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Oklahoma City’s director of professional player personnel Bill Branch is leaving to become one of Rich Cho’s two assistant GMs.

ESPN’s panel of 93 experts (I was one of them by the way, though I don’t believe I was in the expert category) predicted OKC would win 52 games and finish second in the West: “Is this the same team that stood 1-16 just 20 months ago? Yes, and it’s the same team that put a serious scare in the champs in Round 1. In what could be a wild Western scramble for second, our panel gives the Thunder 0.21 wins more than the Mavs, meaning a potential West finals bid for the Durant-Westbrook-Green team.” Read more…

Bolts

When it’s August, and you’re an NBA fan, schedule release day is like Christmas. It’s something to talk about, something to think about and more importantly, something to write about. So let’s have a look at the important parts of the Thunder’s 2010-11 schedule.

Five must see home games
1. Lakers, Feb. 27. The Thunder only gets the Lakers one time at home this year and it’s a Sunday game at 1:30 on ABC. If there’s going to be a toughest ticket for this season, it’ll be this game. Maybe OKC will bust out the Sea of Blue just for one regular season game this year.

2. Heat, Jan. 30. Like LA, Miami only comes to the Ford Center once this year. It’s the other network television game for the Thunder and of course Wade, LeBron and Bosh will be the draw. Plus, as we’ve covered ’round these parts, it’ll be a bit of the good guys and the bad guys in this game. Nothing would be sweeter than a Thunder win behind a huge game from KD.

3. Bulls, Oct. 27. The Thunder kicks off ESPN’s season with a home game against Chicago. Besides the fact it’s the home opener, it should be a good game against good teams. And any time Russell Westbrook goes head-to-head with Derrick Rose, I’m watching.

4. Denver, Dec. 25. Christmas Day games in the NBA are THE spotlight in the NBA. And not only are the Thunder in that game, but they’re in primetime in a huge game against a division rival.

5. Utah, March 23. Last year, a late-season road loss to the Jazz dropped the Thunder down the Western ranks and basically sealed OKC’s fate for eighth. Now the tables could turn with a home game against Utah late in March with potential seeding on the line. Tony Brothers joke goes here. Read more…

Commentary 2010-11 NBA Schedule

I’ll have my breakdown of the schedule here shortly, but here’s the 2010-11 schedule in full. Lots of national TV games (15 with two on ABC) and a fun finish against the Bucks at home.

OCTOBER
Wed 27 vs Chicago 7:00pm
Fri 29 @ Detroit 7:00pm
Sun 31 vs Utah 6:00pm

NOVEMBER
Wed 03 @ LA Clippers 9:30pm
Thu 04 @ Portland 9:30pm
Sun 07 vs Boston 6:00pm
Wed 10 vs Philadelphia 7:00pm
Fri 12 vs Portland 8:30pm
Sun 14 vs San Antonio 6:00pm
Mon 15 @ Utah 8:00pm
Wed 17 vs Houston 7:00pm
Fri 19 @ Boston 6:00pm
Sat 20 @ Milwaukee 7:30pm
Mon 22 vs Minnesota 7:00pm
Wed 24 vs Dallas 7:00pm
Fri 26 @ Indiana 7:00pm
Sun 28 @ Houston 6:00pm
Mon 29 vs New Orleans 7:00pm Read more…

News 2010-11 NBA Schedule

The full NBA schedule comes out today around 1 or 2 p.m.

SLAM with a great feature and Q&A with KD: “SLAM: What sort of ball did you mostly play when growing up? KD: A lot of one-on-one, full-court, one-on-one, simulating. I was Michael Jordan a couple of times, Vince Carter. I think that really did help. Because I would go back and watch what those guys do, and try to do it the next day when I played one-on-one with my friends. Basically I was watching film and I was learning. Slowly but surely, each player I was watching, I was taking pieces from their game.” Read more…

Bolts

Henry Abbott posted a postulation on TrueHoop this last Friday about the emerging scientific consensus that the alpha dog mentality that has been so long attributed to packs of wolves has recently come into question through the conclusions of recent research studies.

Naturally, this got some people thinking about LeBron James and the Miami Heat (take from that what you will, but I’m thinking any NBA fan or basketball mind almost always has the Miami Heat on the brain now so I suppose it’s not that much of a shock). And of course, any time you bring up LeBron’s decision to “take his talents to South Beach,” a discussion inevitably centered around the alpha dog idea is not too far behind.

