Nick Collison is blogging for GQ and wrote about his summer: “Instead, to wait out the summer, my five-year-old daughter Emma spent the months with me in Seattle; my version of an entourage consisted of my kid and a nanny. My mindset quickly shifted from things like “How is the pick and roll coverage with Jason Kidd handling different from Jason Terry?” to thoughts like “I hope the other kids are still too young to make fun of her hair because I sure as hell have no idea what to do with it.”
From Elias: “One night after scoring 30 points on Opening Day, Kevin Durant put 33 on the board in the Thunder’s 104-100 win at Minnesota. Last season, Durant also scored 30 points in each of his first two games. Only four other players in NBA history have scored 30+ in their first two games in two consecutive seasons. Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain both did it in 1961-62 and 1962-63. Karl Malone did it in 1991-92 and 1992-93, as did Allen Iverson in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007.” Read more…
If you would’ve told me two weeks ago that I would be much more impressed by the Thunder’s win over the Wolves than the one over the Magic, I would’ve thrown hot coffee in your face.
But the Thunder’s 104-100 win in Minnesota had three big factors that made it great: 1) This Wolves team isn’t your typical crappy Minnesota team 2) the Thunder were playing in a back-to-back after traveling a couple hundred miles north and 3) Minnesota was 10-1 in their last 11 home openers before tonight.
And the Thunder walked in, survived a terrible shooting start, hung in with defense, got it going in the second half and then closed out the Wolves with a few big plays from James Harden and Russell Westbrook. It’s just the mark of a good team. Surviving in a trap game because your good players were good. Read more…
Does this game feel trap-ish to you, or is that just me? A supposedly improved Wolves team with a great coach led by a bunch of exciting new players and with Oklahoma City coming off a game and long trip the night before — feels dangerous, doesn’t it? Read more…
Berry Tramel on Perk’s anger: “Brooks said Perk ‘has to control the emotions. We didn’t want the technical fouls to add up. He told me he will slow it down when he gets to nine. Or eight. I’m trying to talk him down to six.’ Yeah, right, Scotty. We saw how interested you are in trying to settle down Perkins. And you’re playing it just right.”
Darnell Mayberry: “Not sure what happened to Russell Westbrook tonight. He started off like he was headed for a triple-double. Then things went south. He turned it over seven times, struggled with his shot selection and decision-making and had a lousy day defensively against Jameer Nelson. But expect Westbrook to have a big night Monday at Minnesota. In 12 career games against the Wolves, Westbrook is averaging 15.9, 10.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds. Last year, Westbrook averaged 20 points, 9.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds in the four-game series against the Wolves.” Read more…
It wasn’t the best gift under the tree, but it was practical as the Thunder took care of the Magic 97-89 to start out the season 1-0.
It could’ve been worse. It could’ve been the complete series of Gossip Girl or something. But this game was like that plain button-up from Old Navy you got from your grandma today. Nothing special, but useful.
There were flashes in the first half of brilliant transition offense, quality halfcourt possession basketball and stingy defense. The Thunder went on a couple of different runs to break away from Orlando, which was helped by a stretch in the first half where the Magic went just 5-30 from the field.
But for the most part, it felt like a meh opening night win, something you’d see Nov. 1 as a team still figures out a few things and settles into their normal rhythm.
The game came down to an essential, simple matchup: Perk got the better of Dwight Howard. Howard was just 4-12 for 11 points and only shot eight free throws. When Howard can’t roll inside, it completely limits the Magic’s inside-out game, which is what they’re basically designed to do. Read more…
The balleyhooed, hyped, anticipated 2011-12 season starts tonight for the Thunder against a high quality opponent. You may think the Magic are a bit down and out just because of all the Dwight Howard noise, but that’s a top five or six Eastern Conference team and one with the best big in all of basketball. Meaning, if you think in any way this should just be taking care of business for Oklahoma City, you’re way wrong. Read more…
Kevin Pelton from Basketball Prospectus has released the new book just in time for Christmas! He joins TGR to talk about the projections for the Thunder this year, individually and team wise.
Talking points:
Basically Kevin Pelton answers every question you’ve ever had as a Thunder fan.
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We knew this was coming, but now it’s official: The Thunder have reached a buyout agreement with Nate Robinson. The roster now stands at 15.
This was necessary for one, to get down to the required 15-man roster but also because there was absolutely no reason at all to keep Robinson on the roster. Now the Thunder can keep Ryan Reid as part of the team instead of being forced to waive him, in which they’d lose their rights to him.
(Since Reid was drafted by OKC 57th overall in 2010, Oklahoma City owns his rights but with the Thunder bringing him to camp, they’d forfeit those rights if they waived him. More than likely, the Byron Mullens trade was to open room to keep Reid more than anything else as OKC needed that extra roster spot in order to keep him, and Royal Ivey who has a non-guaranteed contract.)
Robinson is now a free agent able to sign anywhere, which is what he wanted. He was never going to see playing time with the Thunder and Oklahoma City didn’t want to just pay him to do flying motions and to scream on the bench. I’m sure Presti tried to unload him in a trade for a future pick, but there probably weren’t too many takers.
Happy season Thunderers. Thank you for your support of DT. Thunder up, and such and such.
Ahmad Rashad, who was as much of my basketball childhood as Michael Jordan was because of “Inside Stuff,” has a new sit-down show with NBA players. There’s a little teaser out and in it, KD talks about how close the Thunder were last season and attempts to clarify, for the millionth time, how he feels about Russell Westbrook.
It’s a shame that this season isn’t 82 games because the Thunder’s 50-win season streak will almost assuredly come to an end at two. (The Mavs’ is at 10, I think.) But it’s time to take guesses on how this thing will shake out. It’s time make a prediction on Oklahoma City’s record, seed and the scene when the final buzzer sounds on the season.
