SLAM has five reasons Scott Brooks deserves an extension: “Either way, even when the Thunder were playing like your 
grandpa’s ’73 Sixers, Brooks was still encouraging, still clapping, still refusing to collect moral victories like he used to collect his team’s laundry when he was a coach in the ABA. Even the locker room, when things weren’t exactly humming, didn’t permeate a team dancing with futility. The players seem to genuinely like Brooks — some even call him “Scotty” — and when you like someone, you tend to play hard for them. Brooks perhaps draws strength from his own playing career. He was a short, white, undrafted and undersized guard, a CBA refugee who ended up sticking around for ten years and winning a title (with the ’94 Rockets). It’s entirely possible Brooks sees this Thunder team going through the same modus operandi as his own life in professional basketball: Success will eventually be born out of hardship, acquired through scrap and fight, where results and respect will be concurrently earned. Bottom line: He’s an upbeat guy, and his team is eating it up – 18-24 since their 3-29 start, with wins over San Antonio (twice), Utah, Dallas and Detroit since the second week of January.”
David Friedman of Pro Basketball News says give the RoY to Derrick Rose: “The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook is averaging 17.3 ppg since the All-Star break but he is only shooting .395 from the field during that time. For the season, he is averaging 15.7 ppg (tied with Gordon for third among rookies) and 5.1 apg (second among rookies) for a team that started slowly but now has a marginally better winning percentage than last year.” That’s it. That’s all the mention Russell got in Friedman’s Rookie of the Year thing.
Brook Lopez was asked about Rookie of the Year: “Probably Derrick,” Lopez said. Give a different one. “I’d say Russell (Westbrook).” Keep going. What about Lopez? So he named Robin. ”Derrick’s changed his team so much. They’re definitely (in it) for the playoffs. Between (Kevin) Durant and Russ, Oklahoma City has obviously improved over the course of the season. He did too,” said Lopez, averaging 12.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.79 blocks, who gave his All-Rookie team as Rose, Westbrook, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon and Marc Gasol.”
NBA Outsider has a prediction: “Let me make it clear that I am NOT saying the Oklahoma City Thunder will be title contenders, but instead that they will be threatening to make it into the playoffs in three years. I try to be bold, not borderline brain damaged.” Oh my. How bold. Will be threatening to make the playoffs in three years? Really going out there on a limb with that one. Three years is a long time. That means you’re saying they stink in 2009-10. They’re bad in 2010-2011. But in 2011-12, look out! They might make the playoffs that year. NBA teams are the easiest to turn around. If OKC’s doesn’t contend for the playoffs until 2011-12, then something is seriously wrong. Read more…
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Box score…if you can stomach it.
It’s tough to win in the NBA when you can’t shoot and you can’t defend. The Thunder found it out…again tonight against the Pacers in a second straight trip to the woodshed.
There really isn’t much to say about this game that isn’t just summed up by that first paragraph; we just didn’t score enough points or in any way efficiently, meanwhile the Pacers ripped us a new one. We allowed the Pacers, who shoot 49.7% eFG on the season to bomb away at 54.5% tonight. Our guys in blue, who are already fairly dreadful shooting on the season at a dead last in the NBA 47% eFG shot 44.5%. Add to that, we got into a running game with the third fastest team in the NBA and if you’ve been watching this season, you can imagine how well that has worked for us this season. Tonight each team used 104 possessions, one of the fastest games of the season for us, and were never really in the contest. We are 0-9 in games with a pace over 100, and have only won one game all season with a pace in the high 90′s, and that was a one point win against the lowly Kings. Read more…
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vs. 
Indiana Pacers (32-44, 10-29 road) vs. Thunder (21-54, 14-24 home)
TV: KSBI (Cox 15)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 6:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.0 (29th), Indiana: 107.3 (20th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.5 (20th), Indiana: 109.2 (19th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.4 (8th), Indiana: 96.3 (3rd)
Can I just take a moment to say, what the crap weather? Snow last weekend, then sunny with highs of 75 through the week and now back to low 40s and 200 mile per hour wind. Oh yeah, I live in Oklahoma. Nevermind.
For tonight’s game against Indiana, I’m really expecting a solid effort. After Friday, ahem, “poor” performance against Portland, I think this team comes out with a lot of fire tonight. They may only have 21 wins, but they have an awful lot of pride. In fact, in games OKC lost by 20 more (under Scott Brooks) the Thunder’s 0-4 in the following game with a pair of two point losses and overtime loss. So while that’s not exactly an encouraging bit of information, it does say that the team doesn’t really sulk and get their rears handed to them on consecutive nights.
