Thursday Bolts – The Eve of Christmas Edition
A lot of people have Christmas Eve off, but I didn’t give myself that. I woudn’t anticipate any Christmas morning 
Bolts though. Anyway, you should be spending that time doing something else.
Story on James Harden from his hometown paper: “James Harden is so bland he makes vanilla jealous. Ask him a question, and he spouts a cliche. Ask him another question, and he gives you a quote that’s so boring it could put itself to sleep. In a 100-yard dash with dull, he’d lose by 90 yards. Maybe that’s why I like him so much. Harden’s ego could have gotten a kick-start the last few months. The Oklahoma City Thunder took him with the third overall pick in the NBA draft and then presented him with a three-year, $10.7 million contract. Yet Harden is the same unassuming, unselfish kid that thrilled Arizona State fans for two seasons before bolting to the NBA. He doesn’t talk smack, hog the basketball or act like the world revolves around him.”
Chris Sheridan looks at next year’s salary cap: “The Miami Heat are the most conservative in their estimates, basing their planning for next summer’s cap at $52 million. The New York Knicks are using $53 million as their operating number, and the New Jersey Nets are being the most optimistic, expecting the cap to come in between $54 and $55 million.”
The Daily Dime asked all of us what we wanted for our team for Christmas.
FanHouse dropped OKC to 17 in its rankings, but that was before last night: “Interesting Utah would hand an up-coming player such as Eric Maynor to a Northwest Division rival. The Thunder will take it, adding Maynor to its impressive stable of young talent. Oklahoma City does need a boost, having lost five of six. At least third-year forward Kevin Durant, who overall is having a top-notch season, bounced back with 30 points in Tuesday’s tough 111-108 loss to the Lakers after he had averaged a pedestrian 17.3 points and shot very poorly in his previous three games.”
Valley of the Suns recap: “But yet again the Suns forgot about that all-important 90 percent desire that goes into rebounding and allowd ex-ASU standout James Harden — who finished with 14 points — to corral the long rebound and dish it to Durant who drilled virtually the same shot he missed earlier in the possession. Down four with 14.4 left on the clock, the Suns simply couldn’t muster up enough late-game magic to steal a victory. The Thunder played extremely well especially for a team coming off of a back-to-back against the Lakers, but the Suns’ lack of “go-get it” mentality ultimately lost them the game.”
I found this sort of funny. It was caught during last night’s Suns broadcast:
Scott Brooks says the rotation will stay the same for now: “Serge Ibaka, who grabbed a career high 14 rebounds against the Lakers on Tuesday night, has been getting minutes in crunch time. Brooks, though, said he likes his current rotation and has no plans to change the starting lineup.”
WAHOOO!!!! thanks for the bolts royce. I thought I was the only one having to work today
@dork
im at work too
Hi all
Royce, these ARE Christmas Day Bolts for me as it is Christmas Day morning already where I live down in this part of the world. Thanks for this site Royce.
Our little boy woke us at 5am so I’ve been feeling Chrismassy for awhile.
Merry Christmas all, especially those working on Christmas Eve.
I will be at work later. Fun times.
I just watched the replay of the game and watched that video with the cheerleaders. I was hoping while watching they were going to say something more interesting. Oh well.
About to get off work for the week, merry Christmas Thunder fans!
yea driving from OKC to shawnee tonight WOOHOO!!!! good weather times!
Just had an idea Royce you might want to consider.
A Daily Thunder Watch Party! sometime during an away game or something.
Merry Christmas
@dork
Already in the works…
@dork
Hope you make it, I-40 is closed in some places.
At my work cars a struggling to get out of parking spaces
@f5alcon
yea i might have to go down 36th…
people are having problems at my work getting out also.. but onlyl cuz the parked north/south…. p.s. the way the snow drifts blow >.< lol
@Royce
sweet you had better make sure I get notified
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE
kudos to you Royce – new stuff on Christmas Eve . . .
thanks for giving us an intelligent, lively forum where we can share our diverse ideas and opinions
Merry Christmas to you, Joe and Everyone
@cdb77
Have fun out in this wind. Wear plenty of layers.
Merry Christmas, everyone! go Thunder
Agreed. Thanks everyone. Merry Christmas. I worked today and I have to work Saturday. Buuut, it’s double time and a half, so all is good :O)
One reason you could use to justify bringing Harden off the bench is to ensure a 2nd “good” 3 point shooter on the second unit.
2 is bare bones. 3 is better.
If Maynor gets good or Thabo or Westbrook gets better that would help- and give more flexibility.
I was counting Durant and Green as good or should be good 3 point shooters but they aren’t right now by the season numbers.
I hadn’t noticed Thabo has crept up to just a tiny bit behind Harden for the team 3pt FG% lead. Everybody else would rate as well below average right now.
1 good 3 point shooter on the court at a time is woefully inadequate and has an impact.
But we’ll see where it stands in 2-4 months.
There are a lot of elements to a basketball game but I’ll briefly note that I saw that over the last 10 games teams vary from making 3 to 11 3pt shots per game. The 2 teams hitting 10+ went 7-3. The teams at or near just 3 makes a game were 3-7. The Thunder at a bit above 4.5 makes per game were 4-6.
Not shocking at this point but is this just a temporary design deficiency or a conscious direction that is not going to change much?
I can’t see a strong offense without a stronger 3 pt attack.
For the season the league average is about 6.5 3 pt buckets a game. Thunder at just over 5. Couple guys increase by half a make a game and you could get to average or close. If you wanted to, gave them the green light or even directive. If they can’t then you’ll probably need to add some more 3 pt shooters. If you want to be top 10 or better then you definitely need to change the directive and probably get more shooters too.
Maybe you can do well or well enough without the 3 pt game being near average but I’d wouldn’t take a path of even less 3 pt game like they are right now. An average 3 pt game is generally a minimum for a good team and most of the best teams are above average (but not all).