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Adrian Peterson, the Sooner legend and current NFL superstar, recently compared his plight to that of the early-American slave. Slated to make $10.72 million if the 2011 season occurs, just about everyone who can complain about “A.D.’s” bold pronouncement has done so. The thing is, he might have had a point, even though he did a poor job of making one. If NBA owners get their way, basketball players will be next in line to talk about “modern day slavery.”

The hang up for most who gripe about Peterson’s lack of tact is that he will make more for one game than a vast majority of un-enslaved Americans hope to make in a lifetime. However, it was not the poor wages and fringe benefits that made the slaves slaves. Freedom, or more accurately, the lack thereof, was the foremost issue. By the system that is being negotiated currently, the NFL restricts the ability of their players to control their own destiny worse than any other sport. Read more…

Commentary CBA Primer

League owners ask, “Where have you gone Che Guevera?”

(If you missed any of the previous installments in this series, click here.)

Throughout this series, there has been a common theme. When it comes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement discussions, the owners have the advantage. Thanks to the NFL Players Association, though, the court may have just been leveled.

In order for the union to beat the owners in the NFL’s battle, they ceased existence. The fancy term is “decertification,” but what it really means is that the players are no longer a collective unit. As such, they cannot collectively bargain anything. To which most people, if they are anything like me, would initially think, “Doesn’t that mean the owners won?”

If this were thunderdome, that would be the case. Two entities went into the ring of collective bargaining, and only one entity exited. In this case, however, death becomes the union. Read more…

Commentary CBA Primer

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This is Part V in a series of posts discussing issues of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Part I of this series discussed why there will be a lockout and Part II looked at the possibility of contracting teams. Part III was on age limits and Part IV on the D-League.

If there is one thing NBA Commissioner David Stern has been tasked with doing in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations, it is cut costs. Despite record high revenues, many teams in the league claim an inability to continue with the current system. Stern claims that the Association needs to reduce player salaries by 1/3rd for the league to become profitable.

The nuclear solution being tossed out by the owners is simple: a hard salary cap similar to what the NFL employs.

For many reasons, the Players Union will fight to the death (also known as, “decertification”) to prevent this from happening. Under the system that is now in place, the NBA has a salary cap framework that really is easy to circumvent for teams that desire to spend more. To illustrate that point, all but six teams (including the Thunder who are exactly at the threshold) currently surpass the imposed salary cap limit. Putting it into solid numbers, the NBA teams are collectively paying members of the union $287.4 million more than would be allowed if the cap were restrictive. Make that salary cap a valid barrier, instead of a line in the sand, and the league is about half way to cutting the costs they desire.

With the Union’s role being to increase their member’s share of the pot, one can understand why this is unacceptable to them. Their first, and strongest, argument is simply that it is not the NBPA’s objective or best interest to save the owners from themselves. While Stern and his staff toss out figures showing financial data rigged to look like massive losses, the players simply have to say they do not care. If owners are truly offering contracts that they cannot afford, it should not be the players to say, “You’re paying us too much,” it should be team management making that call and reacting appropriately. Read more…

Commentary CBA Primer

The D-League: Shaping the NBA since…well, someday it might have an influence

When it comes to developing young men drafted by their league, Major League Baseball’s “minor leagues” is the premiere system. Unlike the NBA, which immediately guarantees a roster spot to a first round draft pick and guarantees the player millions of dollars, MLB has a system of incremental player growth administrated by the team that gradually prepares the player for the rigors of the sport.

In the past, the NBA had no real concern about developing players. When players had to prove a “financial hardship” to enter the league prior to exhausting their college eligibility, and Soviet rule kept players from defecting before they had passed their prime, the league used free methods of transitioning players from their parent’s (or government’s) oversight to a life of extravagant wealth. Then, about twenty years ago, the trend of players to quit school and start making money began. General Managers, not wanting to miss out on an elite talent, stopped emphasizing things like “preparedness” and “development,” instead caring more about “potential” and “athleticism.” The result was that a good number of players whose immaturity and inability to grow, that in the past would have become apparent when they clashed with their college coach, were drafted into the NBA and given multi-year guaranteed contracts. Even if some of those players could become valuable pieces, their development was stunted due to inability to get floor experience.

