I’m sure you’ve all seen this story already, but in case you didn’t, Jeff Green has basically echoed Kevin Durant saying he prefers to stay right where he’s at.
“This is a great city to play in. The basketball atmosphere is great, and it’s a great place to raise a family. So I wouldn’t mind.”
Honestly, Green’s contract situation is probably the most underrated, underdiscussed thing about this summer. More than likely Durant’s extension will directly influence Green’s. I would assume, the more Durant gets, the less Green does.
Now obviously Uncle Jeff isn’t going to get paid like KD. The question is, what’s a fair extension for Green? In his third year, his numbers dipped some from last season, but his team is playing much, much better and he’s a large part of that. Especially as of late in February and March, where he’s picked up his game some. Some have asked what a proper extension would be is. I’m thinking in the area of $7-9M a year is acceptable, especially in the new NBA economy. If Green were up for an extension three years ago, he’d probably have gotten a bigger number. But the cap is set to drop and mid-level players are going to start making less.
Obviously you don’t want to lose him, but you also don’t want to get roped into overpaying and saddling yourself with a potentially bad contract (see: Aldridge, LaMarcus). Green is an extremely valuable piece to the Thunder with his glue guyness, his strong leadership and the chemistry he ties the team together with. You absolutely don’t want to lose him. He’s part of the long term plans for this franchise and part of what’s working right now. I think it would be wise to make a strong effort to keep him, and by the way it sounds, he wants to.
Commentary
Jeff Green
Bummer. James Harden will miss 2-4 weeks with a right hamstring injury, after he tweaked it against the Hornets Wednesday night going to the rim in the second quarter.
The good news for Oklahoma City though is Kyle Weaver is healthy and has been recalled after a very productive stint in Tulsa. Obviously, this is fortuitous timing. Weaver appeared in five games with the 66ers, averaging 12.4 points, 7.2 assists, 5.4 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.4 blocks in 42.6 minutes per contest. He’s an admirable replacement for Harden and I’m honestly a little excited to get a look at him.
It’s slightly terrifying that Harden is out. His contributions are pretty underrated. To have a guy come off the bench with the ability to score 10 points in a few minutes is something extremely valuable. Kyle Weaver will do a nice job in his steed, but there’s a reason Harden was the third overall pick last year.
News
James Harden, Kyle Weaver
Chris Douglas-Roberts has heard of the Skirvin and has avoided it: “Yes!! We’re NOT staying in that haunted hotel in Oklahoma City. If we were I would’ve checked into the Ho-down Inn around the corner.”
James Harden will be a question tonight: ”Rookie guard James Harden suffered a strained right hamstring when he landed awkwardly in the second quarter of Wednesday night’s win. Harden ran beyond half court after play stopped to try and stretch out the hamstring. Harden played the rest of the game but did not practice Thursday. “It just tightened up on him,” Brooks said. “We don’t know (if he’ll play tonight). We’ll see how he feels after he gets treatment. It’s day to day.” Read more…
Bolts
I think we can start talking about this stuff now, right? John Hollinger says we’re pretty much a lock.
But seeing as I’ve never had an NBA team that I actively root for in the postseason, I don’t really know exactly what it’s like. But I’ve heard things. It’s about poise. It’s about quality coaching. It’s about matchups. And often times, that last thing is really all that matters. How do you match up with your opponent?
And right now, while I’m going to be thrilled just to be rooting in late April for something other than ping-pong balls, I’d kind of like to see Oklahoma City perform well in the playoffs. A month ago, I thought it would be neat just to get there as the eight-seed and get swept by the Lakers. I would have been fine with that. Now? I’m looking at a top five seed and the potential to get out of the first round and do realistic damage. This team is good enough. The pieces are there. But so much comes down to the matchups.
So who does Oklahoma City have a favorable draw against? Who does the Thunder match up well with? We are starting to get a pretty clear picture of the Western Conference playoff situation and OKC’s got 19 games left in the season to either improve or hurt its current seed. So who do we want to see? I’ve devised a crude little formula to try and figure exactly that out. Read more…
Commentary
Playoffs
Kevin Durant, quote machine: On Emeka Okafor’s two airballed free throws: “I was just playing with him on the video game earlier and he was hitting jumpers, so that was a shock to me.”
