Tuesday Bolts – 11.10.09
John Hollinger has come out with Future Power Rankings where he basically has a formula to predict the 
heirarchy of power in the league in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The Thunder are sitting fourth (Insider): “One area in which they didn’t fare as well, however, was in the market category. Oklahoma City is the smallest NBA market and plagued by some wild weather, two factors that combine to put it well off the radar for most prospective free agents. But there’s hope: The Thunder have an excited fan base, and Oklahoma City might look like a pretty good destination if the Thunder start winning big.”
More on Jeff Green’s improvement: “At any rate, as you scan down the list at #18 in the league is Jeff Green. He has a defensive rating of 96. That means for every 100 hundred possessions he’s surrendering 96 points. If we narrow the search to only include forwards, he jumps to #10 in the league. If we limit it to just the PF spot, he jumps to #6 in the league. At any rate, the point is to illustrate how valuable Jeff Green is to the Thunder, particularly on defense.”
Etan Thomas, blogging for HoopsHype: “Why does the NBA, an almost 80 percent African-American league, constantly uses terms that reference slavery? Why are the CEO’s of the teams called owners? Why do they use the term “property” of a certain team when referring to a player’s employment? Why is the term trading block utilized? Why all the references to slavery, and why hasn’t anyone up until this point objected to this?”
OKC up to 14 in Marc Stein’s power rankings: “It’s just Stan Van Gundy venting after a loss without Rashard and Vince, but I imagine OKC folks will enjoy reading it: “The Thunder are much better than us right now. They would have [won] if we had everybody.” Yes, we do enjoy reading that.
Sitting at No. 16 in SI’s: “Kevin Durant may have lost a duel with Kobe in an OT loss to the Lakers last week, but the third-year forward continues to impress opponents around the league. “The shot quality is much better at this point,” Rockets forward Shane Battier told the Houston Chronicle. “That’s what’s going to make him an elite, elite player, to be able to score without the volume of shots. I think he can do it. When you see his progression, it’s scary.” We’ll have to take his word for it; Durant has connected on only 19.2 percent of his three-point attempts and 42.1 percent overall. But after hammering Orlando by 28 on Sunday, who’s complaining?”
No. 15 on Dime: “Imagine when Kevin Durant finds his stroke. He’s averaging 24 points a night but is only hitting 19% of his threes.”
And No. 15 on NBA.com: “Tuesday’s OT loss to the Lakers was a heartbreaker for the Thunder, but they made up for it with Sunday’s blowout of the Magic. The next two weeks will be telling, as they play seven of their next nine on the road, where they were 8-33 last season.”
HoopsWorld on OKC’s unsung hero: “So far, that dimension has helped the Thunder immensely as they seek to realize the tremendous potential they are widely believed to possess. It’s early, but the team has played well, and their 3-3 record represents a vast improvement over last season. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green deserve the lion’s share of the credit for their success, but Thabo Sefolosha is equally deserving. His defense is a crucial element of OKC’s defensive scheme.”
John Rhode on the Thunder’s near big week: ”Was this Brooks’ favorite Thunder win? “It’s up there,” admitted a smiling Brooks, who cited the two wins over San Antonio and his first victory as interim head coach at Memphis on Nov. 29, 2008. Amazingly, had the Thunder made one more shot in regulation in a 101-98 overtime loss against the Lakers, it would have beaten both participants in last year’s NBA Finals in back-to-back home games over a span of five days. “That would have been fun, huh?” Brooks said. “That would have been a good week.” The Thunder’s NBA Finals near-sweep also raised Durant’s eyebrows. “That would have been pretty cool,” Durant said. Westbrook said he was excited about what transpired Sunday, but not overwhelmed. “Yeah, we won,” Westbrook said. “It wasn’t like the championship or nothing like that.” Teams get to marinate in championships.
@Royce
Hey, maybe you disagree but as long as people are commenting on your posts your doing the right thing. We can abstain from talking politics if we want to. Someone would have found it anyway because you have a bunch of Thunder addicts following you.
@Chas
Yeah, the only thing is with this sort of thing, people tend to get emotional.
I’m glad there is discussion about it though. I wouldn’t have posted it if I didn’t think it was interesting.
definitely interesting but its nothing but a coincidence. He is just being too picky. like many have mentioned before, thats just the way sports is. Owners are called owners because they own the team. its a little ridiculous and really frustrates me me people try and do this…
If Thomas has a bad game tonight perhaps the primary financially vested person should consider entering his name into the basketball exchange service to inquire about possible interest from financially vested persons associated with other teams.
Ah, screw that. He’s playing too good for the owner to put him on the trading block. Go Thunder.
Ok, I am changing the subject. Regarding the article about Jeff Green’s defense: it’s not good. Period.
Using BB references defensive rating basically mirrors the team. It doesn’t do a good job of individual ability or effort.
Over at BB value you will see that the team is 16 points better on defense so far this year when he is off the court. True, his defensive rating per them is just about 100 pp/100 allowed, but Nick Collison’s is 84, within the same system.
82 games.com has J.Green at 102 defensively and the team as a whole + 17 points better defensively when he leaves the court.
So, Jeff Green still has a lot of work to do defensively. Granted Collison is usually playing against the second unit of the opponent, but the article in the bolts is misguided.
Right on the big picture Joe.
Though, to be as precise as possible, while Dean Oliver’s defensive rating basically mirrors the team, it violates that team spirit by giving guys who steal the ball or block the ball all the credit for those particular plays but gives everybody equal credit or blame for everything else, including when they miss on a steal attempt or don’t get the block. On goal-tending everybody gets an equal share of that blame. Thats whack but the way it currently works in this rating.
It is a podge-podge that impressed when it was prepared (in part because it was so complicated despite this simple explanation) but defensive rating could be made a lot better now (I think) if it incorporated counterpart data to some degree, even knowing that is of course imprecise. Heck defensive rating as is is terribly imprecise so why use that as an excuse to try to do a bit better? Because nobody else wants to critique a “made-man”, godfather of advanced stats. But on this, it needs to be done. So I say it occasionally.
correction: as an excuse “not” to try to do a bit better
and should be “hodge”-podge
sorry. ripo with typos.