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weaver was very close to Thabo last year . . . he was easily our second best defensive player . . .

ESPN Insider says Harden could miss 4-6 weeks. Scary.

@Anonymous
yeah rubio was a known bad shooter, im so glad we didnt draft him

at those guys saying kyle is almost near thabo in defending, do i have to post my thabo mix again? I've seen Kyle last year. He is very decent but nowhere near thabo, in fact no one except nicolas batum and ron artest are near thabo. I spoke as a fan btw. :)

For those of us who saw all the games last year, it's a safe bet that Kyle will fill in well. But, like others have mentioned, he does different things. We won't see him drive the lane from the three point line much like Harden does, and you won't see him running the break. He does handle the ball, but he doesn't fly.

If I were Brooks I would try a stint with Weaver in Harden's spot, and tell Maynor that he may need to look for his shot a bit more, since Kyle is notoriously a little reticent to shoot too much; that plus Ibaka and Collison are only garbage scorers for the most part. Maynor was a fabulous scorer in college. He can pick up the scoring load a bit along with Weaver.

Weaver deserves this, I am happy for him; while at the same time I hope for a speedy recovery for JH,

Hey the team has been fortunate this season, and injuries are part of the game, good teams win even when players are hurt. Tough to feel too bad when you see what Portland/New Orleans/Houston have gone through, hopefully Harden will be back closer to 2 weeks and maybe the rest does him some good, gives him time to watch film and focus on his game

@Anonymous
Some of the commentators are hit or miss, I agree. Trabor is not one of my favorites (unless it's just to listen to him rant about stuff. In which case it's moderately amusing).

@Anonymous
Yep, I had a fairly badly pulled hamstring last year during track season... I walked with only a slight limp but couldn't run to save my life.. It took 2 weeks of doing nothing but basically stretching to heal it enough that I could compete again. Hamstrings are not something you want to rush.. so i wouldn't be surprised if Harden doesn't come back until there are about 5ish games remaining in the season.

justin :Weaver wasn’t that much worse than Harden last year from 3pt range, and he’s especially good from the left corner. Better than Thabo from all ranges, that’s for certain.

Ha, ha... That's very true... Also, Weaver is pretty good defender so it also help!
That's sad news and hopefully Harden will be back healthy for the Playoff...

Anonymous :@crick

I’ve had pulled and torn hamstrings. Walking is no problem because most people walk with their legs fairly straight. Running and stretching are the hard parts because that’s when your hamstring is really called on to expand and contract.

oh...

well, there goes my optimism

:(

hey, someone just posted this over at okcthunderfans.com:

(talking about James Harden)

"He was at the party last night, and he was walking around fine. Didn't seem like anything was wrong with him at all. I'm sure running and jumping may be a totally different story though."

well, that's sounds better. I think.

maybe it's fairly minor after all, and the organization is being very, very cautious and protective. we'll see.

@crick
Just like the "fear the 'stache" campaign in Norman this year? I'd had a similar idea, except maybe we could do a no-shave March in honor of Harden.

losing Harden is a bit troubling, but not for lack of talent on the team. we have lots of guys to step up: Weaver can come in, DJ might get some burn, Ibaka minutes could go up, Maynor could stay in with Russell and let Russ play at the 2...

really, there are a lot of options. Brooks' rotation has been so tight, that, in a way, this is a good opportunity in many ways.

still... the lack of a good perimeter threat is worrisome. Harden was streaky and had many a cold night. But on some nights he could come and BOOM, chalk up a bunch of points for our side. That thing can be critical at certain junctions of a game -- changing the momentum.

GAP :@crick

Maybe it’s just me, but the 66ers home jerseys look better than ours.

yea, yea... the grass is always greener...etc.

;)

Anonymous :
The rest of the team should show support for Harden and grow beards.

haha!

or... the fans could all show up with fake 'hang on' beards to show their support!

@crick
Maybe it's just me, but the 66ers home jerseys look better than ours.

And, a better offensive player than Thabo...

well, since I'm talking about Weaver, I'll go ahead and re-post the pic of Kyle a few days back from the "Thunder Night" in Tulsa:

Kyle Weaver driving against Thabeet in a 66ers game

(note: he's still using padding on the shoulder)

justin :Weaver wasn’t that much worse than Harden last year from 3pt range, and he’s especially good from the left corner. Better than Thabo from all ranges, that’s for certain.

That was one of my reasons that, if we didn't get Thabo on this cheap contract, I wasn't all that worried because Weaver could be a nice defensive specialist himself.

Weaver wasn't that much worse than Harden last year from 3pt range, and he's especially good from the left corner. Better than Thabo from all ranges, that's for certain.

curiously, it was an injury last season that let Weaver get his big chance. When Desmond Mason hyper-extended his knee, Kyle took over as the starting shooting guard.

His first week or more was really shaky. He couldn't get his shot to fall, although his defense was solid. A real case of NBA butterflies. But then he got his confidence and started playing well. He did a great job at the 2 until after the All Star break and Thabo was acquired. Then Thabo took the starting spot. But Weaver still played great off the bench.

