Vegas Summer League Preview
Onward to Vegas. The Thunder Summer League roster will shed a few players and pick up some replacements. (If you want to watch the games, you can get all Summer League games for the low, low price of $14.99 by clicking here or you could click here… shhhhhhhhhhh.) Westbrook is just playing one game Sunday and Tony Durant is a late addition, likely stepping in for Kyle Weaver who is doubtful after injuring his thumb in Orlando.
ROSTER
Russell Westbrook
Shaun Livingston
D.J. White
Serge Ibaka
Moses Ehambe
Robert Vaden
Byron Mullens
DeVon Hardin
James Harden
Kyle Weaver
Marcus Dove (F) – VOO Verviers-Pepinster/Oklahoma State
I’ve always liked Marcus Dove for some reason. Watching him shut down Adam Morrison was almost as fun as seeing a guy go off for 50. Defensively, he’s an extremely gifted player at 6-foot-9, which is why I’m a little surprised he hasn’t gotten much of a look. But as good as he is defensively, he’s as bad offensively. At OSU he took bad shots and was incapable of putting together consistent stretches of offensive play. He played last season in Belgium and averaged 10.8 ppg and 6.0 rpg, shooting 56 percent (but was just 1-13 from three). He’s got ability and I hope one day he catches on with someone. And he’s worth watching if for nothing else because of those incredibly thick, almost mutant eyebrows.
Keith McLeod (PG) – Albuquerque Thunderbirds
McLeod is a 29-year-old point guard that played last season for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and has spend time in the NBA with the Timberwolves, the Jazz, the Warriors and the Pacers. McLeod played his college ball at Bowling Green where was named 2002′s Mid-American Conference player of the year. Probably the most eventful moment of his NBA career was being part of an eight-player deal that sent Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to Golden State and Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy to Indiana.
Richard Roby (SG) – Bnei Hasharon/Colorado
At Colorado, he averaged 17 points and 5.5 rebounds during his career and finished his career at Colorado as the schools leading scorer. He played overseas last year and averaged 13.6 ppg in just 21 minutes a game. The 6-foot-6 swingman is also the half-brother to current NBA power forward Kenyon Martin.
Doug Thomas (F) – Iowa Energy/Iowa
Thomas is a 6’8 power forward that has 50 career games under his belt in the D-League where he’s averaged 10.4 ppg and 6.3 rpg. He played at Iowa for his college ball and averaged 4.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg in one season for the Hawkeyes.
Tony Durant (SF) – Towson
This may shock you, but Tony Durant is the older brother of current Thunderer, Kevin Durant. He’s a late addition to the Vegas roster and at 6’7″, he’s a natural small forward that averaged 3.3 points and 2.0 rebounds a game his senior year at Towson and 8.7 ppg and 4.6 rpg his junior year. Heather Dinich wrote a great feature about Tony and KD last year. Definitely worth the read.
SCHEDULE
Oklahoma City vs. Memphis: Sunday – 7 p.m. CST
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City: Tuesday – 7:30 p.m. CST
Oklahoma City vs. San Antonio: Thursday – 7:30 p.m. CST
Oklahoma City vs. Chicago: Friday – 7:30 p.m. CST
Dallas vs. Oklahoma City: Saturday – 3:00 p.m. CST
I’m not sure we would want to replay that again.
got out-muscled inside, had little to no offensive flow and turned the ball over a ton.
^^ attribute that to a strong defensive presence in the middle
I don’t care what position westbrook is on the stat sheet. as long as he can drive and score and dish he’ll be great. he’s still raw too.
i approve this message!
its a lotta rushing to judgement around these parts … these guys are nba toddlers, let them grow into criticize-able players!
thabeet who? lol. Nice ibaka, very nice.
Finally some aggressiveness from Serge! And 1. Nice take.
2 straight fouls on Thabeet. He could be in foul trouble a lot this year.
Oooo my nice layup.
oh sh_t. fantastic dribble drive by westbrook.
Wow.. what a play by RW. That’s for the haters. Wonder if he’ll be wearing the sleeve during the season?
Russell with a crazy move.