Brooks hinted that D.J. White may see action for the first time tonight. I’m really anxious to see what he adds. I don’t expect big minutes or big production, but I’m looking forward to at least getting a look at him. At Indiana he was a terrific low post scorer and physical rebounder – something OKC really needs. (Kind of ironic he makes his debut in the NBA against Indiana, huh?) Read more…
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Reader Kev was at the 66ers game last night and had some great comments about D.J. White and Kyle Weaver’s performances. I thought it needed to be bumped up to maybe catch some more eyeballs.
Actually, White was not that good on the boards – he had seven boards – four were offensive and three of those were attempted tip ins – come on, if you’re 6-9 you should be able to get more than 3 defensive rebounds in 36 minutes of action. I didn’t see the aggressiveness from White that you need at THAT level to warrant time in the NBA. He was very good at jump shots, as he put in at least four of those from 15 to 19 feet. Sadly, he did very little post up work. In fact, he got the ball in the post TWICE all game. The first time he turned and faced immediately after catching it (he hit a jumper from about 12). The last time he fumbled the ball after starting to dribble, and almost turned it over in the process. He offered little defensive resistance inside all night, so (based off of one game I know) it doesn’t look promising.
Weaver looked okay at the point. He registered 11 assists, but when you play in a game in which transition and rotating defense is almost non existent, you can rack up the assists if you are a willing passer (which he is). He did okay at ball handling, even though he had two bad passes out of traps. With Livingston on hand, I don’t think he will be seeing the point with the Thunder anytime soon. Still, it was fun to see him take his “demotion” in stride – he was in a good mood the whole game, and even gave a fist pound to all the statisticans before gametime.
Great stuff. I’m a little disappointed about White’s post game. At Indiana he was lethal in the post. I hope he’s not trying to be a jump shooting big man. Been there, done that (Johan Petro). Also, you can check out last night’s 66ers box score here. Weaver played all 48 minutes and had 24 points (11-17 shooting), 11 assists and seven rebounds. White had 28 points and seven rebounds in 37 minutes of run.
Both players have been recalled and that’s the last time White is going down for the season. Under league rules, a player can only make three trips down and up between D-League and NBA. Hopefully White can get a little burn in these next seven games.
Also, Darnell Mayberry had an explanation as to why Weaver was sent down:
“He’s going to be able to play there two games and only miss one game here,” said Brooks, indicating Weaver is likely to be recalled prior to Sunday’s game against Indiana. ”I like what he has done for us, and he will continue to improve because he is a great worker. But he’s getting minutes down there and it helps when you get minutes. I know he was getting 16, 17 minutes up here, but he’s getting 40 minutes down there. I thought he did a good job. He was filling up the stat sheet. They didn’t win the game, but I thought his numbers and his play was pretty good. So he’s just getting an opportunity to play extra minutes.”
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Box score (take a good look at it – it’s a good one)
You know what kind of quotes you see after a game like that?
“We just didn’t have any intensity tonight. We have to come out with better energy than that.”
“Shots just weren’t falling. Some nights that happens.”
“This one is on us – we just didn’t play with any fire tonight.”
“We got out-hustled. No excuses. That was just terrible effort on our part.”
“Give credit to the Blazers. They weren’t giving us any easy looks.”
Blah, blah, blah. I mean, what else are you supposed to say? “You know, other than the getting beat by 37 and shooting 36 percent, I thought things went pretty well.”
But let me tell you, that was a poor effort. They stunk. Big time. Sure, it was an “off night” if you want to call it that. I think a better description would be “so far off that I actually wonder if someone would hit the shot clock with a jumper night.” Oklahoma City shot just 36 percent for the game and it took a lot to get there after the Thunder shot just 23 percent in the first half. Yes, that’s right. Twenty-three percent. Eleven made field goals. Pathetic.
Here’s some numbers from the first half: Kevin Durant 2-9, eight points. Russell Westbrook 1-8, seven points. Jeff Green 3-7, nine points. Nenad Krstic 1-7, two points. And it’s not like it really picked up in the second half. after 35 first half points, OKC put up 37 in the second for a whopping 72 points. Too bad Portland had 107. You know how many points the leading man for OKC had? Thirteen. Thirteen points. The Thunder had three guys in double figures. As a result of all that *stellar shooting, Brian Davis probably said some variation of his little “lid on the basket” cliche 2,000 times. It got pretty old pretty fast. Read more…
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vs. 
