Daily Thunder.com

Growing up as a baseball player, two things became incredibly clear to me.  Superstitions are nothing to mess with, and statistics are the lifeblood of sport.  I was that guy who came off the field and grabbed the scorebook to keep myself entertained when it wasn’t my turn to bat.  That led to me getting lobbied by a lot by teammates to score their one hopper to the pitcher that was airmailed into the stands as a double.

As I have grown older and become more obsessed with basketball, I have learned that basketball players are not very superstitious (how else can you explain the number of players who choose to wear the number thirteen–are they crazy?!?) and statistics are not as valuable to rating contributions on the floor (see Kevin Durant and plus/minus controversy).

Of course, that last bit of information has not stopped me from trying to find a way to find value in a player’s stat sheet.  Today, that led me to comparing how the Thunder’s core players (Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden) perform when the team wins versus how they peform in losses this season.  After the jump, I share what I found. Read more…

Commentary

 Chemistry is a buzz word that gets tossed around a lot in sports, but is particularly involved with any conversation involving Thunder General Manager Sam Presti’s plans for his team.  The thing is, in those occasions, it might not be a cliche.

Not too long ago, I read two books that helped me to understand the inner workings of a modern professional basketball team.  Both, :07 Seconds or Less by Jack McCallum and Can I Keep My Jersey by Paul Shirley, happened to be at least significantly involving the mid-aughts Phoenix Suns.

I would imagine most people who visit this site are at least familiar with the tale of that team.  They were easily the most entertaining team to watch since Michael Jordan hung up his sneakers for the second time and behind Steve Nash, their brand of basketball exuded energy and excitement.  They won a lot of games and appeared to be having a crap-ton of fun.

The books painted an entirely different picture off the floor.  Some of the higher paid players walked around with a chip on their shoulder, and after the press left, the players generally went their seperate ways.  Their job was very similar to everyone else’s in that there was a hierarchy, politics, and the paycheck was the primary thing keeping them interacting with each other.

Thanks to the invention of Twitter, today you don’t have to be a league minimum earning bench warmer or embeded journalist to get a feel for how this Thunder team interacts with one another.  And what I have observed is good.  There is a true fraternal bond among these players.

And I really like the use of the word fraternal for these guys.  Aside from the fact that only a couple of the guys are old enough to where they would be called “non-traditional students” if they were still on college campuses, everything they seem to do reminds me of my days as a fraternity guy.

They live in big houses that a typical college kid couldn’t afford.  Most of their free time is spent playing video games.  Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and James Harden kill time trying to become YouTube stars.  Some of them participate in stupid games like slap fights.  And if you listen to them complain about women in their tweets, you’d think they were struggling students rather than wealthy, handsome, and famous athletes trying to chase down starlets.  Sometimes, I have trouble remembering that I am following the word vomit of professional basketball players rather than CollegeHumor.com writers.

The parallels to an NBA Animal House don’t end there, though.  After the jump, I look at which role these players would play if they actually were living on fraternity row.  Read more…

Commentary

For much of the past week, discussion on this website has been centered around the theoretical acquisition of Oklahoma City’s first professional superstar, Chris Paul.  And while the debate has raged between those who agree with me and think, “If you can a player as good as CP3, you do it,” and those people who are wrong, there is nothing close to unanimity on the topic.

So, today, I will try to change the subject and delve into another trading opportunity the Thunder could theoretically, but probably not, have.  The idea came to me when I read this article (insider access required) by Chad Ford.   For those without ESPN Insider, the gist of the article circled around the pipe dream that Miami might possibly woo both LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join a re-signed Dwyane Wade in the Summer of 2010.

The likelihood such a haul is irrelevant to this discussion, as what really matters is the Heat’s managment’s willingness to do what it takes for a chance to make the biggest free agent splash in NBA history.  Because it would take a lot.  A LOT.  And that’s just for the opportunity to possibly coax those two into turning down a lot of other attractive opportunities.

Some of you may be wondering, “what does this have to do with the Thunder?”  That’s a good question.  Ford layed out three scenarios in which Miami could make a run at next Summer’s three premiere free agents.  Numbers one and three were basically non-starters with the former involving sign and trades (which would be practically impossible for a Heat team that would basically have an empty roster) and the latter asking the three superstars to accept less so they could all play together (that only happens when players are trying to get a ring at the end of their careers).

That leaves the second scenario, for which Oklahoma City could get very involved.  See what and how after the jump.

