Surely you’ve seen the 5-on-5 series on ESPN.com. Well, it’s branching out (and by out, I mean down) to the TrueHoop Network. Three questions, three answers. Pretty simple.
The lockout sucks. It’s wiped out all of November and if things don’t get moving soon, we could go without basketball for the rest of 2011. I’m super tired of talking about it, but then again, what else is there really?
1. Fact or Fiction: A shorter season helps the Thunder.
Royce Young, Daily Thunder: Fiction. But that’s just because a shorter season helps everyone. Veterans like Perk play fewer games. There’s less of a chance for injury because there aren’t as many opportunities to get hurt. A compact season with 78 games piled up could benefit OKC compared to a veteran team like San Antonio, but these are professional athletes — they’ll do what they have to do.
Patrick James, Daily Thunder: Fact. Unless something crazy happens with the schedule and the Thunder miss out on some patsies and have a lot of games against contenders. You’ve got to think a young team like Oklahoma City will be better prepared to handle the physical grind of a compact schedule. Would you rather rather do five games in seven days on the strength of Kevin Durant’s knees instead of Kobe Bryant’s?
Clark Matthews, The Lost Ogle: Fiction. Assuming they actually cancel games, rather than condense the season, that actually works to help older, more veteran laden teams who are don’t have the burden of 82 games to wear them down. Even a condensed season wouldn’t necessarily give OKC an advantage. In that scenario, the likelihood of a major injury (particularly since there will be little-to-no training camp) is much larger and the Thunder have benefitted from none of those in the past two years. Read more…
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “Whenever the lockout ends – whether it’s next week or next month – NBA teams know this much: They’re not going to have much time to prepare for their shortened season. That could give some teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls an advantage because their rosters are already largely built. Other teams like the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics who either have a lot of holes to fill or hired a new coach – or both – could have more trouble. Not every team is as fortunate as the Thunder, who already have 14 players under contract and just one free agent: guard Daequan Cook. Their coach (Scott Brooks) has been with them for more than two seasons, so they likely won’t have many system changes. When the players have gathered during the lockout for informal workouts, they ran the team’s plays. Whenever the season begins, they likely shouldn’t have a tough transition.”
Good day Thunder. Thank you for your support of Daily Thunder. Sad faces all around.
Nike put out a new commercial to go with the “Basketball Never Stops” campaign. And while basketball might not ever stop, evidently the NBA does. But the new ad is pretty slick. KD’s part is playing hoops at the Goodman League. Wish it was The Peake, but whatever.
Welp, I was wrong about that. I should’ve known that these two sides were too stubborn to actually get a deal done. Can’t believe I fell for it. (Actually, I can, because I’m dying for any positive sign.)
The NBA’s big Friday negotiations have ended and we’re almost back right where we started: Basketball Related Income.
According to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, the two sides split after failing to come to an agreement on BRI. Neither side will move. The players sit at 52.5, the owners at 50. However, Billy Hunter said the league actually dropped their offer to 47 percent.
“[Stern] snookered me. … He made a move. He went to 47.”
The league has yet to cancel more games since the first two weeks were axed, but according to multiple reports, David Stern will cancel more games Friday that extend to Nov. 30. And on top of that, he said there’s no chance for a full 82-game season.
Howard Beck of the NYT: “Some notes of caution on NBA labor talks: “very, very difficult system issues” still to be settled, source says, including luxury tax plan.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports: The last system hurdle appears to be use of exceptions for taxpayers. “Tax not issue” a source said. “Exceptions are where the fight is.” As for where the deal stands, it’s “in a very good place” according to the report. “There’s a strong expectation [within the negotiations] that hands will shake [Friday],” a source said. Read more…
If you missed Thursday evening’s pressers with the league and players, there was a theme: Friday is important. Both David Stern and Billy Hunter signaled towards Friday’s meeting as a key moment in these arduous labor negotiations.
Hunter said a deal was “within striking distance.” Stern answered “yes” when asked if he knew what a deal would look like. To say that we’re on the one-yard line with the hopes of punching it in would be an understatement. (Let’s just hope they’re more effective in the red zone than the Sooners, amirite?) It’s right there.
The two sides met for more than 15 hours yesterday and appeared to make a decent amount of progress on system issues. According to some reports, the system is almost all but settled and now it’s about a BRI compromise. Today’s deal day. It’s just a matter of getting it done. Here’s your song of the day.
Chris Mannix: “One source briefed on the talks Wednesday said agreement by the end of the week ‘very possible.’ ‘Lot of real progress tonight,’ source said Read more…
Thanks to the rookie scale that keeps salaries artificially depressed for several years, the Thunder paid Kevin Durant, the NBA’s leading scorer, about a third of what the Jazz paid for Andrei Kirilenko last season. Similarly, the Bulls paid Derrick Rose, the league’s official MVP, about a third of what the Magic paid Gilbert Arenas, the league’s unofficial LVP.
Paying Durant $6 million is an enormous competitive advantage on its own, but the real benefit here is that it frees up Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti to spend money elsewhere when he needs to. The opportunity cost of paying Arenas is that you forfeit the chance to use that money on other things (like a James Harden or a Serge Ibaka or a Russell Westbrook).
This concept isn’t unique to NBA general managers. Do you pony up $30,000 for a fancy car or do you buy a slightly less fancy car and deposit the leftover cash into a savings account to help send your child to college? NBA teams face a similar choice when choosing to spend their money. With a soft cap on payroll, it becomes imperative to spend your money wisely, and if you study successful franchises, those who spend money wisely seem to be bargain shopping at the draft. Read more…
Chris Palmer of ESPN.com tries to figure out who is most athletic between Rose, Westbrook and Wall: “Westbrook is as close to a perfect leaper as there is. He owns a high vertical leap, the ability to take off from far out and his versatility in jumping effectively off of one foot or two make him the complete package. Westbrook was third in the league among guards in dunks (52) and had almost as many as Rose and Wall combined (58). The Thunder point guard also has the unique ability to create a late burst with his last two steps — after he picks up his dribble — allowing him to essentially accelerate in the air, rendering most help defense useless. Westbrook’s long arms also allow him to time follow-up dunks while taking off from outside the charge circle.”
