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As I casually walked down the hall with toilet bowl cleaner Monday with the holiday weekend winding down, a voice came from the living room with a message that immediately gave me an excuse to quit on my chores.

“Serge Ibaka got hurt.”

What could be worse for the Thunder during summer league play than a long-term injury to No. 9? Some kid trying to make a roster who careens into Kevin Durant on the bench? (Don’t worry, I just knocked on some wood, and you should too. But seriously, maybe put him in a Popemobile on the sidelines? I love that he wants to be there, but PROTECT THAT MAN!)

Thankfully there’s no indication the injury is anything serious, and as of Monday night Ibaka was listed as day-to-day. Fingers crossed further examination won’t reveal anything worse than a boo boo. Read more…

Commentary Orlando Summer League, Serge Ibaka, Summer League

So here we are again ladies and gents! Summer League is fast upon us as the first game will start Monday, even though most of the work force will be at home so, surprisingly, there shouldn’t be a huge hit in work productivity because of the awesome spectacle that is the Orlando Summer League.

Now as you noticed, I’m not going to go over the Vegas Summer League but pretty much just use both events for the purpose of this article (plus, the Thunder won’t play in Vegas, unlike last year, and you’re on a Thunder site so…).  And it’s not like either location has better or worse competition.

They’re both awful.

I mean just plain abysmal at times.

But, alas, in the summertime with only baseball to regularly keep you company, we will flock to any kind of organized “professional” basketball like mosquitoes to a bug zapper.

So without further ado, here’s my list of the Top 5 things you absolutely have to know/understand about Summer League before you either throw up in your mouth a little after watching a game for the first time or think that Ryan Reid will be the next Hakeem Olajuwon after he scores 20 points, pulls down 20 boards and blocks 10 shots.

1. It’s pretty bad. No, seriously, it hurts sometimes it’s so bad.

First things first, you have to go in with adequate expectations about what kind of basketball you’re going to see if you have any chance of appreciating and enjoying the NBA’s Summer League for the awesomeness that it is. And that expectation is this… Read more…

Commentary Summer League

This post got messed up big time. It didn’t save right and when it got published and it cut off like all of it. I restored some of it, but not all. Too bad for you, because I had some really brilliant thoughts in there about a Summer League basketball game. Sorry about that.

A couple quick thoughts about today’s game against Dallas:

• The Mavs started out today on a 10-0 run, then took it to 16-2 hitting 4-4 from deep. Roddy Beaubois hit two DEEP threes and Shan Foster hit a pair as well. The Thunder kind of looked like they were ready to hit the casinos tonight and really didn’t appear all that excited to be playing their 10th game in 13 days.

• The Thunder scored just 54 points today and their quarter by quarter went 11, 20, 11, 12. Pretty awesome offense there.

• B.J. Mullens with another beautiful example of his lack of post game: With 5:03 left in the first quarter, James Harden dropped a pretty bounce pass to Mullens who was standing on the block. His defender had left him to go get Harden and the Maverick rotation was a little late. So Mullens was basically standing alone on the block momentarily. He caught the pass, faced up and immediately launched an eight-footer. Literally two dribbles and he’s dunking the ball. Loud sigh.

• Oh and just chew on Mullens’ line for a second: 10 minutes, two points, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero blocks and two turns. I think he’s ready for a break. Read more…

Recap Mavericks, Summer League

Dallas Mavericks (0-4) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (0-4)
Time: 3 p.m. CST
Dallas roster

Somebody is walking out of Las Vegas with a win. Though it doesn’t matter one bit, I’d like for it to be us. It’s never fun to go defeated. Last night against Chicago, OKC turned the ball over a ton and didn’t shoot all that well. James Harden was great once again, but Kyle Weaver played rather poorly at point guard and nobody else really contributed all that much. I assume Shaun Livingston will play today since he sat yesterday, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Who do the Mavs got?
RODDY BEAUBOIS vs. BYRON MULLENS. What a vengeance match. But seriously, I am excited to watch Beaubois in action. Not because I wish OKC had him, but just because he’s been pretty good in the Summer League. Also, the Mavs have a familiar face on their roster – one Mickael Gelabale. A couple Big 12 faces in Curtis Jerrels and former Kansas Jayhawk Aaron Miles and Shan Foster from Vanderbilt, one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen in college.

This is your last chance to see your Thunder in action for about about three months. So take heed and root on your team. Tip at 3 p.m. CST.

