Daily Thunder.com

*and let them know...
my bad, yallz...

I just joined the bracket group, to. I won my bracket last year, (only 24 entries), but I'm still stoked to see what happens!
BTW...
Hey Royce, I went 19-1-1 this season in The Durantula Daily Thunder Fantasy League II. The Playoffs just started today. Just thought I'd update the rabid fans know wanted to know about my dominance.

joined the bracket challenge too :p

Put some detail about Westbrook's mid-range results in the recap of last night's game, if you are interested and haven't seen it yet.

Mullens taken over Blair (verdict down the road).
Doubt they'd pay and pledge to play Craig Rhino Smith, but who knows.

This guy seems to like to rebound and score too.
http://www.ridiculousupside.com/2010/3/15/1373456/...
Such evaluations are in the hands of those paid to make them. Don Nelson has made a couple D leaguers payoff where nobody else bit hard enough though.

I remember in the NBA earlier. Didn't understand really why he dropped away. Insider info would probably "explain" it. We'll see if he gets another chance, who does it and whether it works.

Same heavy D-league follower / writer put in a plug for a Shakur call-up.

Krstic doesn't rebound much and loses his rebounding match-up but I guess you could say it is a moderate amount and his perimeter guys were intended to help out (probably more than the norm) and they do it.

Toronto doesn't have enough perimeter rebounding help. You can over-rely on bigs for rebounding. You can argue about over-relying on perimeter help with rebounding.

Wait n see how the rebound battle goes in the playoffs for OKC, maybe Toronto.

heh, gotta watch Skeets and Tas at the Basketball Jones:

Basketball Jones: Skeets and Tas - Bump, bump

They put up the funniest pics to accompany the weekly summary.

Some major Thunder love-age there. Tas got tickets to see the Thunder play in Toronto -- and he's excited to see OKC play his hometown team!

interesting factoid: LeBron has never made 20 field goals in a game (brought up when talking about Skola's amazing performance last night)

for anyone who watches this -- do you think Skeets looks a bit like Steve Nash? Now the voice is totally different, but the face... All he needs to do is grow the hair out all long and stringy, heh.

@Sparks

It's more than just a lightbulb turning on. He's a true project in every sense of the word. I recall an article that quoted Mullens during the offseason. Mullens told the interviewer that Nick Collison taught him that he had to use an arm bar when defending a player in the post and that it was a foul to put your hand on their back.

Nevermind basketball instincts... I don't want to think about what condition those are currently in and how much we can reasonably expect them to improve.

He has a long way to go, I'm afraid. Can it happen in a couple years? Who knows, but I agree with you that if it doesn't, I won't be holding out hope that he will come online and suddenly be a solid contributor for this team.

Marc Stein's new power rankings: OKC at #6

Marc sez:

"One problem with all the justified slobbering over Durant: We've all shortchanged Westbrook. KD's point guard has racked up seven 20/10 games since Feb. 1, tied with LeBron for tops in the league in that span."

I thought this was an interesting article:

http://bit.ly/dvkzxR

It's about how bad Bargnani is at rebounding, but it has a list of 7' centers who have averaged +30.0 MPG but had low rebounding averages. He mentions Bargnani and past-prime Kareem made the list twice but fails to mention (notice?) that Nenad made the list twice as well.

He then discusses how OKC is a good rebounding team and that leads to wins (comparing win% among best rebounding teams) and lists some bad rebounding teams and says that leads to losing (again based on win%). Therefore, having a bad rebounding 7' center is bad.

Except for OKC, I guess. Just a weird article that seems to miss the boat while trying to prove a pretty easy point: Bargnani can't rebound and it's helpful when a tall guy can rebound. (I know Nenad has averaged fewer than 30.0 MPG this season. Beside the point.)

Mullens is skilled and a top-tier athlete at his position. What he lacks is toughness, and an understanding of what someone his size should be doing on the court. If the lightbulb comes on he could be a starter in two years, if not he'll probably be out of the league.

I am still holding out hope for mullens, even if he just becomes a Kristic replacement in 2 years. I have not really watched him play but if it's just lack of effort holding him back then that sucks. Not much that can be done to change that, it's all on him. However it is important to keep in mind that he is just a 19? year old kid, and his work ethic can get better as he matures, it might not be likely but it does happen.

sheesh, I haven't posted a pic today, wassup with me?

here:

The best game pic from last night

Kevin and C.J. seem to be doing some kind of wild dance from the '60s. They must have thought they were at Woodstock, heh.

;)

hmmm... are they making excuses?

Banged-up Jazz can't slow streaking Thunder

the article starts off this way:

"They spent the previous night in a supposedly haunted hotel. Among the game's three referees was one many with the Jazz felt cost them a game last time they were here.

