Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Friday, April 6, 2012
Thunder lose game, 1 seed in west
Kevin Durant had a stellar game in Indianapolis tonight, but in the end it was (like most the Thunder's close losses) not enough to overcome a sluggish effort. While Russel Westbrook missed a triple double by 1 assist, and the Thunder actually led the pacers in assists (20 to 13), the game was not close until the final 3 minutes. Ball rotation being a much talked about issue for the Thunder, you'd assume with a good assist lead, they could put away a team like the Pacers pretty early, sub in the clean up crew and watch them hold on for an 8 point win.
However, with the Pacers playing like they cared, and the Thunder playing about as bored and uninspired as the janky navy and yellow court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the game was routinely bordering on a rout for the Pacers. Tonight was a lazy night on the defensive end (out rebounded 50-40, including 18-11 on the offensive glass) It raises the question, does it matter how the Thunder finish in the last 11 games?
Now, the Thunder are no longer at the top of Western division. That honor officially belongs to the Spurs now, who blew out the Hornets and are doing their typical trouncing through the regular season schedule. Looking back at the season, it would appear that the biggest threat to a championship lies in the west, with the Spurs. So a 1 seed keeps them on the opposite side of the spurs until the conference finals, just like a 2 seed does. So what can one assess about the Thunder, heading into the final stretch of the season before the playoffs?
1) You don't want to have to see the Spurs. I think everyone can agree on that. They have owned the Thunder (outside of a Duncan and Manu-less early season game) Parker is kryptonite, and whats worse the Thunder can't even find a telephone booth to change in when they come to town. It hasn't been pretty.
2) The Thunder look like they are bored. That much is obvious by watching them struggle with teams they have gotten up for in the past (Grizz, Pacers, Utah, Cleveland). You could say it makes them look beatable, and you could also say it doesn't matter as long as they peak during the playoffs and come prepared and play to win, not play to have a chance in the last few seconds after a furious last 3 minutes of regulation rally. The only pseudo real issue with finishing strong is the one seed, which is partially negated by having a great chance against every team except the spurs, but even that is suspect because the spurs are old (even when giving Duncan big rests this season) and the Thunder might just wear them out (the spurs didn't too well in the playoffs last year)
3) Westbrook is much better. Even when having a poor shooting night, he's been able to find other ways to contribute (9 assists tonight, and what point guard can claim better rebounding ability than Westbrook?) Last year Westbrook would just continue to throw shots up, and while he hasn't grown out of that entirely, his all around game has improved to the point of making him indispensable to the Thunder's title hopes.
4) KD is a different kind of super dominant player. Would Lebron or Carmello put up with a young sidekick rapidly getting better? Probably not. I imagine Westbrook would have gotten shipped out of whatever city he was sidekicking a while ago, at the request of the All-star batman he played robin for. Durant's quiet and intelligent demeanor, and straightforward way of looking at winning, combined with a healthy dose of Kendrick Perkins PHD and his Ubuntu Pow-wow's, has allowed for a 1-2 punch that is nearly unrivaled in the current game, and is rocketing toward greatness like few seen before it. Most teams would be lucky to flaunt a single 'once in a generation player' but at the end of the day, the Thunder may have two on their roster, and despite what shoe commercials tell you about talented basketballers, they get along.
P.S. I like Grant Long. But he's starting to casually KD 'the gift' now. As in 'awesome drive by the gift' and 'the gift just pulled up and nailed it!' No one else is calling KD the gift, so I'm begging you to let it die
However, with the Pacers playing like they cared, and the Thunder playing about as bored and uninspired as the janky navy and yellow court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the game was routinely bordering on a rout for the Pacers. Tonight was a lazy night on the defensive end (out rebounded 50-40, including 18-11 on the offensive glass) It raises the question, does it matter how the Thunder finish in the last 11 games?
Now, the Thunder are no longer at the top of Western division. That honor officially belongs to the Spurs now, who blew out the Hornets and are doing their typical trouncing through the regular season schedule. Looking back at the season, it would appear that the biggest threat to a championship lies in the west, with the Spurs. So a 1 seed keeps them on the opposite side of the spurs until the conference finals, just like a 2 seed does. So what can one assess about the Thunder, heading into the final stretch of the season before the playoffs?
1) You don't want to have to see the Spurs. I think everyone can agree on that. They have owned the Thunder (outside of a Duncan and Manu-less early season game) Parker is kryptonite, and whats worse the Thunder can't even find a telephone booth to change in when they come to town. It hasn't been pretty.
