Tuesday Bolts – 10.20.09
Today has been declared Kevin Durant Day in Austin. Safe to say, KD is excited to return to Austin: ”It’s a love 
affair rarely seen between school and one-and-done stars like Durant. Making it even more extraordinary is the love goes both ways. With no morning shoot-around scheduled for Tuesday after tonight’s game in Houston, Durant will have all day to catch up with old friends. “I’m going to the gym to see the guys,” Durant said. “I’ll go see the people in academics. Go to the basketball office. I just might carry my game clothes to the gym because I might be there for the whole day.”
A Thunder preview from the Seattle PI.
Dime previews the Thunder: “Everybody loves what OKC is doing — even a bitter Sonics fan has to admit they’ve got a nice foundation in place and seem to have found a winning formula based on patience and smart spending.”
Men’s Fitness has some article about Kevin Durant’s trainer and his workout: “Created by University of Texas basketball strength and conditioning coach Todd Wright, the Vertical Core Training System specifically conditions players like Kevin Durant for the movements that his sport requires. Here are a few principles of the program.”
A nice Shaun Livingston feature: “There is, however, an underlying tone: Livingston isn’t satisfied in just getting back. It’s his career he wants back. Playing without pain, appearing once again on an NBA roster, those things are fine – he won the battle, but it’s the war he wants. Those dreams that disintegrated with his knee two seasons ago have been rebuilt. Hopefully, this time, it stays that way.”
Mickael Gelabale was cut by the Lakers last week, but Elie Seckbach found him and asked him what’s next.
A Northwest Division preview: “Oklahoma City struggled in its first season in a new city. The team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics had a roller-coaster year as its slew of young talent developed. With another year under his belt, Kevin Durant showed why NBA critics across the league are touting him as a future superstar. He’ll join teammates Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook, and rookie James Harden to try to improve on the 23-win season of last year. That shouldn’t be too hard. The Thunder might be a ways away from becoming a playoff team, but they’re on track.”
It’s looking more and more like Desmond Mason will start against the Thunder opening night: “And Westphal also claims he hasn’t ruled out Andres Nocioni — despite acknowledging that he likes Nocioni off the bench. But if you’ve been watching the Kings in the preseason, it’s starting to seem apparent who’s going to get the nod for the regular-season opener against Oklahoma City: Desmond Mason.”
Greg Oden is hurt again cough cough cough.
Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press on the Shock’s move: ”This is not fun to write, but it’s the truth: The Shock is going where it belongs. I don’t say that because I want the WNBA out of here. I say it because I want the league to succeed. When a team in any league wins three championships in 11 years and still can’t find a sizable audience, it is time to move on. The WNBA is a niche product. And for a niche product to succeed, it needs to find an audience and grow.”
Also, the Free Press wasn’t pumped about some of the comments on the Tulsa World’s story: ”You know, they’re just not very grateful people in Oklahoma. Look at some of the fan postings at the Tulsa World as word spread that the Detroit Shock will move there: Iflyfast: “In other news … Vegas just set the over/under for number of years the team will be here at 2.” Ryanoceros: “There is a WNBA?” sr71v3: “Let’s hope the only thing coming from Detroit is the team.” StringerBell: “2020 is a lock now. I heard the IOC told Tulsa if we got a WNBA team, then the Olympics is ours.” To be fair, there were some positive postings, such as: Edelweiss: “Great news for Tulsa!!! Me and my family look forward to attending some games! Thank you to those that made this happen. Tulsa is on the move again!!! YeeHaw!” Awesome that they lumped all of Oklahoma with three anonymous comments. Journalism!
One last thing about it. It looks like former Tulsa and Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson will be the coach and GM.
Eight freaking days. (I think I got off a day yesterday.)
Royce you threw off my internal calendar going from 10 days to 8 days
And I don’t see why the Free Press is taking those comments on a tulsa news page personally. Every story on a news/sports media site gets people making sarcastic comments on every story looking to get a few laughs, most likely including theirs. It’s not like people from Tulsa have any opinion on the people in Detroit.
However, what is the over/under on how long it takes for a Shock player to comment on the weather AKA indirectly say they hate Tulsa? (I hope Detroit doesn’t take my comment as an attack on them)
@Boots
Yeah apologies on that. What happened is yesterday I counted the day we were on and I hadn’t typically been doing that.
But the good news is, we’re not just a day closer than yesterday, we’re TWO days closer.
Great Scott!
@Lefty
Speaking of, on the way home from Dallas I saw a DeLorean just like the one from the movies and the doors even were hatch style and went up. I wanted to stop and take a picture with it.
@Royce
That was me in the DeLorean. Just got back and MAN!! We are in for a good year! Well other than what happened in Decemeber..err I mean going to happen.
Man I loved those movies
Flux capacitor and everything? Are we talking pre- or post-we-don’t-need-roads? Was there a Mr. Fusion?
Based on what I’ve seen this preseason, we’re in for a lot of the same from last year. I think overall we’ve upgraded, but there is still going to be a lot of inconsistency. Green and Harden being the biggest two examples, solely based on preseason play.
I’m excited about being there to see the season opener, especially if Des is starting. He’s going to get a good reception, I’d imagine. We ought to be better than the Kings this year, so it would be cool if we can start with a win this year. It’s a tough opening stretch (as we’ve touched on before), and starting strong would do this team a lot of good, I think.
So what’s the official count on Livingston-comeback-features?
It’s a lot.
I like it though–I’m glad that people are taking an interest and cheering for him.
Livingston was going to be someone special before that happened.
I am glad he is getting back on track now.
@Bernard
He’s still not as fast as he used to be.
@Lefty
For your questions. Yes, post, Yes.
All Deloreans had the gull wing doors. To make things worse, I think they only had a tiny postal-slot size part of the window that opened. They definitely weren’t made to drive to the Sonic.
Is there a WNBA?
Do any of you guys have any opinions on these over/unders for the upcoming season?
http://thepaintedarea.blogspot.com/2009/10/2009-10-nba-win-overunder-predictions.html
I like the Bucks over 25.5, Philly under 40.5, Charlotte over 37.5, and Detroit under 41.5.
What do you guys think?
Definitely the Under on Detroit…I don’t like Charlotte on the over…
@Nix
I’m basing it on Chandler coming back, which I know is crazy, but if he does, they are going to be a really solid team. I really like Wallace, Diaw, and Augustin.
Prepare for the most intelligent thing I have ever posted:
.
@Bryan
Definite Smart Thought right there.
@Alex
True, I was looking at it as him as a liability.
I just think Presti would have brought him in if he was good to go. There would have been no reason to rescend that trade. If Chandler is full health next year than Presti made the biggest mistake of his career (so far).
@Royce
I’ll see you Thursday night with Derek. That’ll be awesome.
@Royce
thanks man…. that means a lot
@Nix
Ah yes. That should be good. He still needs to get back to me on how he’s going to get those to me.
I know off topic but man IW let the pc down. 2 million preorders canceled and counting. >.< friggin' consoles!! and I'm done.
@dork
The rest of us need some translation bro.