Frank Hughes of SI looks at unsung players: “Thabo Sefolosha: With all the attention on Durant and the Thunder’s incredible rise from a lottery team to legitimate contender, Sefolosha has been, for the most part, forgotten. But he may very well be the next Ron Artest — without the wackiness. One only needs to look at the players Sefolosha guards to see how effective he is, and why the Thunder are ranked third in the league in opponents’ field-goal percentage (44.0).” Read more…
Bolts
Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images
BOX SCORE
With the way the game started, I really didn’t see a 15-point blowout happening. Russell Westbrook turned the ball over on the first two possessions. New Orleans jumped out to an 11-2 lead as David West started 6-6 from the floor. By all appearances, this was going to be an ugly game. The crowd was quiet, the Thunder was coasting a bit through the first 15 minutes and they were turning the ball over.
And then Emeka Okafor stepped to the free throw line. Read more…
Recap
New Orleans
vs.
New Orleans Hornets (32-32, 11-21 road) vs. Okla. City Thunder (38-24, 19-11 home)
TV: KSBI (Cox 15, HD 715)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.6 (17th), Hornets – 107.1 (13th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.1 (6th), Hornets – 109.0 (19th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.9 (14th), Hornets – 92.5 (16th)
View from the enemy: Hornets 24/7
The Hornets are here blah blah blah the past blah blah 2005 blah. All that is pretty much out of my system now. I don’t really give two poos about Chris Paul and David West anymore. They are the enemy and this is a big game. The Thunder can pretty much bury New Orleans from harming their playoff chances with a win tonight. Oklahoma City would own the tiebreaker over the Hornets and plus, it’s one more game up on them with one less game to go. Read more…
Preview
New Orleans Hornets
Marc Spears of Yahoo! with a nice feature on Russell Westbrook: “Sonics/Thunder assistant general manager Troy Weaver continued to push strongly for Westbrook, whom he felt best fit the franchise with his combination of talent, character and work ethic. Weaver, Sonics general manager Sam Presti said, had a “passion about Russell’s ability to grow with the organization over time.” The pitch paid off: The Sonics took Westbrook No. 4.”
Give KD Skittles!: “I’m good in Oklahoma City. I love it here. I like going outside and seeing the neighbors and they say, ‘Hello.’ They make me cookies and give me Skittles. There are cities you may not get that.” Read more…
Bolts
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images
Get your torch and pitch fork ready because something tells me that there’s going to be some disagreement with this column, which really kind of surprises me since I’ve always thought that it was pretty straightforward when it came to what the Thunder is missing, what flaws they have and how all of that has and will bite them again in the future.
The reason I’m surprised by there being disagreement with this is that, well, every team has flaws. There is no such thing as a perfect team without weaknesses. The trick is for that team to play to such a way or in such a style that minimizes their weaknesses and enhances their strengths. And as we saw in yesterday’s article, the Thunder certainly play very well to their strengths and maximize their talent (you could even argue that they have played a little above their experience and talent level this year).
And just to refresh, the Thunder’s defense, their elite scorer in Kevin Durant and their road record give them three reasons why a higher seed really doesn’t want to match up with them in the playoffs.
But there are two factors that the Thunder lack when it comes to making a deep run in the playoffs and these two factors almost always end up costing a team a series, either early on or deeper in the playoffs. Read more…
Commentary
After a short stint in Tulsa, D.J. White once again will make a short drive back to Oklahoma City to rejoin the Thunder. I hope he likes the Turner Turnpike.
During his most recent stint with the 66ers, White appeared in four games, averaging 23.0 points while shooting 58.7 percent from the field, 11.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.0 steals in 40.0 minutes per game. The 6-9 forward scored 20 or more points three times and notched three double-doubles.
