On Wednesday, an earthquake struck the central Serbian town of Kraljevo. It is a town of 60,000 people and the hometown of Nenad Krstic. There was severe damage in the community, including the specific area where Nenad grew up.
To support Nenad and his hometown, the Thunder will be matching funds raised at tomorrow night’s game for the earthquake relief effort of the International Red Cross. The Thunder will be asking fans to contribute and have a special raffle to raise funds.
Krstic is donating the jersey he wears in tomorrow night’s game. Following the game, he will sign it and personally present it to the raffle winner. The raffle will take place at the Thunder Community Foundation’s auction area outside Section 111 beginning when doors open at 4:30 pm through the end of the third quarter.
So here’s an opportunity to step and lend support if you feel compelled. Throw a chair Nenad’s way and give his home country a hand.
News
Nenad Krstic
AP Photo
With Darnell Mayberry’s tweet and Chris Silva’s blog reporting that Serge Ibaka will start at center for the Thunder tonight, I couldn’t help but remember the plethora of conversations, discussions, debates, and name calling incidents that have centered around where Ibaka should play and if he’s a true 4, a tweener 4/5 or somewhere in between.
So, let’s have a look at the potential positives and negatives of starting Ibaka at center for the Thunder’s first preseason game against the Charlotte Bobcats and beyond.
Pro: Serge will get to play with the starting unit. This is obviously a no-brainer for both sides of the “Serge is a PF/C” argument because both want to see him eventually emerge as a starter, so getting as much time as he could with the starting unit is a good thing considering the fact that he would have been coming off of the bench in any scenario not involving him starting at center.
Con: He won’t be playing at the position he’s most well suited for and spent the majority of last season at. While some would argue that any time on the floor is good time (and I typically support this idea), some other individuals would also claim that Serge seeing time at center will only highlight some of his deficiencies from last season, namely his poor boxing out and man-to-man iso defense against bigger opponents, unless he has significantly improved those already, and might cause him to play differently when he returns to PF when Krstic and Collison get healthy. Read more…
Commentary
Nenad Krstic, Serge Ibaka
KRSTIC!!!! TGR is here give you their “play by play” of the new found ”grit”and ”toughness” Krstic showed in his come from behind sucker punches and his stealth in getting away. Great and funny stuff.
Then we talked with Darnell Mayberry about all things NBA, the Krstic brawl and also that halftime show with the unicycle lady who tosses the bowls on her head… classic!
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Episode breakdown:
- 00:00 – 01:55: Intro
- 01:55 – 15:53: Krstic Watch
- 15:53 – 38:07: Darnell Mayberry
- 38:07 – 39:16: Closing
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Podcast
Nenad Krstic
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
I mentioned this the other night in the Spurs recap, so of course I had to look it up: How much better does Nenad Krstic play in the third quarter compared to the other three? The answer? Much, much better.
| QUARTER | MPQ | RBDS | PPQ | FG% |
| First | 7.4 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 38.9 |
| Second | 4.8 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 40.0 |
| Third | 8.5 | 1.8 | 3.9 | 63.8 |
| Fourth | 5.6 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 35.5 |
The biggest increase comes in his field goal percentage. He goes from shooting 38.1 percent in the other three quarters to 63.8 percent in the third. I liked reader Girlballer’s theory for the better play from Krstic: “Euros don’t eat dinner till like 10 o’clock or something. I think Nenad doesn’t even WAKE UP until 8:30 or so…” That makes perfect sense to me. So I went and looked at Krstic’s numbers for West Coast games. In those 7 PM starts Pacific time, it would be like starting at 9 PM here. And wouldn’t you know it, his shooting numbers, scoring and rebounding all stayed basically the same as his season averages. Theory debunked. Darn it. Read more…
Commentary
Nenad Krstic
If you’re anything like me you must feel like it’s been a very very long offseason waiting for some NBA action. Royce has done an exceptional job keeping fresh content up on Daily Thunder on a…well, “daily” basis. Me, I’ve tried to keep myself busy doing other things this Summer but I’ve always come back to wishing there was a Thunder game on in the evenings; something to write about and discuss on the site. In the absence of fresh games I’ve spent some time re-watching some of the Thunder games I found interesting which I saved on the DVR. I only had room to save about 20 or so, so I didn’t bother to save any of the serious butt kickings we took a few times, mostly I saved wins and games and where we were very competitive right till the end; I know it’s probably not an objective sample, but such is life. I would highly recommend Thunder fans saving some games this season if it’s at all possible.
It’s one thing to “know” that Russell Westbrook is a truly explosive athlete, but it’s really special to be reminded of it visually. Or to watch the effortless shooting stroke Durant possesses, the smooth overall game of Jeff Green, the disruptive defense of Thabo and Kyle Weaver. It’s just great to watch these special athletes perform their craft.
And since we are now just a week away from Media day (the day before training camp actually opens) for the Thunder, I thought I would take a few (ok, several) paragraphs and highlight one of the guys we don’t talk about as much, and a guy who repeatedly catches my eye when re-viewing some of these Thunder games: Nenad Krstic. Read more…
Commentary
Nenad Krstic
We took a look at a list of goals for the entire Thunder team a couple weeks ago. But let’s get detailed. Let’s get specific. I’m going to dig in and hit on some individual goals for a few players that would define a successful season. So what meters for success should we set for Nenad Krstic and Shaun Livingston?
Nenad Krstic 
Average at least seven rebounds a game. Here’s something that might shock you: Nenad Krstic is 7-feet tall. He also averaged just 5.5 rebounds a game last year. Now I realize Krispy is a jumpshooting, finesse big man that’s not going to grab 15 rebounds any given night. I know this. But the Thunder needs him to at least be a little stronger on the boards. They can’t afford him to be overmatched by other big men in the league. He’s big enough, strong enough and smart enough to post this number. I think it comes down to being consistent on a night-to-night basis for him. He grabbed 254 boards out of a possible 2,216. That’s just an 11.5 percent rebounding percentage. In other words, not great.
Likewise, record at least 15 double-doubles. Last season in 46 games Krstic had just four double-digit rebounding games with a high of 15 against Sacramento. When you’re a big man that can score, double-doubles should be there for the taking. It’s about effort and position and Krstic should be able to at least score 15 of them. Read more…
Commentary
Nenad Krstic, Shaun Livingston
