Daily Thunder.com

Joe :
Yep, Musselmen did have a DUI; it’s one of those things where he was publicly chastised, punished by the team, He did a big public apology and vowed to change his ways and never let it happen again.
So, do we forgive and move forward or hold that over his head for the rest of the guy’s 40 years on the planet?

Oklahoma did it (forgive and move forward) with the Sutton family about once a year for the last decade. If the locals do hold the DUI against Musselmen, it would be highly hypocritical.

I don't want Mike Brown.

If PJ Carlesimo can get back into coaching, anyone can.

Maybe Mike Woodson or Mike Brown are willing to be assistants.

Yep, Musselmen did have a DUI; it's one of those things where he was publicly chastised, punished by the team, He did a big public apology and vowed to change his ways and never let it happen again.

So, do we forgive and move forward or hold that over his head for the rest of the guy's 40 years on the planet?

justin :
We should hire Paul Westhead and install the Loyola Marymount offense.

Your kidding right?

@justin

I knew Westhead sounded familiar. :)

@DXL

Yeah, weight is a funny thing.

@justin
I find it hard to believe that Cole Aldrich is 6'9" w/o shoes and weighs 236 pounds. But I've accepted it.

@DizzyDai

Yes. And I was joking about Westhead, LOL.

@justin
There's a German-language interview on spox.com with Tibor Pleiss where he states that he weighs between 116 and 117 kilograms. That's around 255 pounds:

"At one moment, my body did not react anymore and I never had a feeling of being sated. That’s why I had a stress fracture in my foot afterwards as the muscles and bones were not prepared for the gained weight. I had to sit out half a year and came back as a totally new player. I gained weight and felt stronger but lost my speed and mobility. So I lost some weight again. What happened can not happen again, I pay attention on my nutrition now. I want to add 3-4 more kilos of muscles but I feel pretty well now with 116-117 kg."

Maybe the kid's lying, who knows? But, to me, his body looks like Byron Mullens', who weighs 258 pounds, so I'll accept that Pleiss weighs over 250.

Conerning Westhead...

"On September 27, 2007 he agreed to a contract with the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics to be an assistant coach under longtime friend P. J. Carlesimo. When Carlesimo was relieved of his duties on November 21, 2008, Westhead was also released as an assistant at that time."

Also from Wikipedia.

DizzyDai :Vince do you also go by the moniker Slick Watts?

I meant Justin. I don't know where Vince came from.

I'm not certain Musselman is a good option.

From Wikipedia: "On June 2, 2006, Musselman was named head coach of the Sacramento Kings, replacing Rick Adelman. Four months into the job, on October 21, 2006, Musselman was cited for DUI in Sacramento."

Vince do you also go by the moniker Slick Watts?

I heard that 'Wolves are looking to trade Al Jefferson because he doesn't fit their type of play. I say Thunder should go for it. He is a great offensive presence in the paint, just what we need. He has a 42 mil contract for 3 years. So Mo Pete+Kristic or something like that can be arranged since their GM is really dumb.

@holdmymartian
It'll happen about the same day Mohammed Saer Sene becomes the poor man's Hakeem Olajuwon.

Perhaps someday Pau Gasol will be considered a "poor man's Mullens"!!

I can dream...

I wonder if mullens could ever be a poor mans pau gasol

i hope drafting aldrich is a wake up call for mullens, like maynor was for westbrook, though with aldrich, mullens can play the stretch 4 like he wants and hoist up 3s.

really if we were in the top 8 in both defense and offense that would be ideal. i just dont know how to get the mins needed at either SG or PF for the extra scoring, ideally green shoots less and the shots go to an improved harden

justin :@dream
catcher
You mean like 2010 #1 ranked defense and world champion Charlotte Hor.. oh, wait..

you got me, but still we have much more offensive talent then Charlotte.

We should hire Paul Westhead and install the Loyola Marymount offense.

Oops I meant Bobcats. Living in the past.

@dream catcher

You mean like 2010 #1 ranked defense and world champion Charlotte Hor.. oh, wait.. :)

f5alcon :
id kinda like to see an offensive guy come in and implement an offense to go with our defense. Now that we have aldrich, im much less worried about the defense, he will help keep guys from getting in the paint, so i dont expect our defense to slip much.

Id rather get our defense to the best in the league.

id kinda like to see an offensive guy come in and implement an offense to go with our defense. Now that we have aldrich, im much less worried about the defense, he will help keep guys from getting in the paint, so i dont expect our defense to slip much.

Musselman would be a good choice. He's a defense guy.

