Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty
So Nick Collison’s replacement in the rotation while he’s out with an injury is … Daequan Cook?
That was the case Wednesday at least on opening night, and I doubt the rotation is anywhere close to set, Collison or no Collison, this early in the year. But Scott Brooks’ decision to go with Cook off the bench was significant for a number of reasons.
The Thunder played 14:51 minutes of small-ball in the 106-95 win against the Bulls by my unofficial count. The Thunder was +6 on the scoreboard in that time span. Perhaps more significantly, Oklahoma City played 8:01 of that small-ball with Kevin Durant in the game at power forward and was +10.
The small-ball came in two spurts bridging the quarters in each half. Cook replaced Jeff Green at the 2:03 mark of the first quarter with the Bulls up 25-23. The Thunder had a lineup of Eric Maynor, Cook, James Harden, Durant and Serge Ibaka. Green subbed for Durant with the Thunder up by six about three minutes into the second quarter, and Westbrook eventually replaced Maynor before Oklahoma City went to a more traditional lineup with 5:58 left in the half. The Thunder had a 43-42 lead for a net gain of three points in about eight minutes of small-ball. Read more…
Commentary
Kevin C. Cox/NBAE/Getty Images
The honorable J.G. Marking chimed in during the late offseason with five things he’d like to see from the Thunder on the court. There was heated debate and regular debate, and pondering of real basketball issues that matter.
But not all in basketball that matters are basketball matters. The masses have had two years to digest the Thunder and form strong opinions on all levels of the team, and especially the fan experience. I’m sure there are a few dissenters out there, but unanimity is for commies. I’ve got five things of my own I’d like to see regarding some vital issues, and I think a lot of people will agree with me.
1. The Thunder should wear black shoes at home.
Remember the Martin Luther King Day game last season in the afternoon at Atlanta? For whatever reason, the Thunder wore home whites and the Hawks wore a red alternate. The Thunder also wore black shoes, which they usually only wear with the road blues. Read more…
Commentary
2010-11 Season Preview
Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images
Given the Thunder took the eventual champion Lakers to within one possession of a Game 7, it’s hard to point to Oklahoma City’s 50 regular-season wins in 2009-10 and say it overachieved. The 27-win improvement in one year after the franchise moved here represents such a leap that an increase this season by even half as much is unthinkable. I don’t think anyone would dispute that approaching the mid-60s in wins during the regular season is asking too much.
It begs the question: What number of regular-season wins represents the kind of improvement the Thunder is looking for? Last year, .500 seemed a realistic goal and the playoffs a hopeful one, though players said flatly in the preseason their goal was the postseason. Specifics were harder to come by this season in the Thunder’s own stated goals, but home court in the first round replaces .500 this year as most folks’ chief preseason hope, with a No. 2 seed in the West as what gets dreamed of more often than said out loud. Read more…
Commentary
2010-11 Season Preview
Timothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Fans of few NBA teams would be as adversely affected by a lockout in 2011-12 as Oklahoma City’s. Lakers fans would miss out on what is likely (or hopefully, in the minds of his rivals) one of the dwindling years of Kobe Bryant’s dominance. The crowded Heat bandwagon, along with longer-serving Miami fans, will be deprived of what could secretly be one of the only seasons when Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh are in sync all year and at the peak of their powers — Wade turns 30 next season after all.
Thunder fans’ disappointment would rate very close. Not only would Oklahoma City miss out on a year of a young Kevin Durant’s brilliance, but this and next season will both be crucial in determining the future of the franchise. To be cold an analytical, missing out on 2011-12 would be one less year of data to decide who to pay and who to let go and one less year to develop young players. Durant is good enough on his own to keep the Thunder out of the lottery and out of lottery-like rookie talents, so the value of every ounce of data, empirical and otherwise, goes up when deciding how to build a team. But from a passion perspective, the Thunder’s meteoric rise toward the top of the Oklahoma City area’s consciousness could seemingly only be stopped by the absence of the franchise altogether or a disappointing season. Somehow, the all-too-real threat of a lockout makes the former more possible, at least for a year, than the latter. Read more…
Commentary
NBA Lockout
AP Photo
As you may have heard, there are some pretty good teams with pretty good players at the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference. There are as many or more title-contending teams in the East than the West for the first time in recent memory, and that somehow happened with the biggest free agent who switched conferences, Amare Stoudemire, going to a team that doesn’t rank among the championship favorites.
In no particular order, teams that have the most realistic shot at a title have to be the Lakers, Heat, Celtics, Magic, Bulls, Mavericks and Thunder. Throw in the Spurs if you’re feeling generous. And aside from the Thunder, the contending teams in the West have players on the downward slope of their careers, while only the Celtics seem to be in danger of the window closing soon in the East.
The prospect of Carmelo Anthony and/or Chris Paul heading East at some point would only further tilt the balance. Don’t forget whispers about Deron Williams over the summer either, although there aren’t specific reports of interest in or from East Coast cities as with the other two. Read more…
Commentary
Yes, I saw it. ESPN’s Bill Simmons helpfully directed the attention of his nearly 1.3 million Twitter followers to it. ESPN.com included the Thunder in its interactive feature about the greatest players in NBA teams’ histories, and Seattle SuperSonics players were on the list.
