Jay Mariotti with a tremendous (yes, Jay Mariotti and tremendous) piece on Kevin Durant: “It’s important to the NBA, and for sports, that Durant play in May. It would be his first entry not only into the postseason but into a visible role as the game’s next true ambassador. With another foray into the 30s, he’ll break Spencer Haywood’s franchise record for most 30-point games in a season. Many players his age wouldn’t be aware of Haywood, who blazed a path for college underclassmen to enter the NBA early with a landmark Supreme Court victory in 1971. Durant, who fled to the NBA after only one season at Texas, is well aware.”
And the award for weirdest game of the season goes to… this one.
First things first – after getting a nasty cut over his right eye that required five stitches, Russell Westbrook absolutely owned the fourth quarter. He scored 13 of his 21 in crunch time and basically shouldered his team, leading Oklahoma City to a 108-102 win over Sacramento. But on to the strange stuff. Read more…
This game is dangerous. Absolutely, in every way possible, a trap game. The Kings played Oklahoma City tough five days ago at the Ford Center and they did it by scoring almost at will. And at Arco Arena, they are a scary team. They’re 15-14 at home and have beat a good number of solid teams there, including the Thunder once earlier this year. Read more…
(Note: This was written before Thunder night last night)
Normally in the NBA Development League, when the relationship between a parent club and an affiliate team is discussed, it’s only looked at in terms of the on-court product. Today, with “Thunder Night” in the works for Friday night, I thought it would be interesting to look at the inner workings of the Tulsa 66ers-Oklahoma City Thunder relationship. Specifically, the marketing and sales aspects were of interest to me. With that in mind, I interviewed Brian Byrnes, the senior vice president of sales and marketing about how Oklahoma City views its ties with Tulsa … from a different standpoint.
Incidentally, “Thunder Night” will include the Thunder Girls and Thunder drummers, as well as a matchup of former first-round draft picks in Oklahoma City/Tulsa center B.J. Mullens and Memphis/Dakota center Hasheem Thabeet. Read more…
(Good day DT friends. Thanks for your support. Live like you were dyin‘.)
I stumbled across the old NBA Live commercial and I just had to share. It came out right after Kevin Durant was drafted and in it he’s playing Gilbert Arenas in a little game of one-on-one. With Gilbert involved, I imagine their game turned into quite a… shootout. Hi-oh. But I’d say KD’s acting was top notch. He needs more gigs like this. Not too many people could deliver a line like, “I got my own go-to moves now,” with such poise and precision.
The fear was, at least for me, was that Wednesday’s spanking was going to send the Thunder into some kind of funk. Their confidence would take a hit, maybe they’d question themselves a bit and therefore, drop a bad one on the road. But then I quickly remembered this is a good team and it’s kind of silly to worry about such things.
The quasi odd thing though, is that Oklahoma City didn’t play that good of a game. Russell Westbrook turned the ball over seven times (six times in the second half) and only had two assists after halftime. Kevin Durant didn’t have an overly dominant offensive performance (32 on 10-22 shooting). Jeff Green went a mediocre 5-13 from the floor. Yet the Thunder cruised to a 17-point victory, winning 104-87. So what was the deal? Read more…
Remember what happened in Denver Wednesday night? I do. And I don’t think the team hasn’t forgotten either. If there’s one thing to motivate a young, hungry team, it’s getting your butt handed to you. And if there’s one thing to help you forget about it, often times it’s a trip to L.A. to play the other team that resides in Staples. Read more…
That’s pretty much it. Anderson saw his first game action against the Nuggets Wednesday night, scoring two points and grabbing a rebound in 15 minutes.
Obviously while Kyle Weaver rehabs in the D-League, there is a need for practice bodies. I would imagine as soon as Weaver is back to full health, he’ll be brought back and Anderson will likely move on down the line.
(This is a new feature we’re trying out. Basically, it’s all about you, the reader. We’re all fans. We all love the team. And we all share experiences that only fans know about. Have a story about something crazy that happened after a game? Send it in. Want to rant about a guy that sits behind you and yells way to much at home games? Send it in. Are you an out-of-state fan that’s following the team from a distance and want to share what that’s like? Send it in. Want to talk about what it’s like battling the wife for the remote on game nights? Send. It. In. You get the idea. Reader MastrMatt kicks this thing off.)
Being a Thunder fan is fun. It was even fun last year.
Maybe that is my rookie-level basketball fandom speaking, but I’ve had a great time being a Thunder fan since the trucks rolled into town. Even in the face of last year’s 23 win season and being the doormat of league, I wore my Thunder shirts with pride. It wasn’t because I knew what kind of players this group would emerge as this year, but because it was my team. Even before the guys arrived it was exciting to debate what our team’s name, color scheme and logo should be. We were building this thing from the ground up and I was happy to be a part of it. Read more…
Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld says OKC could fall a bit: ”Youth/inexperience may make their final push difficult, but they’ve won seven of their last 10 and haven’t shown any true signs of slowing down. It won’t be easy with 16 of the 23 games coming against playoff hopefuls but the Thunder should be able to survive no worse than eight.”