Howard Beck of the New York Times on scheduling: “Whenever the lockout is resolved, the N.B.A. will build a new schedule from scratch, using all arena dates that are still reserved, according to people who are aware of the league’s plans. N.B.A. officials declined to discuss the issue Tuesday. Thus, the decision to formally announce cancellations is an academic exercise, and perhaps a bit of political theater. The announcements are a warning shot to the league’s 430-plus players, a reminder that they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.” Read more…
An update to yesterday’s Serge Ibaka rumor: He’s officially signed with Real Madrid. It’s for two months and could sign an extension if the lockout’s not settled.
David Thorpe of ESPN.com writes James Harden is the next Manu: “Harden reminds many of Ginobili because of his average-looking athleticism that gives way to an occasional monster dunk that foreshadows his future if he tried to make athletic plays more often. Remember that as Harden enters his third NBA season, he is three years younger than Ginobili was as a rookie, so the Ginobili we’ve seen play with nuanced craft is far past his peak athletic years. Harden plays with tremendous poise and pace, and as he seasons, he could add more excitement to his game, the way Ginobili can be electric with the ball when his team needs him most.” Read more…
The NBA will announce the cancellation of two more weeks of games Tuesday, according to the New York Daily News. David Stern has already canceled the preseason and the first two weeks of the season.
The report says this cancellation will wipe out 102 games and carry through Nov. 28.
For the Thunder, this means seven more games are gone on top of the eight already lost. It looks like this: home versus New Jersey, home versus Denver, home versus Utah, at San Antonio, home versus the Lakers, home versus Memphis, at the Clippers, at Golden State.
If a deal is reached soon, Christmas Day games could still be preserved, but as it stands right now, pretty much all of November is gone. Not everyone’s favorite month of the NBA, but losing a month of basketball is a pretty large dent in the season. Read more…
Serge Ibaka really likes Spain. He started his professional career there, speaks the language fluently, became a citizen this summer and helped the team take gold at Eurobasket.
So if he’s going to play anywhere overseas during the lockout, you can bet it’ll be Spain. Via Sportando, two clubs are pursuing Ibaka in Real Madrid and Valencia.
What Real is after though is to sign Ibaka for the future, as they did with Rudy Fernandez. That’s extremely unlikely as Ibaka is very happy in Oklahoma City with the Thunder.
The Thunder have had only two players defect overseas during the lockout with Thabo Sefolosha signing in Turkey with Fenerbache and Byron Mullens signing for a short stint in Greece. Kevin Durant’s name was tossed around a bit during the summer but it’s not looking like he’s going anywhere. KD set a deadline of Oct. 1 to make a decision to go overseas and since it’s Oct. 24 and he hasn’t signed anywhere, I think he’s staying put.
As you might expect, there were a number of fun highlights from last night’s charity game in OKC. But here are my three favorite plays, two involving Thunderers.
1. Chris Paul oops off the floor to James Harden.
Players talked lockout after the OKC charity game: “No, no. Fifty-three. That’s where we’re staying at. We’ve had plenty of talks and we’re not dropping,” Harden said. “We already dropped and set our number at 53 so that’s what we’re sticking to. I’m definitely confident we’re going to have a season. I just don’t know when.”
Darnell Mayberry talked to fans about missing games: “In many cities, fans with opinions like Wallace’s would and perhaps already have boycotted NBA ball. That’s not the case in OKC, where after three seasons fans were just getting attached to NBA action before the labor dispute set in. Wallace is a prime example. He bought six tickets the day they went on sale last week. Five remained in his pocket as he snapped pre-game photos of the All-Stars from the first row of the lower bowl. His family couldn’t attend because his boys had football practice.” Read more…
It wasn’t an All-Star Game, but Oklahoma City sure treated it like it was. A near-packed Cox Convention Center saw stars like LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden duke it out in a surprisingly entertaining game with Durant and LeBron’s White Team prevailing 176-171.
Keep in mind, this was a charity exhibition game. Didn’t matter though as 12,874 turned out anyway for it. The game was televised in Oklahoma as well as online, though there were so many clicks on the site that was streaming it that it crashed right before tip-off. There might not be any NBA right now and it might be football season, but people still want their basketball.
Half of the headlining act was even missing. Shirts being sold around the arena billing the game as “Durant versus Griffin,” only served as a reminder that Blake Griffin, born in Oklahoma City’s, wasn’t in the building because of a cut on his foot. But it also served as a decent metaphor that in basketball terms, the city belongs to Durant. Right before tip, Durant grabbed a microphone to thank fans for coming and said, “We’ll try and make it a show.”
I’d say mission accomplished. It wasn’t the best basketball I’ve ever seen and it certainly wasn’t competitive until the fourth quarter. Miles Rawles, who Durant brought in to MC the game, reminded the crowd, “It’s gonna get good in the fourth.” And it did. Read more…
Christian Peterson/NBAE/Getty Images
Royce Young, Daily Thunder: Fiction. But that’s just because a shorter season helps everyone. Veterans like Perk play fewer games. There’s less of a chance for injury because there aren’t as many opportunities to get hurt. A compact season with 78 games piled up could benefit OKC compared to a veteran team like San Antonio, but these are professional athletes — they’ll do what they have to do.
