Tuesday Bolts – 7.14.09
The Las Vegas Sun on Shaun Livingston: “Today, the NBA is more of a young man’s game than it’s ever been. That said, 
it may be tougher to find an older soul in the league than baby-faced, rail-thin 23-year-old Shaun Livingston. Before even hitting the age where car insurance begins to come relatively cheap, the 6-foot-7 point guard has been a prodigy, a budding star, the victim of a horrific freak injury and then the comeback tale everyone is hoping is completed with a happy ending.”
Kevin Durant: “I’m not leaving Oklahoma. What ya’ll keep asking me for?”
Orlando matched Dallas’ offer for Marcin Gortat and somebody wasn’t that thrilled about it: “Marcin Gortat was looking forward to playing for the Mavericks, according to his agent. The Magic surprised, and disappointed, Gortat when they matched the five-year, $34 million offer sheet he signed with Dallas. Agent Guy Zucker said the center “was definitely very disappointed” on Monday when Orlando matched the offer.”
Because I know some of you care – Blake Griffin scored 27 on 11-15 shooting yesterday, grabbed 12 rebounds and even stepped back and hit a 3. Dude’s good.
Rodrigue Beaubois has been ripping Vegas up so far and if you’ll recall, that’s who OKC traded for Byron Mullens: “Beaubois finished the game with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists, but he wasn’t satisfied — not only because it fell short of his 34-point explosion on Saturday but also because of the final result. “I’m not happy because we are losing,” he said. “So I think I can help more, especially on the rebounds.” Fortunately for Beaubois, no one remembers the final score in July, just the performance of individual players, and so far he’s more than lived up to his first-round billing.”
Darnell Mayberry sees someone in Roddy Beaubois: “Thunder draft pick Rodrique Beaubois is Rajon Rondo in the making – with a better jumper. Beaubois, the No. 25 pick who the Thunder dealt to Dallas in a draft-night deal along with a future second-rounder in exchange for Byron Mullens, has proved to be indefensible when driving to the basket. He’s got ample athleticism to finish at the rim and is so savvy with his passing that he finds the open man when he’s doubled or draws any extra attention. He looks like he’s 12 in a 15-year-old’s body so he must get stronger. But my money is on him turning into something after learning the ropes for a bit under Jason Kidd.”
Channing Frye reached terms with Phoenix: “Frye agreed to a two-year contract with the second year at his option. He will earn about $2 million next season. The 6-foot-11 Frye is entering his fifth NBA season. He has averaged 8.2 points per game in two seasons with the New York Knicks and the last two with the Portland Trail Blazers. He averaged just 4.2 points last season.”
The NBA is preparing for labor talks: “The league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire in June 2011. Team owners can extend the CBA through the 2011-12 season by a December 2010 deadline, but are expected to decline the option. Stern has said he would like to begin labor talks with the Players Association this summer in hopes of brokering a new agreement that could ward off the threat of a lockout in two years.”
SI writers looking at a couple issues from this offseason: “Millsap, no matter how it turns out. If the Jazz don’t match Portland’s offer sheet, Utah takes a big hit that could put it on the brink of missing the playoffs. If the Jazz do match, Utah faces money concerns that will probably force a Boozer trade. That not only affects the season ahead in Salt Lake City but also the landscape of the entire league.”
Nick Collison, once again out-Twittering everyone: “Just got done lifting at UW despite them playing coldplay and james blunt in the weight room. Luckily I’m a machine and chew steel.”
James Harden’s vicious one-hand slam from Sunday night:
If people in Oklahoma realized why we drafted Beaubois, it was because we wanted Mullens and Dallas wanted Beaubois, but they knew they could get something extra for him. It’s not like if Mullens went at #15 and we had no shot of getting him we would have selected Beaubois, so I don’t want to hear any of this “what could have been/trade we always regret” crap.. cough*mayberry*cough
He is another version of Westbrook with maybe a better shot but is even more raw than Russ. Why would we need another guard like that?
@Kyle
Well said. And I think what’s overlooked is that those were two SUMMER LEAGUE games and while I think Roddy Beaubois is a nice player, we haven’t seen anywhere close to enough to make a judgement.