And, piling on, they were missing three injured rotation regulars, including two starters.

Utah seemed doomed, even before play got underway."

-----------------------------

oh please, don't tell me they're going that route

but... if you read on, you'll see that they mostly rebuff all that stuff and actually credit OKC's hot play for the win. good for them.

Jax Raging Bile Duct :@GAP@crick

yeah, we’re about to get banned for going OT.

Maybe someday, some smart guy will make an extension that turn autoplay off.

oh yeah... basketball...

how 'bout them Thunders!

;)

Anyone see this Thunder playoff article from Susan Bible in Hoopsworld? Don't remember seeing the link here. http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=15555 The girl does like her stats.

@GAP

yeah, we're about to get banned for going OT.

@crick

Maybe someday, some smart guy will make an extension that turn autoplay off.

Jax Raging Bile Duct :@crick

Dude, the Hoopsworld page runs an auto-play advertisement. It plays in IE. It is completely blocked in my chrome browser running Adsweep. It is completely blocked in my firefox browser running Adsweep.
I know what an auto-play video is. And yes, they’re annoying.

thank Jax, but it is the auto-play that is driving me crazy, not the ads.

sure, ads are annoying. But I am not trying to escape ads. I am trying to escape auto-play videos. I don't want the video's removed. I just want the option to play them myself and not have them force fed upon me.

But thanks for offering the help.

LOL at Jax and crick....:-)

@crick

Dude, the Hoopsworld page runs an auto-play advertisement. It plays in IE. It is completely blocked in my chrome browser running Adsweep. It is completely blocked in my firefox browser running Adsweep.

I know what an auto-play video is. And yes, they're annoying.

@MastrMatt
Being from Big 10 country, I thought Mullens could work out. He was 6th man of the year, and certainly looked like he should have been starting, especially in the second half of the season. But you're right in that he looks terrible now.

On the Millsap note, it probably didn't help that he was essentially being asked to play center at 6'7". Long arms or no, that's just not a lot of body for a center. He's worth his money at PF.

@Keith

In the limited time I've seen Mullens grace the court, plus some of the DLeague stuff I've seen, it appears that he just kind of stands around and watches a lot. He is not very active without the ball and almost looks lazy. I was concerned with that pick when we made it. He barely sniffed the floor in college, so I was hoping getting some reps in the D league would help him. It really hasn't. Shooting 43% as a big man that plays close to the basket is pathetic. If he is going to pan out, he needs to really step up his activity level on offense and get up and down quicker to establish better positioning.

On a different subject: Milsap did not look very good last night. I'd rather have Nick. I'm glad we didn't overspend to get that guy last year in FA. He's a good fill-in for Boozer, but I think I'd rather have Collison and his hustle plays.

@MastrMatt
Thanks, I just read a little to fast sometimes. :-)

@GAP

First link for the BOLTS is the bracket challenge thingie. I just joined and filled one out. I've watched about 10 minutes of college basketball all season, so I litterally just guessed. Oh well ... maybe I'll win. I used to do a bracket challenge on a different site and one of the members used a chicken to pick the winners. The chicken won our little group (5 people). I actually watched games that year and felt confident. I came in 4th. Perhaps blind luck will see me through.

Jax Raging Bile Duct :@crick

http://adsweep.org/
That extension will get rid of almost everything. I use google chrome, but it will also work with Opera and Firefox.
If you use IE, you’re on your own.

thanks, but that won't do it

see, the problem is with auto-play video. Some of those videos are things that I really might like to watch. Some are not. It should be up to me to decide.

The problem with that screaming ad I was complaining about was that it was not an independent advertisement, but just the front of a legitimate video where an interview with an NBA player was being auto-run.

This is similar to, for example, when nba.com puts up videos -- say interviews with Scott Brooks or players after a game -- and you go to watch the video. But first you have to watch a 15 sec or maybe 30 sec ad before the actual content you're interested in comes up. You are stuck with the ad or nothing at all. There's no "skip over this ad" feature on the player.

The adsweep mechanism you pointed out *MIGHT* work in blocking out some content. I say 'might', because it's using a heuristic that is not foolproof. But even in those instances where it works, it is merely blocking out the video entirely. I don't want video links removed from web sites, because I might want to watch them.

I don't see how this problem can be fixed from the user end. It's got to be from the content provider side. They have got to realize that shoving stuff down the user's throat is not cool. Providing video links is nice. But it should not auto-play. Allow the user to look at the link and click 'Play' himself, if it is something of interest.

Unfortunately, when I do decide to play a video, I might still have to suffer through an ad, because they are often stuffed at the front. But at least in that situation, I'm prepared for it. Having the ad start blaring at me when I visit a site and am in the middle of trying to read an article there, is another thing entirely.