Read more…

Commentary

(Be sure to read Royce at The Lost Ogle.)

It was a bipolar week featuring the Thunder’s best performance of the season, and followed immediately by their most embarrassing loss to date.  As a result, the article trying to make sense of this team that I had planned isn’t going to happen because I am having trouble figuring them out.  So, instead, enjoy a bunch of random thoughts I’ve had this past week that couldn’t merit an article on their own:

• Has anyone noticed the Suns are 8 – 1.  What happened to blowing that team up?  There goes the significance of the pick we’re owed from them being “unprotected.”

• During my senior year in high school, my school beat the Booker T. Washington Hornets who featured Etan “Derrick” Thomas, Ryan Humphrey (who was also an NBA first round pick), and B.J. Tiger (who started at QB for OSU briefly–before getting busted for selling pot) in the Tournament of Champions in Tulsa.  I was not on the team.

• Who wants to design a T-shirt fans can wear to the game that shames Nick Collison into growing the “Absolute Value Stache?” Read more…

Commentary

(Be sure to read Royce’s column about the 2010 Oklahoma gubernatorial election at The Lost Ogle.)

My wife loves basketball.  She enjoys the tempo of the game and the fact that all players have to play both offense and defense.  She recognizes when a player is getting out of control and complains about poor shot selection as much as I do.  On the other hand, she is not so good with distinguishing players apart.

It started when we were in college and she constantly cheered for Joe Adkins when Desmond Mason had the ball and vice versa.  Me explaining that Joe was wearing #35 while Mason wore #34 fell on deaf ears.  What we learned is that she could differentiate the players by their hair style.

This also led to her creating her opinions of said players based more on the way they styled their hair than on their skill on the floor.  For instance, her favorite OSU player was Andre Williams because his afro made him stand out.  The player she hated as much as I dislike Kobe Bryant was the point guard from Missouri (Wesley Stokes) because she thought his rastafarian hairdo meant he was a thug who clotheslined grandmothers as they crossed the street for fun.

Anyway, the point of this story is that basketball player hair has always been a topic of discussion around Matthews Manor.  Because of that, I’ve noticed a recent trend going on among the roster of the Thunder.

Read more…

Commentary PL&T

(Want to know the top five scariest places in Oklahoma? Royce lays them out over at The Lost Ogle.)

By the time this article runs, the Thunder will have played their first game, and, Gary England willing, be 1-0 after stomping the Kings.  That’s going to happen.  If it doesn’t, you probably shouldn’t pay any attention to my predictions for the rest of the season.

Key to the Season: Jeff Green

Sure, Kevin Durant is the team’s best player, and James Harden is the rookie ingenue that is supposed to fill the holes the team had last year.  No one is going to dispute that.  The guy who will have the biggest influence on how this season turns out for the Thunder, though, is the glue guy–Jeff Green.

For the Thunder to reach the unfair expectations being heaped onto them by much of the national media, Jeff Green is the guy who has to get to that next level.  When he was drafted, the thought was that he would be as Scottie Pippen was to Michael Jordan for Kevin Durant.  And, honestly, I think he can fill that role.  For now, though, I’d just like to see him strive to be like David West.  If he can consistently bring his A-game, improve his rebounding, and silence the detractors that say he is too small to play power forward (much like West dealt with before the Hornets arrived in OKC), the Thunder will easily improve on their win total from last season, and with luck challenge for a playoff spot.

Even if he does not, I think Green will do a lot for the team fresh off being named a team captain.  While I don’t think I’ve seen this mentioned anywhere, it was Green who I saw motivating his teammates this Summer, by publicly calling on them to get to the gym (via Twitter).  It might have just been that he didn’t understand you could send messages directly to people with Twitter accounts, but I prefer to look at it as him cracking the whip. Read more…

Commentary Love and Thunderstanding, Peace

(edit.  I apologize in advance that I’m basically phoning this in the way that the Thunder did the second half against San Antonio the other night.  I’ve been busy, okay.  Anyway, Royce’s post at TheLostOgle.com is probably going to be a lot better.)

About a year ago, Patrick wrote a post that dogged the gameday production of the Thunder and gave advice on how to improve.  It was only as harsh as it was true.  The worst of the vitriol, and probably the most deserving, belonged to the game emcee, Jonathan Meisner:

Hire a Game Emcee who doesn’t make me want to punch the Game Emcee in the face.The guy pictured above is Jonathan Meisner.  Jonathan is the “in arena game emcee” for the Thunder.  He’s also a recruiter for Southern Nazarene University. Yeah…the Thunder put a Nazarene college recruiter  in charge of entertaining an NBA crowd.  That makes as much sense as Jim Traber working at the library.

