Daily Thunder.com

Please tell me that C+C Music Factory is doing a set again this year! That was as random as awesome, peeps!

I hope my husband takes me to the game tonight.

Taking my oldest son to the game tonight, i'm glad the team has the festivities going on so he can enjoy himself outside and in. This is gonna be a really fun season, I can just feel it and i'm so stoked right now I almost got butterflies like i'm playing with them.

I hope we get to a good start with tonights.. I hope it is a coming out year for the young OKC Thunder team.

@kev
Well thanks a lot... :(

Kidding, of course.

Nix :@kev You have to pick up Bill Simmons new book that just came out. You’d love it.

I preordered it :) Hopefully it will be at home waiting for me. Simmons is probably the only sportswriter for whom I have great respect.

@kev
You have to pick up Bill Simmons new book that just came out. You'd love it.

Where we live we're surrounded by Chicago, Indiapolis and St. Louis (as far as big cities go) Chicago is a crappy place to watch a game (IMO) and Indy has a much nicer arena and the fans don't yell at you and threaten to kill your kids (like tends to happen at Chicago sporting events) and I like quite a few of the players on there as they're ex Dukies. (my friend is actually a Pacers fan)So when I said Indy I knew he already had them on his want list as he has been a fan for a few years.

@Lefty
Danny Granger is an All-Star in the East.

I guess I understand all of those except the Pacers...

A co worker just signed up for this on Monday and he chose the 7 teams also and with my suggestions went this route:
Pacers, Thunder, Cavs, Celtics, Nuggets, Suns (his choice, not mine) and Spurs (again his choosing)

He's not even a Thunder fan but he wants to get more involved w/ NBA this year and I have him convinced we are going to be fun as hell to watch this year. Can't wait for the game to tip off!!

Yes. It is weird. I talked about this a few months ago, but I will rehash it here. Sorry if you have to read this again. I LOVE fast break games. My favorite coach of all time is Paul Westhead (Loyola Marymount). I loved that team. I can't stand it when a PG takes nine seconds to walk the ball up the court. Basketball is a BEAUTIFUL game when players are running the entire time. My favorite game of all time was played in 1991. LSU (Shaquille, Chris Jackson, Stanley Roberts) beat Loyola Marymount 148-141. David vs. Goliath. I have it on VCR and I still watch it 2-3 times a year.

Fast foward to this year. I'm a numbers guy. Offense is easy to track because it's full of numbers. Defense, no one truly knows who's better than who because blocks and steals only make up a small amount of someone's defensive ability. So after listening to one of Bill Simmons' podcasts about this subject I came up with a crude system to score defense. Now, because I can "count" defense, I like paying attention to defense. And with all the games I charted last year, I am doing much better at watching the weakside of the court.

Still, with all that being said, give me a 132-130 game and I will watch it every time :).

@kev

It's interesting to me how you prefer to watch the fast break style games, but you're also really into good defense. I know the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but generally they don't go together.

Lefty :I thought about it for a few minutes, here are the 7 I’d have to follow:OKC, New Orleans, LA Clippers, Chicago, Orlando, Cleveland, Portland.
Not sure why those teams, mostly they are just the ones that are most interesting/intriguing to me. Memphis was a close number 8.

my turn. I would pick OKC, Golden State (Curry and fast break style), Phoenix (fast break style), LA Clippers (Griffin), Portland (deep team), Knicks (fast break style), and Minnesota( they stink, but I like Jefferson - one of the few true post centers left - and Kevin Love)

Disagree about A.I. -

there was a reason he hasn't won a championship . . .

he isn't a leader . . . hopefully KD ISN'T another A.I. . . .

I thought about it for a few minutes, here are the 7 I'd have to follow:
OKC, New Orleans, LA Clippers, Chicago, Orlando, Cleveland, Portland.

Not sure why those teams, mostly they are just the ones that are most interesting/intriguing to me. Memphis was a close number 8.

$90 bucks for a full bank of 7 teams' games? That seems like a good deal. I live in Oklahoma and have no reason to buy it, but I find myself considering which 7 squads I would choose to follow.

And yep! I'll echo Mully: thanks, Royce (and gang) for making the off-season more interesting.

But now it's game time, and I am pumped.

Also, the international one is different from the US league pass (there is no free trial for international). The key difference is that international league pass works with a POS software called RayV, US one uses flash

About the NBA league pass thingie for international viewers, I paid for it last year and before you dish out the money for the whole season, try it out first. There were some serious issues with the software to watch the games, meaning stuttering of the video which was really irritating. I hope they fixed all these issues, it's well worth the money and picture quality if it works 100%.

I'm SO excited! I'm SO excited!
Anyways... I just wanted to say thanks to Royce and Joe for helping this offseason along (in my best Chandler voice... could it have BEEN any longer!) as I have transitioned into a 90% Thunder fan, 10% Rocket fan in just a mere matter of months (and I've been an H-Town supporter since Clyde Drexler). I don't feel right without reading from your site daily, and I look forward to the upcoming (or here!!!) season, and your perspective, articles, and Saved by the Bell references! ;)

Getting ready to head to OKC in about 30 minutes. Thank god this season is finally starting.

THUNDER UP!!

heh ; )

@Keith
I'll bet Royce is thankful he can simply modify the pregame from last week, adding Kevin Martin to the mix for the Kings

Got to attend a Rotary Club event last night hosted by the Thunder at the Ford Center. Sam Presti talked about the organization's culture, the community response and their plan to continue getting better each day. He even fielded a few questions, including a diplomatic answer to why we didn't draft Rubio (he said Harden was a better fit for our needs). He was literally gushing - well, as gushing as he likely gets - about the players personalities and work ethic. Said Brooks is really stressing ball movement. He gave his standard answer about the playoffs in that he's not going to put any limits on what they can do. The part I liked when he talked about player acquisitions was that because there is no guarantee with human beings, you're playing the odds. You hope to change a 50-50 proposition into a 55-45 in your favor. Classic Presti.

@Keith
Probably around 3. I've got something else going first.

Real games, woot! Out of curiosity, when do you think the pregame write-up will be out. I'm ready to start breaking down assignments and matchups already.

I'll be at the game tonight. So excited!

It looks like NBA.com is offering a free trial til November 3 to test the system out. I will be doing so, and let you guys know how it works.

Also, it looks like there is a deal for $90 to choose 7 teams to watch all year. Honestly I just want to be able to watch the Thunder and maybe a few other games, and since I don't like in Oklahoma I'd rather do this than watch on ATDHE with poor quality. Plus you can go back and watch any game that already happened, so you don't have to watch it live.

Thunder fan in Austin here! So pumped for game day! I'll be watching the game online tonight. Go Thunder!

Not that I mind the attention, but I think we're all getting a bit sick of the endless speculation among NBA fans about the Thunder. Playoffs, scoring titles for KD, Northwest Division titles, yada yada yada. So glad the season is finally here, and we can talk about the results on the court.

For now, all I'm going to predict is that this team should be a lot of fun to watch. I just hope that exciting, athletic play translates into more wins this season.

Game Day! Finally. Wish I could go tonight - sending my two sons as my proxies...

Can't wait... Ford Center here I come