@GAP
In time, right now he's a 2nd rate Krstic. Which is especially sad because Krstic hasn't been that good this year in the first place (props for his play lately thought).

Mullens is extremely soft and has yet to pick up the defensive system or respond to coaches telling him to get inside. I was excited about getting him at the draft because he is still one of the 5 most talented players in the draft. As it is, he looks a lot like a guy without the dedication to make it in the NBA. I hope he proves me wrong before summer 2011, else we probably don't pick up his contract option.

Looking at the final 17 games, I think the absolute worst we could expect would be 7-10. Beat Houston, Portland (2x), and Memphis and suddenly we're looking at 11-6 and 52 wins.

Anything above 11 wins would be absolute gravy. Wouldn't be surprised if we beat Boston or Utah on the road either. But it's very important that we win these next 3 games and get off to a good start going into the tough stretch ahead.

@Keith
True, I guess it's from him shooting so much instead of playing in the post area. He still could be a glorified Krstic if you ask me IMO.

Now I know it is ridiculous, but is anyone else still holding out unreasonable hope that Phoenix falls out of the top 8 and we get a lottery pick?

@GAP
About Mullens, you wouldn't want him doing what he does in D-league either. He's a 43% shooter there, but still shoots enough to get 15 ppg. Not exactly a fit even if we gave him that opportunity up here.

It's worth pointing out that even though the Thunder are only 2 games ahead of Portland, they've also played 4 less games than them and those 4 extra games that the blazers have are all losses. So its not as bad as the box score makes it out to be.

Maybe I missed something, but I would like to get in on the bracket group.

@crick

http://adsweep.org/

That extension will get rid of almost everything. I use google chrome, but it will also work with Opera and Firefox.

If you use IE, you're on your own.

Joined the bracket group - thanks Royce.
In the final four of the DT fantasy league - thanks Royce.

Took my 11 yr. old son to his first NBA game last night, he's up for spring break. We sat in Section 119, last row, aisle seats by the handicapped seating. Great view especially since Thunder offense played on our end for the 2nd half. He had a blast. - thanks Thunder.

Darnell points out something that I, strangely, had overlooked last night:

"Who among you when the season started would have thought the #OKCTHUNDER, w/ 17 games to go, would have an identical record as the Celtics?"

Utah is my least favorite team after last night, the finger incident, the old rivalry from the Hornets days, dirty-whinning play, and after Russ went down early last night when he ran into Williams and had to go to the bench Boozer and co. exchanged high fives and I saw Boozer say "one down" to his teammates.

I HATE UTAH

trying to read that Hoopsworld article when an ad started screaming out at me...

auto-play video is the scourge of the internet

it's pure evil

It's one thing to embed links to videos on a site. Because you can then choose to watch it or not. But cramming a video on a user as soon as he enters a site -- this is obnoxious beyond belief.

I don't know what can be done about it. You can complain to the website administrator, but that's usually just a complete waste of time. You can avoid sites that do it, but too often that will include sites with other content that you really would like to access.

Ugh

Just joined the DailyThunder bracket group! I had to LOL at that dude saying he was abducted by aliens...almost has hard as I lauged when he got 3 dunks blocked last night.

If they play Utah in the playoffs they have a good chance. Unless Sloan pulls a coaching victory. I don't think of him as being a master of surprises but I can't recall anything specific about his playoff performances.

@Nax
I guess you're right, but it just seems like a guy who's always playing devil's advocate to me.

@GAP
I think he goes out of his way to not sound like a homer.

@Elegy444
What I liked was, that was the one call Boozer didn't argue all night. He knew he got blocked clean and could only just laugh about it.

I flew out of my seat when Ibaka shut down Boozer at the beginning. The look Boozer gave him afterwards was disbelief.

From Darnell: "If you took the names off the back of the jerseys and didn’t know anything about the Thunder, tonight you would have thought Westbrook was the franchise player and Kevin Durant was the sidekick."

Really?! I mean Russ had a great game, but REALLY???

We love you Hollinger!

Don't get me wrong because I like Jeff and his game, but 2rebs is highly unacceptable. Aside from that i'm still on an emotional high from last nights game. I really don't read Darnell's stuff that much anymore, he sounds like (most of the time) as if he's a little scared to believe in this team that much.

It's crazy that in the Hoopsworld story, they didn't mention Harden in the homerun picks list. Bravo for Livingston, i've said many a time that I was pulling for him and still am. I only wish that my other guy (Mullens) could do half of what he pulls off in the D League in our games.

That block by Weaver was crazy nice!

Perfect= stats for punking Boozer