Tuesday Bolts – 7.21.09
Sean Deveney looks at who made some sort of impression in Vegas, whether it be good or bad: “Hasheem Thabeet has 
a long way to go. The fact Thabeet struggled offensively is no surprise. But the fact that he was whistled for 26 fouls while blocking just four shots is worrisome.”
Looks like DeVon Hardin is likely headed back overseas: ”Last year’s 50th overall pick DeVon Hardin could be headed overseas for the 2009-10 season. Hardin still hasn’t signed a contract with the Thunder, and the team might want him to continue his development abroad rather than add the raw 6-foot-11 post player to the roster. “I’m not sure, but I would imagine I’m probably going to have to do another year overseas and then come back and be ready to go next year,” Hardin said. “Of course it’s not exactly what I want to do, but if it happens it’s just another step on my journey.”
A nice little story about how Kevin Durant fits the superstar mold in more ways than one: “What goes into making a superstar NBA player? It’s obviously a combination of talent, size, discipline, intelligence (whether it’s IQ or the basketball version, it’s no matter), and coachability. Kevin Durant gets high marks in all of those categories, and then some. He even has the intangibles that everyone wants in their hometown superstar. He is great in the community, as you might expect, but you know that with Durant, it’s genuine. You know this because his parents are hard-working, intelligent people who raised their son correctly. You know this because he has spent his past two summers taking some summer school classes in order to get a little bit closer to earning his college degree. I don’t know about you, but if I was a multi-millionaire at 20 years old, I certainly would not be spending time in a classroom, earning a degree that I will never put on any resume’. He is a class act, but that’s just the beginning.”
The Team USA mini-camp starts this week and OKC has three guys participating – Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and Kevin Durant. It’s in Las Vegas and runs July 23-25. Also Joe Sharpe, OKC’s head athletic trainer, will be there as well.
Darnell Mayberry handed out summer grades: ”Robert Vaden, C-: His lone job was to make shots. He fulfilled his duty only twice in 10 games.” But I thought he could really stroke it from the perim– ah nevermind.
Kevin Durant filmed a Nike commercial yesterday and uploaded a few pictures. Supposedly he’s put on about 10 pounds of muscle this offseason, bu I’m not really seeing it. Maybe he weighed in with all that junk around his neck on.
A Q&A with Scott Brooks about the summer: “There’s a couple of reasons why we do the things we do is because we feel that this is how we’re going to create our culture and our successes are going to be based on what we do day in, day out. But it’s also for guys like Serge. He comes in new to the program right from the very start. We have a program in place that’s already been implemented and he’s just part of the group, and there’s no adjustment period. The first day, we threw him in there and he was going 100 miles an hour, and that’s what we like and that’s what we’ve been doing. It’s been fun to see and develop. It still has to be continued and shaped and get better and we have to continue to execute it.”
Former Midwest City star and current Dodger center fielder Matt Kemp had a Q&A with SLAM: ”How about the Thunder? Catch any of their games? MK: I haven’t. I think it’s real cool Oklahoma City has the Thunder though. The Hornets got a lot of support there and I thought they’d stay, but now it’s the Thunder and they get support, too. It’s a good NBA city.”
A great piece by Sam Amico on Sebastian Telfair and how hype ain’t always right: ”Before Sebastian Telfair ever set foot on an NBA court, he was the subject of a book and the study of a documentary film. He was Stephon Marbury’s cousin back when being Stephon Marbury’s cousin meant something, and pals with LeBron James. He was The Next Big Thing in Basketball, another teenage star who was shoved in our face more often than another Britney Spears meltdown. He was selected straight out of high school with the No. 13 pick in the 2004 draft (by Portland), and everyone said it was a mistake for him to be chosen so late. A lot of teams would certainly pay for taking a pass, we predicted at the time. The point guard out of Brooklyn had it all — a wicked handle, the all-important street cred, lots of love from the new wave of media that aimed to convince the general public that style counted as much as substance, if not more. That is why I heard Telfair had been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and immediately thought, “What’s happened to this kid?”
