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Crow :The question to me right now is whether there are 5, 10 or more guys taken after Mullens who will have better careers.P>

I know what you mean. Right now I think the following will have better careers: Beaubois, Taj Gibson, Sam Young, Dejuan Blair, Jon Brockman, and Chase Budinger.

The contest is really about Swift v. Mullens in 2 years or more and it might be that Mullens walks away from that hypothetical challenge the clear choice. But since they are both still young the contest today has some relevance, gives some perspective of Presti's choices and timeline.

@Crow
Wow... what a sight...Swift v. Mullens

They trade up a spot to take Mullens. Trade up 3 and they could have had Casspri who is off to a hot start. Not a position need but looks like a player.

The question to me right now is whether there are 5, 10 or more guys taken after Mullens who will have better careers.

If Mullens turns out well, then congrats but the odds don't seem great to me.

If Mullens played Swift right now one on one I assume Swift wins by dominating the glass.

Durant is also being defensive . . .

He says that all practices have been an A+. Really? I wasn't there (obviously) but to even say that after being beatdown on multiple occasions shows he's in denial.

How about "We practiced hard, but obviously we need to go back to the drawing board" or something to that effect . . .

I don't really know why people are on Darnell's case . . . we got ripped (again) . . . what do you want him to say??

at some point you have to take criticism when you fail . . . it would be different if OKC had competed (defensively) against the Spurs (game before) . . . but when you see the same thing over and over, it's going to bother you . . .

hopefully we learn from it and come out and beat them next week . . .

we need to close out on 3 point shooters id rather give up layups then 3s. Next in the 2nd qtr when they were up by 14 we went 5 straight possessions without durant touching the ball, if we are down by 10 or more he should touch it every play even if he passes, at least he gets the defense thinking. Also we should use a lot more pick and pop and pick and roll, everytime durant or westbrook pick and popped with krstic he made it, and krstic,durant, green and white can all shoot well enough to pop. wetsbrook and durant could dominate with the pick and roll.

@B-RY

It's too hard to say right now. Evans played about 20 seconds. Mullens didn't even play. However, if you listed Kermit the Frog instead of Caspri I'm taking him over Mullens so far.

Russell also played about 20 seconds, though I think it had more to do with his 5 fouls than Brooks wanting to play Ollie.

That didn't come up right at all... it was supposed to say

Harden/Mullens greater than Evans/Caspri or,

Evans/Caspri greater than Harden/Mullens

Here's a question... which of the following is true?

Harden/Mullens Evans/Caspri

@Nix
At least we have a rare opportunity: a game in 5 days against the same team, with 4 practices in between. In a game that actually means something.

If there isn't substantial improvement in perimeter D between now and then, THEN I think it's valid to question the coaching and effort. But until then I'm going to hope for the best.

@Nix
My point exactly

Now, let me put on my rose colored glasses for a minute and just say that (even though it could be cause for concern about the back up PG's) I liked how well Harden played while running the offense in Westbrook's absence. He looked pretty comfortable initiating the offense - even if it was against the King's back up SG. He made some sound decisions and when the ball would make it's way back he did a nice job of knocking down open shots.

I also enjoyed watching Ibaka (although I left in disgust after the third quarter). He had a pair of dunks that were really nice and really changed the complexion of the interior game whenever he was on the floor. I'd say that the interior D was better with him on the floor than it was when Brooks ran Thomas, Collison and Green at the same time.... good sign or bad... I'm not sure.

@B-RY
Definitely agree. I don't think anyone really expected Brooks to run the game like regular season and give the Kings anything, but some EFFORT would have been nice. We never found a real rhythm while I was there (I left after three qtrs). None of our shots were falling, but Sacramento's were going in left and right. The problem was they weren't even defended that often. It is one thing when a team shoots lights out in spite of good defensive pressure, but some of those shots were more open than the warm up shootaround!

I just hope it was a mental night off for the Thunder. If that's it, nothing to worry about. They just can't take nights off like this during the regular season. That's what worries me.

Btw, on the radio this morning, Brian Davis said he expects Ollie to BE our second string PG. Looking at the preseason stats, their numbers are pretty close, with the only glaring difference being FT%. Wouldn't you think we're just as good in the short-term, and better long-term, with Livingston backing up Russ?

I got exactly what I paid for last night since I went on free tickets courtesy of the Thunder. What a pathetic display of basketball. I know it's preseason, I know the starters don't care. But those people who paid money to see that effort should get a refund.