Recap Mavericks, Summer League

Oklahoma City Thunder (0-2) vs. San Antonio Spurs (2-0)
Time: 7:30 CST
Watch here
Thunder roster
Spur roster

Game three of five for OKC in Vegas. James Harden was awesome Tuesday night against the Lakers, as were Kyle Weaver’s defensive skills. Tonight, for the love of Congo, snap out of it Serge Ibaka and play like you did in Orlando. I was really fired up about the thought of Ibaka being good enough to not only make the roster, but also maybe seeing some meaningful playing time. But he just hasn’t played well thus far in Vegas.

Who do the Spurs got?
A couple guys to watch tonight for the Spurs: George Hill is easily their best player, but DeJuan Blair is who I’m most interested to see play. It was surprising to see him slip into the second round, and I always like to see how guys do that we passed on. Malik Hairston is a quality scorer and James Gist was a good college player at Maryland and a decent player overseas. The Spurs also have Jack McClinton, a guy that can light the gym on fire if he gets going.

Also, Kevin Durant has said he’s going to be in the house tonight, so these guys better turn it up a notch for KD. You don’t want to let down The Durantula.

Tip at 7:30 CST.

Recap Spurs, Summer League

Oklahoma City Thunder (2-1) vs. New Jersey/Philadelphia Scrapple (0-3)
Time: 2 p.m. CST
Watch the game HERE!!!

Tony Meija hinted in an article on Tuesday that Russell Westbrook and D.J. White may sit out the last two days of action, so we may not see them today. But we don’t really know. James Harden sat the first half yesterday, but I’d imagine he’ll see a solid amount of playing time today as well as Serge Ibaka who didn’t play at all (he was just resting). And who knows if Shaun Livingston will dress as he sat Tuesday after playing Monday. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Kyle Weaver played much, much better yesterday scoring 12. He asserted himself and played point guard for a lot of the day. He’s desperately trying to develop a consistent 3-point shot, but for the most part, he’s just taken forced threes. Robert Vaden went 1-7 yesterday so I’m sure he’s aiming to come out and impress. And we can only hope that if Moses Ehambe gets in, he at least fouls someone or turns it over.

Tip at 2 p.m. CST.

Preview Summer League

Chad Ford ranks the summer for each team (Insider): “The Thunder are the “it” team among NBA junkies, who have a crush on Sam Presti for quickly turning a bad team into the best young team in the league. Kevin Durant is a superstar in the making. Russell Westbrook could be special. And Harden is a nice addition — a savvy guard with an old-school game who will be fine playing third fiddle to Durant and Westbrook. If you factor in that last year’s other draft pick, Serge Ibaka, has been looking pretty good in summer league, and that Mullens has enormous potential, the Thunder appear to be bursting at the seams with talent.”

The Blazers are planning to make a “generous offer” to Paul Millsap: “After a series of trades fell through this week, the Trail Blazers have settled on their next target: Utah power forward Paul Millsap. Although Millsap is a restricted free agent, meaning the Jazz can match any offer, the Blazers are preparing what one source called a “toxic” offer designed to exterminate interest from other teams.”

The Cavs will re-sign Varejao: “Cleveland is committing to Anderson Varejao long term. Sporting News’ Sean Deveney has learned Cleveland agreed to a six-year, $50 million contract with the free agent forward after passing on several sign-and-trade proposals. Deveney also reports the Cavs likely will make Varejao their starting power forward, giving them a frontcourt of Varejao, LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal.” Read more…

Bolts, Video Summer League

BOX SCORE

Another fantastic game. And by fantastic, well, I think you know what I mean.

• The Thunder mixed it up today with a different starting lineup and a lot of the non-roster guys saw a lot more playing time. The starting five were Westbrook, Vaden, Livingston, D.J. White and DeVon Hardin. Livingston was back and looked great after sitting yesterday’s game and Kyle Weaver (12 points, 4-5 from the floor) asserted himself much more and was far more aggressive on the offensive end. I actually noticed him today.

• James Harden didn’t play at all in the first half but came on in the second to score nine points and on 2-4 shooting. He also had three terrific passes in a short time span, including one beautiful bounce pass to D.J. White for a dunk. Harden’s vision and feel for where his teammates are is just awesome. When Westbrook flies through the lane and goes airborne I get the feeling he’s on the way down and thinks, “Oh crap, where do I go with this?” Harden on the other hand is seeing where he could go with it as he’s slashing through the lane and before he takes off.

