Vegas Summer League Preview

@Anonymous
oh, god no, austin is nowhere near the player that kd is. but as a player, he's a shooter/scorer far more than a defender/glue guy like tayshaun. but again, he's something like 1/482 of the player durant is

@Greg
actually, austin (daye) is a pure shooter and little else. he's a guard in a tall body. he's a much better shooter than tayshaun and much worse everything else

How did Thabeet only get 2 rebounds?!?

Man, I'm glad this game means nothing in the grand scheme of things, because we looked like we had no idea what a basketball was or what to do with one. (ouch!!) 86-57, bad-guys.

ahahah! Tony Durant just flat out decked some dude. Tony's got some diesel in him.

Our problems from last year still remain.

1. No interior defense.

2. No 3 point threat

3. No post threat.

Yeah that's absolutely awful. Daye is not a pure-shooter by any stretch, and that's exactly what KD is. Daye is identical to Tayshon in my eyes, solid all-around players with a good tool set. Nothing close to Kevin Durant.

Daye is more KD than Tayshon? I dunno about these announcers.

@Daniel
Me neither. We tried to add a sharpshooter which we certainly need and clearly took the wrong one. We drafted the right guy, Rod Beaubois, but we traded him for yet another big who has goods hand and good jumpshot but is very weak inside and is far from a solid rebounder, sounds a lot like Nenad Krstic.. why we need another one? That's beyond me. I encourage all who paid $15 to watch Dallas' game yesterday when Beaubois hit 7 3's dropping 34 points. I know summer league is "meaningless", but I'd kill for the Thunder to get a guy who could stroke 7 treys. I wish I could bet my life he has a significantly better career than "Byron" Mullens.

Whoah - Shaun to Harden to Russell. That was nice.

I can't believe we paid cash for Robert Vaden. So far, a waste of money.

I wish we had Sam Young instead of Robert Vaden

Both teams have talent. We've just played 5 games in the last week and a half. It's not a good excuse but Memphis has probably been preparing for the Thunder for a week and a half while we went 3-2 in Orlando. I don't think this performance is an indication of how the two teams are going to play in the regular season.

Andy :@p
Oh, I talked myself in Thabeet, Rubio and Harden. I was even happy with Curry if Presti got crazy on us… I thought the upside for Thabeet was his presence on defense and I assumed Memphis would snag him because they needed a big man inside. I didn’t think they would trade for Randolph as well… but it’s all the same. We never had an opportunity to get Thabeet as far as I know… I’m still a huge fan, a follower on twitter and everything. But Harden is just a badass. He gives us some swagger and driving ability. He isn’t the answer but he helps out a lot imo.

i agree with you .. i was cool with hasheem, harden, curry, or reke ... more than pleased with harden tho

& i feel he fits ("complements") the squad very well ...

i am glad we didnt get rubio, although i was beginning to be intrigued by the possibilities of rubio, russ, KD & uncle running the break ...

but presti has the job for a reason ... he's put together something that looks like its on the verge of special

DeVon with the putback slam!

we're getting run out of the building now. 60-42.

we're not doing anything well. at all.

memphis has a ton of young talent.

@p

Oh, I talked myself in Thabeet, Rubio and Harden. I was even happy with Curry if Presti got crazy on us... I thought the upside for Thabeet was his presence on defense and I assumed Memphis would snag him because they needed a big man inside. I didn't think they would trade for Randolph as well... but it's all the same. We never had an opportunity to get Thabeet as far as I know... I'm still a huge fan, a follower on twitter and everything. But Harden is just a badass. He gives us some swagger and driving ability. He isn't the answer but he helps out a lot imo.

@Andy
I think Congo drums with some hardcore rap in the background would be the best. Especially with the Dr. Dre they play during the regular season games.

Who is #2?

Our transition defense is about as bad as can be.

Weaver... I dunno. Turnover, rebound, turnover. back to back to back.

c'mon guys. it's not about hating westbrook! he's a great talent. I think it's unfair to say you can't offer negative criticism. I would like to see improvement in how he runs the offense.

Andy :We are playing with two 19 year olds inside. If I were coaching Memphis I would throw it to Thabeet every time too. Kristic is still our starting center and I’m sure that he can defend Hasheem the Dream.

theres 2 sides to the floor ... i expect little from thabeet offensively ... but his defensive impact is undeniable ... & my whole thing was - to just automatically assume he'd be a bust was surely premature ...

but, i will say no more .. i am more than content with harden in the line-up ... & it still is only summer league

Ibaka needs theme music. I think enter sandman like brock lesner last night would suffice.

Russell with a crazy move.

Too bad we're not sure how to play some D.

Wow.. what a play by RW. That's for the haters. Wonder if he'll be wearing the sleeve during the season?

oh sh_t. fantastic dribble drive by westbrook.

Oooo my nice layup.

2 straight fouls on Thabeet. He could be in foul trouble a lot this year.

Finally some aggressiveness from Serge! And 1. Nice take.

thabeet who? lol. Nice ibaka, very nice.

Andy :I don’t care what position westbrook is on the stat sheet. as long as he can drive and score and dish he’ll be great. he’s still raw too.

i approve this message!
its a lotta rushing to judgement around these parts ... these guys are nba toddlers, let them grow into criticize-able players!

I don't care what position westbrook is on the stat sheet. as long as he can drive and score and dish he'll be great. he's still raw too.

got out-muscled inside, had little to no offensive flow and turned the ball over a ton.

^^ attribute that to a strong defensive presence in the middle

I'm not sure we would want to replay that again.

No matter how raw, you can’t teach 7-3 with a 7-11 wingspan.

^^ all i was saying the whole time ... & that his defensive presence would benefit any non-playoff team.

Westbrook just hasn’t convinced me that he makes other people better.

^^ i have no qualms with that. Durant will fill that role. & probably harden too.

if you buy the 14.99 package all the games are available for replay

Thunder down by ten at the half, 42-32.

beautiful.... I get off in exactly 40 minutes... Think I can go home and catch the 4th quarter?

Well, that was a horrible first half. We played awful defense, got out-muscled inside, had little to no offensive flow and turned the ball over a ton.

Not good.

Weaver hit a 3 in the corner and then livingston stole the inbound pass and hit a jump shot as time expired.

ahhhh what happened? haha.

YEA!!!!! There we go!

Westbrook just hasn't convinced me that he makes other people better.

I'm assuming Mullens in the low and Ibaka in the high post is guarding Thabeet.

No matter how raw, you can't teach 7-3 with a 7-11 wingspan.

We are playing with two 19 year olds inside. If I were coaching Memphis I would throw it to Thabeet every time too. Kristic is still our starting center and I'm sure that he can defend Hasheem the Dream.

Sometimes I just don't know what Westbrook is thinking.

Doug Thomas apparently.

Thomas?