Portland Trail Blazers 47-27, 16-20 road) vs. Thunder (21-53, 14-23 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma HD (Cox 37, HD 722)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.2 (28th), Portland: 113.7 (1st)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.3 (20th), Portland: 108.7 (18th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.5 (8th), Portland: 86.7 (30th)
Last time the Thunder beat the Spurs, they responded with a flat, uninspired performance against the Bulls. Do that again, and we may be taking a trip down P.J. Carlesimo lane with a home blowout loss. Hopefully, the team carries the momentum of beating one of the premier teams in the league at their place with them. One would assume OKC’s confidence would be sky high and they’d feel great going into this game. But I don’t think the Thunder plays that well when they think they’re “good.” They can’t take possessions for granted. They can’t just wait to turn it on like the Lakers or Celtics do. It’s got to be a full 48 minute grind.
I actually remember thinking during that Bulls game at some point in the first half (a half where OKC led the entire way), “Man, this team is playing with a little swagger. They look confident.” And of course the Bulls outscored OKC 51-40 in the second half, winning 103-96. Confidence is one of the most important things in sports. When you’re confident, you feel good about yourself and you play better. I firmly believe that. But when you’re not all that great and you’re a bit over-confident to the point where you think you can take possessions off or not work as hard on the glass, you’re going to get beat. So tonight, after an extremely impressive win over the Spurs, let’s hope nothing is taken for granted. Read more…
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Update: Chris Sheridan looks at interim coaches in limbo and says Scott Brooks is a “near lock“: “Start with the fact 
that nobody in Oklahoma City has uttered anything but positives when discussing him. Add in the dynamic that he gets along splendidly with general manager Sam Presti and got more out of Jeff Green and Kevin Durant by sliding them over to power forward and small forward, respectively. And toss in their two most recent efforts — playing the Celtics tough for 3½ quarters Sunday, then stunning the Spurs in San Antonio on Tuesday — and you pretty much get the picture that Brooks is there to stay. Think the Sacramento Kings are kicking themselves for passing over Brooks in favor of Reggie Theus two years ago? When they promoted him, the Thunder said they’d give Brooks every opportunity to earn the job. He did.”
HoopsWorld has Scott Brooks as one of next year’s leading Coach of the Year candidates: “This team has taken significant steps this season and Brooks has defined three players (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green) to build around. Thabo Sefolosha immediately contributed upon his arrival after being ignored in Chicago. Brooks’ biggest obstacle next season will be building offensively. Oklahoma City ranked 29th in the league in offensive efficiency. Brooks has gotten Durant’s approval and hopefully will return to coach the Thunder next season without the “interim” tag.”
The Magic traded Dwight Howard to OKC? Huh? How did I miss this? Oh, it was just an April Fools joke played by the Magic: “The Magic’s PR and Marketing team sure had some fun with April Fools’ Wednesday in Orlando. Let me try my best to explain. Giddy with whoopee cushion excitement all night long, the Magic pretended to “trade” Dwight Howard to the Oklahoma City Thunder, “re-sign” former great Penny Hardaway, and “play professional basketball” exactly like the Washington Generals. (They nailed that last one flawlessly, falling 99-95 to the sub-sub-sub-.500 Raptors.)”
Berry Tramel with some excellent points on the cost of losing: “You know what I’m talking about. The theory that defeat is fine, since every loss increases the odds of Oklahoma City landing hometown hero Blake Griffin, the runaway best player available in the 2009 NBA Draft. It’s only natural to check out the lottery standings, since the playoffs never were an issue for the Thunder. When OKC pulls a stunt like it did Tuesday night – winning at San Antonio – you check the standings and realize if the Thunder had minded its own business, this morning it would be tied for fourth place in the lottery standings. Instead, the Thunder is sixth. That’s a huge difference in lottery odds – 13.7 percent for fourth, 7.5 percent for sixth. But those odds are 13.7 and 7.5, not 83.7 and 77.5. And no matter what the odds, increasing them comes at a high cost. Losing is not easily shaken. Mason is exactly right; losing can become a habit.” Read more…
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Excellent stuff here emailed in by a reader. I’m a bit of a stat guy myself, but I don’t think there’s anything that can judge “Can the guy ball?” And like I wrote about last week, Russell Westbrook can absolutely ball. Here’s a better way of saying it.