1. How many games will the Thunder win?
Royce Young, Daily Thunder: Put me down for 47-19. Through 66 games last season, the Thunder were 43-23. So Oklahoma City will be four games ahead of that clip and on pace for 58 or 59 wins if this were a normal season. Which sounds just about right to me. They should be better, but I don’t see any reason to be THAT much better
Patrick James, Daily Thunder: The Thunder will win 46 games, a slight improvement on last year’s winning percentage. I don’t buy many arguments that say the compressed schedule will have much of an effect because it affects all teams, but it may affect the young Thunder a little less. I think Oklahoma City will display a nice killer instinct this year and bring solid focus throughout the entire season.
J.G. Marking, Daily Thunder: I say the Thunder go 50-16. The Northwest Division simply isn’t what it used to be and given the Thunder’s depth and youth, I honestly think they are more suited to succeed in a compacted and brutal schedule than any other team in the league. Read more…
Think back to how you defined success for the Thunder two seasons ago. It looked something like this for me: 35 wins, a winning home record, an All-Star game for Kevin Durant and maybe a handful of wins over good teams.
Instead the Thunder blew that all out of the water, winning 50 games while storming to the postseason.So I tried to set the bar high for 2010-11. Something like a Northwest Division title (check), 55 wins (check), homecourt advantage for a series in the playoffs (check) and maybe even a playoff series win (check).
And wouldn’t you know it, they blew that away too. Oklahoma City won not one, but two postseason series en route to coming up just short at a shot for an NBA title.
So when I got started thinking about trying to set a realistic bar to define success, I figured only the wise thing to do would be to stick with the theme and say success is winning the Western Conference and playing for an NBA title. That way the Thunder could blow the top off that and take the whole thing.
See how smart I am?
But seriously, how do we define success at this point? Is it championship or bust? Are we really that spoiled that we feel that the Thunder are in a win-now situation? Or do we all still have our wits about us keeping reasonable expectations within sight? Read more…
SB Nation lists the Thunder as one of the three most watchable teams: “Fairly obvious choice here. The only reason I have them at No. 3 is their games can sometimes get choppy. The Thunder were tied for second with Miami in free throw attempts per shot attempt (only Denver was higher), and a lot of that is because Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Kevin Durant tend to drive to draw fouls rather than finish. Durant also has his rip move, which can be kind of annoying, if effective. But I’m nitpicking here. Clearly, the Thunder are a team you have to watch every night.”
Zach Lowe of SI.com on Westbrook-Durant: “But that doesn’t mean the issues aren’t real against good defenses in crunch time. It just means the issues go beyond the simplistic “can they co-exist?” question fans drool over in hopes of witnessing a developing feud. The Thunder’s offense fell apart at times in the clutch, devolving into Westbrook dribble-dribble-dribble isolations when Oklahoma City’s first options failed. Sometimes those options involved Durant running off screens, something he had trouble with against Tony Allen. Sometimes they involved the near-indefensible Westbrook-Durant pick-and-roll — a play the Mavericks could defend by simply switching.” Read more…
For the Thunder, it’s all about winning and such and such, but if you’re like me, you have an eye turned to the box score every night. You’re looking at KD’s shooting percentage, Westbrook’s turnovers, Ibaka’s blocks, Perk’s rebounds and Royal Ivey’s HER (Handshake Efficiency Rating).
Russell Westbrook already put it simply when asked about his individual goals for the season. “Make my team win,” he said. But every player has a bar set for himself and if they don’t, the fans sure do. We have our own mini set of expectations outside of the win-loss column. We want our players to perform well, have good seasons and meet the bar set for success. So let’s go through this player-by-player and try and define a successful season. Read more…
Zach Lowe of SI.com has OKC has a favorite: “The Thunder are healthy, young and deep, and they morphed from a mediocre defensive team into a top-five-level club on that end once they flipped Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins last season, and Perkins finally looks to have recovered from reconstructive knee surgery. They were a top-five offensive team all season despite all the hand-wringing over Russell Westbrook’s shot selection, and they should be again this season, assuming everyone develops as expected. Last season’s crunch-time struggles against the Grizzlies and Mavericks should push the coaching staff to add more screening and off-ball action into the Thunder’s offense. With apologies to Dallas, this is the team to beat in the Western Conference. Miami and Oklahoma City were two of just three teams to finish among the league’s top 10 in both points scored and allowed per possession last season. Any Finals matchup other than Heat-Thunder will be a minor surprise.”
I don’t pretend to be an expert. Or maybe I do. I don’t really know. Regardless of that, anyone can make predictions, expert or not. Anyone can say things like, “I think the Thunder will win the West” or “I think Kevin Durant will have a five dollar footlong for lunch tomorrow.”
I’m not here to do that. I’m here to make 35 statements, but not with any wavering conviction. Statements made with a nonsensical, possibly irrational amount of confidence. Statements that will more than likely be mostly incorrect by the end of the season, but by then you’ll have forgotten this and if you try and search for it, I will have deleted it and deny that I ever said that.
So here are 35 statements made with extreme confidence. And possible stupidity. Read more…
Nick Collison is blogging for GQ and wrote about his summer: “Instead, to wait out the summer, my five-year-old daughter Emma spent the months with me in Seattle; my version of an entourage consisted of my kid and a nanny. My mindset quickly shifted from things like “How is the pick and roll coverage with Jason Kidd handling different from Jason Terry?” to thoughts like “I hope the other kids are still too young to make fun of her hair because I sure as hell have no idea what to do with it.”
Kevin Pelton from 
