Daily Thunder.com

@Keith
This was a summer league game, Harangody was not going up against NBA level talent, or NBA level coaching. How's this for "supposed" to be. Harangody is undersized but skilled and has a knack for showing off against non-NBA competition (exactly what he did, no surprise). Mullens is a project center who is not developing as fast as his teams fans would like. (He showed a lot more improvement thatI expected, I was surprised).

Perception can be very interesting.

idk but i can imagine this is probably a big deal for him. maybe hes writing a letter like the guy on HP did? or maybe hes been too busy and plans to work it into one of his future bolts? not sure

@Patrick
It's the difference in how good those players are "supposed" to be. A whole lot of people thought Harangody was great in college but may not even make an NBA roster. Mullens was only ok in college but at times was considered the best player in the draft. If Harangody does ANYTHING, he's amazing. If Mullens doesn't dominate, he's underachieving.

With Mullens, I think the proper way to assess him is to ask, "What is he doing that will get him PT for the Thunder, not let him dominate the D-league?" I'm all for giving him his due when it comes to playing offense, but that's really not going to get him PT with the Thunder (just as DJ White). Mullens needs to focus less on his ability to catch a pass, and more on his ability to hold a rebound. He needs to focus less on crisp cuts to the basket, more on defensive awareness. He's always had soft hands and a knack for getting to the rim, what he needs is an ability to defend the paint and rotate on defense. So while Mullens did have a great D-league game (scoring, no defense), he didn't show much in the way of a Thunder game.

Chris Duhon signed for 4 years, 15 million by Orlando. Compare with Eric Maynor, signed for about 1.4, 1.5 and 2.4 million for the next 3 years. Free agency is awful; rookie contracts are the way to affordably build the back-end of the roster.

Mullens was dominant yesterday. For every summer-league star that flames out in the regular season there are plenty of players who build upon their strong summer league play to become quality NBA players. Mullens, if he keeps playing this hard, will be hard to keep out of the rotation this year.

Mullens played a lot better yesterday than a couple of other young centers drafted recently in the first round: check out the ugly stat lines for Kosta Koufos and Alexis Ajinca. I'm really excited to watch him get better this week. Something's starting to click for him.

@jhoan

I wonder why Royce has been quite on the topic? It was already mentioned on Sunday.

http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2010/07/06/site-announcement-a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way-to-the-blogosphere/

he mentions Royce not too far down.

Orton was awful.

Aside from that every recap I have read except this one has been about how great Harangody was. I don't mean to discount him because he did have a good game, but he had 23 points and 4 rebounds. Mullens had 24 points and 7 rebounds and there are people arguing over how bad he is.

Perception can be very interesting.

Did anyone else see Orton last night? 4 fouls in 13+ minutes and an ejection. Im glad Presti passed.

@jhoan
where did you hear that?

cwilson :Great thoughts guys, BUT, nobody has addressed maybe the most important question that us who didn’t watch the game have…
Did Mullens change his hair cut…. the Lloyd Christmas bugs the crap out of me.

No. Same nasty haircut and goatee. I'm not sure what the best (least worst) look for Mullens is/would be...

Royce, youre blogging for CBSSPORTS.com??? congratulations!!!

Mullens played better. Disturbed by the one play where he was totally stoned at the rim by the non-NBA white guy the Celts had...

From ESPN Rumors today:

"The Nets, like most the rest of the NBA, is in a holding pattern until LeBron James makes his free agent decision. They have a lot of cap room, but not enough to offer two max contracts.

The Star-Ledger reports the Nets have deals in place with Western Conference teams that would allow them to shed Kris Humphries and his $3.2 million salary for next season, if they need that extra room.

The Nets would probably include $3 million to cover most of his salary, however they don't want to trade away multiple future draft picks."

Wonder if the Thunder is one of those teams...

Great thoughts guys, BUT, nobody has addressed maybe the most important question that us who didn't watch the game have...

Did Mullens change his hair cut.... the Lloyd Christmas bugs the crap out of me.

ThunderHorn :
One thing I notice on our PnRs is our guards don’t let the big men get set too often. You can’t expect to set quality screens when you are walking to set the screen and the PG/SG are going around you. Even Russ does this. You have to let the guy get set and then use him. This is partly on the screener as well though b/c our bigs take a little time to set the picks. Need to get their and set them not drift over and set them.

Great review of the game Thunderhorn. The PnR is what confused me the most. At first I thought our bigs were just setting lousy picks, but you're right. The guards need to be a little more patient.

I was also glad to see Mullens try to roll to the basket throughout the game. Nice effort.

@ThunderHorn
Regarding the PNR's, I wrote a big post about this last summer as something Westbrook needed to really work on; he's only really had minor improvement, and Maynor also is a little sloppy at it, but it usually gets done. They don't wait for the screener to fully set, and then they don't rub off or shoulder up to the screener, they leave a big alley for defender to jump into and around.

When we played Denver Chauncey Billups, the wiley vet that he is was constantly anticipating the screen and then quickly stepping up into Westbrook just as the screen was getting set; it put him right on the ball and it flustered RW and made him easy to defend. Also, like you mentioned, our bigs usually walk to set the screen and I think it would be to our advantage to have the big who is setting up defense in the paint to sprint to the screen which leaves his defender lagging and will surprise the defending guard.

That being said, even though Mullens has still nothing that he's very good at, he has more athleticism and nimbleness and fluidity to him than almost any other 7 footer in the league. He's really quite a prospect. I don't think you give up on this guy. He was definitely worth a twentysomething pick in a weak draft.