By John Mietus
One key element little discussed in this year’s NBA rookie of the year race is the importance of intuitive feel for the game, basketball genius for lack of better term. Some coaches and statisticians try to refer to this “feel” as Basketball IQ, but that attempts to quantify with numbers (high or low) a player’s innate feel for the game. The truth of the matter is that most great basketball players simply feel the game out, and no statistical measure accurately captures the beauty or volatility of such play. That’s why team’s can write PER measurements on Ricky Rubio or Larry Bird without ever fully realizing the “win potential” of either player.
I’m not always a fan of what Charley Rosen, the FoxSports.com NBA writer, says about basketball. Rosen tends to be negative to the point of absurdity when discussing the greatest basketball players in the world, but he makes valid points on the contributions of players in regards to a team concept. Rosen points out that 90 percent of the players on the court at any given time of a game do not hold onto the basketball. That implies that 90 percent of the game happens away from the ball. And even in the NBA, even in a league designed to be played one-on-one, plenty of opportunity for improvisation and contribution occurs when a player does not actually have the basketball in their hands. It goes well beyond, “Is this guy setting a screen where he should be?”, and has more to do with a feel for spacing, for angles, for opportunities to make plays. It happens on both ends of the floor and allows an intuitive player to separate himself from players of average ability. But can it be measured? Not concretely. It can only be felt.
I want to talk about Russell Westbrook and the critical measures of a player’s capability. Watching Russell play this year on television or live and you can see the joy of his game. He’s like a child who has yet to realize all the limitations and boxes life will attempt to put around him. People get concerned over his turnovers or his “low” shooting percentage but they may miss his bouncy athleticism, his intuitive ability to make plays, his general court sense. Russell’s been out trying things this year, experimenting, pushing the boundaries of statistical analysis. Read more…
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Update: David Thorpe has a really cool Rookie Watch out – which player should each rookie study? For Russell 
Westbrook, he says Dwyane Wade: ”When Wade is at his smoking-hot best, he’s both a dynamic athlete and a skilled midrange shooter. That combination is necessary for Wade to be special, because some teams often build a wall around the rim and force him to make jumpers. Westbrook is incredibly athletic with and without the ball, so imposing his will on most possessions by using that gift gives him an advantage almost every time. And he is learning to do that now. But if he also gets his midrange game to work efficiently, he’ll be headed to the All-Star Game and the Thunder will be playing in late spring.” Also interesting is who he has O.J. Mayo studying.
Good to see P.J. Carlesimo has found work: “I can’t remember the last time I saw Carlesimo on-air, but I don’t remember him being that bad. He always seemed to have a surly disposition to me, but maybe a fun environment like TNT Basketball is what the former coach needs. We shall see.”
In the comments of Darnell’s blog he says he’ll have a Serge Ibaka update Monday in the paper and had this interesting note: “Basically, the front office loves how he’s developing over in Spain. The plan is to bring him over to join the team for summer league play and evaluate him in an NBA-type setting. It’s still unclear if the team will bring him over for next season. My guess is no. But again, that’s just my guess.”
Kevin Durant evidently bruised his hip against the Spurs, but he acts like he’s OK: “I couldn’t run like normal,” Durant said. “I just wanted to stick it out and fight through it. After I get some treatment [Wednesday] hopefully I’ll be all right.” Oklahoma City’s next game isn’t until Friday against the Blazers.” He did it early in the second quarter and he went on to score 15 more points so yeah, I think he’s OK. Read more…
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Defense is one of the most difficult things to quantify in basketball. It’s not as simple as just figuring out how much the guy a certain player is guarding scores and then you have a number to with which to judge. In basketball the team context in unavoidable. The schemes teams run rely on “teamwork” defense, helping, rotating, switching, double teaming, etc., making player defensive evaluation sort of a nebulous concept.
But we acquired Thabo in late February at the deadline and he came with a defensive reputation. I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about playing defense in the NBA, but when you see a player like Thabo get after it defensively for the first time, you know your seeing aggressive, intense defensive effort. Great defense may be a little difficult to quantify, but you sure know it when you see it; especially after some of the porous performances we saw in December.
I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of our offensive and defensive numbers broken down by months since Read more…
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Sort of surprising when I first read this, but I am starting to see some logic in it. Darnell Mayberry reported today:
Rookies D.J. White and Kyle Weaver have been assigned to the Tulsa 66ers, the Thunder’s D-League affiliate.