The question that was posed was pretty much if the fact that alpha dogs may not exist in a pack of wolves, like we have thought for so long, then does this recent development completely reshape how we should react to LeBron’s choice to join some other superstar’s basketball team instead of lead one of his own.

Now, before we even dive into this, I’m going to need you to certainly toss aside the fallacious logic that if the alpha male phenomenon might does not exist in wild wolfpacks then it obviously means it can’t exist in human basketball teams (or any other non-wolf centered group dynamic), because well, that’s just coming to a faulty conclusion.

“If the alpha dog/male concept does not appear to exist in wild wolfpacks, and human basketball teams kind of resemble and operate as a wolfpack, then clearly the alpha dog/male concept can not occur on a human basketball team and has no bearing on leadership roles at all.” Read more…

Commentary

An outstanding feature on Latavious Williams was on Outside the Lines recently. We all know his story, but it really continues to be interesting.

Darnell Mayberry on OKC’s newfound celebrity: “No matter the language, though, the message is being delivered. The Thunder is the new “it” team. Oklahoma City might still trail the L.A. Lakers, and now Miami, as the most glamorous outfits. But the Thunder has climbed atop the NBA’s shortlist of sweetheart teams, franchises from which the league chooses a face and ensues to flood promotional spots with throughout the marathon season.” Read more…

Bolts

The Face & The Guy join the GODFATHER (DT captain and CBS Sports writer, Royce Young) to discuss what may be the most polarizing issue in Thunderland… JEFF GREEN. Topics in the roundtable discussion include SF/PF?, what he brings to the Thunder, what he would bring in a trade and how important is CHEMISTRY.

We also discuss some of the highlights around the NBA, including corporate branding, 101 ways to screw over LBJ and is it truly “just a game”?

Episode Breakdown:

• 00:00-02:00: Introduction
• 02:00-14:40: Highlights around the NBA
• 4:40-47:31: JEFF GREEN SUMMIT
• 47:31-49:02: Closing

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Podcast

(Good day Thunders. Thank you for your support of Daily Thunder. Carpe diem.)

Games 3, 4 and 6 the Laker series get all the love from Thunder fans. They were great games, but those are the ones we seem to remember. Forgotten is how good Game 2 was. And my favorite thing about Game 2 was how the Thunder didn’t play that well, but just played harder than the Lakers. The most evident example was how OKC finished with 17 – yes, 17 – blocked shots. I remember being so impressed with how these guys stood toe-to-toe with the Lakers and never showed any fear. I honestly think Game 2 was when it all clicked that the Thunder really had a chance.

Video

An interesting look from Tom Haberstroh on whether or not Carmelo Anthony is a max player: “In the end, Anthony’s game demonstrates why it’s important to strip away the biases that color our perceptions of elite players. In Anthony’s case, the excessive shot volume, his team’s stat-padding tempo and the lack of a true 3-point game makes his 28.2 ppg seem far less impressive than his sparkling reputation would suggest.”

Ziller ranks the world: “That the United States is the overwhelming Vegas favorites at the Worlds is a sign the betting public has no short- or long-term memory. Hasn’t Team USA already proven chemistry can’t be conjured in two months? Remember, the first travails of the Redeem Team ended up defeat (and some would say humiliation): in 2006, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant first got together, Greece knocked them out of contention in the semifinals of the World Championship.” Read more…

Bolts

I grew up a Vancouver Grizzlies fan. That sentence alone should make you pity me. Never winning more than 25 games in any of our 6 seasons, I still cheered my heart out for guys like Shareef AbdurRahim, Mike Bibby, Michael Dickerson, and even Bryant “Big Country” Reeves. We were the joke of the league almost throughout our whole existence. But still the fans came out and supported the team, hoping that one day things would turn out alright…after all, you can’t suck forever…right? Unfortunately, because they moved the team to Memphis in 2001, the Vancouver Grizzlies never got a chance to make it.

A full decade later, I thought I came to terms with this…until I read SLAM’s article on Steve Francis. Picked 2nd overall by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 1999 draft, his reaction (shown in this photo) was that of a two year old who is told he has to take a nap. He pouted!!! On national TV, with a whole city cheering for him, he pouted. I was stunned. We were all stunned. We had never seen a professional athlete act like this before. Had he forgotten he was making millions of dollars playing a sport for a living and would never again have to work a “real job” for the rest of his life? To sum up the rest of the story, he demanded a trade (before he played one game in the NBA) and was dealt to Houston. Read more…

Commentary Kevin Durant, Steve Francis

Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images

I’ve never really figured out where I stand on positionality in the NBA. I understand what makes a guy a point guard and what makes another a center. Some would determine that difference simply as one guy is 7’1 and the other is 6’1. Other might just determine it based on role and assignment. Whatever the case, I understand what positions are. I just don’t really get what they mean.