Over the past decade, basketball has attempted to emulate the plan of their baseball playing brethren. In creating the National Basketball Developmental League (“D-League”) some effort has been made to address the trend of players beginning their careers earlier. In ____, __ teams, mostly in the Southeast, were spawned by the NBA as a de facto minor league. It mostly consisted of second rounders cut by teams and free agents whose dreams of playing in the NBA still had a flicker. As time has progressed, the D-League has expanded, some teams (including the Thunder) have purchased franchises, and in the most recent CBA, the players relented to allow first and second year players to be assigned to teams affiliated with their club. This past Summer, the league allowed a bit more control regarding how teams filled out their D-League rosters by giving D-League rights to the affiliates of teams that cut the player during training camp. Read more…

Commentary CBA Primer

College could have taught these guys some humility.

Kobe Bryant never played a college basketball game.

Kevin Garnett never attended a college class.

LeBron James never even considered going the college route.

Prior to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, high school players were allowed the option of declaring for the NBA instead of playing college basketball. As a result, many of the best regarded teenagers in the sport chose the big money instead of the traditional progression represented by walking on a college campus. It is undeniable that many of those players made perfectly rational decisions. Just as easily as one can chastise the Gerald Green’s and Ndudi Ebi’s for wasting their potential by getting under the big lights too early, someone can defend them by saying they got paid when they could just have easily flamed out as NCAA indentured servants.

All of that discussion is completely and totally irrelevant.

Basketball players will generally all argue that there should be no age restriction—but even then they aren’t being totally forthcoming. It is doubtful anyone is truly suggesting that that the NBA transition to a European-style philosophy of allowing youth players to sign with teams. (For instance, Ricky Rubio signed with DKV Joventut when he was 14 years old.) What they really mean is that they want to return to the old status quo that said players could enter the draft when they had exhausted their high school eligibility. They only take issue that the NBA says they have to go to college first. Read more…

Commentary CBA Primer

If you missed the first part, “Introduction to the Collective Bargaining Negotiations,” that discussed the imminence of a lockout, you can catch up here.

Since most Oklahoma City Thunder fans were originally New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets fans, we are already fully aware of the problems the Hornet franchise was going through. In the days when I was a contributor at HornetsCentral.com, the discussions on the message board typically centered on how the New Orleans market was never a fit for the NBA, the ownership being atrocious, and how the team should have stayed in the 405 permanently.

Being that we still believe all three statements to be true (even though, in retrospect, we are pleased the third did not come to fruition) it was of very little surprise when we saw news that the league had wrestled ownership away from George Shinn. The guy was a cancer to the league brain trust that openly poisoned the Charlotte market so he could take his team to be the second banana in a place that had already failed the NBA despite having a hometown hero and basketball legend in Pete Maravich to buoy the team’s appeal. Then, if rumors are to be believed, Shinn lobbied to stay in Oklahoma City rather than return to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, only to have David Stern veto that idea to keep the Hornet owner from ruining the emerging market permanently. Read more…

Commentary CBA Primer

This beard is on the comeback trail.

There is going to be a lockout.

If the media has been adequate at all about reporting on the labor negotiations for the National Basketball Association, it has been in making that one point clear. While the owners and the Players Association (NBPA) haggle, the only thing most people care about is that a work stoppage is almost a certainty in the short term. However, what issues are being discussed, what the end resulting Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) might look like, and what those resulting changes could mean for—in our case—the Oklahoma City Thunder is hardly discussed.

My goal is to change that. In doing so, I have to assume that, as educated NBA fans that frequent a niche NBA team blog, most of you reading this are at least familiar with the current CBA. This is not to say you understand the intricacies of collectively bargained by laws, but at minimum, you understand that trading players has specific guidelines, player contracts have minimums and maximums, and that an intricate salary cap currently exists. For me to explain the entire minutia in this series of posts would make each posting way too long even on the Matthewsian scale. However, if there is something I mention and you feel some further background would help your understanding, feel free to drop me an email (clarkfnmatthews at gmail dot com) and I will be happy to discuss it with you.

Alright, now for the fun stuff. Read more…

Commentary

Disclaimer: If I know my audience, and I think I do, you are a basketball junkie who craves basketball discussion regardless of whether it is assinine or enlightened…especially during the off-season when basketball isn’t being played. On the other hand, if I’m wrong, there is a chance you may be annoyed following the illogic of theoretical transaction possibilities that have very little possibility of ever coming to fruition. If the latter description fits you, you may want to stop reading. Of course, since you’re visiting a Thunder basketball blog on May 27th (weeks after the team finished playing for the season), I doubt that is the case. So, proceed.

