In any discussion about what the Thunder will do with their four draft picks in the upcoming draft, the topic always turns to “trading up.” As it stands, Oklahoma City possesses the 21st, 26th, 32nd, and 51st picks. So, out of the sixty players that will be selected on June 24th, 7% will theoretically belong to our local franchise.
A quick glance at the team roster suggests they do not need that many rookies. There are eleven players with guaranteed contracts, and that is if the team cuts Kyle Weaver (unlikely) and Mustafa Shakur (probable) who have non-guaranteed deals. If they keep both first round picks, using neither to draft a foreign player who can be stashed overseas, Sam Presti is looking at fourteen of the fifteen roster spots taken prior to any decisions on the second rounders, or free agency.
For argument’s sake, let’s say they do use all the picks they possess, they will be replacing the only players older than thirty (Etan Thomas and Kevin Ollie) with even more youngsters with no NBA experience. They will join the list of players with more D-League experience than NBA playing time: D.J. White and B.J. Mullens. Do the Thunder really need to keep stocking the 66ers roster with guys on their payroll?
It doesn’t take a genius like Sam Presti to figure out that the team may be a little too draft pick rich. So what options are there? Read more…
(UPDATE: KD says just kidding you guys: “MAN I WAS JOKING IM NOT GON B IN THE DUNK CONTEST.” I guess I don’t really get KD’s sense of humor, but regardless of that, I guess he wasn’t serious about that.)
Last night on U-Stream, KD, while wearing some kind of James Harden mask or something, announced that he’s game for next year’s dunk contest. He said he wanted to do it in Dallas this past season, but was a little nervous about it.
He said, “I know I got some dunks that I coulda did better than what those guys did.” So start brainstorming ideas for KD. I think he should stand flat-footed, and dunk from the free throw line without ever jumping. Just use his go-go-gadget arms to stretch out and flush it. But whatever he does, it’ll be cool seeing him there. However, everybody can change their mind though (see: LeBron, dunk contest, 2010) so don’t get your hopes too high.
Comparing LeBron’s situation to KD’s: ”I look at the Oklahoma City Thunder getting Kevin Durant, and building around him. If you consider the fact that Kevin Durant will be in LeBron’s class in maybe another year, they’ve set a model for how young teams should be built. LeBron should have been no exception. When you consider the fact that he’s only 25 years of age, has been in the NBA since he was a teenager, and yet the Cavaliers haven’t had a true “nucleus”, it’s been LeBron and his teammates. Looking at Oklahoma City, it’s Kevin Durant, Russel Westbrook and Jeff Green, complimented by James Harden, Thabo Sefolosha and Serge Ibaka.”
Derek Fisher has best tested this postseason: ”First there was the youth of Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, then the brilliance of Utah’s Deron Williams, the reigning “Best Point Guard in the NBA,” at least until an injured Chris Paul gets the chance to fight for the right. None other than a two-time most valuable player, Steve Nash of Phoenix, happens to be looming on the horizon for the Lakers’ Derek Fisher. Little ‘ol one-eyed Steve, who didn’t let six stitches and a swollen and shut right eye stop him from guiding the Suns to the Western Conference finals. Talk about the trilogy of point-guard terrors.” Read more…
If I asked you what rookie point guard, in this phenomenal rookie class of point guards, had the best assist-to-turnover ratio, who would you guess? If I then went on to tell you that it wasn’t even CLOSE, that one player just ran away with it, would that make you picture only a handful of possible candidates?
Darren Collison? Ty Lawson? Brandon Jennings?
Nope. Try, Eric Maynor.
And it wasn’t even close. The closest rookie point guard in assist-to-turnover ratio behind Maynor’s 3.13 stat is Denver’s Ty Lawson at 2.48. And before you say, well Lawson got a ton more minutes than Maynor did so he had more opportunities for turnovers (wouldn’t the same be said for assists, too? I digress…), you need to understand that Lawson only averaged 5 more minutes a game than Maynor. Read more…
Typically this isn’t news, but it’s the offseason and not a lot is happening. It’s pretty common for players, especially older ones with more miles, to have some sort of minor surgery to clean up a nagging injury after the season. In this case, Nick Collison had arthroscopic knee surgery on his right knee yesterday.
