The Oklahoma City Thunder were viewed by many as a rebuilding team, focusing on developing young talents like Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, rather than chasing wins and making the playoffs. It seems as though their inexperience showed today, in a brutal loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder by 73 points, finishing 152-79. This is the largest win margin in NBA history, and a lot of people across the NBA world reacted to a record being broken. Many roasted the Thunder for losing by such an insane margin.
Memphis Grizzlies 152 Oklahoma City Thunder 79: Biggest margin of victory in NBA history.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 3, 2021
holy shit. pic.twitter.com/y53f8SDyNa
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) December 3, 2021
While development is certainly the priority for the Thunder, losing like this can be demoralizing for a young squad. This isn’t the kind of record that a franchise should want to be known for. It is tough to balance developing young players and winning at the same time. Most franchises choose one direction or the other, and few are able to succeed at doing both in one era, and the Thunder have acquired a lot of draft picks in order to aid their rebuild. Hopefully, the Oklahoma City Thunder can rattle off a win or two in the future in order to gain back their confidence.
The Memphis Grizzlies will bask in their success for right now, and it’s only right after managing to set a record. What’s even crazier than this particular win margin is that the Memphis Grizzlies were able to do this without Ja Morant, their best player. There is no question that the future is bright for this Grizzlies squad.
The Grizzlies and Thunder are going in separate directions. Memphis is a team attempting to win and get to the playoffs, while the Thunder are trying to get a good pick and hope their young guys improve with ample playing time. Both are succeeding at what they are doing currently, and we’ll see how things go for them in the future.