We’ve heard the debate already. Russell Westbrook isn’t a true point guard. Jeff Green isn’t an actual power forward. Robert Swift wasn’t a real basketball player. So if they aren’t those things, what are they?

Rob Mahoney at The Two Man Game is honestly one of the smartest basketball thinkers out there. And he dove into this topic some in regard to the Mavericks roster, so I will shamelessly rip off his idea and apply it to the Thunder. Some words of his I especially liked:

To those still clinging to what they know, I’d ask this: what’s a power forward? What characteristics link Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Rashard Lewis, Lamar Odom, Reggie Evans, Tyrus Thomas, and J.J. Hickson? Not rebounding. Not scoring. Not skill set. Not height relative to their teammates. Not even the spaces they occupy on the floor. I’m at a total loss as to the criterion that would group that bunch together, which makes the assessment “Player X isn’t a real power forward” pretty much worthless. I think I know what it means, but without the ability to define the contemporary power forward, how could I really know for sure?

Who did you think of during that entire paragraph? If you said Nenad Krstic, you’d be wrong. But one player easily inserted into that list is Jeff Green. Nobody knows what he is and honestly, nobody knows what he should be either. Rob took the plot of his post from a column by Drew Cannon of Basketball Prospectus. In that, there’s this section: Read more…

Commentary

Britt Robson of SI grades the Northwest and gives the Thunder an A-: “The value of Presti’s front-office acumen was on full display during the June draft, when he turned four draft picks outside the top 20 into center Cole Aldrich – exactly the kind of unsung banger the Thunder will need in certain matchups down low — and outside marksmen Morris Peterson (career 37.4 percent from three-point range) and Daequan Cook (35.8 percent) to help remedy the team’s 25th-ranked three-point offense. (Not to mention three other decent, long-shot hopefuls drafted by OKC and the acquisition of a future first-round pick from the Clippers.)”

The best dunk contest in the world is coming soon. It looks… awesome. Read more…

Bolts

It’s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, which is awesome. It’s the dog days of the NBA offseason and it’s approximately 142 degrees in Oklahoma right now.

Let’s compare notable members of the Thunder family to sharks.

Kevin Durant: Porbeagle shark

I know, that was pretty predictable. When you saw where this column was going, you instantly thought, “Kevin Durant is JUST like a porbeagle shark.” Or maybe not.

While most sharks prefer more glamorous and warmer climates, the porbeagle shark is home in the quieter, cool waters further away from the coast. He can heat up all on his own. Porbeagles’ tendency to seemingly play, tossing around bits of debris in groups of up to 20, is like Durant’s propensity to play basketball all the time. They just enjoy being sharks, like he just enjoys playing basketball. Read more…

Commentary

Sham Sports has updated its salaries and Royal Ivey appears to have signed a two-year, $2.4 million contract. The first year is guaranteed, the second year isn’t. (h/t DXL)

Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports Kyle Weaver prefers to play in the NBA and has not signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv. Spears tweets that 10 teams are interested in Weaver’s services. When the original story said Weaver was going overseas, I was a little shocked because surely someone would want a solid defensive-minded shooting guard that can’t shoot. Weaver can fit in at the end of some bench out there. Read more…

Bolts

A few schedule notes for the Thunder:

• The Thunder will play Denver Christmas Day at 7 p.m. CT in Oklahoma City. The game is scheduled to be on ESPN.

• Oklahoma City will play Utah Oct. 31 (dress like Tony Brothers for Halloween!) at the Ford Center. That game will be on NBATV and is at 6 CT.

• The Thunder will take on the Lakers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 9:30 CT at the Staples Center in LA.

• The opening night game against the Bulls set for Oct. 27 will be televised on ESPN at 7 CT.

• KD’s reaction to the Christmas game: “Just found out we’re gonna play a Christmas game against Denver inside the Ford Center at 7 p.m. Games gonna be on ESPN. Big for us! THUNDERUP!”

Obviously the rest of the schedule will be out next week and OKC will have some more national TV dates mixed in there. But there’s a theme here: The Thunder will be one of the most visible teams this year. A major national TV game against Denver, then another against the Lakers, plus part of ESPN’s season kickoff. Good stuff.

News 2010-11 Schedule