It’s the third time White has been sent to Tulsa and the first time Weaver has been sent down.
In four games with Tulsa, White has averages of 14.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists in 30.8 minutes. Weaver has played in 49 games for the Thunder, 17 as a starter, and is averaging 5.4 point, 2.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 20 minutes a game.
The goal is to get both players extended minutes with the 66ers, more than they currently would with the Thunder. Both players are expected to be in uniform tonight when the 66ers face the Austin Toros but expect both players to be recalled before the end of the season.
Weaver had his best month in March and is a solid part of the rotation as the 7/8 man. He shot 51% from the field and 41% from downtown and scored 7.1 ppg in March. My guess is that they want to keep him busy and get him some big burn (hopefully they let him run the point now that Livingston is with the big club). Most Thunder fans like his game at 20 minutes per night. Perhaps we can see what he does in Tulsa with say 36 minutes.
We only have one more game this week, on Friday, but next week is a busy week with 5 games. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Kyle back for next week’s 5 games.
I would like to see D.J. get a little burn with the big team also. This is the third trip down and so he can’t go down again this season if he is recalled.
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That right there is what you want to look like. Deadly shooters, excellent defense, strong rebounding, an elite 
superstar, top-notch contributing role players and overall awesome team basketball. Bold statement: The Lakers are a good basketball team. I want to be them.
From the opening tip, it was pretty obvious that Los Angeles was here to take care of business. They were focused, they were intense and they were clicking. OKC was in trouble from the get-go. And as someone watching the game, it was apparent early that this was not going to be a Thunder victory. In fact, OKC would be lucky to ever get within 10. So I put the winning thoughts away early and watched for things you could take with you.
- When Kobe was on the floor, the Lakers were +22. When he wasn’t, OKC was only +3. Kobe sat the entire fourth and the Thunder were even with the Lakers. OKC just never took advantage when the best player on the court sat down.
- You can’t fault the Thunder for not trying. The busted their butts tonight. Just nothing went down for them. Kevin Durant was off (4-13 in the first half), Russell Westbrook was scoreless with just one assist in the first half and the team only mustered 38 points at halftime. But to me, it looked like the were working hard. Just things didn’t go right. They gave up 37 first quarter points and the defense was bad, but it was just fundamentally bad. It wasn’t because they were trying. They were just overmatched.
- Maybe the most impressed I’ve been by KD happened with about 1:30 left in the third. Believe it or not, it happened on the defensive end and Durant didn’t even get his hands on the ball. The Lakers were ahead 90-70 and Durant had scored 13 in the quarter and was trying to get his team back in the game. L.A. came down with the ball with Durant on Jordan Farmer. The quicker and smaller Farmer tried to drive baseline but KD cut him off and Farmar backed out. Then Farmar immediately probed KD again and tried to drive. Durant, in an excellent defensive stance with his arms spread wide, cut him off again. Farmar passed it over to Pau Gasol and used Gasol for a screen to shed Durant. Farmar went high to the top of the key and Ariza cut through. Durant and Westbrook communicated perfectly with each other and made a flawless switch and KD picked up Ariza and denied him the ball, trailing him with his arms up. Ariza tried to post KD, but Durant denied him again. It was just obvious watching this whole sequence how hard KD was trying. Down 20 and having an off shooting night, Durant wasn’t going to budge. He wasn’t about to lay down for L.A. His defense has been criticized pretty heavily, but this possession he was textbook. He absolutely worked his tailed off, shuffling his feet, staying low, keeping his arms up and the Thunder paid it off by getting a stop. Plays like this show that he’s committed to being The Man and he’s going to be the superstar we’re dreaming about. Give him another year or two and he’s going to blow our minds. Read more…
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vs. 
L.A. Lakers (55-14, 24-9 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-50, 14-22 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma HD (Cox 37, HD 722)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.4 (28th), Lakers: 113.6 (1st)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.1 (20th), Lakers: 105.5 (6th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.6 (8th), Lakers: 94.7 (5th)
For OKC’s first matchup against Los Angeles, I looked at nine things the Thunder really needed to focus on in order just to hang close with the mighty Lakers. Among those were get to the line, hold the Lakers to under 105 points, turn it over fewer than 15 times and outrebound them. And OKC did six of the nine really well and stayed close deep into the fourth.