And didn’t Beaubois hurt his knee yesterday? I remember seeing that on Thorpe’s Twitter blog. Said it looked pretty bad, and he had to be helped off the court.
And you’ve gotta love the KD comments about Oklahoma. We’re really lucky that our budding superstar just happens to be one of the most humble guys in the NBA. Kid just wants to win basketball games, doesn’t care where.
Here’s what Thorpe said:
“# Beaubois down.Left knee issue. Helped off court. Right to locker roon.”
@KingGondo
He was fine. Just bumped knees and he was in lots of pain. He’s scheduled to play in Dallas’ next game.
Marco Bellineli and Jerryd Bayless had similar debuts to Beaubois. Since those guys are superstars now, I can see why Mayberry is regretting the trade.
@Clark Matthews
Zing.
@Royce
Harden’s still money, though, right?
@JD, Too
Haha, absolutely.
Harden has to do it in real action too. He’s looked really good in five summer league games, but it doesn’t matter one bit if it doesn’t translate. As I said in my first Summer League recap, you have to keep everything about these games in the proper perspective. Sure you can see what kind of skills a guy has, but some of them don’t bring that into actual play.
I’m glad to know that when Nick’s basketball career is over that he can always find work writing material for Conan O’Brian.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
i think nick’s funnier than conan, haha
@Kyle
That doesn’t change the fact that I was pretty pumped with the Beaubois pick and a little disappointed to hear about the trade. Also, is it just me or is Darnell Marburry a total hack as a talent evaluator? I get the feeling he doesn’t really know what the hell he’s talking about.
Roddy Bobo (who may or may not become a star, too early to tell of course)is a much more exciting player than that stiff that wants to be called Byron. He’s as worried about what people call him as Swift was about his tats. Not the focus I’m looking for. Harden? Focused, intent, on his way to being a major contributor/starter. We have RW and Livingston so we don’t necessarily need Bobo, but with a strong draft class of bigs next year i think we should have kept Bobo since the draft was so deep in PGs. Krstic/Collison/Ibaka/White are going to keep Byron in the D league it would seem. Has it been said whether Mullens is on the active roster for the season? I’m a Dirk fan so at least we sent Beaubois to Mavs.
I’ll be honest to say that I don’t understand all of the Darnell hate that comes across here. Maybe it’s because I enjoyed him being on the live blogs or the fact that he generally responds to e-mails and tweets fairly timely. A lot of the stuff we post on here is regurgitated from other things we’ve read, and we’re under no compunction to be accurate.
I just wonder how much better any of us would be if that was our job?
I think Darnell does a fine job at the typical beat reporter stuff: getting scoops, offering inside access, tracking the team. It’s the talent evaluation of the product on the floor that he’s no good at.
@Sammy
What exactly has he missed on? Not saying your wrong I just can’t remember any instances where he was way off.
I don’t like the fact that while he can pass on good info and has built up some sources, he doesn’t seem to get how a lot of the simple things in the NBA work.
The DOK will write articles about how the Thunder should be ashamed cause we obviously didn’t try hard enough to get Blake, and how we did this and that and they don’t agree with it and this is what the speculate, and the typical NBA fan will simply ask WTF are you writing? They wrote about Milsap and not one of them brought up the fact that what will we do with all of the other PF’s we have on our team? Do we bench Jeff or Milsap etc… Just feel like it’s simply written down and not well thought out enough.
Granted, new team, new topic to research etc, but I feel like simple reading and research from substantial internet sites that have their info correct would up our product quite a bit.
I’m not trying to be a Pro-Oklahoman person but I specifically remember Darnell writing a piece about Millsap fitting into the current roster and why it probably wasn’t going to happen.
BTW, where is everyone today?
This is the latest in the day we have only had 17 comments… Let’s get some debate going… I’ll think of some topics
1) Do you think Harden will hit the “rookie wall?”
Obviously we need to see how well he performs in the real NBA, but lets just assume he plays smart and saavy as he has done. Averages 13 ppg, 4 apg, and 3 rebounds.