On a happier note, I got to sit in the Terrace Boxes last night - they are sweet. At least we could turn on the baseball game for some excitment.

SD

@KingGondo
I understand your point, but you can't say the permiter D wasn't anything to worry about. They lit us up with the starting 5 in. San Antonio did the same thing (and our starters played more that game then they did last night). Actually, the Spurs shot better from 3 when our starters were in compared to when our bench was in.

As per ESPN recap:

"The Thunder lost their last three preseason games while getting scorched from 3-point range at times. Houston shot 55 percent and San Antonio 74 percent in wins against the Thunder earlier this week.

74 percent?!?!?! I'm sorry but that is cause for concern. Teams don't shoot that well in warm ups.

Okay, I'm done being negative. They are young. It was just preseason. I know.

@KingGondo
I think my overreaction on the preview thread was a bit more over the top when compared to Darnell. It WAS an overreaction to a preseason game, but it's hard not to get a bit pissed when Durant and Westbrook get dominated by an aging Desmond Mason and rookie Tyreke Evans. Personally, I thought the Thunder were at their worst, NOT BEST, with the starting five on the floor.

And there is no excuse for such poor perimeter defense, preseason or not. The ESPN recap says all you really need to know. http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=2910220...

I think it's just a combination of our starters not getting tons of minutes, the other teams hitting a ridiculously high percentage of their 3s, and it being preseason wonkiness. Players don't play as hard in the preseason, and I'd imagine especially on defense.

Until this week, I always thought we had solid perimeter defenders. Especially with Westbrook and Thabo. What happened?

Anyone see Darnell's article in the Oklahoman today, btw? Pretty darn critical... He has some valid points, such as that our bench play needs to improve, and our perimeter defense has been atrocious thus far...

But he completely fails to mention the lack of playing time by our starting 5, the fact that two rookies played most of the second half at PF and SG. It's not that he doesn't have valid criticism, but there's no context to the DOK's story. When we beat the Suns solidly in OKC last week, it was swallowed up by Sam Bradford and Dez Bryant coverage. But when the Thunder's bench loses to the Kings for the final preseason game, it becomes "Oklahoma City Thunder ripped again", like Scott Brooks needs to do some serious soul-searching.

Of course it's not fun to lose ANY game, but Darnell's article seems like a bit of an overreaction. The bottom line is that this team is going to have inconsistent games (heck, even inconsistent QUARTERS) until 1) our young players and reserves get more game experience, and 2) we acquire better interior defense and perimeter shooting through trades/free agency.

Ibaka will get significant minutes this year. He's a bit raw, and perhaps over-aggressive on defense... but you NEVER forget he's on the floor when he plays, and we desperately need that kind of impact player. Reminds me a bit of a young Nene--if Serge turns out to be 3/4 the player Nene is, consider me a happy Thunder-head.

@Erik
There will definitely be ups and downs this year for the Thunder, but as someone who watched 40-50 of their games last year (the majority of those losses), I can honestly say they're one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch. Young, athletic, and even when they don't win, they're competitive in the vast majority of their games (very few double-digit losses). I only expect them to be more exciting this year, with the development of the Big 3 and the addition of guys like Harden and Ibaka.

The game was well into the first before I got to my radio. They had Ollie running the point already, so I knew then it was going to be an utterly forgetable night.

Does any video exsist of this Ibaka slam? I heard Pinto describe it on the radio, but I would like to see it with my own eyes.

I buy NBA LP every year. It's really worth the money. You get virtually every game every night.

I live in la and I've been back and forth on whether or not im buying nba league pass. My sole decision is based on my hope for thunder to surprise people. (by surprise guess it means fighting for playoff berth??) The last three guys have really made me question lol. All i needed was an excuse. Think did post did the job! Nba pass owes you a little commission!

Unrelated to the game, and it's likely this has been around a while and I've just discovered it now, but the fact that you have a mobile edition is awesome. That is all. Major points for you (and, perhaps, WordPress).

Royce, as I was listening to Matt Pinto (thankfully OKC decides to broadcast their games online), I got the impression that Pinto was desperate to make something of very little.

The Kings bench played 135 out of a possible 240 minutes. OKC's bench wasn't very far behind with 132 mins tonight.

How can anybody take tonight's game that seriously? I'm a Kings fan, but jeesh, what's the point? It's just pre-season. Now, next Tuesday means something, and I'm looking forward to that.

Oh, and it must be nice to know rich friends.

..sigh