At home last time (a game I predicted stupidly that OKC would win), the Thunder got close to L.A. with Kobe on the bench but never seized the moment. Despite losing by 14, I really feel like the Thunder let something slip away. They played well all over but just didn’t make shots. So what can OKC do to actually beat the Lakers? Not just stay close, but beat probably the best team in the league?
1. Score 100. The Lakers have lost 14 games this season. Eleven of those games were lost when their opponent scored 100 points. Granted, L.A. is 25-11 when their opponent scores 100+, but that means they’re 30-3 when the opponent doesn’t. Read more…
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Chad Ford has a list of all the players he anticipates going pro, the 50/50 guys and the unlikelies: “Last year at this 
time, Derrick Rose said he’d definitely be returning to Memphis. He’s now finishing his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls. The general rule is that if a player is projected as a lottery pick, his chances of declaring for the draft are very high. Of course, nothing is a given. Most recently, Blake Griffin decided to stay in school last year even though he was projected as a top-three pick in the 2008 draft. This year could see similar decisions. The draft class is weak, and a number of the top prospects aren’t ready for the NBA and really could use another year of college basketball. College underclassmen and international players who will be 22 years old or younger at the end of this year have until April 26 to declare themselves eligible for the NBA draft. Last year, 69 underclassmen and 22 international players initially declared for the draft. But by the time of the draft in June, most of the players had withdrawn. In the end, 38 underclassmen and five international players kept their names in the draft.”
And he’s also got some comments about who’s hot in the tourney and who’s not: ”Not: Once again, Thabeet is proving that just because you’re 7-foot-3 and taller than anyone else in college basketball doesn’t mean you’ll be making a huge impact on the floor. UConn largely ignored him on offense during its rout of Texas A&M on Saturday. Against Texas A&M’s strong front line, Thabeet took two shots in the game, grabbed six boards and watched Jeff Adrien do all the work down low. That’s not the type of performance you really want to see in the tournament from a possible top-10 pick.”
Mickael Gelabale is about to sign with the LA D-Fenders of the D-League.
Bill Simmons writes about the statistical revolution and it’s deficiencies: “The Spurs won their past two titles by surrounding a Tim Duncan-Manu Ginobili-Tony Parker nucleus with role players who didn’t care about numbers, rarely made mistakes and wouldn’t dare challenge the pecking order. Yes, Carmelo Anthony was a significantly better basketball player than Bruce Bowen between 2005 and 2007; Bowen was a better fit for the Spurs. That team didn’t need another scorer. It needed a top-notch defender and agitator who knew his place. Our current batch of public numbers can’t measure Bowen’s impact in that role. Maybe those numbers exist somewhere, but who knows?” Read more…
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The best way to gauge team progress is to take a number and compare it to what the team had at the same time last year. Pretty straightforward and simple. And what better to use as a measure than wins and losses?
Last season, the Thunder (then the Sonics of course) didn’t win their 20th game until the final day of the season. The team was 16-54 on March 24th. Now, OKC has win No. 20 with 12 games to go. Barring a dozen-game skid (fingers crossed), we should see 21 wins. That’s progress any way you want to slice it.
When this season started, most everyone gave Oklahoma City one simple goal to shoot for: Do better than last year. Improve. Get better. Grow and give hope. And I think 20 wins in *just* 70 games is an improvement over 20 wins in 82 last year.
(One thing you’ve got to remember is that last year’s 20-win team was entirely different. Only five players remain on the roster that finished the year with the team last season. The reigns hadn’t been entirely handed to Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook wasn’t even part of the equation. It was really more of a veteran led team with guys like a Luke Ridnour, Earl Watson, Kurt Thomas, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West shouldering most the load at different times. Durant only started to take on the “star” role about halfway through the season and Green only started 52 games and averaged 28 minutes a game. Last year’s team most certainly wasn’t the “core” that Sam Presti wanted to move forward with. So this season was almost an entirely separate rebuilding year in itself as now we’re starting to see a roster take shape.)
There’s no denying the change from 2008 to 2009. OKC is 16-21 this year, compared to 4-29 in 2008. Last season, the team was 9-22 in 2007 and 11-40 in 2008. Other words: No striking improvement throughout the year. In fact, they got worse. This season the team has taken a major step ahead with its progress in 2009. Thabo Sefolosha was added to the roster and has made an immediate impact. Kevin Durant has begun to emerge as a bonafide megastar. Jeff Green has gone from possible liability to excellent sidekick. Russell Westbrook has progressed as a point guard and has gone from question mark to the potential Rookie of the Year. Read more…
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