Daily Thunder.com

(Want to know the top five scariest places in Oklahoma? Royce lays them out over at The Lost Ogle.)

By the time this article runs, the Thunder will have played their first game, and, Gary England willing, be 1-0 after stomping the Kings.  That’s going to happen.  If it doesn’t, you probably shouldn’t pay any attention to my predictions for the rest of the season.

Key to the Season: Jeff Green

Sure, Kevin Durant is the team’s best player, and James Harden is the rookie ingenue that is supposed to fill the holes the team had last year.  No one is going to dispute that.  The guy who will have the biggest influence on how this season turns out for the Thunder, though, is the glue guy–Jeff Green.

For the Thunder to reach the unfair expectations being heaped onto them by much of the national media, Jeff Green is the guy who has to get to that next level.  When he was drafted, the thought was that he would be as Scottie Pippen was to Michael Jordan for Kevin Durant.  And, honestly, I think he can fill that role.  For now, though, I’d just like to see him strive to be like David West.  If he can consistently bring his A-game, improve his rebounding, and silence the detractors that say he is too small to play power forward (much like West dealt with before the Hornets arrived in OKC), the Thunder will easily improve on their win total from last season, and with luck challenge for a playoff spot.

Even if he does not, I think Green will do a lot for the team fresh off being named a team captain.  While I don’t think I’ve seen this mentioned anywhere, it was Green who I saw motivating his teammates this Summer, by publicly calling on them to get to the gym (via Twitter).  It might have just been that he didn’t understand you could send messages directly to people with Twitter accounts, but I prefer to look at it as him cracking the whip. Read more…

Commentary Love and Thunderstanding, Peace

(edit.  I apologize in advance that I’m basically phoning this in the way that the Thunder did the second half against San Antonio the other night.  I’ve been busy, okay.  Anyway, Royce’s post at TheLostOgle.com is probably going to be a lot better.)

About a year ago, Patrick wrote a post that dogged the gameday production of the Thunder and gave advice on how to improve.  It was only as harsh as it was true.  The worst of the vitriol, and probably the most deserving, belonged to the game emcee, Jonathan Meisner:

Hire a Game Emcee who doesn’t make me want to punch the Game Emcee in the face.The guy pictured above is Jonathan Meisner.  Jonathan is the “in arena game emcee” for the Thunder.  He’s also a recruiter for Southern Nazarene University. Yeah…the Thunder put a Nazarene college recruiter  in charge of entertaining an NBA crowd.  That makes as much sense as Jim Traber working at the library.

Seriously, how could they hire this guy!?!  Not only is his audition video terrible, but he has to wear his hat backwards to look remotely “cool” and “fresh.”   Instead, he looks like some annoying kid asking his mom for the Sunny D or the purple stuff.

He was, in my opinion, the worst part of the Thunder experience, and that included watching P.J. Carlesimo coach.

Thankfully, it turns out that Meisner either quit or was let go because the Master of Ceremonies at the Ford Center this season will be a two headed monster that includes comedian Joel David and a OklaTravelNet co-host (the girl, Katie Kurtz, not Brent Skarky).  This is definitely an upgrade. Read more…

Commentary Love and Thunderstanding, Peace

(Edit:  My initial plan was to write an article about our human nature to feed into the hype of unknown quantities, such as, say, Serge Ibaka, and believe that our scouts lucked into a rare talent who escaped the radar of every other team…then I watched him play against the Suns on Monday, and can’t consider myself above the fold.  Chewbaka for Defensive Player of the Year!  On another note, make sure to read the OU/TX rivalry breakdown that Royce posted over at TheLostOgle.com.)

Throughout my life, I have been pretty tough on referees.  When playing intramural/rec league basketball, I have been known to blame the guys in black and white stripes for everything from a blown call to world hunger.  Watching games on television, without the risk of getting T’d up, I have been even less kind.

Now that you know this about me, it will come as no surprise to you that my initial reaction to news that the NBA referees union was being locked out by the league offices was less than sympathetic.  “Good riddance,” I thought to myself, “how could the replacements be any worse?”

Then, dread spread down my spine as I began to realize, “they could be a lot worse.”

As infuriating as the NBA referees can be, see here, they do have a ton of training and experience that scabs called up from the D-League/CBA/NCAA, or wherever they find replacements, cannot replicate.  And that shortfall is only the biggest problem assuming the league was able to get the best non-NBA referees available…but that is not the case.  Guys who have the objective and talent to eventually officiate NBA games for a living probably turned down the opportunity to fill in.  If they did cross the picket line, they would lose out on future benefits afforded by the referee’s union.

So we aren’t talking just about replacement referees, we are talking about bottom of the barrel referees.  Oh, joy!

On the flipside, some of that experience that the seasoned zebras possess, can actually be a detriment that these green, over-their-head scabs could actually improve upon the normal product.  Because of these conflicting ideas, I have a pro/con list regarding this lockout after the jump.

Read more…

Commentary Love and Thunderstanding, Peace