D.J. White has been sent back down to the D-League. That 66er roster is stout now. Byron Mullens, Kyle Weaver, D.J. White and Mustafa Shakur. White scored 27 last night and Weaver had nine assists. Tonight will actually be a fun matchup as Tulsa plays the Dakota Wizards, Hasheem Thabeet’s team. I’m anxious to see how Mullens does against Thabeet. Read more…
After last night’s fiasco in Denver, I hope you guys don’t mind if today’s article focuses on next season.
There has been a lot of discussion about the Thunder filling out the roster with a legitimate big man. Most of the talk has focused on Toronto’s soon-to-be free agent, Chris Bosh. But, considering there are six teams with more than max money that will be targeting him (most located in HUGE markets) and the Thunder will probably be about $4MM shy of being able to compete with the market, let’s assume he’s out of the question.
The other guy often mentioned as a possible target is New York’s “center” David Lee. His offensive stats are inflated by the system Knicks’ coach Mike D’Antoni implements and some people call him Avid Lee because he plays no defense. Of course, even if those things weren’t true, had Thunder GM Sam Presti been interested in signing Lee, the time to do it would have been last Summer. At that time, with the Knicks clinging to a strategy that precluded them from signing anyone to a contract greater than one season, Presti could have poached Lee at a bargain. Given that he passed then, I assume he isn’t going to offer him the exorbitant contract Lee will command this Summer. Remember, with half a dozen teams looking to sign marquee players and a likelihood that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade re-sign with their current teams, that means second tier superstars will be offered first tier money by franchises who don’t want to be shutout after selling their fanbases on the idea that current mediocrity would pay off in the Summer of 2010. It would be completely against Presti’s nature to pass on a player when he could be had cheaply and then go after him in a bidding war.
So, who does that leave? Well, just the greatest active big man…The Big Shaqtus, Shaq Diesel, Superman (co-opted by Dwight Howard), The Big Aristotle, Shaq Daddy, Shaq Fu, and as his momma calls him (at least on the birth certificate), Shaquille O’Neal.
Chris Tomasson has a great piece at FanHouse on Kevin Durant and his impending contract extension. Tomasson got Durant to really open up about it, even putting him on the spot if the Thunder did offer a max deal.
“Yeah, that’s what I want to do,” Durant said about signing an extension when he first is eligible, which would be after negotiations can start July 1 and until Oct. 31. “I want to be here. I want to be part of this organization.”
If the Thunder this summer offers Durant a maximum contract extension, which would be in the neighborhood of $80 million over five years, Durant will reach quickly for a pen.
“If they did offer that, that would be something that nobody could turn down,” Durant said. “I would be blessed and privileged and honored. But, at the same time, I’ve got to keep working. … It would be good (to sign this summer). To know that I can be with a team for a couple (more) years will be cool.”
When asked if he would be “offended” if Oklahoma City didn’t offer a max contract on July 1, Durant answered, “Not really.” He then said, “Of course, I know I’ll be back the year after that, and you never know what will happen that next summer.” The first part sounds great. The last part sounds a little scary. Read more…
Jeremy Wagner of Roundball Mining Company and I discussed Melo-Durant for the Daily Dime: “You are right, Royce, he was flustered early when he missed the back-to-back layups and received less help from his teammates than the castaways did from Gilligan. It bears mentioning that this game is following on the heels of a 42-minute, 39-point, 10-rebound effort from Durant the night before.”
SI’s Award Watch: ”[Durant] blocked 1.2 shots per game in February, a pretty good indicator he’s learning to excel on both ends of the floor. And leading the Thunder to the best month since the franchise moved to OKC (9-2) is a pretty good indicator he’s learning how to compete for the MVP.” Read more…
I had about 30 ideas for what to name this recap from “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” to “The Missing Piece: Exhibit A” all the way to “Fumigating the Pepsi Center” and “Wait, is this March 2010 or 2009?”
You get the picture.
This was in no way a pretty or enjoyable game and to be honest, I am now 0-2 in 2010 on recaps so if you all want to sign a petition to ban me from doing recaps of games where the Thunder are not heavy favorites, I understand. In fact, you could very easily argue that this was two games wrapped into one so I might even be 0-3. The first game took place from the tip-off to about midway through the third quarter and the second one was the glorified scrimmage from the third quarter until the merciful horn that ended the game. Read more…
Jay Mariotti with a tremendous (yes, Jay Mariotti and tremendous) piece on Kevin Durant: “It’s important to the NBA, and for sports, that Durant play in May. It would be his first entry not only into the postseason but into a visible role as the game’s next true ambassador. With another foray into the 30s, he’ll break Spencer Haywood’s franchise record for most 30-point games in a season. Many players his age wouldn’t be aware of Haywood, who blazed a path for college underclassmen to enter the NBA early with a landmark Supreme Court victory in 1971. Durant, who fled to the NBA after only one season at Texas, is well aware.”