2) The Thunder look like they are bored. That much is obvious by watching them struggle with teams they have gotten up for in the past (Grizz, Pacers, Utah, Cleveland). You could say it makes them look beatable, and you could also say it doesn't matter as long as they peak during the playoffs and come prepared and play to win, not play to have a chance in the last few seconds after a furious last 3 minutes of regulation rally. The only pseudo real issue with finishing strong is the one seed, which is partially negated by having a great chance against every team except the spurs, but even that is suspect because the spurs are old (even when giving Duncan big rests this season) and the Thunder might just wear them out (the spurs didn't too well in the playoffs last year)
3) Westbrook is much better. Even when having a poor shooting night, he's been able to find other ways to contribute (9 assists tonight, and what point guard can claim better rebounding ability than Westbrook?) Last year Westbrook would just continue to throw shots up, and while he hasn't grown out of that entirely, his all around game has improved to the point of making him indispensable to the Thunder's title hopes.
4) KD is a different kind of super dominant player. Would Lebron or Carmello put up with a young sidekick rapidly getting better? Probably not. I imagine Westbrook would have gotten shipped out of whatever city he was sidekicking a while ago, at the request of the All-star batman he played robin for. Durant's quiet and intelligent demeanor, and straightforward way of looking at winning, combined with a healthy dose of Kendrick Perkins PHD and his Ubuntu Pow-wow's, has allowed for a 1-2 punch that is nearly unrivaled in the current game, and is rocketing toward greatness like few seen before it. Most teams would be lucky to flaunt a single 'once in a generation player' but at the end of the day, the Thunder may have two on their roster, and despite what shoe commercials tell you about talented basketballers, they get along.
P.S. I like Grant Long. But he's starting to casually KD 'the gift' now. As in 'awesome drive by the gift' and 'the gift just pulled up and nailed it!' No one else is calling KD the gift, so I'm begging you to let it die
Thursday, July 21, 2011
lockout update.
It's over, bro. The season is toast, or at least the first 30ish games. This lockout is quickly resembling the one at the end of the 90's. No new talk until August (at least ones involving upper echelon exec's.) To make it worse, there's increasing talk of players bolting to other parts of the world. (Kobe to Turkey, Durant to Europe, Howard to China)
This is turning out to be a fantastic time to start a blog, hah. How does @Dailythunder do it.
This is turning out to be a fantastic time to start a blog, hah. How does @Dailythunder do it.
Monday, July 11, 2011
4 great ways to solve the...oh fuck it. I don't give a shit, just figure it out.
Hey! Where's your 'ways to fix the lockout' post? Gimme a bunch of numbers and contract clauses and blablabla about revenue sharing and hard cap!!!
No offense...but the only thing I'm hard capped for is the end of the god damn lockout. I could give a shit about how they fix it, because from my point of view, both sides are just greedy. Are the players more important, or are the owners more important? List a thousand reasons for each, and i promise you they are all relative. Relative as in, you can see each issue either way. The players are way more likable cause we don't see Clay Bennett working a Killer crossover on Jerry Buss then dishing behind the back to Mark Cuban who, in turn, throws it down for an and one over James Dolan.
Everything about the lockout is horrible. A feeling of a lost season is already starting to settle in. The players are on one side, in a trench covered in barbwire and surrounded by landmines and machine guns and Rick Ross music (term used loosely) while the owners are on the other side in a huge fortified tower covered by armed guards, behind a moat filled with class disparity. All the beautiful (and not so beautiful) pre-season NBA coverage has been replaced by sportscasters forced to wonder aloud about solutions to the dumbest self-made crisis since....the NFL lockout...or...the last NBA lockout. Sportscasters are much better suited for screaming 'WHAT!' and 'MONEY!' at dunks then they are to talk about market shares, player salaries and perceived owner financial loss. I didn't care about it at first, then i was mad, now I'm just depressed. Probably because i thought it wouldn't happen for real.
What's the solution? What fan really cares, i just want it over with. Maybe that's simplistic, and i come across as an idiot who can't understand the finer points of dollars and cents. If that's the case, please, fire up a huge text-block of an argument on why i should i care more. Please be sure to include a lot of numbers, and considerable math equations (please show your work...no calculators) as well as pie charts, bar graphs and power point presentations. I'll be glad to read it all whenever one single fan thinks the NBA lockout is worthwhile in any respect and not just born of greed and a complete uncaring nature towards the real cash pipeline, the fan.
No offense...but the only thing I'm hard capped for is the end of the god damn lockout. I could give a shit about how they fix it, because from my point of view, both sides are just greedy. Are the players more important, or are the owners more important? List a thousand reasons for each, and i promise you they are all relative. Relative as in, you can see each issue either way. The players are way more likable cause we don't see Clay Bennett working a Killer crossover on Jerry Buss then dishing behind the back to Mark Cuban who, in turn, throws it down for an and one over James Dolan.
