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Nick Collison visited Dunder Mifflin today on his off day in Los Angeles today. I’ll just let the picture take it away.

Riff Raff Nick Collison

His numbers aren’t flashy. Heck, they aren’t even that good. Under 20 minutes a game, 5.7 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game and 0.62 blocks a game. All four stats well below his career averages. In fact, three of the four stats are lower than any season average he’s had yet. At just 29 years old, his numbers shouldn’t be declining, right?

But this may be Nick Collison’s best season yet.

The numbers don’t tell half the story for Collison. Scratch that. The numbers don’t tell even a fifth of the story. Collison’s contributions to a now two games over squad aren’t measurable. You can’t quantify grit, hustle and winning plays. Unless of course you’re Peter King. Then he’d be leading the league in all those categories. And Russell Westbrook in smiles. But whatever.

But here’s one thing you can measure: Per 40 minutes, Collison IS leading the league in charges taken, at 1.73 a game. The next closest guy is Jared Jeffries at 1.42. Think about it for a second. If a guy was averaging almost two steals a game, you’d say that’s good, right (for perspective, Rajon Rondo leads the NBA with 2.67 steals a game)? Well taking a charge is even better. Not only do you force a turnover, but you add a foul to a player on the other team. Honestly, taking a charge is the absolute best turnover you can force. And Collison leads the league in it. Even Peter King understands that. Read more…

Commentary Nick Collison

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 Nick Collison and D.J. White?

Nick Collison

Restore his numbers to his previous two seasons. Last year was a down year for Collison. And before he got it going in March and April, it was a really down year. He got his numbers close to his career average by the end of it (8.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg) but for a while he was a around 5.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg. He did shoot a higher percentage from the field than ever (56 percent) which was very nice, but he also took two less shots a game. The ironic thing is that his PER finished right in line with his two best years of 2006-2008, but yet his numbers were down. Collison needs to be the rebounding force on this team and having a guy lead your entire team with just 6.9 a game is kind of stinky.

Seven rebounds a game. Likewise, he needs to get this number up. I put it at seven because I’m not sure how many minutes he’ll get with Ibaka and White now competing for time. But he’s always been a solid player and productive when he’s on the floor. He’s the worker on the team and the little plays he makes are surely appreciated. But depending on the improvements of Kevin Durant and Jeff Green in the rebounding area, 6.9 boards a game isn’t great and shouldn’t lead a team. Read more…

Commentary D.J. White, Nick Collison

For those that may have missed it:

Today, Jim Traber backed off his Nick Collison comments somewhat, apologized and then mentioned the “little Thunder chat room,” which was a reference to this place. He called me a “nameless blogger” even though I explicitly tried to make sure he knew I wasn’t anonymous, going as far to toss my email address out there. As reader Dylan hilariously put it, “Your mistake was putting your name and email at the end of your column. He couldn’t read that far without getting winded.”

I called in to the show’s producer, Bobby Thompson, and asked him to tell Jim he was mistaken. I didn’t necessarily want to go on air, because I really didn’t feel like being yelled at. Bobby told Jim, Jim mentioned me and Daily Thunder on air then went on to question if “Royce Young” was my real name.  As far as I know, it is. He did apologize for making the mistake though. Traber also said something about the comments that “personally attacked” him, and directly asked me about allowing them on the site.

Since he directly asked me a question on air, I decided I would break my vow to never call in and cash in on my Johnny’s Charcoal Broiler, and also to answer his question and explain some other things. Well, I waited on hold for AN HOUR AND A HALF and finally gave up when Dean “The Stream” Blevins came on. I never got through after holding my cell phone to my ear for 90 minutes. Thanks for the brain cancer, Sports Animal. But anyway, here’s what I would have said: Read more…

Commentary Jim Traber, Nick Collison

Oh boy. Well didn’t this turn out nicely.

If you haven’t been following, The Oklahoman’s *finest* writer, Jenni Carlson, wrote a column about Nick Collison’s Twitter and the supposed backhanded slaps at Oklahoma City hidden within. As a result local radio host Jim Traber, has decided to “declare war on Nick Collison” and vowed to run him out of town. Seriously. Then Nick, being the awesome dude that he is, called in to Traber’s show and put him on the spot about it. (You can listen to Jim and Nick here.)

Whew. Deep breath. So that’s where we stand.

First off, I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed that it came to this. Collison tweeted a few things, Jenni Carlson wrote a wandering, pointless column about it and then Jim Traber decided to do what he does best – yell at everyone. And as a result, freaking Nick Collison felt compelled to call in and defend himself for this insanity. Is this really happening? Where am I? What year is it?

What sucks most, is that a guy like Traber is one of the main voices for our great state. It’s like he thinks he speaks for all of us. I appreciate Jim taking up the torch and feeling the need to defend us. I think that’s what he thinks he’s doing. His heart is in the right place. He challenged Ric Bucher about Bill Simmons’ shenanigans a couple months ago and I liked that. I really appreciate Traber sticking up for the city and not letting people walk all over us. Saaaa-lute.

But this was just the wrong battle to fight. It was over a couple Twitter messages - ”I see it’s 105 in OKC today… sounds nice”  – and other things like that. That’s it. Weather commentary. You would have thought Nick tweeted, “In Seattle (the place I wish I still played professional basketball) loving my life. Pissed that I have to go back to the wasteland that is Oklahoma in two months.” But all he said was that it’s hot in OKC and a nice day in Seattle. Ho-ly crap. Read more…

Commentary Jim Traber, Nick Collison, Unbelievable Stupidity