Seriously, how could they hire this guy!?!  Not only is his audition video terrible, but he has to wear his hat backwards to look remotely “cool” and “fresh.”   Instead, he looks like some annoying kid asking his mom for the Sunny D or the purple stuff.

He was, in my opinion, the worst part of the Thunder experience, and that included watching P.J. Carlesimo coach.

Thankfully, it turns out that Meisner either quit or was let go because the Master of Ceremonies at the Ford Center this season will be a two headed monster that includes comedian Joel David and a OklaTravelNet co-host (the girl, Katie Kurtz, not Brent Skarky).  This is definitely an upgrade. Read more…

Commentary Love and Thunderstanding, Peace

(Edit:  My initial plan was to write an article about our human nature to feed into the hype of unknown quantities, such as, say, Serge Ibaka, and believe that our scouts lucked into a rare talent who escaped the radar of every other team…then I watched him play against the Suns on Monday, and can’t consider myself above the fold.  Chewbaka for Defensive Player of the Year!  On another note, make sure to read the OU/TX rivalry breakdown that Royce posted over at TheLostOgle.com.)

Throughout my life, I have been pretty tough on referees.  When playing intramural/rec league basketball, I have been known to blame the guys in black and white stripes for everything from a blown call to world hunger.  Watching games on television, without the risk of getting T’d up, I have been even less kind.

Now that you know this about me, it will come as no surprise to you that my initial reaction to news that the NBA referees union was being locked out by the league offices was less than sympathetic.  “Good riddance,” I thought to myself, “how could the replacements be any worse?”

Then, dread spread down my spine as I began to realize, “they could be a lot worse.”

As infuriating as the NBA referees can be, see here, they do have a ton of training and experience that scabs called up from the D-League/CBA/NCAA, or wherever they find replacements, cannot replicate.  And that shortfall is only the biggest problem assuming the league was able to get the best non-NBA referees available…but that is not the case.  Guys who have the objective and talent to eventually officiate NBA games for a living probably turned down the opportunity to fill in.  If they did cross the picket line, they would lose out on future benefits afforded by the referee’s union.

So we aren’t talking just about replacement referees, we are talking about bottom of the barrel referees.  Oh, joy!

On the flipside, some of that experience that the seasoned zebras possess, can actually be a detriment that these green, over-their-head scabs could actually improve upon the normal product.  Because of these conflicting ideas, I have a pro/con list regarding this lockout after the jump.

Read more…

Commentary Love and Thunderstanding, Peace

(Welcome Clark Matthews, NBA writer extraordinaire from Oklahoma’s best blog, The Lost Ogle. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with this column already. We’re going to be doing a little post exchange between our sites. We get Clark’s outstanding NBA commentary. They get some off-hand, confused rant from me. It’s all going to work out beautifully. I think. Hope you like.)

When the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City, the organization blew their whole marketing budget re-branding the team with a new name, new logo, new mascot, new player posters for the Ford Center, et cetera, et cetera.  You get the picture.

So, coupled with the fact that the team sold their entire allotment of season tickets in less time than it takes Patrick to down a Newcastle, it was unsurprising when the Thunder pinched a few pennies by not rolling out a big “Meet the Team” advertising campaign.  Personally, I felt this was a mistake considering that the team was breaking into a new market without a good understanding of the NBA product or an ingrained love of the sport.  Sure, plastering billboards and flooding the local stations with commercials was not going to sell one more ticket (unless the team convinced the Ford Center to allow them to seat fans on the catwalk), but while the National Basketball Association has been around for, what fifty years, the NBA in this market is a brand new product in many ways.  Expecting a team that was purchased for $350MM to take root by word of mouth was a pretty risky proposition.

Luckily, the franchise seems to have realized their folly as ticket sales have naturally slipped as a result of the poor economy, poorer results on the floor last season, and the wearing off of novelty.  They now know they need to connect with potential fans to convince them to support a team 41 nights a year.

Of course, the first attempt, Thunder Up!, certainly has some limitations.  After the jump, I’ll break them down for you.

Read more…

Commentary Peace Love and Thunderstanding, The Lost Ogle