'Game Theory' Podcast Predicts OKC Thunder Win Total for 2023-24 Season

With NBA games just around the corner, media members have begun to make predictions about the upcoming season.

On a recent episode of the "Game Theory" podcast, host Sam Vecenie and guest Robby Kalland discussed potential win totals for every team in the Western Conference.

Vecenie and Kalland looked at the over/under numbers for each team in the West, debating whether they would bet on each team to hit their over or under. Some of the teams that are tougher to get a read on, Vecenie labeled as "stay aways". 

When talking about Oklahoma City, Vecenie and Kalland were extremely complimentary, saying that they love what the Thunder have built and believe that the team is in a great place going forward. 

With that being said, Vecenie and Kalland both agreed that it would be difficult for OKC to reach the over, due to how tough the Western Conference appears to be in 2023-24. Additionally, Vecenie and Kalland point to the team's lack of shooting and youth as reasons that it may be hard for the Thunder to win more than 44 games.

"The question here is, do they have enough shooting," Kalland said. "That comes down to like, how good is Chet spacing the floor because obviously they're kind of hanging their hat a little bit on that offensively. Does Dort continue to be the guy that he's been?"

These questions about the OKC's spacing led Kalland to lean towards the Thunder not reaching the over, despite his belief that the Thunder will once again be a solid team.

"I certainly don't want to take the under," "But I'm still always just a little scared of the young team that is still kind of learning how to win consistently and take that step. It's one thing to take that step into Play-In range, it's a whole other thing to leap that next tier of team. ... Getting that next five wins on the record, is so much harder than adding the 10-12 they did last year."

Vecenie, on the other hand, said that he is leaning towards the over, but that he probably would not bet on Oklahoma City's over/under due to how tough the Western Conference can be for an inexperienced team.

"This is a stay away for me," Vecenie said. "I'm saying over because I just love this Oklahoma City Thunder team. Honestly, logically, I think this is probably an under and I think they are probably more like a 40-43 win team and they make the Play-In again and they're going to be awesome."

Last season, OKC was projected to win just 24 games heading into the year. After a huge leap in production from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a stellar rookie season from Jalen Williams and another solid year out of Josh Giddey, however, the Thunder ended up winning 40 regular season games in 2022-23.

This season, the team will add Chet Holmgren, Vasilije Micic and potentially a handful of other role players (like Cason Wallace and Davis Bertans) to the lineup. If the aforementioned players are able to make the impact that the Thunder front office is expecting, Oklahoma City should be poised for another impressive campaign.

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