Vaden actually plays really aggressive wing defense; not a surprise since Presti picks him.

Yet what surprises me is that D.J. White only plays aggressive defense sometimes; sometimes he is wholly absent.

I said last week that I thought Maynor might be the best player on our team this week; he was last night.

Poor Kyle. His place was more apparent on a 23 win team than on a 50 win team eh?

I liked Harangody very much in College and I think he will have a nice long career in the NBA as a backup.

Just watched a replay of the game.

1) Mullens was even better than advertised: a terror on pick and rolls to the basket, great hands and great ability to finish around the basket. Outside of one or two plays I thought he was good on defense. He showed well with a lot of length on pick and rolls and bothered a lot of shots (without having Ibaka's ability to explode and block shots).

Mullens looked very confident and, more importantly, he just played really, really hard. In the future he'll get a lot of 50/50 foul calls if he's as active and aggressive as he was tonight.

2) Ibaka looks stronger but I'm concerned it may affect his foot speed or lead to injury. He lumbered more than I remember from last season. I don't think he needs more weight than he has right now.

3) White's got a goofy offensive game. He really shouldn't put the ball on the floor. And his defense against face-up 4's like Harangody will be a major liability. I don't think White has a long-term future with the Thunder.

Looked like Mullens still had a cast or heavy tape job on his left hand that might have a little to do with his not catching everything thrown his way. Still only two turns is pretty good! I think you are seeing something with Presti though picking bigs like Mullens and Pleis that can shoot, combined with defenders like Ibaka and Aldrich. Can be a pretty impressive combination if they develop.

I can't believe we pulled out the win after the start we had! That says a lot for the players composure even in the summer league. I would definately like to see williams and reid get a little run. I actually like reid. Don't know that he ever makes it, but saw him a bit while trying to watch Alabi. There were a lot of times where Reid was just a better player than Alabi

Ok, Ok, sorry it looked like the knee to me. Jeez, they banged knees and he grabbed his knee. Obvious correlation. I am more than happy it was the ankle.

Vaden just looks too slow to get his shot off. Not a good sign when you can't even get it off in summer league. Of course he probably has some better spacing playing off KD or some one else the defense has to focus on.

Weaver will never show up in stats and you will always forget about him. But like Thabo you love to play with someone like him who always has your back. Don't know if it will be enough though.

its sorta pointless just to play him in one game if he's even actually available... he'll be out of sync with the team and destroy any rhythm.

@The DON
I think it's one on the 8th and another on the 9th.

Actually, I think we'd waive the physical even if he failed it. Still think it's unlikely Aldrich will play at all.

@The DON

I don't think it's likely, OKC will probably want to give Mo Pete a physical and the trade won't be finalized until that's done with.

@james hardens beard

Well we do have 2 more games after the 8th meaning he could technically play in them, right?

Please tell me I'm right

If I may, I was the first one to compare White to McDyess, well over a year ago.

i can't help but wish aldrich could have been involved in the summer league...

well, the box score only gave serge 3 blocks, but i specifically counted 4. there was one he knocked out of bounds from behind later in the game. it wasn't a huge swat like the others though...

Great recap. Thanks,even though most of us watched the entire thing ourselves too!. It's very interesting to see how far apart some people's opinions are on Lord Byron Mullens. I liked what I saw today and if he can keep this up for the next 4 games, I hope the coaches will too.

@Greg
very true. also, didn't see much mentioned about ibaka's block party..

Other Byron stats: led the team in offensive rebounds (4), and turned the ball over just twice. Impressive for the amount of times he had the ball in his hands.

Hopefully see less of Maynor/Harden and more of the other guys.

One thing both Ibaka/Mullens have to work on his boxing out consistently and rebounding with 2 hands, as well as keeping the ball up around their heads when the secure the ball. I definitely liked their activity level and Mullens seemed to try to get most of his stuff in the post or off PnRs. He had the long 2 early, and the missed 3 but then seemed to really try to get things done on the inside which was nice to see. Showed off his nice touch and soft hands. Its still coming around but you can see some improvements. He was considered a guy that would probably take 2 years to be able to truly contribute at this level and that seems to be holding true. As far as defensive awareness goes, that comes with experience. KD often looked lost on D his first 2 years but with experience and playing in the system, watching film etc he improved.

I definitely liked Ibaka showing some improved post moves. His handle seemed better as well and he was much more patient with the ball. He showed some good patience in allowing guys to clear out, surveying things and then making a move. He clearly bulked up and looks like he could log some quality minutes at the 5. I just about shit a brick when he went down though.

One thing I notice on our PnRs is our guards don’t let the big men get set too often. You can’t expect to set quality screens when you are walking to set the screen and the PG/SG are going around you. Even Russ does this. You have to let the guy get set and then use him. This is partly on the screener as well though b/c our bigs take a little time to set the picks. Need to get their and set them not drift over and set them.

Good showing IMO. I thought we saw what we’d expect to see from Harden, he could basically do what he wanted. We saw Maynor do what he does, control the game and direct things. Saw improvements form Mullens/Ibaka. Overall good stuff for the first game.

I’d like to see less of Harden/Maynor(especially with Ibaka going down, was a frightening moment for all Thunder fans) and more Shakur, Weaver, Williams, etc. I’m guessing we’ll see the proven guys’ minutes go down as the week goes on and the rest of these guys minutes go up.