay them. And the Thunder are going to have to have to have a lot of pressure put on their front office to execute that plan. But they have a really good front office in terms of drafting players and developing them. This coaching staff has done an excellent job of developing players. I mean, how many guys on this roster have second round, you know, draft pick slots, and are now playing in the NBA Finals at a meaningful way, same way with like undrafted guys. So they've shown an ability to develop, they have to continue to do that, though.

And I think that will work out for them in that in that capacity. Clearly, clearly, you know, all 18 guys for next year under roster contract, but they are going to have to change, they are going to shuffle through, it's just not going to happen at that top three level, which is what everyone seems to worry about. But you can talk to any, you know, capologist out there and they'll and they'll make sure to clear your worries on that because of how cleanly the Thunder have kept their cap sheet in. Because this is the first CBA that Sam Presley's ever not been had to be blindsided by. In fact, the others reports that he worked closely with, you know, crafting the CBA and what's the most important thing in the new CBA? Oh, it's NBA draft picks, who has the most NBA draft picks?

Oh, it's Sam Presley. Like he's finally ahead of the curve for once on the CBA, what she got, he got hurt on the 2016 CBA with the with the cap spike to let Katie go to the Warriors. He got hurt with the CBA for the James Harden trade.

So I mean, now the CBA is finally playing to his advantage. And I think that the Thunder will be able to navigate that pretty well. Yeah, well, Roland, all things considered, you take a look at the NBA, us not having a repeat since 2018. We've had a different champ every single season. It's now 2025. I'd say that the Thunder are going to be looking good for the foreseeable future unless they unfortunately come down with some type of catastrophic injury, no?

Yeah, I mean, that's exactly right. And that's and that's what happened to that to that team in 2012. A lot of people, whether this team wins or loses the finals will point back to that 2012 picture of Harden and Russ and Katie with their arms casted around each other and acting like that era was some big failure up until the bitter end when that run ended in 2016. They had the Golden State Warriors on the ropes up three teams to one in that Western cards final series.

They just so happened to choke it away. And they didn't end up winning it. But they were in the Western coverage finals. They lost the Western coverage finals to the Spurs like they got to the West finals like four times, five times.

And they just happened to keep kept losing. And then in those years where they didn't get there, you know, Patrick Beverly dives at Russell Westbrook's knee and takes him out. You know, the the foot injury to Kevin Durant, the injury to Sergio Baca.

So it's like, you never know what will happen when it comes to injuries. But that's that run with those guys from 2012 was sustained high level contention success. And that's what this Thunder team will do as well.

Ronald, last question for you. The finals get started on Thursday. And how many games are we going to see in the NBA finals? You know, I think that the popular pick right now is Thunder and five. I think that the Indian pitchers are at least going to win two games in this series just just by the nature of that three point shooting. That's the great equalizer in this sport in the modern era. And they're going to have games where they keep the turnovers down and then they make the Thunder pay for the way that they defend the corner three point spot.

And so the Pacers, I think, will win two games this year and the Thunder taken in six. OK. Hey, Roland, man, this has been a hell of a ride. I think it's been a hell of a ride for you for a few seasons now. Tell everybody where they can keep up with you and all of your work covering the squad. I appreciate it. I appreciate you having me on. You can go find me on Twitter at Ryland underscore Styles. Check out Lockdown Thunder podcast anywhere.

Get your podcast from and Thunder on the side. Hey, Ron, thank you so much. Enjoy the ride, man. Catch you down the line. Thank you. No doubt about it. That Ryland Styles covers all things Oklahoma City Thunder. You just heard him for the locked on Thunder podcast, as well as Sports Illustrated.