(Also, off-topic and someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I was looking over D-League player assisnment rules and they say an NBA team can send down no more than two NBA roster players at a time. And the Thunder had Kyle Weaver, Byron Mullens and D.J. White all in Tulsa at the same time. Again, I may be revealing some ignorance here, but I’m curious as to if the rule has been changed but just not updated on the site. Maybe it’s because Kyle Weaver was rehabbing an injury and there’s a clause for that. But again, I don’t know.
UPDATE: It’s because OKC is the sole affiliate of the 66ers, so there’s only one team sending players down to the team. It would have been nice if that were defined in the rules.)
News
D.J. White
Eddie Johnson for HoopsHype says KD will be a top five scorer in history: ”There are five reasons why Kevin Durant is one of the top scorers in the game and these reasons will eventually move him into the Top 5 scorers in NBA history if he stays away from injuries. We already know Durant is an excellent jump shooter, but that skill alone does not make him the great scorer that he has become. Jason Kapono and JJ Redick are very good shooters, but are not and will never be big-time scorers. Durant understands angles, timing and, most importantly, how to catch the ball in his range. These weapons make him extremely dangerous on the basketball court. Durant is a rhythm three-point shooter. That is not his strength, although defenders for the most part think it is.”
Russell Westbrook, the football player: ”Bob Stoops was asked to speak to the Oklahoma City Thunder last season. During that session, Russell Westbrook asked Stoops if Westbrook would have made a good football player. You’re not kidding, Stoops said. Stoops sat courtside and watched the Thunder-Sacramento game last week and came away amazed at Kevin Durant’s development and Westbrook’s physical attributes. “6-3, long arms, ballhawking skills,” Stoops said of Westbrook. “He’d have made a great cornerback.” Read more…
Bolts
Well at this point, it would take a nigh historic collapse for the Thunder to fall out of the playoff picture (being 6.5 games up on the 9th seed with 20 games left to go) and since it has been a source of a lot of discussion on the site and around the league as a whole, I figured we could risk a look ahead at the playoffs and have a discussion about how the Thunder might fare once they get there.
I know, I know, I’m just begging for a jinx and said historic collapse. But you know what, I’m pretty sure KD and the rest of the guys are not pouring over everything I write so I’ll just go on record as saying, “I think it won’t affect their play the rest of the season.”
Although many, many things contribute to a team’s success during the regular season and also into the postseason, I’ve noticed five factors that almost always play a heavy role on whether a team has a legitimate chance to advance from round to round in a seven game series. Obviously this is not scientific so if you disagree with the inclusion of one (or all) of these factors, well, okay. I’m sure there are about ten to twenty factors that could be listed but for the sake of time…and megabytes, I’m sticking with five.
That is to say though, I’d absolutely love for everyone to share their ideas and thoughts about what helps/hurts teams in the playoffs and if you think I’ve incorrectly labeled the Thunder as having one of these factors, so if you disagree with me or feel I left something out, comment away!
But without further ado, here are the Five Factors of Playoff Basketball. We’ll take a look at the first three today, or as I’ve called them, “The Good News.” Tomorrow, well, that will be another story altogether… Read more…
Commentary
Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images
You may be sick of these types of stories. The “Oh the Thunder’s so good right now, can you believe it?” articles. I’m guilty of mentioning quite often how Oklahoma City has exceeded expectations and is redefining a successful season constantly. I’m not sick of it by any means, because I can’t get enough of it. The Thunder’s having an awesome season and no one saw it coming? TELL ME MORE.
So today, I started shuffling through some preseason prognostications for a look back on what was predicted for the Thunder and how that stands relative to where we are today. Considering that Oklahoma City isn’t just battling for the playoffs anymore, but playoff seeding, I felt like maybe this would remind us all what an amazing season this has been. I found them interesting, so I thought I’d share. Let’s start with this guy: Read more…
Commentary
(Have an awesome Thunder story you want to share? Want to complain about no Dr. Pepper in the Ford Center? Want to just tell folks how much you love this team? Send it in to dailythunder@gmail.com. This week’s post comes from reader Keith, who shares his thoughts on Scott Brooks, coaching philosphy and what it all means.)