Too bad we’re not sure how to play some D.
Ibaka needs theme music. I think enter sandman like brock lesner last night would suffice.
theres 2 sides to the floor … i expect little from thabeet offensively … but his defensive impact is undeniable … & my whole thing was – to just automatically assume he’d be a bust was surely premature …
but, i will say no more .. i am more than content with harden in the line-up … & it still is only summer league
c’mon guys. it’s not about hating westbrook! he’s a great talent. I think it’s unfair to say you can’t offer negative criticism. I would like to see improvement in how he runs the offense.
Weaver… I dunno. Turnover, rebound, turnover. back to back to back.
Our transition defense is about as bad as can be.
Who is #2?
@Andy
I think Congo drums with some hardcore rap in the background would be the best. Especially with the Dr. Dre they play during the regular season games.
@p
Oh, I talked myself in Thabeet, Rubio and Harden. I was even happy with Curry if Presti got crazy on us… I thought the upside for Thabeet was his presence on defense and I assumed Memphis would snag him because they needed a big man inside. I didn’t think they would trade for Randolph as well… but it’s all the same. We never had an opportunity to get Thabeet as far as I know… I’m still a huge fan, a follower on twitter and everything. But Harden is just a badass. He gives us some swagger and driving ability. He isn’t the answer but he helps out a lot imo.
we’re getting run out of the building now. 60-42.
we’re not doing anything well. at all.
memphis has a ton of young talent.
DeVon with the putback slam!
i agree with you .. i was cool with hasheem, harden, curry, or reke … more than pleased with harden tho
& i feel he fits (“complements”) the squad very well …
i am glad we didnt get rubio, although i was beginning to be intrigued by the possibilities of rubio, russ, KD & uncle running the break …
but presti has the job for a reason … he’s put together something that looks like its on the verge of special
Both teams have talent. We’ve just played 5 games in the last week and a half. It’s not a good excuse but Memphis has probably been preparing for the Thunder for a week and a half while we went 3-2 in Orlando. I don’t think this performance is an indication of how the two teams are going to play in the regular season.
I wish we had Sam Young instead of Robert Vaden
I can’t believe we paid cash for Robert Vaden. So far, a waste of money.
Whoah – Shaun to Harden to Russell. That was nice.
@Daniel
Me neither. We tried to add a sharpshooter which we certainly need and clearly took the wrong one. We drafted the right guy, Rod Beaubois, but we traded him for yet another big who has goods hand and good jumpshot but is very weak inside and is far from a solid rebounder, sounds a lot like Nenad Krstic.. why we need another one? That’s beyond me. I encourage all who paid $15 to watch Dallas’ game yesterday when Beaubois hit 7 3′s dropping 34 points. I know summer league is “meaningless”, but I’d kill for the Thunder to get a guy who could stroke 7 treys. I wish I could bet my life he has a significantly better career than “Byron” Mullens.
Daye is more KD than Tayshon? I dunno about these announcers.
Yeah that’s absolutely awful. Daye is not a pure-shooter by any stretch, and that’s exactly what KD is. Daye is identical to Tayshon in my eyes, solid all-around players with a good tool set. Nothing close to Kevin Durant.
Our problems from last year still remain.
1. No interior defense.
2. No 3 point threat
3. No post threat.
ahahah! Tony Durant just flat out decked some dude. Tony’s got some diesel in him.
Man, I’m glad this game means nothing in the grand scheme of things, because we looked like we had no idea what a basketball was or what to do with one. (ouch!!) 86-57, bad-guys.
How did Thabeet only get 2 rebounds?!?
@Greg
actually, austin (daye) is a pure shooter and little else. he’s a guard in a tall body. he’s a much better shooter than tayshaun and much worse everything else
I probably underrated his shot by a bit, but he’s certainly not a prolific scorer in my opinion, 12 ppg in his second year of college. Durant averaged more than double that in just his first, and only, year of college.. against far superior competition.
@Anonymous
oh, god no, austin is nowhere near the player that kd is. but as a player, he’s a shooter/scorer far more than a defender/glue guy like tayshaun. but again, he’s something like 1/482 of the player durant is