Unsurprisingly, bitter Seattle fans flooded the comments section with vitriol directed at the NBA, ESPN, Howard Schultz, David Stern, Clay Bennett and Oklahoma City. Most of the anger was directed at the first five, but of course plenty of people took pot shots at Oklahoma and its people. There were the usual belittling comments referring to OKC as “Hickville USA,” and even the regrettably predictable reference to the 1995 bombing a few blocks away from where Kevin Durant now drops 30 points a night.
Also unsurprising was the presence of some outnumbered Oklahoma City defenders who chose to engage in a back-and-forth with the most vocal and insulting commenters. All of the hateful nonsense on my computer screen got me riled up, as it often does when I see people invoke a mass murder as a way to put a city’s population down. I soon got to work on a column asking Sonics fans to leave the people of Oklahoma City out of it. I was determined to be logical, accommodating (of Seattle’s numerous legitimate gripes), passionate and fair.
But then I got a better idea. The only idea. What I think we all need to do in any debate of this kind, especially about something that won’t be changed and happened years ago.
Ignore it. Resist the temptation to engage them. Especially the ones who can’t spell. Here’s why: Read more…
Commentary
AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza
Team USA was up 13 late in the third quarter Sunday when Turkey dared Russell Westbrook to shoot. The nearest defender was closer to the free throw stripe than to Westbrook, who was dribbling beyond the 3-point line. He lofted a three and it splashed through for a 16-point lead.
The camera zoomed in on Westbrook as he backpedaled to the defensive end, and he scowled as he said something to someone. I only saw it once, watching on a TV with no DVR thousands of miles away from the game in Istanbul, but I was pretty sure I could see what he said.
“You want me to f—— shoot it?”
Maybe he said something else, calling a defensive signal even. But that’s what it looked to me like he said as I watched it live. And the scowl on his face said it all in any case. It was a mixture of offense, disgust, pity and aggression — “You better try something else next time.”
The moment for me, along with Kevin Durant’s well-publicized dagger 3-pointer followed by him pounding the USA on his chest and screaming at courtside Turks, defined the edge the Thunder’s two best players undoubtedly sharpened in their gold medal run. Read more…
Commentary
Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook
Well, the DT Shirt Summer Vacation Gallery got an overwhelming response from you readers in the form of four total submissions in an attempt to win a free DT shirt. But I’ll accept the blame for that because I didn’t think of it until summer was half over. Next summer we’ll do it again but launch it before Memorial Day.
Daily Thunder reader Grant Wilson of Norman is the winner of the aforementioned DT shirt. The random selection process involved the highly scientific process of me putting numbers one through four on folded small pieces of paper, and Mrs. Patrick James pulling the one that represented Grant out of a Thunder hat. A hearty thanks to the other folks who submitted photos. Grant has opted to wait to claim his prize until the new DT shirts launch sometime soon.
Grant’s winning snapshot came on a vacation he took in July with his wife Meg and her family in Maine at Acadia National Park. Grant, as you can see, was sporting his WHY NOT? playoffs T-shirt as he stood next to his brother-in-law, 10-year-old Ethan. Bonus points (that did not influence his victory, I assure you) for Ethan’s Kevin Durant shirt and especially for the location of the shot: Thunder Hole, a chasm on the coast.
Grant says he’s an avid Thunder fan who has been to a lot of home games, including the team’s not-so-epic first game against Milwaukee in October 2008 and the epic Game 3 playoffs win against the Lakers.
“Best sporting event I’ve ever been to,” he said.
Grant’s an Oklahoma State University grad who holds a University of Oklahoma law degree, which for a lot of people around these parts is either his saving grace or what makes him a traitor. But he contends he only wears OSU orange and Thunder blue when it comes to local sports gear.
So thanks again for those who participated. Check out the other submissions below. Read more…
Shirts
Wait, that’s Rok Stipcevic? Filip Brala/ZadarSport
There’s at least one NBA player on many of the rosters of the FIBA World Championship in Turkey, so there are plenty of names out there familiar to American basketball fans. But for most of us stateside, this will be one of our few exposures to the best basketball players the rest of the world has to offer.
Judging by a lot of the comments here at Daily Thunder, there are plenty of people out there who know more about international basketball leagues than I do. I don’t want to pretend that the foreign players toil in obscurity, it’s just that I have no idea who most of them are. Thorough research is for professionals, so to save time let’s just look at the guys who have the coolest names.
Introducing the 2010 FIBA World Championship All-Name Team, featuring a three-guard lineup: Read more…
Commentary
Now that I’ve stopped laughing over the footage of Nenad Krstic and the Serbian basketball team in a brawl with Greece, it’s time to analyze Krstic’s fighting prowess. Or lack thereof.