He’s beginning rehab immediately and should be able to resume his regular offseason training later this summer.
Landry Fields, senior draft prospect from Stanford, said this in his Draft Express blog entry: “Next weekend I have my first NBA work out with the Oklahoma City Thunder. So naturally, my next blog will be insight into an NBA workout and what all the draft eligible players have to go through when they start flying from city to city. Should be fun! Catch y’all next week!” Read more…
In case you missed yesterday’s look at James Harden, well, here’s a link. Because today is all about the man, the myth, the legend, Serge “people love me so much that they still continue to give me tons of nicknames” Ibaka.
Serge Ibaka – 6.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.33 blocks, 54.3 FG%, 63.0 FT% in 18.1 minutes a game
Playoffs - 7.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.0 blocks, 57.1 FG%, 70.0 FT% in 25.5 minutes a game
He only played 18.1 minutes a game and led the team in blocks. He only played 18.1 minutes a game and was ranked #1, leading all rookies, in blocked shots for the 2009 Rookie class and finished in the Top 20 in the league in blocks (#19). He was third on the Thunder in rebounds, first in FG% and 2PT% for players who took at least 5 shots a game (despite being 8TH on the team in minutes played) and was the 4th best rebounder from his rookie class despite averaging fewer minutes (just barely, Blair only avg 18.2 a game) than any other player in the Top 5 in rebounding.
Did I mention he only logged 18.1 minutes a game? Or that he finished second in FG% for all rookies, too? Read more…
Last year, the Lakers had the 39-point Finals embarrassment at the hands of Boston to use as motivation. This year, they’ve battled complacency because all they see in the rearview is confetti pouring down at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the end of their parade route. Bryant said that feeling was jolted out of them in the first round against the hungry Thunder.
“We’re there,” Bryant said. “We got it. The competition from Oklahoma is probably what did it.”
That’s because Kevin Durant and Co. put the Lakers in a 2-2 headlock. Deron Williams and Co. have merely wilted to sweep fodder.
First, I have no idea why Kobe continues to refer to the Thunder as just “Oklahoma” but the fact he continues to pour praise on our young team is flattering. There’s no denying Kobe’s greatness. And he definitely saw something that impressed him from the Thunder.
And through that, we woke up the beast I guess. Sorry Western Conference. But I guess that means we get to take part in the celebration, if it happens, right?
I hope everyone is OK as well as your friends and family after yesterday’s events. Tornado time in Oklahoma is fairly crazy and yesterday was no exception. Twister was on Sunday afternoon on TBS and of course I watched it. I feel like there has to be some kind of connection here.
One Thunder fan wants to celebrate his 21st birthday with a “legal” James Harden: “My name is Forrest Bennett, and I am 13 days older than James Harden, OKC Thunder’s bearded champion. I am willing to wait to have my 21st birthday blowout until the 26th, when Mr. Harden turns 21. I live in Norman, so it won’t be difficult at all. Plus, I can definitely come to OKC to party. I want to be there when James harden can finally walk into a bar without getting kicked out. James, you definitely want to do this. I can bring a lot of ladies if you just bring your beard.”
The future of this franchise will literally hinge upon the development of these three players (you can add on if they acquire a paint-oriented, back-to-the-basket big to that but we’ll go with these three for today).
Now you absolutely would have included Harden’s name on this list a year ago as he was the #3 pick, but Ibaka would have been a mere footnote. And Maynor, well we didn’t even expect him to be on the team once Utah drafted him. And now, well the development of these three could pretty much determine how significant of a contender the Thunder are for the next five-to-ten years depending upon how each turns out.