Everything about the lockout is horrible. A feeling of a lost season is already starting to settle in. The players are on one side, in a trench covered in barbwire and surrounded by landmines and machine guns and Rick Ross music (term used loosely) while the owners are on the other side in a huge fortified tower covered by armed guards, behind a moat filled with class disparity. All the beautiful (and not so beautiful) pre-season NBA coverage has been replaced by sportscasters forced to wonder aloud about solutions to the dumbest self-made crisis since....the NFL lockout...or...the last NBA lockout. Sportscasters are much better suited for screaming 'WHAT!' and 'MONEY!' at dunks then they are to talk about market shares, player salaries and perceived owner financial loss. I didn't care about it at first, then i was mad, now I'm just depressed. Probably because i thought it wouldn't happen for real.
What's the solution? What fan really cares, i just want it over with. Maybe that's simplistic, and i come across as an idiot who can't understand the finer points of dollars and cents. If that's the case, please, fire up a huge text-block of an argument on why i should i care more. Please be sure to include a lot of numbers, and considerable math equations (please show your work...no calculators) as well as pie charts, bar graphs and power point presentations. I'll be glad to read it all whenever one single fan thinks the NBA lockout is worthwhile in any respect and not just born of greed and a complete uncaring nature towards the real cash pipeline, the fan.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
It's 10 pm...do you know where your Thunder are?
As if another reminder that the NBA is headed straight into a destruction hurricane via a greed tornado and an ego flood was needed...
Twitter has done a great job of helping destroy society along with facebook and youtube. As a matter of fact, without twitter, i wouldn't rightly know where all of our beloved Thunder players are at any given time, since getting together and practicing in their gym is about as legal as Shaq wearing his Lakers jersey in an icy hot commercial. So here: 10 things I've learned from twitter...
1) Kevin Durant is awesome....but he listens to Rick Ross.
2) James Harden has scored 51 and 52 points in consecutive games in an amateur league in L.A., breaking their records. While that's fantastic, there's a good chance he's also going to break his hand.
3) Nate Robinson not only urinated on some building in New York, but he routinely flies between Seattle and New York for no real reason.
4) Nate Robinson has several children, but no matter how many he has, they will never want for cereal, as his pantry is literally stocked with hundreds of different types.
5) Serge Ibaka speaks 4 languages, and usually lets you know about it...in 4 different languages.
6) Daequan Cook is hard for OKC. Why wouldn't he be, right? Before the Thunder made him an offer, every tweet was either him giving OKC more credit than is really necessary or re tweeting someone else's tweet which mentioned how much they (and OKC) love him, with a bashful 'cool bruh, 'preciate that'
7) Nick Collison exists on twitter only during the off season. I assume this is because during the regular season he is in a lab studying thermodynamics and gravity in order to defend people that, by sight and on paper, he has no business defending.
8) KD is in China. What's he doing there? I don't know, but i swear he was going to play in a Chinese amateur league game. I could not possibly imagine who the Chinese YMCA has that can guard Durant. Also, Durant was stuck in a Typhoon on a bus of some kind with 15 other people! $$$
9) Byron Mullens and Cole Aldrich just play Call of Duty and workout with people that used to play for KU and Ohio St. all day.
10) The rest unmentioned, are mostly casual, boring tweeters. (Perk isn't even on twitter)
Twitter has done a great job of helping destroy society along with facebook and youtube. As a matter of fact, without twitter, i wouldn't rightly know where all of our beloved Thunder players are at any given time, since getting together and practicing in their gym is about as legal as Shaq wearing his Lakers jersey in an icy hot commercial. So here: 10 things I've learned from twitter...
1) Kevin Durant is awesome....but he listens to Rick Ross.
2) James Harden has scored 51 and 52 points in consecutive games in an amateur league in L.A., breaking their records. While that's fantastic, there's a good chance he's also going to break his hand.
3) Nate Robinson not only urinated on some building in New York, but he routinely flies between Seattle and New York for no real reason.
4) Nate Robinson has several children, but no matter how many he has, they will never want for cereal, as his pantry is literally stocked with hundreds of different types.
5) Serge Ibaka speaks 4 languages, and usually lets you know about it...in 4 different languages.
6) Daequan Cook is hard for OKC. Why wouldn't he be, right? Before the Thunder made him an offer, every tweet was either him giving OKC more credit than is really necessary or re tweeting someone else's tweet which mentioned how much they (and OKC) love him, with a bashful 'cool bruh, 'preciate that'
7) Nick Collison exists on twitter only during the off season. I assume this is because during the regular season he is in a lab studying thermodynamics and gravity in order to defend people that, by sight and on paper, he has no business defending.
