Tuesday Bolts – 2.9.10
We are refreshed and restocked with DT-Shirts (sans Zombie Sonics of course). So… buy one or something.
For whatever reason, the Thunder doesn’t draw well on TV: “Overall, ratings on TNT are up. Regionally though, some numbers are surprising. Teams like the Lakers (197k), Cavaliers (130k) and Celtics (83k) are drawing good numbers. But what is the deal with nobody watching the Oklahoma City Thunder (12k)? The Bobcats, another team on the rise, is also not a good TV draw in Charlotte (10k – although that number is up significantly from last season).”
Kevin Durant’s victims in HORSE are Rajon Rondo and Omri Casspi (reportedly). Evidently, one NBA executive thinks that sucks: ”You gotta have guys with OVERSIZED trash talking personalities. A guy like Eddie House or Rasheed Wallace or even Brandon Jennings. Just an all-round talker. Nash, Nate Robinson, Rasheed, and Baron Davis. Now that’s a HORSE competition worth watching. Omri Casspi should be interesting. He looks like he has some off-the-wall stuff. Not Kevin Durant’s boring a–! And definitely not Rondo! Knock him out making five consecutive free throws!!”
A slighty terrifying, yet potentially exciting piece from Frank Hughes of Sports Illustrated on how Kevin Durant’s extension could be directly affected by the new CBA. Basically, the conundrum is such: If the Thunder waits to offer Durant a max extension instead of doing it July 1 like he’s eligible for, they could save as much as $25 million. But at the same time, the Thunder would risk offending Durant by holding off on the offer just to save money. Durant sayeth: “I never pictured myself with another team … I like these guys so much. I like being around them. But I know this is a business here. A lot of different things happen. As far as being on the basketball court, these are the guys I envision myself playing with. But we’ll see what happens. If it doesn’t happen, maybe they forgot or whatever. I don’t know. I don’t know, maybe they got some other things going on.” A lot of KD’s love for the Thunder stems from the players on his team. Remember that. The last quote from KD is pretty exciting though.
Power rankings! Marc Stein with OKC at nine: “My bad: OKC was way too low last Monday and has been hurt more than any team by our recent struggles to sort out the weekly jumble in the middle. At 16-8 during Durant’s streak of 25-point games, it had to jump.”
Eight on SI: “Russell Westbrook’s 19.7 points/9.7 assists averages through the first three games in February make Thunder coach Scott Brooks happy. His average of 1.7 turnovers in that span makes Brooks giddy. An under-control Westbrook — he’s tied for third among point guards with 3.2 turnovers per game — is another formidable weapon in Oklahoma City’s arsenal.”
Sixth on NBA.com: “The Thunder have won five straight to move from 10th to seventh in the West. The streak started with some improved offense, but they had to get defensive when they shot just 42 percent at Golden State on Saturday. Their three-game trip ends Tuesday in Portland.”
HoopsWorld 11: “The Thunder have won five straight – now eight games above .500. Last year they won 23 games – they’ve already exceeded that by six.”
Pro Basketball Talk on Westbrook winning Player of the Week: ”Like many young point guards, Westbrook has been inconsistent. He’s had lapses at the defensive end, struggles with his outside shot, is plagued by turnovers, and has had serious issues finishing at the rim. Westbrook’s True Shooting is currently at 48%, which is one of the worst marks in the league for a starting point guard. Up to this point, Westbrook’s talent has allowed him to be a successful player despite his offensive inefficiency. If he figures his offensive game out, he could become one of the league’s best guards.”
Just a really fun column from Lang Whitaker of SLAM about All-Star games past and present.
Jonathan Givony of Draft Express with a very nice feature on Latavious Williams: “The interesting thing about Williams is that he does not seem to get caught up in the selfishness that often plagues the D-League. While he surely deserves credit for this, this is just as much a testament to his coaching staff (led by the well-respected Nate Tibbetts) and the entire Tulsa organization, as they refused to just spoon-feed him minutes early on in the year and really made him earn his playing time by doing things the right way. He’s bought into being a role player, which is a good sign since that is almost certainly what he’ll be if he’s able to carve out a niche for himself in the NBA. His feel for the game is still quite limited, but he’s not a terribly turnover prone guy and seems to understand his limitations.”