I was bored and reading through some old stuff I wrote and here’s what I said about James Harden back in November: “Get ready. I’m about to do it. I’m about to compare a black guy not just to a white guy, but to a Spanish guy. James Harden reminds me of Manu Ginobili, except without all the falling down. He’s lefty, he’s talented but he gets his points in different ways. He’s not your traditional scorer. He’s does little things well and scores a lot of awkward baskets. If the Thunder somehow fall to the fourth, fifth or sixth pick, this would be a pretty good one.” I AM THE SMARTEST MAN ALIVE!!!
But wait, here’s what I said about B.J. Byron Mullens in the same post: “He’s clearly got ability. He’s 7-1 and is extremely athletic. But one thing about him is nobody will know if he will be NBA ready when he comes out after this year. Watching video of him, I see a little Greg Oden in him, just because of his length and the way he dominates the post. But he’s so much more athletic than Oden. This pick wouldn’t hurt OKC. He should be a nice post player in the future, but I don’t see him as an immediate impact player. Right now, the Thunder doesn’t need anymore projects and I fear Mullens would be one.” Dominates the post? In my defense, that was high school video of him dunking over and over, but still. Little did I know we’d end up with Mullens… with our second pick.
“Dominates the post”
No knock on you, in highschool/college at 7-1 you can accidentally dominate the post.
@Nix
Right, so I wasn’t TOTALLY wrong, right?
Hey, but back in November everybody thought Mullens was going to be the top pick. Then he actually played a college game and people changed their minds.
Oh and Mayberry gave RW an A…I’m not sure I’d go that far. He didn’t hit enough open jumpers and had too many TOs.
I can’t think of a better face of the franchise than KD. You never have to worry that he’s going to say anything embarassing. The kid even reminds people to say their prayers in his tweets.
As far as Harden goes, I can’t wait to see him on the floor. I think we really needed a shooting guard who can both hit the shot when called upon AND who’s not looking to take shots away from the others.
As to the Brooks interview, it’s pretty obvious that the organization lives, sleeps and eats their culture. You hear it in every interview with Presti, the ownership, and by the media who’ve been around the organization. And it seems to permeate everything they do.
@Royce
It’s going to take more than just 10 lbs of muscle on a 6’10, lanky frame before you see a significant difference in size since he was so thin and somewhat underweight to begin with, you know?
But in KD’s defense, he does look less lanky now and you can even see the slightest little hint of a bicep and shoulder striations!
Come 2015, he’ll be Blake Griffin 2.0!
wow, i just read the comments on darnell’s article. there were like 4, and they have made me resolve to never read the comments on that site ever again. so dumb. this site has spoiled me
the board on here is fresh and full of good talk because it seems to be the place for dedicated thunder fans. not guys who are half into it and perusing through the sports page at their favorite news website. being so new, the bitter fans you develop over the years just aren’t around to complain yet. they always come, give it time
I’m sure DeVon has a laundry list of items that he’s got to work on this next season. It’s rare that a player who can only do one or two things well makes much of an impact. If DeVon can develop a few more aspects to his game, he can make a roster. I’m impressed with his intelligence and maturity.
@nick
I don’t know why the trolls haven’t found there way here, but I have a sneaky suspicion that Royce has a little Soup Nazi in him when it comes to allowing stupid posts.
Maybe Sam is a tad overrated when it comes to his skills on the draft boards, or maybe he’s too conservative for the rest of the league, but I still take pride in knowing that there is no way this team would have traded for Zack Randolph or Sebastian Telfair.
@Mike
i hope not. i love the commenting here, its consistently well-informed, intelligent, and interesting. and it gives me something to do all day while i’m at work, haha. three cheers for royce the soup nazi!
You want bread? THREE DOLLARS!
Nice article about Mr. Harden.
http://dimemag.com/2009/07/5-reasons-why-james-harden-will-be-a-star/
@Clayton
Garg! Dime undercutting me again but posting 30 minutes after the bolts go up.
