Harden wants to start: “James Harden is laying down his own challenge. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard wants to crack the starting rotation next season. “I hope so,” said Harden, last year’s No. 3 overall pick. “That’s what this summer is for.”
Dime looks at 10 players to watch in Orlando: “Latavious Williams, Oklahoma City – By now, you might know Latavious Williams was the first D-Leaguer to get drafted into the NBA. What I want to know is how the 21-year old is just one year removed from high school? Oklahoma City has done a good job of developing his game so far. We are interested to see the progress he’s made since finishing his first year in the D-League.” Read more…
The Thunder beat the Celtics 87-82, which is CLEARLY the most important thing from the day. I mean, what’s bigger than a July 5th win? But here are some quick notes and observations from the game:
Serge Ibaka has been working on his offensive post game. He looked terrific on a few post spin moves and though he didn’t shoot the ball that well, really appeared to be confident in his shot. However, he was injured on a play late in the second half and didn’t return. He left favoring his left leg and official word out right now is a sprained left ankle. While he was down though, I definitely stopped breathing for around two or three straight minutes.
Of course it’s one summer league game against nary a real NBA roster opponent, but Byron Mullens looks much, much improved. Word has been that he’s been working his tail off and it showed for the most part. He finished with 24 points and seven rebounds, going 12 of 15 from the line and 6 of 12 from the floor. His hands looked softer, he looked much more aggressive, his footwork was improved and he looked somewhat comfortable in the post. I don’t know if he’ll ever been a quality defender, but hey, that’s what Cole Aldrich is for. I think there’s hope yet for Mullens. He was drafted as a project and projects tend to take a little time to develop. More stuff like today will go a long way in that, but the thing with Mullens is, is that there’s the possibility that he could go 2-8 with five points and four rebounds tomorrow. Read more…
A couple notes: Oklahoma City is clearly the most talented team in Orlando with a bevy of NBA roster players on it. The team is so stacked that DeVon Hardin, a player OKC owns the rights to, is playing for the Philadelphia 76ers… The Celtics feature former Notre Dame star Luke Harangody and Art Parkahouski from Radford. For the most part, the Celtics don’t have a whole lot… Thunder assistant Brian Keefe is coaching the team this week… This is a big week for guys like Kyle Weaver, D.J. White and even players like Robert Vaden. The summer league doesn’t always mean a whole lot, but a good showing won’t ever hurt your chances. A bad showing can.
Summer League starts today. Oklahoma City’s first game is at 4 PM. You can watch on NBATV or buy a broadband stream from NBA.com. Or you can check back here for another (free) path to watching the game.
Russell Westbrook has been offered a professional soccer contract? News to me: “Westbrook has long been targeted by football giants Manchester United, Real Madrid, and AC Milan, with an offer of a $35 million from Sir Alex arriving at Ben Howland’s office in 2005. Contracts were signed and moneys transferred out of the soon to be indebted United treasury. But, when August’s training camp began, there was no sign of Russ. Thus began a bizarre cross-Atlantic saga. The UCLA administration claimed never to have received the money while lawyers from Manchester furiously prepared for the courtroom, convinced they were being had by some slick Hollywood types. Guns were nearly drawn until John Wooden came in to cool things down and put everyone in their place. Nevertheless, there has been no direct contact between the Scot and Pauley Pavilion since, and Giggsy and co. have been left to wander to what might have been. Murky, he-said-she-said territory to say the least.” Read more…
Yes, this absolutely deserves its own post. Serge Ibaka is now on Twitter. The player widely regarded by teammates as the funniest player on the roster will now hopefully grace us with his humor in 140 character or less.
Ibaka is and will likely always be one of the most intriguing and popular players on the Thunder roster. And for whatever reason, him being on Twitter finally just seems very important to me. Well, very important for a Sunday afternoon at least.
(Good morning Thunder buds. Thank you for your support of DT. We get to watch basketball soon!)
Top 10 lists are fun. They are fun even when you’re watching something really stupid. Hence why I’ll catch myself wasting 20 minutes of my life watching the final top 10 of the Top 50 Crazy Reality Show Moments or something. But when it’s a top 10 of one of the most athletic and fun basketball teams on the planet, it’s gotta be good.
So here we are again ladies and gents! Summer League is fast upon us as the first game will start Monday, even though most of the work force will be at home so, surprisingly, there shouldn’t be a huge hit in work productivity because of the awesome spectacle that is the Orlando Summer League.
Now as you noticed, I’m not going to go over the Vegas Summer League but pretty much just use both events for the purpose of this article (plus, the Thunder won’t play in Vegas, unlike last year, and you’re on a Thunder site so…). And it’s not like either location has better or worse competition.
They’re both awful.
I mean just plain abysmal at times.
But, alas, in the summertime with only baseball to regularly keep you company, we will flock to any kind of organized “professional” basketball like mosquitoes to a bug zapper.