Darnell Mayberry on the Thunder beating hurt teams: ”Oklahoma City is 8-4 this season against teams playing without its best player or a key contributor. The Thunder will face a Blazers team tonight without All-Star guard Brandon Roy, who is saddled with a strained right hamstring. Portland is also without big men Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla because of knee injuries that cost both the rest of the season. How the Thunder continues to capitalize on opponent’s misfortune could go a long way in determining whether Oklahoma City crashes the playoff party.”
Durant’s a long, skinny, smooth scorer who does a lot of damage from mid range.. hard to avoid the Gervin comparisons.. Ice is a hall of famer and had four scoring titles in five years, it’s not exactly an insult to Durant.
Im not thinking its an insult but thats all they notice him for is scoring nothing else
@dork
I dispise when games are on KSBI as well…mostly cause I can’t get that channel
On KD’s upcoming contract negotiation: It’s pretty clear that player salaries are going to drop dramatically along with the overall cap and possibly a hard cap without luxury tax. If Kevin’s goal is to continue to grow w/ the current core, Presti will need to explain the domino affect a max contract in today’s terms would mean to keeping Green/Westbrook/Hardin/Surge and continued growth in the future. I would hope KD opt to take less money a la Tom Brady in order to allow the team to be retained around him.
I get the feeling KD will do whatever it takes to stay with the guys on this team. They are his best friends. He likes the people more than the place like a poster said somewhere. He gets along perfectly with this team. I think he wants to keep that more than anything.
We’ll see what happens. After what Carlos Boozer did to the Cavs I wouldn’t trust anything a pro athlete says until they actually do it. These guys have agents, other business interests, etc. whispering in their ear and influencing their decisions, it’s not always so cut and dry as ‘I want to play with these guys’. Kevin Durant is supposedly cut from a different cloth, but I’m still skeptical..
I believe KD is cut from a different cloth sam presti said he is the same kid they drafted three years ago hes not going anywhere
I meant it’s unlikely that a pro athlete will take less than market value.
I trust Presti, and I think he will be fair and not try to hold out and low-ball KD. It really gains him nothing to save money which he appears perfectly happy not to spend elsewhere, and risk the immediate and long-term future of our franchise. However, that being said, if the rules are about to change dramatically for salaries and luxury taxes, he wouldn’t be the coolly analytical GM we know him to be if he jumped into a max contract ahead of the change?
If anybody doesnt know KD does not have an opt out clause in his contrac he has team option i dont think sam presti drafted him to let him go three years later
I think that last sentence needs a “would he?” to end it.
It’s a huge dilemma. The max contracts signed under this CBA will be anchors around the necks of many a team in the years to come if max salaries and the cap are actually slashed by millions. How do you justify not paying Durant? How do you justify paying him, especially if you are OKC? And what is his market value? If OKC doesn’t sign him under the current agreement, it’s not as though another team would be able to pay him more…. He would probably have to take less to leave, even then, because OKC would still have whatever bonus they could offer their own FA under the new CBA. He would have to be so miffed that he was stiffed that he was willing to leave money on table.
I still doubt sam presti lets the main part of his core go his franchise player u guy need to stop listening to the media hes not going anywhere
Fantastic post over at BlazersEdge about KD
http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/2/9/1302737/how-good-is-kevin-durant
Look at where Russ is on that same chart.
@justin
At least he’s in the top 50! Nowhere to go but up, baby!
@justin
Yeah, I know. Point guards are going to be stiffed a bit by this chart since it doesn’t take assists into account at all. Chris Paul doesn’t even register as a high usage player according to this chart. It’s pretty much looking strictly at your value as a scorer, which makes LeBron’s placing even more insane considering his assist percentage.
Btw, I don’t know if this has been linked here yet. If you take the time to read the post and figure out how to read the thing, this is a pretty amazing tool.
http://www.hoopdata.com/recent.aspx?aid=139
@crick
Exactly. The Thunder are about decidedly NOT a never-know-what-you’re-gonna-get-game-to-game team. They are actually one of the most consistent teams in the league. The Thunder win almost all of the games they are supposed to (and win them by good margins most of the time) and show up and play well against the good squads too.
Yet the BlazersEdge pregame opens:
UNTRUE.
The Thunder lost to the Kings and Clips in the first two weeks of the season, but since then their only bad loss was two weeks ago home against the Bulls. (The only other arguable bad losses would be @MIL or @MEM, but road games against ~.500 teams aren’t gimmes).
The Mighty Blazers, meanwhile, have lost road games @GSW, @NYK, @LAC, and @WAS, and blown a home game against Philly.
Who’s the inconsistent team again?