*Hopefully this won’t tread upon Clark’s engaging series on how each Thunder player can improve for next year since we’ll just be focusing on the rookies and will be more general…and yes, I’m excluding Mullens for what are, I hope, unbelievably obvious reasons
For today, Part I, we’ll be taking a look at the Thunder’s Sixth Man and All-Rookie Second Team member, James Harden. Read more…
About 93 percent of Thunder fans renewed their season tickets for next year: “The Duttons last week purchased two season tickets in Section 118. At face value of $150 per game, the Duttons are paying $13,000 for two season tickets — $6,500 apiece. What sacrifices will be made to sit close to the action for both the regular season and playoffs? “Food,” Dutton quipped. “We’ve been told they can sell some of the tickets for us to other games. We’ll sell some ourselves to friends we know who want to go to certain games like the Spurs. We’re hoping to go to around 15 games and Ticket Master will sell the rest.”
(Good morning Thunder people. Thank you for your support of Daily Thunder. Is it October yet?)
As anyone knows that’s been reading DT for a while and especially this silly Saturday posts, I’m a sucker for a good player mix. And this is a good one for KD. So have yourself a little watch of it. And how about those Suns?
Any time you do a top 10, there’s never agreement. Lists are fairly arbitrary and subjective anyway, but regardless, here are in one man’s humble opinion, the top 10 plays/moments from this season:
10. Russell Westbrook tries to dunk on the entire state of California
This isn’t a great moment. It’s really not that memorable. And heck, Westbrook didn’t even finish the dunk. But to me, it’s sort of symbolic. Russ attacked Andrew Bynum with absolutely no regard for human life. He was relentless and aggressive. And that’s kind of the attitude we saw develop from this team in the postseason. They let it all hang out and despite not finishing on this play, it sent a message in Game 2 – the Thunder were here to play you, so get ready. But man, just LOOK at that elevation by Westbrook. His cram on Lamar Odom was amazing. But I think we’re going to get the ultimate poster from Russ soon. And I feel sorry for whoever his victim is. Read more…
Chad Ford put out his first round mock yesterday and like many, he had OKC taking Florida State big man Solomon Alabi: “The Thunder continue to lack a legitimate low-post threat. They drafted B.J. Mullens to be that guy last year, but he’s still a work in progress. Alabi will be, too, but at this point in the draft, he has too much size and upside to pass on.” He has OKC taking Devin Ebanks with the second first rounder.
Also, Chad Ford in his chat yesterday on Bosh to OKC: “I’ve been writing about this for a while. I think the media are finally picking up on this. I think he’s the perfect fit there, he’s close to home and paired with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, he’d have a great chance of winning a title. Some people tell me he won’t do it because he doesn’t want to play second fiddle to KD. But if that’s the case, he isn’t joining LeBron or Wade either.” (h/t reader Ryan, who also asked Ford the question) Read more…
Chris Silva from the official site had a tremendous piece today about the connection Thunder fans feel to this team. But of course, this part really stood out, at least to me:
But Thabo Sefolosha went with his gut. Only 12 hours removed from a season-ending Game 6 loss to the L.A. Lakers, Sefolosha was wrapping up his final media session at the team’s practice facility. The Swiss native was asked to name his favorite part of the season.
“I guess the day we came back from Dallas and we had the fans outside of the airport,” Sefolosha recalled. “Coming back and seeing the fans, that was pretty special. It gave me goose bumps coming down the plane, so that was pretty special.”
Of course, I found this incredibly cool. Thinking back to that night, that really was special. It’s a moment I’m sure glad I was a part of. I remember thinking right before Mrs. DT and I left for Will Rogers, “Do I really want to go? What if no one shows up? Eh, let’s not go.” But my little brother and his friend wanted to go and like my brother said, “Hey, at least there will be four of us there.” So we went. And were pleasantly surprised to find at least 100 other maniacs just like us there. What a moment that was to us fans and it’s awesome to hear it was special for the team too.
In any discussion about what the Thunder will do with their four draft picks in the upcoming draft, the topic always turns to “trading up.” As it stands, Oklahoma City possesses the 21st, 26th, 32nd, and 51st picks. So, out of the sixty players that will be selected on June 24th, 7% will theoretically belong to our local franchise.