8) KD is in China. What's he doing there? I don't know, but i swear he was going to play in a Chinese amateur league game. I could not possibly imagine who the Chinese YMCA has that can guard Durant. Also, Durant was stuck in a Typhoon on a bus of some kind with 15 other people! $$$
9) Byron Mullens and Cole Aldrich just play Call of Duty and workout with people that used to play for KU and Ohio St. all day.
10) The rest unmentioned, are mostly casual, boring tweeters. (Perk isn't even on twitter)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
WTFLOCKOUT? Some players forced to get summer jobs.
Lockout!!!!! Players to owners: We are the NBA! Owners to players: Suck it, suck it dry! Who wins? Well, no one. Not yet at least. Billions upon Billions of dollars at stake, what would you do? Would you give in so both you and your friends can have a lot? Nah, fuck that! I say fuck it all up so nobody gets anything! Who better to take their ball and go home...than the NBA?
Rap and basketball go together like...well rap and Scarface! So while either side of the lockout will surely drop a PR line like 'we want this to end quickly and fairly' or 'we have every intention of doing our best to keep the NBA going' the truth is, both sides are going to be shut in a big room screaming 'money, power, respect!' (hopefully no coke mountain though)
Now NBA players get paid way more than your typical 18-38 year old, for the most part. While Durant and Kobe can most likely sit it out on endorsements, some of our beloved players have no other choice but to get a second job! Just like economically strained Americans, NBA players are on edge wondering where their next meal is coming from.
Since this blog is brand new, and we have no comments, i'm hoping to open that up by asking anyone who reads this for their ideas as to what job a particular NBA might get if he indeed were to need extra cash.
Rap and basketball go together like...well rap and Scarface! So while either side of the lockout will surely drop a PR line like 'we want this to end quickly and fairly' or 'we have every intention of doing our best to keep the NBA going' the truth is, both sides are going to be shut in a big room screaming 'money, power, respect!' (hopefully no coke mountain though)
Now NBA players get paid way more than your typical 18-38 year old, for the most part. While Durant and Kobe can most likely sit it out on endorsements, some of our beloved players have no other choice but to get a second job! Just like economically strained Americans, NBA players are on edge wondering where their next meal is coming from.
Since this blog is brand new, and we have no comments, i'm hoping to open that up by asking anyone who reads this for their ideas as to what job a particular NBA might get if he indeed were to need extra cash.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
2012 Thunder
Uhhhhh....if there is a 2012 Thunder, or NBA for that matter. Or 2012 at all....
No, ok, optimism. Optimism. Because, honestly, all this insane fervor for the Thunder may take a hit if the NBA locks out and the season starts late. (OU football is a real heavy hitter, and OSU football...well...it exists, if nothing else) But i'm trying hard to believe that Oklahomans are no fair weather fans (...and knowing their college football tendencies, that is a big stretch) So, i'm going forward, imaging what one can expect from next seasons Thunder.
Realization of potential. The thunder are most certainly coming into their own, and with a good, deep, playoff run under their belt, and a 55 win season, the thunder are one of the favourites to win it all next year. With Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook coming face to face with their team dynamic during the playoffs, the emergence of James Harden and Serge Ibaka, and the assumed better health (or Japanese hyper-steel implant) of Kendrick Perkins knee's, the thunder are ready to take that title: Favourite.
Now, it can't ever be all perfect. Eric (the co-proprietor of this blog once he gets back from a week of hookers, coke and heckling lebron fans in miami) and I have talked about what we hope does 'not' happen, when the team comes out of their 'anywhere but OKC' summer, and gets into the gym to start the season.
I mentioned being horrified at the spectacle of Russell Westbrook getting the NFL wide reciever disease, and showing up in a Bugatti Veyron, fresh off a visit to the studio to drop vocals for the hotly anticipated first single off his upcoming rap record. Truthfully i give Westbrook more credit than a lot of people, and think he'll revert to the level headedness he showed for the majority of the season. But, on the dark side of the Thunder moon, just imagine Kazaam 2: Lost in Bricktown, featuring Westbrook.
