The annual NBA executive survey is out today on NBA.com and guess who’s winning your 2010-11 MVP? Yep, that Kevin Durant guy. Twenty-eight general managers voted and handed KD 67 percent of the vote. Kobe Bryant was next with 26 percent and LeBron James and Dwight Howard both got a single vote.
The KD over LeBron trend continues.
While everyone will kind of focus on that, the Thunder was mentioned a lot in the survey. A few notes on it: Read more…
With Darnell Mayberry’s tweet and Chris Silva’s blog reporting that Serge Ibaka will start at center for the Thunder tonight, I couldn’t help but remember the plethora of conversations, discussions, debates, and name calling incidents that have centered around where Ibaka should play and if he’s a true 4, a tweener 4/5 or somewhere in between.
So, let’s have a look at the potential positives and negatives of starting Ibaka at center for the Thunder’s first preseason game against the Charlotte Bobcats and beyond.
Pro: Serge will get to play with the starting unit. This is obviously a no-brainer for both sides of the “Serge is a PF/C” argument because both want to see him eventually emerge as a starter, so getting as much time as he could with the starting unit is a good thing considering the fact that he would have been coming off of the bench in any scenario not involving him starting at center.
Con: He won’t be playing at the position he’s most well suited for and spent the majority of last season at. While some would argue that any time on the floor is good time (and I typically support this idea), some other individuals would also claim that Serge seeing time at center will only highlight some of his deficiencies from last season, namely his poor boxing out and man-to-man iso defense against bigger opponents, unless he has significantly improved those already, and might cause him to play differently when he returns to PF when Krstic and Collison get healthy. Read more…
Basketball! Basketball! Basketball! Basketball! Basketball! Basketball! Well, it is just the preseason and the game’s not on TV, but still, we’ll have a box score to examine at least!
Thunder officials said it was going to be an intense camp and boy, it sounds like it was. Darnell Mayberry: “Although Jeff Green refused to concede that camp has taken a mental toll, the players’ body language tells a different story. Green addressed the media today with much less vibrancy than he showed early in camp. And that effort was better than others who declined altogether. Thabo Sefolosha and Kevin Durant, two of the most willing players to meet with the media, both politely turned down requests through team officials. But Brooks labeled the past week a success.” Read more…
As you may have heard, there are some pretty good teams with pretty good players at the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference. There are as many or more title-contending teams in the East than the West for the first time in recent memory, and that somehow happened with the biggest free agent who switched conferences, Amare Stoudemire, going to a team that doesn’t rank among the championship favorites.
In no particular order, teams that have the most realistic shot at a title have to be the Lakers, Heat, Celtics, Magic, Bulls, Mavericks and Thunder. Throw in the Spurs if you’re feeling generous. And aside from the Thunder, the contending teams in the West have players on the downward slope of their careers, while only the Celtics seem to be in danger of the window closing soon in the East.
The prospect of Carmelo Anthony and/or Chris Paul heading East at some point would only further tilt the balance. Don’t forget whispers about Deron Williams over the summer either, although there aren’t specific reports of interest in or from East Coast cities as with the other two. Read more…
Scott Carefoot of The Basketball Jones ranks the top 10 point guards: “7. Russell Westbrook – After his 2008-09 rookie season, a lot of people wondered whether Westbrook would be better-suited as a two-guard in the NBA. Nobody is wondering about that after he increased his assists per game from 5.3 to 8.0 last season. Westbrook is big and fast and uses those attributes to drive aggressively and get to the free throw line five times per game. He’s smart to do that because he still has a lot of work to do on hitting outside shots. He also needs to focus more on the defensive end, where his play doesn’t quite live up to his reputation just yet.”
John Hollinger projects the Thunder roster and shares thoughts every player: “At this point, shooting is the only thing keeping Westbrook from being a perennial All-Star. Otherwise, he’s awesome: He ranked third at his position in usage rate and rebound rate, eighth in free throw attempts per field goal attempt, and is one of the best defenders at his position. Even his point guard credentials, often chided by scouts, are vastly improved — he climbed to 13th in pure point rating and had a solid assist ratio.” Read more…
When ownership decided to name the team “Thunder” there were mixed reviews. I’m not a fan of the singular team name idea, but some really liked the possibilities it created with marketing, game entertainment and puns (you know, Thunderpuns). The team’s name, logo and colors were announced with the song “Thunderstruck” playing overhead and since then, some variation of the song has stayed with the team.
And you can expect for the next however many years of the Thunder’s existence, “Thunderstruck” will be part of it. (I truly think part of the reason the team was named that was because of that dumb song.)
Well, now there’s a new song. Sub out Thunderstruck. It’s time to get Thunderbusted.
Mark Lelinwalla of the NY Daily News: “Kevin Durant broke a 36-year-old U.S. record for total points scored during a single FIBA World Championship tournament when he dropped in 205, leading the Americans to a gold medal victory three weeks ago in Istanbul, Turkey. Durant’s feat brought up a name that hasn’t been heard in these parts in quite some time – Luther “Ticky” Burden The former Knicks guard – from 1976-78 – wants basketball fans to consider this about the FIBA record he previously held for nearly four decades: “I did not start one of those games . . . I came off the bench in all of them,” says Burden, who set the record with 182 total points and led the USA to a Bronze medal in 1974. “I was playing on a severely sprained ankle, didn’t put up as many shots (as Durant), and did it with no 3-point line. So now you tell me?”
Adrian Wojnarowski writing about LeBron’s marketing adviser Maverick Cartermentions KD’s social media and marketing guru Nate Jones, who is an excellent dude: “Carter’s been innovative with marketing LeBron the way Turtle was innovative with tequila. Maverick’s invited closer inspection of his self-proclaimed genius and the results have been unflattering. The irony of James leaving Aaron Goodwin several years ago was that his old agent ended up cultivating one of the bright, young minds of the digital marketing age, Nate Jones. Jones works with Kevin Durant now, and, well, Carter could learn a few lessons from a riser even younger than him.” Nate will be running the NBA in 10 years. You watch. Read more…
This week on TGR the focus of our conversation is ALL Thunder, especially highlighting the “personality” of this team featuring topics like: Nenad and the half-naked guy, Eric Maynor’s Jesus tattoo, Serge and his awkward photo shoot, Nick’s need for a haircut, and all their gamer skills.
We give a behind the scenes look into media day, complete with a few sound clips from the players. We talk about training camp and the expectations for this coming season. Its funny, its quirky, but we’d like to think it has a veiled level of intelligence, somewhat like Cole Aldrich.
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First, the very crucial important part: the Blue defeated the White 57-53 in Friday’s intrasquad scrimmage at Yukon High School. The coaches said the game wouldn’t just be some kind of All-Star type affair with alley oops and behind-the-back passes. And they were right. It was an intense game from the outset with most of that coming on both defensive ends.
But here are some observations from the night and two very amateur videos for your enjoyment: Read more…
Two reminders because I’m a nice person: 1) The superfun Thunder scrimmage at Yukon High School is tonight. Doors open at 5 p.m. and the scrimmage goes from 5:30 – 6:45 p.m. 2) Thunder single game tickets for the first half of the season go on sale Monday, Oct. 4 at 10 a.m.
Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com: “Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman nails it. The long stares should be on Russell Westbrook, not Kevin Durant, to gauge the next step in hopeful OKC. Durant is a known. But the extent of Westbrook’s improvement after the valuable playoff experience followed by a prominent role in the world championships will play a large role in determining the extent of improvement for the Thunder.” Read more…
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