It wasn’t exactly a highly anticipated debut like John Wall’s or Blake Griffin’s, but the Thunder’s top pick in last June’s draft made his first appearance Sunday night playing 11 minutes.
Cole Aldrich didn’t have a line that jumps out at you – five points, two rebounds – but in the small time on the floor, we got a pretty solid look at what he can add and why he caught Sam Presti’s eye.
Aldrich made an immediate impact on the game, loudly dunking an offensive rebound for his first NBA points. But in just a couple possessions, he greatly affected the Jazz offense with his length and instincts. Here are two possessions I thought were good examples:
He’s no Rachael Ray or Merril Streep in that one movie, but Serge Ibaka is a cooking fool. Serge is treating us to an African recipe of chicken and… something.
The video is about four minutes longer than it needs to be simply because Serge translates everything he says into the four languages he speaks. But much like John Hammond, it appears that Serge knows his way around the kitchen. But you be careful with those big knives, mister! No diced fingers for you!
M. Haubs of The Painted Area looks at OKC’s defensive issues: “After the embarrassing loss on Sunday, the Thunder’s numbers show ample regression on defense after a week. Is this because of [assistant coach Ron] Adams’s departure? Is it because of the absence of underrated defender Nick Collison? The Thunder were 7.6 points per 100 possessions better defensively (one of the best numbers in the league in that +/- department) with Collison, who led the league in charges drawn, on the floor last season. Collison is out with a bone bruise in his knee, after playing 75 games last season (charmed luck with injuries in ’09-10 was a significant factor in the Thunder’s meteoric rise).”
NBA.com’s power rankings: “The Thunder are shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 20.8 percent from 3-point range. They got wins over the Bulls and Pistons by getting to the line a total of 91 times, but they struggled on both ends against the Jazz on Sunday. Kevin Durant has 13 turnovers and just five assists.” Read more…
You there! Stop! Slowly back away from the keyboard before you do something you’re going to regret.
To those people whom I haven’t already lost to the comment section here to blast me, let me please say first that I don’t mean to call out or pick a fight with anyone. Every reader, commenter and non-commenter here is a valued member of the Daily Thunder community (and, I can safely assume, the Thunder community at large), let there be no doubt. A slice of vocal and loyal supporters is who you expect to see on a sports website comment board, and that’s what Daily Thunder has and what it ought to have. And a fan’s emotions are always rawest soon after a game ends, leading to hyperbole one way or the other depending on how the team fared.
But I think it’s important to recognize and address some of the fan sentiment shown the comment section of Daily Thunder’s recap of Oklahoma City’s home loss Sunday to the Utah Jazz highlights two important points at this stage of the season. Granted, vocal members of any segment of a fan base certainly do not always represent the majority of view points out there. It is certain, though, that comments on websites like Daily Thunder are a telling representative sample of how some of the most diehard fans are feeling. Read more…
There was a teaser for it a few weeks ago, but the official ad has come out featuring Kevin Durant, Bear Grylls and… Mark Messier?
In the commercial, Durant gives Bear his challenge which is a “Heli-oop” meaning that Grylls jumps from a cliff on to a helicopter. It’s a cool stunt and I’m sure it was difficult, but it didn’t have near the same awesome look I expected. I guess when you could actually die doing some stupid stunt for a commercial, you don’t ramp it up and dive 15 feet across open space with jagged rocks beneath like they do in Hollywood. I’m just glad Bear was the one doing the jumping, not KD. I might’ve passed out watching that.
Darnell Mayberry: “The first points of the game for the Thunder came on a long 2-point attempt by Jeff Green off a feed from Russell Westbrook. Long 2-pointers have long been described as the worst shot in basketball, and the Thunder spent the rest of the first half trying to live by them. OKC missed nine of its next 10 shot attempts, many of them long jumpers. The one easy bucket the Thunder got in that stretch was a reverse layup by Nenad Krstic off a pretty feed by Westbrook. But of course, it was waived off because Krstic traveled. That about summed up the kind of night it was for the Thunder.”
The Tulsa 66er roster is filling out FanHouse says: “The Oklahoma City Thunder-owned Tulsa 66ers will also be strong, returning six players from a team that made it to the D-League finals last season along with three of the players the Thunder released during their own training camp. They may have a bit of a logjam in the backcourt, however, as Zabian Dowdell (Phoenix Suns), Mustafa Shakur (New Orleans Hornets), Tweety Carter (Thunder) and Jerome Dyson (Thunder) all spent time playing point guard in NBA training camp this fall.” Read more…
