Wednesday Bolts – 6.3.09
Sean Deveney still has OKC taking Hasheem Thabeet (I think he’s the only one), had this to say about James Harden: 
“James Harden, Arizona State. Harden is approaching this draft as if he is a top-five pick. And he might be. Certainly, word has spread that the Thunder will take him at No. 3 or the Wizards at No. 5. That feels like smokescreen information, though. Given the fact that the Wizards could trade their pick, and that Oklahoma City, too, is weighing its trading options, it seems that Harden would be wise to work out for some fallback teams later in the lottery.”
Hey guess what? A mock draft!: “Oklahoma City Thunder – James Harden: Many had Harden a lot lower than what I picked but James Harden is the goods. The Thunder are quite pleased with the way Westbrook has developed at the PG position and to under cut him by drafting another PG would just mess everything up (look for them to sign a free agent to play back up) Harden gives the Thunder options at shooting guard, he can score, he can handle the ball and he can create. I can also see Harden handling the ball for extended periods of time as his career continues, kind of reminds me of a shorter Paul Pierce.”
The Blazers are eyeing Stephen Curry: “Don’t be surprised if the Portland Trail Blazers trade into the lottery, looking to acquire Davidson’s Stephen Curry. The way I hear it, the Blazers (currently picking 24th) are nosing around to trade up and have Curry in their sights. Enough teams are willing to deal down that this is a real possibility. And it would be great for Curry in this regard: A long-time NBA scout told me months ago that the ideal situation for Curry is to play point guard on a team with a shooting guard who can also handle the ball. That would allow Curry to spot up some, and maximize the impact of his shooting.”
Seems like everybody compares any sleeper picker now to Russell Westbrook. Therefore my Google alerts go crazy, but the story only has one teeny tiny mention of Russ. For instance, SLAM this week: ”[Terrence Williams] isn’t going to be the guy to light up the scoreboard every night and he isn’t going to be the guy to dish out 15 dimes. He’s going to be the guy that fills in the holes wherever they spring up. If Augustin and Wallace are on the floor, he lines up at the off-guard spot and plays solid defense. If Bell is in, TWill can shift to the 3 and bring help on the glass from the perimeter. Williams is likely the closest thing that a scout will find to a utility infielder in this draft and is a guy who can impact the game without dominating the basketball. Also lets not forget what happened last year with a super athletic guard who had question marks about his scoring ability but excelled on the defensive end and was a pretty good playmaker; Russell Westbrook anyone?”
Ty Lawson is falling down draft charts: “Ty Lawson is coming off a rough week: Some GMs didn’t like him in the combine setting, he measured the shortest of any point guard in the draft, and there were questions about his conditioning and a potential toe injury. Put all that together and Lawson seems to be the one guy slipping on a lot of boards. Two GMs had him ranked as high as sixth on their point guard list, but a number of others had him much lower, with two GMs ranking him 10th and one GM ranking him 11th.” He’s already taken a pretty good hit in Joe and I’s revised Big Board which is coming soon.
The draft is overrated (Insider): “But Insider’s D.R.A.F.T. Initiative (Data-Related Analysis For Truth) crew has been poring over draft data for months, analyzing draft picks and their subsequent careers, and we’ve arrived at a surprising conclusion: The NBA draft isn’t that big a deal. That’s because, in any given year, there isn’t enough talent to give many teams any hope of landing a star, let alone a reliable backup.”
Sounds like LeBron James had similar surgery to what D.J. White had: “James underwent a procedure Tuesday at the Cleveland Clinic to remove a benign growth along his right jaw line. The five-hour surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Papay to remove the tissue from the parotid gland, which produces saliva … Operations in that region often take such time because the parotid is located in a delicate area of the head that is surrounded by many nerves and blood vessels.”
Thunder players talk playoff memories: “Back on the east coast, Durant and Green grew up in Washington Wizards territory. Green, for one, attended a pair of Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers first-round playoff games not too long ago. “Just the atmosphere and the intensity of the playoffs, it was a sudden change,” Green said. Green said he’ll always remember watching classic videos of a young Magic Johnson, who as a rookie led the Lakers to the 1980 league championship over the Philadelphia 76ers. Durant, meanwhile, said he thinks of one thing when the playoffs come to mind: Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, when Michael Jordan captured his sixth league title by hitting the game-winning shot with just under six seconds to go.”
In the TrueHoop Playoff Smackdown, I had climbed to as high as 12th before the Conference Finals, but with an ill-advised pick of the Cavs, I’m back down to to tied for 18th. I’ve got the Lakers in 6 here, but it seems like everybody else does too. Even the President.
I wrote a little thing about Blake Griffin last week for Kevin Arnovitz of Clipperblog. Just thought some might like to read it: “When most think of Blake Griffin, they think of “powerful,” “strong,” “skilled,” “aggressive,” “No. 1” or “Beast.” But when I think about him, I see that annoying little kid that used to run around and climb on everything during baseball practice. We all called him “Blakey” and everyone was always asking him to get out of the dugout.”
my Rubio observations (watched 1/2 the USA contest and all the Germany game)
a) he has great decision making – usually when he turns the ball over, it’s a technical error, but not an error in judgment. Example, usually, when you see a person drive in the NBA, and they’re tightly guarded, they still throw up a shot and hope for contact. The great ones (Kobe, Wade, James, etc) get away with it because they are highly skilled. The marginal players all do it hoping for the same results. That’s not basketball. I saw Rubio do this a few times and he always brought the ball back out or passed it out if he didn’t have a good look.
b) Whoever said he was going to be a defensive liability is kidding themselves. The guy is ALWAYS active, and he’s pretty disciplined on the weakside. His problem is that he gambles too much (reaching in).
c) The guy has to work on his finishing. One on occasion he has three attempts to finish (vs minimal opposition) and couldnt do it.
d) He gets a lot of love from his one handed passes. That’s incorrect from a technical standpoint, but he’s talented enough (see John Stockton) to get away with it .