(Unfortunately for Krstic perhaps, we’re not the only people investigating, and he already spent a night in jail. People from Greece’s sports violence squad are looking into the brawl. Why don’t we have a sports violence squad in the U.S.? Would this be to investigate sports violence or initiate it? Can I be the commissioner either way?)
Any good analysis starts with the source material, so let’s go to the tape. Just watching it straight through without pausing or slowing it for a more in-depth look, Krstic’s general strategy jumps out to anybody who has or is a younger sibling. It’s a mixture of cheap shots, apparently unwarranted escalation by involving weapons, fighting only from protected positions and a particular fury: He fights like a little brother. Even though he might have a little more edge to him, in the interest of alliteration, lets just call him the Serbian Slapfighter. Read more…
Commentary
Nenad Krstic
Let’s hope Kevin Durant’s metaphorical journey through the FIBA World Championship isn’t as arduous as the actual journey he took with Team USA to Spain for a tournament warm-up. The poor guy didn’t even have a well air conditioned hotel room when he got to Madrid.
(Serious side note: Who the hell booked the travel arrangements for Team USA? Who stops twice from the East Coast to Western Europe anymore — were they on a World War II bomber or something? And then stick them in hot hotel rooms? I don’t understand. Maybe they got some guy who books AA baseball teams on bus trips to figure this thing out.)
Durant and the rest of Team USA are only beginning to get a taste of the inhospitable conditions they’ll encounter on this European excursion. Basketball crowds in Europe are much more boisterous than those in the U.S., to put it mildly. This will be high-pressure basketball in real life several timezones away, no matter how lightly it’s taken on our shores while football season is getting cranked up. Read more…
Commentary
For the first time in Oklahoma City’s NBA history, it appears the season could start without a player with obvious Oklahoma connections in the home locker room at the Ford Center. With Etan Thomas’ departure, the Desmond Mason Memorial Token Okie Roster Spot is unfilled.
I think we can handle it. People seem to be excited about the team for some reason despite the dearth of Oklahomans.
Still, the Thunder values its local connections and I could see the team making a move to bring a local player downtown. We’re talking about someone at the end of the bench anyway. Thomas, for example, played as much as you and I did for three solid months last season. Let’s explore unsigned options.
Chuck Norris, Ryan
Yes. Ryan, Okla. Where else would he be born? Come home, Chuck. Come home and help us beat the Lakers.
I heard he wears Sam Presti pajamas to bed. Read more…
Commentary
The schedule is out! And while some summer vacations have yet to be taken, it’s never too early to start looking at the Thunder’s schedule in search of fun trips to watch Oklahoma City take its show on the road.
For the purposes of this post, road games that could make fun trips are defined as those that someone with a job or a class schedule would only have to take one or two days off, not including the weekend. And airfare or hotel prices can change by the minute, so anything listed here is just a general idea of what’s available to an ordinary travel shopper right now.
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel extensively, and I’ve yet to find a reason to doubt my belief that there’s plenty in any city large enough to have an airport to entertain you for a couple of days and nights. Some places may be more fun than others, and some places may have more options than others, but I haven’t found a city yet that wasn’t worth exploring. That being said, no offense to the residents of places like Milwaukee or Sacramento, but the focus here is on more traditional locales for weekend getaways.
And one last bit of motherly advice: the earlier you start planing the better, especially if it involves air travel. Single-game tickets will go on sale at different times throughout the year, but that would be no reason to wait before you jump on a decent airfare. Just be aware of when upcoming ticket sales deadlines are and don’t miss them. As for hotels and rental cars, reserve early because most places will let you cancel without penalty until very late. If you find a better deal elsewhere, you can nab it. Read more…
Commentary
2010-11 NBA Schedule
It’s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, which is awesome. It’s the dog days of the NBA offseason and it’s approximately 142 degrees in Oklahoma right now.
Let’s compare notable members of the Thunder family to sharks.
Kevin Durant: Porbeagle shark
I know, that was pretty predictable. When you saw where this column was going, you instantly thought, “Kevin Durant is JUST like a porbeagle shark.” Or maybe not.
While most sharks prefer more glamorous and warmer climates, the porbeagle shark is home in the quieter, cool waters further away from the coast. He can heat up all on his own. Porbeagles’ tendency to seemingly play, tossing around bits of debris in groups of up to 20, is like Durant’s propensity to play basketball all the time. They just enjoy being sharks, like he just enjoys playing basketball. Read more…
Commentary
It may not be on the travel brochures, but the abundance of suitable emergency landing locations in the Oklahoma City area is undoubtedly a pillar of the region’s strength. You can’t go more than a couple of miles in any direction without encountering a field of nothing, no matter where you are. I’m sure it’s of great comfort if you happen to find yourself at the controls of an airplane that suddenly loses power and plummets to earth.
But, as I’m sure many of you did, I sensed something sinister was afoot Tuesday when a biplane ditched in a field across from the Thunder’s practice facility. Why there? And why were the two occupants from and headed to California?
The answer was as immediate as it was obvious. They were spies sent by the Los Angeles Lakers, desperate for any edge to hold their tenuous perch atop the NBA heap and hold off the charging Thunder next season. Read more…
Commentary