With Oklahoma City having zero chance of winning the NBA draft lottery, I expected the night to have no hope of gaining my interest. Then, the funkiest outcome made it intriguing.

For most of the year, the lottery has been assumed to be “The John Wall Sweepstakes” based on belief that Kentucky’s freshman point guard was far and away the best player available. So, of course, the team that wins the lottery is among the worst possible places for him to wind up.

With the Washington Wizards, who tied for the fourth worst record, hop scotched Golden State, Sacramento, Minnesota, and New Jersey to wind up with the first selection in the draft. Odds are, they will still pick Wall despite the fact that their star player plays the same position and is likely untradeable. That will probably lead to them starting two point guards and seeing the two fight over who runs the offense. Of course, this likelihood will feed discussion about whether the Wiz should trade the pick or choose another player who would allow them to continue playing a more traditional line up. Read more…

Commentary

(Two weeks ago, I started a series taking on the topic of how Thunder players should use the off-season to improve.  The first edition involved Nick Collison and his lack of super duper awesome facial hair.)

In the Summer of 2008, Nenad Krstic was coming off knee surgery, the U.S. Dollar was cratering, and Russian team Triumph Lyburtsy wanted to make a splash in the Euro Super League.  Krstic, who was having to deal with restricted free agency and questions about his knee, took the opportunity to return closer to home where he could make better money.  Of course, the novelty of NBA players defecting to Europe wore off quickly when it became clear that the guarantee in “guaranteed contracts” only applies to the team when you are across the pond.  Triumph did not make the impact they wanted and pretty much stopped paying their players as a result.  Krstic quickly got out of his contract and returned to the U.S.

In just one more example of Sam Presti scouring the bargain bins, the Thunder GM quickly signed him to an offer sheet that paid a below market value for a seven footer who could start at center.  Then, considering that Nenad was all of 25 years old and had posted career highs of 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game before his knee injury, it was a coup.

A year and a half later, some people have forgotten just how lucky Oklahoma City was to acquire a free agent capable of starting 105 games in the middle of a season.  Now, his faults are scoured over constantly.  Today, I will be no different, because everyone knows he can do better. Read more…

Commentary

In any discussion about what the Thunder will do with their four draft picks in the upcoming draft, the topic always turns to “trading up.” As it stands, Oklahoma City possesses the 21st, 26th, 32nd, and 51st picks. So, out of the sixty players that will be selected on June 24th, 7% will theoretically belong to our local franchise.

A quick glance at the team roster suggests they do not need that many rookies. There are eleven players with guaranteed contracts, and that is if the team cuts Kyle Weaver (unlikely) and Mustafa Shakur (probable) who have non-guaranteed deals. If they keep both first round picks, using neither to draft a foreign player who can be stashed overseas, Sam Presti is looking at fourteen of the fifteen roster spots taken prior to any decisions on the second rounders, or free agency.

For argument’s sake, let’s say they do use all the picks they possess, they will be replacing the only players older than thirty (Etan Thomas and Kevin Ollie) with even more youngsters with no NBA experience. They will join the list of players with more D-League experience than NBA playing time: D.J. White and B.J. Mullens.  Do the Thunder really need to keep stocking the 66ers roster with guys on their payroll?

It doesn’t take a genius like Sam Presti to figure out that the team may be a little too draft pick rich. So what options are there? Read more…

Commentary

The season is over and the team has left town.  Most of the guys have returned to their hometowns to get some quick quality time with their families before spending the Summer doing the plethora of events young, rich young men get involved doing. 

For some (Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook) that will include playing basketball for the United States.  A couple (Nenad Krstic and Thabo Sefolosha) others will likely be playing for other countries.  The Thunder’s young  bench warmers (Mustafa Shakur, D.J. White, B.J. Mullens, Kyle Weaver, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka) are likely going to be playing in the summer leagues with the new draft picks.

What is the common thread?  They will all be working to improve so that next season they can try to take the next step toward making Oklahoma City a basketball dynasty.  So, expect several articles over the off season from me with opinions on how the individual players can make their games better.