So without further ado, here’s my list of the Top 5 things you absolutely have to know/understand about Summer League before you either throw up in your mouth a little after watching a game for the first time or think that Ryan Reid will be the next Hakeem Olajuwon after he scores 20 points, pulls down 20 boards and blocks 10 shots.
1. It’s pretty bad. No, seriously, it hurts sometimes it’s so bad.
First things first, you have to go in with adequate expectations about what kind of basketball you’re going to see if you have any chance of appreciating and enjoying the NBA’s Summer League for the awesomeness that it is. And that expectation is this… Read more…
The Thunder officially announced their Orlando Summer League roster today. Current roster players James Harden, Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor, Kyle Weaver and Byron Mullens are all on the team, as well as Mustafa Shakur who was signed late last season by OKC. New draftees Latavious Williams and Ryan Reid are also on the team, as well as Robert Vaden, a second round pick from last season. Cole Aldrich is not because he won’t officially become a Thunder(er) until July 8. The complete roster:
The schedule for the Thunder includes five games, with all games being televised on NBATV.
ALL TIMES CT
Monday, July 5, 4:00 PM – Boston vs. Oklahoma City
Tuesday, July 6, 2:00 PM – Charlotte vs. Oklahoma City
Wednesday, July 7, 2:00 PM – Oklahoma City vs. Philadelphia
Thursday, July 8 , 12:00 PM – Oklahoma City vs. Orlando
Friday, July 9, 7:00 AM – Oklahoma City vs. Indiana
A lot of you mentioned this yesterday, but Bill Simmons in his World Cup column yesterday: “I love the Cup because it stripped away all the things about professional sports that I’ve come to despise. No sideline reporters. No JumboTron. No TV timeouts. No onslaught of replays after every half-decent play. No gimmicky team names like the “Heat” or the “Thunder.”" He said our name! OMG OMG OMG. Also, there was this line: “Either you rooted for local teams or you jumped on a successful bandwagon (such as the Steelers’ or Cowboys’) because they were always on national TV. The days of “I’m going to fall in love with Oklahoma City because I love watching Kevin Durant, even though I live in Maine” were still decades away.”
Marc Spears reports OKC has made some calls on Chris Duhon: “New York Knicks free agent point guard Chris Duhon has drawn some interest from the Chicago Bulls, his former team. The Knicks, Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder have also made preliminary inquiries into Duhon.” Read more…
“They’re just letting me know I was the first priority, I guess,” Durant said when asked about the team’s show of support. “I always told them I wanted to be here, and they feel the same way. So we’re going to get something done.”
Not that you need to be updated on this on every word spoken about it, but if you were worrying AT ALL, it’s quotes like this that say you shouldn’t. There’s a lot flying around about players signing max deals and getting overpaid (hello Rudy Gay and Joe Johnson), but this is one case where honestly, the max deal really isn’t enough.
Sebastian Pruiti of NBA Playbook has a fantastic post up about improving OKC’s pick and roll: “Last year, the Thunder were the NBA’s surprise team. Their front office did a fantastic job of gathering young talent, but they weren’t expected to seriously compete for a playoff spot. The Thunder were able to sneak up on a lot of people. This year is going to be different, because teams are going to taking the Thunder seriously from the start. To get where they want to be, the Thunder are going to need to improve on the offensive end. Using SynergySports you see that the Thunder’s weakest offensive option is the pick and roll. According to Synergy, the Thunder only had .80 points per possession on possession considered “Pick and Roll Ball – Handler,” which was good for 22nd in the league. As for possession considered “Pick and Roll – Roll Man,” the Thunder only scored .97 points per possession, ranking them 24th in the NBA.”
Oklahoma City makes an offer to LeBron James. The deal? A luxury suite at least once per homestand, letting James create a “LeBratwurst” hotdog with toppings of his choice, the chance to throw out the first pitch every night, giving him all free promotional giveaways; changing ticket packages to honor James’ number, four tickets to the “All You Can Eat” section and gift certificates to local businesses.” Did I mention this is coming from the OKC Redhawks, the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers?
“The Oklahoma City Thunder opened the free-agency period with a visit to a familiar face. Sources with knowledge of the Thunder’s plans said team officials met with star forward Kevin Durant at his new Oklahoma City home at one minute past midnight Thursday to formally open negotiations on a contract extension. It remains to be seen how long talks actually take, given the Thunder’s famously methodical ways, but there seems little doubt that Durant will ultimately receive the maximum five-year extension worth in excess of $80 million from Oklahoma City before the Oct. 31 deadline.”
Harden wants to start: “James Harden is laying down his own challenge. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard wants to crack the starting rotation next season. “I hope so,” said Harden, last year’s No. 3 overall pick. “That’s what this summer is for.”