Good find though. Thanks.
Hey all,
If you haven’t already seen this, take a look at Basketbawful’s running series, “Living Large.” He’s on Part 11 now, but you can get to Part 1 and start from there. The guy who runs that sight roomed with a hyped-up basketball player his freshman year and he details the adventures of that year. The guy can write and he’s damn funny. Here’s the link:
http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/
@Brett
Oh yeah, great stuff. Matt is great. He also does Bulls By the Horns, TrueHoop’s Bulls site.
skippidy dippity ratta dah blash! c’mon you knew it was going to happen with this all the comments are intelligent, interesting… ahh yes i nerd raged in forum troll mode
seriously though we are in the NBA doldrums… nothing going to happen for a while *begins crying and rubbing an old lamp* I wish it was opening night, I wish it was opening night!
That whole thing about comparing Harden to “a white guy” is awesome. Great stuff. Do you happen to be on Twitter? I’d like to keep up with your writing that way.
I think that KD really has put on some muscle. Also, there are rumors that OKC is going after Ramon Sessions. Personally, I don’t believe it. No trade rumors involving OKC ever end up being true. Whenever OKC makes a trade, no one ever sees it coming, like the Sefolosha trade.
@Richard
Sure am: http://www.twitter.com/dailythunder
I’ll tell you what happened to Bassy Telfair, he came along a decade too late. There was a time when point guards who passed only after their And1 performance got shut off and a shot would certainly get blocked back in their face were in vogue. A.I. was a point guard. Telfair’s cousing Marbury was once an elite player in the league. The style changed, partially because of Mike D’Antoni, partially because of Gregg Poppovich, but those guys are now fringe players and their rediculous talent is worthless in a team setting. Telfair would have thrived in the ’90′s and early part of this decade.
It’s hard not to give him an A. When I was in high school, I took a typing class as a sophomore. My junior year, I signed up for a computer class and on the first day, the teacher gave us a basic typing assignment. I finished it in a couple minutes and turned it in. He looked at me and said, “why did you sign up for this class if you already know how to type?”
The end of that story is that the teacher figured out he was teaching the wrong ciriculum. But if he hadn’t, I would have aced the class without trying. Westbrook was basically in that situation. He played well enough against the elite in the NBA to be considered a pretty good player. Then, this Summer, he was able to play the same way without the hindrance of athletes anywhere remotely close to him getting in his way. He easily dominated, and by Mayberry’s method of grading, he got an A.
You (and I) would grade differently. You would look at Westbrook as taking summer league 2103 and expecting him to improve on things he didn’t learn last year (like me in the computer class). Mayberry just looked at Westbrook as a kid who proved he could still type.
I don’t envy Mayberry’s job this time of year, but geez. That article wasn’t even 200 words and I could barely bring myself to skim it. Wouldn’t it be better to do an in depth article on the moves other teams made, and then end it with how those moves tangentially affect the Thunder? Instead, we get articles with arbitrary letter grades (could anyone else make sense of it? he certainly doesn’t grade on the curve seeing as everyone graded passed) and flippant predictions about playoff games at the Ford Center. Zzzz
I don’t know if it’s just me, but the first link gives me a “use exceeded” message. Maybe Royce linked from a signed-in account or something?
Here’s the permalink to the article:
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/article/2009-07-20/good-and-bad-from-year-s-vegas-summer-league
@John
Yeah I think you’re supposed to sign up for Sporting News Today. It’s free and it’s worth it. It’s like an online newspaper in your email every morning.
trade harden for curry or shoot him one only okc would draft thast pieceo f shiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttt
harden well known member of the crips ganstas any bloods willing to kill his ass
@Royce
it’s matt ten damn, isn’t it?
you’re the smartest guy alive?! I beg to differ — Manu is from Argentina !! Not smart THEN, and even worse NOW that you had to call yourself the smartest man alive….
@Dylan
I think so.
I know for sure that the “future nba all star” is Glenn Robinson
@SL
Geography wise, I’m evidently an idiot.