Last season James Harden 'blossomed' if you want to call it, or at least begun to. He is on the path, step for step, of becoming a fantastic contributor, and perhaps a year or two out from an all star appearance (by which time if Westbrook hasn't signed with young money records, he and KD should both be starters) and hopefully several years of bottle popping at the end of the playoffs. Downside? Many wondered why Harden didn't start during the playoffs, after being able to spark the Thunder when no one else could. Truth is, Harden struggled in the 5 games he started during the season, and coach Brooks seems to have a real fetish for consistency. The dynamic of Harden and Collison coming into the game midway through the first, was bread and butter for the Thunder, for a number of reasons. If Harden starts next season, it's unlikely Sefolosha could bring the same bench spark, and it's no guarantee that Harden will be consistant. This is really stretching it though, as i feel all signs point to Harden breaking out like Westbrook did. (KD and Westbrook starting for the West and Harden off the bench? Inappropriate. Just, wildly inappropriate)
As far as individual players go, the Thunder most likely won't have these 'apocolypse' scenarios (or any other unmentioned ones, like Nate Robinson dating KD's mom, or Aldrich and Mullens having a mid-court fist fight resembling two redwood trees making love) however the Thunder could fall prey to expectations. OKC improved by 5 games over last season, which is relative considering the doubling of wins from the 2009 to 2010, and also considering...how many more games do you want them to win? lets say they improve by...10. Just 10 games. The Thunder could have easily won 10 more games this year, putting them at 65-17. However, they won some very close games, and could have lost another 6 or 7 just as easily. If the Thunder were to stagnate and bask in their glory at any point, they could find themselves around 50 games again, swimming in the middle of the playoff pool again, something the newbie OKC fans would probably be disappointed by.
No, ok, optimism. Optimism. Because, honestly, all this insane fervor for the Thunder may take a hit if the NBA locks out and the season starts late. (OU football is a real heavy hitter, and OSU football...well...it exists, if nothing else) But i'm trying hard to believe that Oklahomans are no fair weather fans (...and knowing their college football tendencies, that is a big stretch) So, i'm going forward, imaging what one can expect from next seasons Thunder.
Realization of potential. The thunder are most certainly coming into their own, and with a good, deep, playoff run under their belt, and a 55 win season, the thunder are one of the favourites to win it all next year. With Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook coming face to face with their team dynamic during the playoffs, the emergence of James Harden and Serge Ibaka, and the assumed better health (or Japanese hyper-steel implant) of Kendrick Perkins knee's, the thunder are ready to take that title: Favourite.
Now, it can't ever be all perfect. Eric (the co-proprietor of this blog once he gets back from a week of hookers, coke and heckling lebron fans in miami) and I have talked about what we hope does 'not' happen, when the team comes out of their 'anywhere but OKC' summer, and gets into the gym to start the season.
I mentioned being horrified at the spectacle of Russell Westbrook getting the NFL wide reciever disease, and showing up in a Bugatti Veyron, fresh off a visit to the studio to drop vocals for the hotly anticipated first single off his upcoming rap record. Truthfully i give Westbrook more credit than a lot of people, and think he'll revert to the level headedness he showed for the majority of the season. But, on the dark side of the Thunder moon, just imagine Kazaam 2: Lost in Bricktown, featuring Westbrook.
Last season James Harden 'blossomed' if you want to call it, or at least begun to. He is on the path, step for step, of becoming a fantastic contributor, and perhaps a year or two out from an all star appearance (by which time if Westbrook hasn't signed with young money records, he and KD should both be starters) and hopefully several years of bottle popping at the end of the playoffs. Downside? Many wondered why Harden didn't start during the playoffs, after being able to spark the Thunder when no one else could. Truth is, Harden struggled in the 5 games he started during the season, and coach Brooks seems to have a real fetish for consistency. The dynamic of Harden and Collison coming into the game midway through the first, was bread and butter for the Thunder, for a number of reasons. If Harden starts next season, it's unlikely Sefolosha could bring the same bench spark, and it's no guarantee that Harden will be consistant. This is really stretching it though, as i feel all signs point to Harden breaking out like Westbrook did. (KD and Westbrook starting for the West and Harden off the bench? Inappropriate. Just, wildly inappropriate)
As far as individual players go, the Thunder most likely won't have these 'apocolypse' scenarios (or any other unmentioned ones, like Nate Robinson dating KD's mom, or Aldrich and Mullens having a mid-court fist fight resembling two redwood trees making love) however the Thunder could fall prey to expectations. OKC improved by 5 games over last season, which is relative considering the doubling of wins from the 2009 to 2010, and also considering...how many more games do you want them to win? lets say they improve by...10. Just 10 games. The Thunder could have easily won 10 more games this year, putting them at 65-17. However, they won some very close games, and could have lost another 6 or 7 just as easily. If the Thunder were to stagnate and bask in their glory at any point, they could find themselves around 50 games again, swimming in the middle of the playoff pool again, something the newbie OKC fans would probably be disappointed by.
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