Wednesday Bolts – 3.2.11
Zach Lowe of SI on the Perkins extension: “Look at it this way: With Perkins on board for, say, $9 million per season (we have to estimate for now), the Thunder have about $39 million committed to just six players for the 2012-13 season. Toss in the salary for guys the team drafts between now and then and some nominal charges for empty roster spots, and you’re up around $43 million to $44 million. And that doesn’t include team options on Eric Maynor and Cole Aldrich. Under the current system, this is no big deal; the Thunder would be $15 million under the current cap, and they’d have Bird rights on Westbrook, giving them the ability to match any competing offer.”
Kelly Dwyer of BDL: “The result is a four-year, $34.8 million deal that is more reminiscent of what players like Marcin Gortat are making, while a step below what Joakim Noah and Al Horford are pulling in. It gives the Thunder a big man they can rely on to defend, defend, defend (while, despite his limitations, not hurt the team offensively) for the next few years. And the good-enough terms allow the team to safely extend all-world guard Russell Westbrook this offseason to what will probably be a max contract. Though expectedly a shorter and less-expensive max than we’ve seen in the NBA since 1999.”
A Bulls writer with a what-if: “The Bulls have the #2 pick in the 2006 draft, the pick that should have been Kevin Durant. Unfortunately, Kevin Durant is forced to go to college for a year because of the CBA that was renegotiated that summer. If that CBA were drafted simply one year later, the Bulls would be headlined by Kevin Durant right now. We’d have missed out on Rose of course, but we’d have had a damn elite team anyway, and we wouldn’t think much about missing out on Rose like we don’t think much about missing out on Blake Griffin. Now, I’d rather have Rose than Durant right now, but I doubt any of us would be complaining about a team with Kevin Durant on it.”
OKC is good at free throws according to Boston.com: “What he found is, the impact of free throws very much depends on the team. The Oklahoma City Thunder has, by far, the highest FT+ in the NBA. Its players shoot free throws more often than any other team (15.5 percent of possessions as of earlier this month, when the numbers in the chart were run) and, once at the line, its players score 83 percent of the time, the league’s highest rate. The Celtics rank 27th for FT+.”
Serge Ibaka doing some modeling.
Kendrick Perkins talking about his extension, plus some comments from Sam Presti.
Carrie Coppernoll of NewsOK welcoming the new players: “First of all, Oklahoma City is a great place for professional basketball players. Oklahoma City is 12½ times more spread out than Boston and 2½ times more spread out than Charlotte. There are fewer people, too, so there’s plenty of room to stretch out those big, long legs you guys have. I’m only 5-foot-3, so I’m comfortable pretty much everywhere.”
NBA.com’s Race to the MVP: “How valuable is Durant? Let’s put it this way: He has been good enough, fast enough, that the Thunder’s championship ambitions have been fast-tracked, hence the moves at the trading deadline. Durant scored 21 in a breezy 32 minutes against the Clippers, then 30 in 42 in the loss at San Antonio.”
From ESPN.com’s Award Watch: “I don’t think I have a chance at [the MVP],” Durant said. “I think people like the new person. I think my year to try to win it was last year. I’m not new anymore.”