Part of me thinks he does. I noticed how 5 games in a row this week might have tired him (it would tire anyone) and we sat all of our usual guys. However, he plays a slower game than Russ, and will probably get less minutes with Thabo and crew, and can spread it out for the season.
He will be playing tougher D this year than the zone and will have to use a lot more energy on that side of the court…
So what do you think? Can he finish off the season better than he starts a la Westbrook? Or will he sink…
I know its a bad topic but i’m bored at work and we need some topics going haha
I’ll try to think of another
I think the real question is how many minutes a game Harden sees. Westbrook was playing 30+ minutes a night and was the only rookie (and Thunderer) to play in all 82.
If Harden plays in that many a night, I think he’ll have some struggles at times, but he’ll be better for it.
I don’t usually follow Darnell, but it’s because I’m not his target audience. His opinions are just fine with me.
There are a handful of us that are NBA purists. We know what mid-level exceptions are, we’re interested in the CBA, we watch scouting reports 4 or 5 months before the draft. We are the minority. So when Darnell wrote about Harden before the draft, we being the purists that we are, were already up on all the info. However, the normal or casual NBA fan probably found his article very timely with new information they had not known. I can’t knock Darnell for coming to the scene with Harden info when he did because he hit it right on for the largest segment of his demographic.
We knew ages ago that Beaubois was good. In fact, several mock drafts had us taking him early on. So Darnell likes him now. I don’t blame him. He’s a good player, and maybe in the end, we would have been better of with him instead of Mullens. That’s a valid opinion. But of course, he doesn’t mention the fit. I don’t mind that so much.
@Kyle
haha, sorry for not providing more work entertainment. i could use some too.
i think hitting the wall is a real concern for rookies. but i do think some things can overcome it. i think westbrook’s improvement had to with with his increase in understanding and comfort at his new position. essentially, that improvement was greater than any detriment from the “rookie wall”. harden’s game doesn’t need a whole lot of adjusting, so i’m not sure we’ll see that westbrook style improvement. but i think he can be more consistent than most rookies because he isn’t being asked to be the first (or second or third) option on the team. since he isn’t being asked to carry so much of the load, i feel like he should be able to stay consistent at about the level of production that you suggested. so i think he’ll dodge the wall.
Good points Royce and Nick.
I am just hooked on the fact that he isn’t getting a new position like Russ was. I feel like we already know how high his floor his, and while I wont say his ceiling is low, its definitely not as high as Russ’ is. Russ had that room to grow, while Harden can simply get a little smoother, little smarter, calmer, cooler etc.
I think his months reflect each other assuming similar playing time. I think he rides a roller coaster, not of good months and bad months, but simply +/- a few points/rebounds/assists. I just have to think he will be somewhat similar, although I think the man to man defense could wear out his shot some this season.
I just checked my web history…It goes likes this:
http://www.dailythunder.com
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.twitter.com
Do I need anything else?
I’m still can’t believe that the Magic intend to keep Gortat. They essentially agreed to pay out just under a million dollars per minute the guy will average per game. (We paid more for Swift, but we damned sure didn’t know it when we signed him) PLUS, I think they just about have to say that they intend to keep him. Saying that they can’t afford to keep him would do nothing to strengthen their bargaining position, and would make for an awkward 1 1/2 months in which he will still be playing in a Magic uniform. Don’t know if Presti can/will land him here, but I’m not buying what the Magic front office is saying.
I’ll say this about Darnell. Where he is now, from where he was in the summer last year is night and day. He has improved his basketball knowledge tremendously.
I used to scour the Seattle papers (3 of them)plus Sonicscentral and some other stuff to get the latest news and opinion of my team, and the Seattle guys were pretty good. Gary Washburn was fine, and the guy for the PI was good, can’t remember his name. Steve Kelly is a tool, always has been.
Darnell falls somewhere in the middle. He seems to be pretty quick on updates on Twitter and his blog, and his basketball knowledge has improved a lot.
Some of the articles he writes are sort of “duh”, no kidding stuff, but like somebody above said, to the average CASUAL basketball fan, it is news. To most of us, it is elementary. I guess his job is to try and be applicable to the whole spectrum of basketball fans.