Kyle is solid. And he's a ton of fun to watch. Tremendously athletic and great basketball IQ. But not a perimeter shooter, alas.

I hope Weaver plays well. I really like him and have missed him this season.

the happy side to this is that Kyle will finally get a chance to get some serious playing time.

Kyle is a great all arounder. He has excellent ball control and court vision. He can be a true play maker. He does well at passing, reading defenses, driving to the lane. He is also a very strong defender. Maybe not at the Thabo level, but close. He's a better defender than James, at this point.

In fact, in many ways, you could argue that Weaver taking over Harden's minutes could be a net plus -- assuming that Kyle is able to get back to his old form.

But the big loss is the three point threat. Kyle is not even in the same league as a long range shooter as Harden. Weaver can hit the trey from the baseline -- one of his specialties -- but even that is not reliable. Losing James' ability to come in and put up 7 or 8 points in a hurry will definitely hurt.

Our team badly needs that 3 point threat. KD can make them -- and he'll need to. Same with Green. Others will have to step up. Thabo can make the baseline trey similar to Weaver. Maynor has shown he can hit the trey as well. Heck, even Krstic... ok, scratch that. We'll just need a good team effort and try to keep the 3 point shot alive. Because we really need it.

Roy missed about a month.

I hope it's closer to 2 than 4 weeks. If it's 4, then Harden's effectively out for the remainder of the regular season. He could still make the playoff games, but that's not the ideal situation to shake off a month's worth of rust.

We are still playing the nets if DJ and Kyle come in they will look as good as others players.

Tonight may be a different story though. If we get out to a big lead on the Nets, Brooks may go ahead and give some bench guys more PT. That story may change against the Jazz though.

man... you land a little awkardly on one play... and now this

:(

well, this incident hightlights one happy fact about the team: the big 3 -- Durant, Green, and Westbrook -- are so tough. Dang, these guys play big minutes, often 40+, each game... game after game after game, never missing a single one and are still healthy. Sure, no doubt they're getting banged up a bit, but there still in there hooping away. Those guys are built like tanks.

Scott Brooks will play Jeff Green 48 minutes before he puts DJ in for meaningful minutes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to see Weaver too.. in his brief foray this year he looked great. I'm just not sure how he fits into our specific rotation.

good call for those saying that DJ will get some run now - Brooks really has no choice in the matter . . .

crap!

@justin
Yeah, you can pick any one stat to make him look bad. But in (very) limited time this year he's shown improvement in nearly every category. If you just compare Weaver's rookie year to Harden's, in close to the same number of minutes Weaver only comes out a little worse.

I'm excited to see Weaver at least get a shot. I wish it hadn't been because of an injury. I still think this will give Coach Brooks a chance to play around with a few different lineups as he works to nail down his playoff roster.

I agree that giving DJ White some burn in that second unit would make a lot of sense.

@Jax Raging Bile Duct

Definitely. If all he has to do is play defense and shoot the corner three when he's open that's something he could be successful with. Harden initiates a lot of our offense with that second unit though. Does that responsibility go to Jeff Green? It'll be interesting to see how the rotations play out.

@justin

82games.com has Weaver's last two years production by position. SG is the position where he has the least amount of turnovers. Since he may be playing SG for James, that at least bodes well for him.

Roy's hamstrings are notoriously fragile.. it's what he missed the ASG with.

@justin
I could've sworn he had a shoulder injury....

I just lost my Harden.

(too much?)

If KD is not on floor,why not use Serge+DJ?

Maybe he should sub out Green before Durant and leave Durant in with the subs, bringing back Green with some of the starters in the second quarter.

Time for the rest of the team to step up. That is what championship teams do.

very difficult to say what brooks second-unit will look like. So exited!

At least DJ White can add some offense off the bench. But I doubt Coach Brooks will go to him.

@justin

I wonder if Brooks will change his rotation to leave a scorer in with that second group?

@GAP

Weaver has a career tunover percentage over 20%..

This stinks, hamstrings can be a real lingering injury, just ask Brandon Roy.

So Kevin Durant is now the only player on our team who is making more than one third of his 3pt attempts.

This is brutal considering our schedule coming up. I love Weaver's defense too, kev, but without Harden what's our second unit look like? Maynor-Weaver-Green-Ibaka-Collison? Will that team score any points?

from the few minutes of game time weaver's gotten over the last two seasons he really looks like he could be a fantastic 2nd swingman off the bench. He has the talent and athleticism to be a starter for a lot of teams if he keeps improving

Some people don't give Weaver any credit on offense at all. He's a pretty good spot up 3pt shooter and can finish at the basket. Also, he has very good court vision and won't go barreling into the defense looking to score against 2 or 3 defenders like Harden did.

obviously we will miss Harden's offense, but Weaver will have time to get his game in gear for the playoffs . . . loved it last year when Weaver and Thabo were on the court together playing defense . . .