• Westbrook today though, was excellent again. He may have had four turnovers, but I only can remember one being his fault. Three times a perfect pass went through a teammates hands (I’m talking to you, Byron Nelson Mullens). Russ scored 26 (9-16 shooting!), tossed out five assists, had four rebounds and had five steals and appeared completely in control for the full game. He never really had a bad stretch of poor decisions. One play that stuck out to me: On a fast break, Westbrook had the opportunity to go 1-on-2 or pull-out. He went ahead and took on the two defenders, but didn’t attack the rim recklessly without a Plan B. He took his time, drew both defenders and dropped off a beauty to D.J. White for a dunk. Read more…

Recap Boston, Summer League

Oklahoma City Thunder (1-1) vs. Boston Celtics (1-1)
Time: 4 p.m. CST
Watch it HERE.

Here we are at hump day of the Orlando Summer League. Probably right about now Russell Westbrook is saying, “Ugh… just three more days of this.” Yesterday there was some more encouraging play out of Serge Ibaka and James Harden, and Westbrook did better shooting and distributing, despite five turnovers.

Of course the highlight today will be Oklahoma City taking on former Thunder great Robert Swift. I actually considered flying down to Orlando just so I could see it in person. I would be thrilled if Serge/D.J. /Byron could throw one down on Big Robert. And I would cry if the opposite scenario happened.

It’s the dynamic duo of Mike Sweetney and Robert Swift vs. the twin towers of Byron Mullens and Kyle Hines. The NBA on TN– I mean the Internet! Where Summer League Happens.

Preview Summer League

BOX SCORE

Indiana beat Oklahoma City 91-88 on some stupid Summer League technicality, but that’s not really important. Some life-changing thoughts about the game…

• James Harden has so much control of his body it’s ridiculous. It’s very Manu-like, but he doesn’t fall backward when he attacks like Manu does. It’s more straightforward like Brandon Roy and he always gives himself a chance to put a shot up on the rim. Harden could be the ideal iso player late in games and between him and Westbrook, OKC may shoot 200 free throws a game. Harden was excellent again today (19 points on 6-13 shooting), hitting a couple open threes and also passing the ball extremely well. I haven’t been able to get a good read on him defensively, but the fact that I haven’t noticed him all that much on that end of the floor is probably a good thing. He did get his hands on a couple passes and showed some nice anticipation though.

• B.J. Mullens’ jumper looked incredibly good – for about a quarter. He swished a beautiful turnaround jumper then nailed a nice 18-footer, but then came up completely empty on a post jump hook and badly bricked a couple jumpshots after that. But hey, you can’t hit them all. One thing that’s becoming painfully obvious about Mullens besides the lack of a post-up game is his defense. Roy Hibbert absolutely had his way with him (24 points, eight rebounds). He’s slow on the rotations and he gets bullied in the post. He’s got to get stronger and he’s got to get tougher if he wants to bang with elite NBA bigs. Read more…

Recap Indiana, Summer League

Oklahoma City Thunder (1-0) vs. Indiana Pacers (1-0)
Time: 6 p.m.
Watch the game live here.

One incredibly obvious thing that I’m sure we all know but yet I’m still going to point out: We can’t get too worked up either way about anything from these games. Russell Westbrook struggled at times, Serge Ibaka looked really good and Robert Vaden didn’t play hardly at all. But it’s just one Summer League game.

I was certainly impressed with Harden’s skill and assertiveness on the court, but I’m not ready to say he’s an All-Star. What if he goes 2-10 with six turnovers today? You just have to keep it all in the proper perspective. I hope to see Russ a little more in control today, but it’s not like he played bad yesterday. Playing with mainly guys that aren’t exactly “pros” yet, he still put up 22 points and nine assists and while he had four turnovers, three of those were in the first half.

I think Westbrook will be entirely shut down at some point, and I have a feeling he’ll play a little less today. But I hope to see him a little more adjusted to his teammates and to turn it over and be in control of both himself and the game a little better. And I want to see Serge Ibaka dunk on someone’s face.

Tip at 6. Let’s go Kyle Hines!

Preview Summer League

BOX SCORE

One thing to point out before we get started “breaking down” this game, is that these games are about as important as your cousin’s ultimate frisbee tournaments. The final score doesn’t matter (OKC WON 88-77: CHAMPIONSHIP!!!) and the players are rusty from not having played in two months. AND IT’S JUST THE SUMMER LEAGUE. But there are few things to take with you from this game because after all, the purpose of these leagues are for players to get better and management to evaluate players.

Keep in mind this is the summer league and the competition isn’t exactly top notch (as perfectly illustrated by Orlando’s rag-tag bunch). So keep all this in perspective.