Did a little Google search and saw that one of the guys that Thibodeau was considering for his bench was Eric Musselmen; interestingly, E-Muss was Brook's boss at Sacramento; maybe Brooks will bring E-Muss in to OKC?

Lets hope the clippers pick Del Negro so we can try and hire Casey

I assume the majority would have preferred it be Adams the one staying?

Not that we have room for him, but interesting that Sylven Landersburg went undrafted. Gamer.

Don't know if Thunder had a designated lead assistant. If not and Adams was in line for a promotion with the Bulls most teams allow guys to take that.

Thunder could add 1-2 assistants or none.

Don't know but read a report that Cheeks is still under contract thru this season. If true, then Adams probably wasn't. I'd guess he selected to be on a 1 year deal but who knows.

It'll be interesting to see if the break in continuity has an effect on the defense. We'll see what Scott Brooks is made of, I guess.

I'm speculating, but Cheeks may have been enticed to stay with offer for promotion to lead assistant (which was held by Adams).

I wonder who is going to come in and coach the defense.

justin :
Just heard Ron Adams is definitely leaving for Chicago.

damn that sucks.

Mo Cheeks is staying.

Just heard Ron Adams is definitely leaving for Chicago.

He looks like a tall guy. I bet he plays basketball.

Lakers' top 6 played about 85% of the playoff minutes.
Thunder's about 75%.
When you have more 2-way above average (or at least average on the weak side) players you do what the Lakers did and win.
With the Thunder's roster you've got to nail the rotation for the match-ups.

@justin

The Lakers' strong 6 beat the Celtics' strong 8. There was talk that the Boston bench might tip the scales back but it didn't happen.

Tell me how strong a team's first 6 are and you've told 80% of the story.

Bench and deep bench has to be used and pretty good to matter much.

Watching that Mich St vs Kansas game right now. In all the highlights I've seen, I've been really impressed with how active Cole's hands have been.

Also I cannot wait to see his outlet passing in a Thunder uni. He's gonna be awesome as a trigger for our transition game.

If they rebounded the ball better defensively the defense would have been top 3 IMO.

Thunder had 1 more block than league average. Depending on how you value a block that accounted for 1/2 to maybe 2/3rds of their edge on opponent FG% allowed.

A couple small things can add up to major W-L consequences. Hence why I spend time on stats.

@Greg

Green was the way better 1 on 1 defender at SF and on the way better defensive team but it is a split decision on 1 on 1 defense at PF the last 2 seasons. Green was estimated a bit better than Gomes in 08-09, Gomes a bit better in 09-10.

On defensive Adjusted +/- for all their minutes at both positions green has been better for his career than Gomes but Green was estimated to have had a worse season than his normal this season while Gomes was estimated to have had a much better one than usual for him.

Sammy :I’m okay with being a little deeper at c. I’d rather not mullens be forced into the rotation due to injury. Besides, this doesn’t look so bad to me:
Krstic 22 / aldrich 14 / collison 12green 22 / ibaka 24 / collison 2durant 40 / green 8

Scott Brooks did everything in his power to avoid extending his rotation even when it was clearly warranted. Foul trouble usually lead to his rotation guys playing more minutes than normal. I just really doubt he's going to adopt the 10-man rotation.

On the big man rotation, they can either a) pick 4 and do it the way they did it last season. b) pick 5 and mostly play 4 in games based on match-up and effectiveness or c) play 5 most of the time.

The perimeter rotation is 5. I don't know if they go to 6.

I am more interested in going to 5 inside than 6 outside but if they take care of business early in games better they can go to 10-11 more often and get rest and perhaps do even better in back to backs and perhaps be even fresher in the playoffs. That seems like it shouldn't be a problem for young guys but with the large numbers of drop-offs on shooting in the playoffs it could be one factor. Of course the Lakers D was the main factor.

@Joe

If they wait til the deadline there will be options but it may be harder to get a player you actually want. Good teams like to trade relatively deader weight and possibly draft picks.

The right trade this summer, perhaps a 2 or 3 for 1 or 4 for 2, could be quite helpful but it is hard to guess the terms that teams would agree to and I do think Presti will probably stay put unless he is pleasantly surprised with a live opportunnity.

The overall effectiveness of Green-Aldrich compared to Ibaka-Aldrich and I guess Green-Ibaka will be something to watch next season for the long-term. For the short term there are at least 10 -15 main pairings to prioritize or cull.

Aldrich as somewhere between or mix of Przybilla and Okafor and Kendrick Perkins sounds like the right neighborhood to me.