@Steve H
yeah, i’m with you. it just doesn’t make sense to pay him that kind of money for the minutes behing dwight. they’ve got to be angling for draft picks or expiring contracts or something. and i know that some people have suggested that they would have no interest in trading for an expiring contract as it wouldn’t provide any cap relief, but that’s only true for this year. gortat’s deal locks them even more into the tax for years to come. its one thing to pay the tax temporarily to compete for a title, but there’s really no end in sight with gortat’s 5 year deal. they’ve got to be looking for a trading partner
@Joe
and i agree with this. i don’t find darnell’s stuff worthwhile, but that’s because i’m insane. by the time he’s written about something, i’ve already read about it, plus 5 informed opinions, 3 uninformed opinions, and whatever exactly you characterize freedarko’s opinion as on the topic. but i accept most people aren’t like me, so they probably gain something from reading his take
I’m just glad we didn’t throw ourselves into the Gortat lottery. What player goes to the finals, then turns and complains about getting re-signed to a definite contender for way more than they were making before? I honestly don’t think he’ll ever be as great as all the scouts have gotten him hyped up to be, and the attitude problem isn’t going to go anywhere.
And I’m not disappointed about missing on Beaubois, we’re setting the table perfectly for a team that will make many, many runs in the not too far away future. Beaubois could’ve been one of those players that’s nice to have, but at the end of their rookie contract you either have to bump another integral piece to keep or you have to let go and does you no good in the long run.
the thunder could be an interesting trade partner for the magic because of our cap space, we could get gortat without sending any salary back to them, obviously we would have to add some future draft picks to make them happy…
@lilrip133
as far as attitude problems go, i don’t mind his at all. he wanted an opportunity to ro prove himself as a legitimate nba center, and he’s just not going to get that chance behind howard. maybe he shouldn’t have been so obviously disappointed, but i wouldn’t characterize it as an attitude problem. if anything, it shows how much he wants to improve as a player
No, it’s not. Let’s look at letting Gortat walk versus trading Gortat:
1. Magic match sheet, trade Gortat on December 15 for expiring contract. This year, they get Gortat for 25 games and Earl Watson (for argument’s sake) for 57 games. This costs about $13.5M (6.7 or so to pay Gortat/Watson, plus dollar for dollar luxury tax). Next year, Watson comes off the cap. Their payroll is in the range of $63M (don’t know the exact #, it’s not important).
2. Magic let Gortat go to Dallas. This year, they get nothing. This costs nothing. Next year, their payroll is $63M. It’s EXACTLY THE SAME. There’s no cap relief versus letting Gortat just walk.
So, if you think the Magic are trading Gortat in December, you’re saying that, instead of letting him walk, they’re paying $13.5M for 25 games of Gortat, 57 games of whatever expiring deal they could get, and a late first-round draft pick (at most). That makes NO sense.
When does the schedule come out, bros? I gotta see the Cavs w/ LBJ and Shaq!!
What games are you guys looking most forward to?(in OKC)
Man, I hope we develope a rivalry with Dallas!
Also…( more random thoughts…)
Is anyone going to Dallas for the 2010 NBA All Star Game? I think it would be sweet to go support our Thunder-boys. How much does that kinda thing cost?
My picks for our Thunder in Dallas for Allstar break:
KD= All Star/Horse
RW= 2nd year Team
Serge= Rookie team,
Harden= Rookie Team/3-point comp.
Mullens= Rookie Team
I dunno about Unkie Jeff, Collison, ect…
Ok, changing subject, is Odom an option for us?