Today I start with Nick Collison, who to be honest, is pretty much as polished as he’s going to become.  We know exactly what Nick is going to bring to the table night in and night out.  He will play scrappy defense, grab some rebounds, and most importantly, sacrifice his body to draw charges.  For me to make any suggestions about Nick needing to get stronger or make efforts to extend his shooting range is unrealistic.  He’s going to be 29 years old next season.  He is what he is.

That doesn’t mean Nick can’t get better.  Step one (also the final step):  Collison needs to follow through on his collossally great ideas.

This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this, and it won’t be the last, but just before training camp last year, Collison tweeted:

If i had a handlebar moustache then cut off the top leaving the sides and called the look the “absolute value stache” would it be cool?

Did he really need to ask?  Do it man!  That would be the douchiest facial hair in professional basketball, better than anything Adam Morrison would do even, so therefore it is of great importance that he make it happen.

Of course, what he described only worked because he was short on time before the season tipped off.  With a whole summer to work on his mustache, the sky is the limit.  So, after the jump, I have some inspiration for Nick to take with him as he relaxes with the fam in Seattle.

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Commentary

Why. The. Face?

How could the the Thunder go from obliterating the defending champs in game 4 to being obliterated two nights later? On Sunday morning, the talk was about how the Lakers looked old, fat, and unmotivated. On Wednesday morning, the talk was about how the Lakers look hungry, fresh, and invigorated.

I was so angry while watching the game that I spent a lot of it diagnosing what went wrong, and trying to figure out how to swing the momentum back again.

HOME COURT

My partner in crime at The Lost Ogle, Patrick tweeted during the game:

I wouldn’t think the home court would such a big deal for professionals. Shows what I know.

As a fanbase, we have enjoyed the good that comes with having a team full of players who are right around drinking age. On Tuesday night, and probably in games 1 and 2 without really realizing it, we saw the bad. These guys, who in olden days would have been resting after the NCAA tournament, obviously fed off that Ford Center crowd and were intimidated by the Staples Center “faithful.”

If we think the Thunder can overcome this factor in Game 7, we’re probably deluding ourselves. That being said, they can totally do it. Read more…

Commentary

Ideally, the Thunder would have been up two games to none while they made their way back home, but obviously that did not happen. Instead, the Lakers won the first two games of the series and most casual observers, and a lot of die hard Oklahoma City fans, have already written this first round off as a learning experience for the young team. I am here to tell you, that is a big mistake.

Most veteran basketball analysts like to say that a playoff series does not truly begin until someone loses on the home floor. That has not happened. So far, the Thunder have lost two games that they were, even if they could not be labeled as playoff virgins, supposed to lose. Let me say that again: They were SUPPOSED to lose those two games.

Anyone who predicted the team would steal one in Los Angeles, was either overly optimistic, or else trying to sell some newspapers by being contrary. The Thunder went into one of the toughest venues in professional basketball to get their first taste of playoff basketball and did so against the team that has most recently lifted the championship trophy. As expected, they showed up looking timid and overwhelmed. They missed shots they normally make, made mental errors, and allowed their emotions to negatively effect their play.

Even so, they barely lost. Laker fans, even though they are, should not be overly confident after the play of their team. The defending champs with the best record in the Western Conference lost three out of the four quarters in game one and barely squeaked by in game two despite the Thunder’s best matchup advantage missing half the game with foul trouble. Now they lose home court for the next two games.

Of course, game three is a MUST WIN for Oklahoma City if they even hope to make a splash and if they pull that off, game four is almost as important. For that to happen, though, the Thunder do not have to play a great deal better. To win they simply need a couple of these things to happen:

DURANT NEEDS TO BE DURANT

K.D. was the team’s leading scorer in both games in Los Angeles, but did anyone watch his performance and think he even played to the level we have become accustomed to over the past couple of months? As much as the Laker Nation wants to believe that their investment in Ron Artest is finally starting to pay off, the truth is more likely that Durant simply wilted a bit under the bright spotlight. Think about it, the media has been incredibly focused on the young superstar, Laker coach Phil Jackson has been playing mind games with him, and no one is harder on Durant than Durant.

Well, he is back home now, has had a chance to breathe, and took the Lakers’ best punch already. If he bounces back and puts together a complete game like he had been doing night in and night out leading up to the playoffs, the Lakers will also have to improve their play.