My updated wish list
1) Griffin
2) Curry
3) Rubio
4) Harden
Curry is a much better shooter and you don’t have to worry about Rubio’s buyout and unwillingness to go to a certain team . . .
Rubio’s underhanded bounce pass will always blow my mind.
I mean, seriously, doesn’t an “underhanded bounce pass” break the laws of physics?
Yeah, anyone who leads their entire league in assists AND STEALS, is not going to be a defensive liability.
@Kev
That’s what I noticed defensively as well.
There was one point (one of his first defensive plays coming into the game) when he played the passing lanes and ended up finding himself contesting Carmelo for a 3. Melo made the 3, but what got Rubio over to him was following the passing lanes. A lot of his gambling comes from really being able to figure out what the offense plans to do.
Can you imagine him doing that against poor PGs? He’s doing that against Kidd, D-Will and CP3…He’ll destroy Telfair, Conley, & (insert lower tier guard)
I just watched my first video of Rubio.
He has no hop in his step when he shoots.
If he doesn’t adjust that his shots are going to get swatted.
Did anyone else notice that?
one think I like about him you know he’s going to be a factor even if he doesnt shoot – you can’t say that about most perimeter guys in the NBA . . .
He also had no problems getting into the lane…
call me crazy but the blazers want Curry and if we trade our draft pick for Jerred Bayless….. it might work becuase Bayless isn’t a point guard he is reported to be a Ben Gordon type of player with great athleiticism. I am pretty sure last year everyone thought that we were going to pick him but passed to take Westbrook.
I don’t know about you guys but i would rather take an Earl Clark before a B.J. Mullens.
Bayless wasn’t really mentioned in that first tier of players last year. It was OJ Mayo and Beasley and Rose. Then the second tier seemed to be Gordon, Bayless, Westbrook, Love etc; depending on who you liked. Bayless isn’t quite as good a shooter as Gordon, and not quite as good a PG as Westbrook was expected to be. A true tweener. Much like a Jeff Teague in this draft.
But I was keeping an eye on him because Presti never tipped his hand. The point is that there is no way we trade our #3 for only Bayless. They would have to give up much more than that.
@Kev
My wish list
1. Griffin
2. Rubio
3. Curry
4. Harden
5. anyone but Thabeet
@Pennington
our lists are close . . .
as to your #5 – I don’t even like to type the guy’s name . . .
@Ty
As Joe said, Bayless isn’t even close to being worth the third pick. He doesn’t fit any of our needs. He’s too small to defend the 2, and has never been much of a distributer. Maybe if Portland wants to give up something along the lines of Fernandez and Przybilla, then we could talk. But none of their backups are going to buy Curry or Harden out from under us.
@Kev
I’m guessing there’s no way I can get you to move Rubio over Curry?
I definitely moved Curry up on my board. I think his height is what did it for me. I was under the impression Curry was around 6’0. I pegged him as an Iverson. He definitely proved that wrong being 6’3.
My number one concern with Curry is his defense.
-All the major moves we made last year were for defensive purposes (Drafting Westbrook, DJ White and Weaver; bringing in Thabo). I know we need offense, but at what expense? If we have a 1 that can’t guard it’s only going to allow more people in the paint.
I put Rubio above Curry because I think Rubio will ultimately be a better PG then Curry.
-I think Curry has a shoot first mentality. I don’t see anything other then that from him. I would bet most of his assists last year came from kicking out of double/triple teams. I just don’t put his PG abilities over Rubio.
I understand the argument would be that he has awful teammates and he still found a way to average 5.6 (also averaged 3.0 turnovers). I just think you also have to factor in the talent he played against.
I have NO doubt he’ll be able to score at the next level, and I bet he’ll be able to run a fast paced offense. I just don’t see his PG specialties fitting our team. Or his PG abilities being enough to bump him over Rubio.
You are overestimating what Curry did against good teams
44 against Oklahoma (Elite 8 team)
29 against Duke
26 against St. Mary’s
44 against NC State
27 against WVa
his only subpar game against decent competition was 13 vs Purdue
and unless you have watched him play, you can’t just assume that the only reason why he averaged 5.6 assists is because “he was probably kicking it out of double and triple teams” . . . the guy passes the ball ahead in transition ; he finds the open guys – for the talent that was around him, I don’t know how he racked up that many assists. He was the ONLY option they had last year – the guy is a point guard – you have to see him in aaction to judge that. Again, from what Ive seen form BOTH players, his point guard ability superceded the PG ability of RW.
And as far as Rubio is concerned, I put him at #3 due to all the off court nonsense . . . I wish he would just stop it – either you’re playing in the NBA or you aren’t . . . it didnt bug me a few weeks ago, but I can’t stand this “picking my team” (see Kobe Bryant, Eli Manning) garbage . . .