• The Thunder’s roster was basically made up of actual roster players. The Magic had a lot of scrub type guys, but OKC was playing guys that are actually going to be on the team this fall. That should show you just how young this team is. Also, no non-Thunder player made it into the game. DeVon Hardin saw just a few minutes of action, but basically the entire game was played by guys tied to Oklahoma City’s roster.

• One thing we definitely learned about Serge Ibaka: He is not a myth. He actually exists. And he was much better than I anticipated in every way. I expected a raw, athletic talent with hardly any refined skills. His offensive game was much more polished and crisp than I expected (13 points on 6 of 8 shooting). I figured he’d be a “score by dunk only” kind of player. But the first bucket was scored by Serge on a nice drop step post move. He was really solid in the post. He’s also much quicker than I thought. A couple of times he caught the ball at the free throw line and was able to take two dribbles and get around his man en route to the basket. He also had a little jumper, which was something I didn’t see coming as he swished a nice 12-footer. He turned the ball over some, but honestly, that was to be expected. It’s his first game over here and I’m sure he was pressing some, but I was very impressed. Read more…

Recap Summer League

Oklahoma City’s first summer league game is today at 4 p.m. and like reader Lefty said in the comments, “It’s only like five weeks until college football, and I don’t even care, because we get to watch the NBA summer league this afternoon. How messed up have I become?” I hear that. Here I am waiting for four o’clock to roll around so I can watch me some summer league basketball. Dedicated fan or over-obsessed nutjob? You tell me.

But there are things to be excited about. I’m psyched to see James Harden in action and also to see Serge Ibaka for the first time. But there’s some other interesting names on the roster, most of which have as much chance to make it to fall camp as I do, but nevertheless, it should be fun to watch some basketball again.

Russell Westbrook (PG) – Thunder
We all know he’s good. But what kind of progress has he made so far this summer? He’s been working on his jumpshot and decision making this summer so it’ll be interesting to see if he’s made any progress. He’ll be one of the elite players in the league and it’s hard to say how much playing time he’ll get. But he’s not participating in the Vegas league, so I’m guessing anywhere between 20-25 minutes a game. He’ll probably be able to get just about anywhere he wants, but the main think to look for is for more consistency on his mid-range jumper, a better ability to finish around the rim and also if he seems to have more control of the offense with the ball in his hands.

Shaun Livingston (PG) – Thunder 
Livingston’s play at the end of the year was extremely encouraging for Thunder fans and extremely discouraging for Earl Watson. If Livingston continues to progress, Watson may be left on the end of the bench next to trainer Joe Sharpe. What’ll be most interesting to watch is if Livingston’s side-to-side agility has improved any and if he looks even more comfortable on his knee than he did at the end of the year.

Serge Ibaka (PF) - Thunder/Ricoh Manresa 
With news coming out that Ibaka is going to be on the Thunder roster next year regardless of what happens in Orlando, this week became a lot less important for him. But he’s still the most interesting player to watch this week. Really nobody has seen much of anything from Ibaka and he’s a major unknown. We don’t know what to expect from him. Shot blocking? Rebounding? Post game? Any semblance of a jumpshot? We know he can dunk, but can he play defense? His unreal athleticism and length get me giddy and I know when he’s on the court, my eyes are only going to be on him. Read more…

Commentary Summer League

The Thunder has announced its rosters for both summer leagues. Oklahoma City is competing in two summer leagues, one in Orlando and one in Las Vegas. Nine Thunder players will play in the leagues, with a handful of non-roster players filling in as well.

From OKC:
Russell Westbrook (Orlando only)
Shaun Livingston
D.J. White
Kyle Weaver
Serge Ibaka
James Harden
DeVon Hardin
Robert Vaden
B.J. Mullens

Some familiar faces will fill out the rosters including former Sooner DeAngelo Alexander and former Cowboy Marcus Dove.

Non-roster invites:
DeAngelo Alexander, G, 6-4, 215, Charlotte (Orlando only)
Keith McLeod, G, 6-2, Bowling Green State (Vegas only)
Moses Ehambe, F, 6-6, 200, Oral Roberts
Doug Thomas, F, 6-8, 245, Iowa (Vegas only)
Marcus Dove, F, 6-9, 212, Oklahoma State (Vegas only)
Richard Roby, G, 6-6, 205, Colorado (Vegas only)
Kyle Hines, F, 6-6, 230, UNC Greensboro (Orlando only)

The Orlando Pro Summer League starts July 6th and runs through the 10th.The Vegas league starts the 10th and runs through the 19th.

News Summer League