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Commentary

To tell you the truth, I wanted to wait on this editon of “Hate Them Now.”  There are 29 teams in the NBA that are harder to dislike than the evil empire in Los Angeles, so giving our readers a list of what to hate about the Lakers will be so easy that it’s hard.  Obviously, I’ll miss some things, and sadly, some of the things I list will actually be endearing qualities to the scumbags who root for the team.

However, with the first round of the playoffs rapidly approaching and the Lake Show being the Thunder’s first opponent in “the Second Season,” it has to be now.

In a way, it is a perfect scenario.  Any movie written about a ragtag bunch of misfits who pull together and achieve more as a whole than ever could have been expected of them always ends with a matchup against a team like the Lakers.  Whether it’s the Indians finally taking down their nemesis Yankees to win a one-game playoff, or the Permian Panthers coming up short against Dallas Carter…the climax is always the same scenario.  Some book called The Bible also played on the same formula when some meek sheep herder slayed a freaking giant.

For the Thunder, that giant is Kobe, and his running mates represent just as much evil as those Philistines.  Their glitz, braun, and riches are cheap methods of winning meaningless championships that can be tossed in their trophy case like Scrooge McDuck flipping a nickle into his money silo.  And just as David’s confidence and guile was the standard which the ancient Jews wanted their people to aspire, the Thunder’s brand of chemistry fueled basketball is what true fans of the NBA should hope takes the series.

While I hate to jinx it, I believe Oklahoma City has a fantastic opportunity to do just that.  Sure, the Thunder have sort of limped into the playoffs with some less than stellar play down the stretch, but compared to the Lakers, they look like they are firing on all gears.  L.A. just finished their season by losing to their crosstown rivals, and lottery slummers, by seventeen. 

One poor game would be explainable, but in their final fourteen games against teams that qualified for the playoffs, the Lakers won just four times.  One of those losses was to the Thunder who blew them out beginning at the opening tip.  Of course, Lakers fans (who are genuinely awful people**) are loaded with excuses:

• Kobe’s finger broke. 
• Andrew Bynum sat out with an Achilles injury. 
• The whole team was on cruise control because they locked up the West’s best record early.
• Phil Jackson, the master plotter, is inspiring false confidence in potential opponents by hiding the team’s best schemes.

Maybe they are all right.  Perhaps Kobe will wrap his hand a different way and become a demigod again.  Andrew Bynum might gimp around on his sore ankle and prove to be the league MVP Lakers’ fans thought he was before the injury while calling for him to back up Lamar Odom.  And they proved they could flip a switch and suddenly become instantly dominant:  ten years ago with Shaq on the team, and Kobe’s odometer reading a lot fewer miles.  As far as the Zen Master’s scheming…well, we’ll get to that in the reasons to hate the team.

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Commentary

When the Thunder have only one shot to take, obviously they look for Kevin Durant to take that shot.  He’s, at minimum, the second best player in the NBA right now, and according to the rankings the league’s best scorer.  Unfortunately, every team the Thunder plays knows he’s option 1 and 1A and therefore do everything in their power to deny him the ball.  In the end, he either gets the ball somewhere close to half court where he still has to take the shot with a hand in his face.  And if that doesn’t work, Russell Westbrook or Thabo Sefolosha, who aren’t exactly snipers in the easiest of circumstances, wind up taking the games biggest shot.

Not surprisingly, the Thunder are 7-10 in games decided by three points or less.

Maybe Scott Brooks should be drawing up plays to put the game in the hands of option #22…mainly because Jeff Green has actually proved he will come through.  Last season, he banked home a win against Golden State.  This season, with bigger stakes, he has had even bigger moments.  Who can forget Green’s performance against the Hawks on Martin Luther King Day?  His clutch dunk and incredible block sealed the victory over one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams on their home floor.  Soon after, it was another huge defensive play by Green that saved the Thunder from an embarrassing defeat against Minnesota.

When the pressure is on, Uncle Jeff is the man you can count on.  That was never clearer than Tuesday night in Utah.  Even after Kevin Durant shot the team back into the game, it was Green who drilled the three pointer that tied it in regulation.  Then, with five seconds left in OT, Green banked home a runner to give the team a (brief) one point lead.  I was so pumped I re-wrote a classic song in his honor.  Check it out after the jump.

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Commentary Jeff Green