First I’m not even sure he would come to OKC, and I’m also not sure we can afford him. BUT, I think that makes us a real player for the playoffs this year…
Maybe I’m dreamin…
@Vince
you’re right, it doesn’t make sense this year or next. of course, gortat’s contract is FIVE YEARS LONG. you really think paying a 10-15 minute a night backup $35 million for 5 years makes sense? because i don’t. maybe the expiring contract bit doesn’t make sense, i don’t know. i’m used to salaries having to match, but i guess they don’t have to because of the thunder’s cap space. but you just don’t pay a backup that kind of money. that makes even less sense to me than your trade scenario. maybe we give them collison and a first rounder, so that they keep their frontcourt depth with collison, make their run for a couple years (vince’s contract has 2 more years plus a team option) and actually get something out of it with the first round pick in next year’s supposedly strong draft. but the magic keeping gortat long-term just doesn’t make any sense to me
@Vince
Joe addressed this in Monday’s comments. If the Magic trades Gortat to a team under the cap (like us) they don’t have to take back matching salary, and the TAX calculation is based on your roster’s salaries at the end of the season. We could send them the rights to Devin Hardin, one of our first rounders- maybe even a second rounder for 2010- and avoid the tax man, or at least not get raped by him the way they will if they hang on to Gortat’s contract. If they had let him go to Dallas- they would have got nothing. This way, they get something of particular value to them- at least one, much more affordable than Gortat, mid-level first rounder in what promises to be a strong draft for big men.
@Steve H
agreed. sorry to vince for the poorly thought out post saying that they would want an expiring contract. but there are things that we could offer them
@Wilson
I feel the same way.
I trust Presti has a long-term plan for a starting center, but I have no idea who it would be. He seems to want younger players for the long term, so I’d count Odem out of OKC. (He’d never want to come here, anyways.)
No way mullins makes the rookie team. I dont know if the d-league has an all-star game but if they do he wont make that either. I agree on the others though.
What’ya say we sign Ben Wallace? For around.. close to nothing.
@Steve H
Ok, so we’re going to trade for Gortat because:
1. Presti didn’t make an offer during the FA period, when he could have gotten Gortat without giving up any draft picks, figuring that he could just trade for him later and give up players and/or picks.
2. Presti made an offer, which wasn’t as high as the Mavs’ offer, then decided that he might as well pay more money than he originally offered and give up players and/or picks as well.
3. Presti made an offer, which Gortat declined because he didn’t want to play here, so Presti decided that he might as well trade for the guy with a five-year guaranteed deal who doesn’t want to play here.
Any of those scenarios make any sense? There’s a reason that restricted FA’s walk every year. If it was as simple as just keep the asset and trade him, everyone would just match the offer sheet, wait three months, and dump that player for whatever they could get.
I understand that it doesn’t seem to make sense that the Magic are keeping Gortat. If you think they’ll trade him in 2011 — when they may want to re-sign Carter or re-load around Howard without paying tax — I don’t think that’s at all farfetched. But the Magic have said they’re willing to pay the tax. They have playoff revenue from last year, projected playoff revenue from this year and a brand new arena next year. They said they’re going for it for the next few years. I wanted Gortat, too, but he ain’t coming.
@Vince
or presti talked to otis smith. i don’t know if smith is incredibly smart, but its possible he orchestrated this really well. 1, he could have to told presti that he was going to match anyway. 2, he knew the mavs were going to offer the full MLE. so he asks presti to back off and let the mavs offer the money and allows them to think that he won’t match, so that the magic can sign bass unopposed. then he trades gortat to the thunder and actually gets something for him. so not only does he get the player he wanted (bass) by letting the mavs think he wouldn’t match, he gets something for gortat and doesn’t have to pay him. maybe not, but its plausible.
@Vince
As far as I know, and I am becomming borderline obsessive about following this stuff, we never made an offer for Gortat, which was odd because Presti was reported to have called him after midnight when free agents became available. My theory is that he didn’t try to out-bid Dallas because he doesn’t want to pay any more for Gortat than he has to, and he realized that the Magic would prefer to get something for their restricted free agent, rather than nothing. If he had offered 7mill per year, instead of the 6 something that Dallas could offer- we would now be in Dallas’ shoes as the ONLY team that has no chance of adding Gortat to their roster this year. Don’t know if this is what Presti is doing- bastard won’t return my phone calls- but it would actually make sense.
@Vince
For what it is worth (which is probably not much)the two substitute talking heads on Pardon the Interruption both said they thought the Magic matched Dalla’ offer to trade him down the road.
@Blake
I’m being very optomistic with my picks, but your probably right about Mullins.
harden could be the worst pick in the history of the nba everyone got better cept us ibaka might work out in the long run cant see drafting a twelth man type talen like harden