A good story on Latavious Williams, the 66ers and the Thunder by Yahoo!’s Marc Spears: “The D-League offers players 
a chance to play for teams run by NBA franchises. Oftentimes, the teams have a coach who is appointed by their NBA affiliate and who runs a system similar to that of the NBA team. Presti met with Williams at the Thunder practice facility after the D-League draft and attended the 66ers’ first team meeting and practice. The 66ers also will attend several Thunder games in Oklahoma City.”
This writer on Bleacher Report lists out all the Thunder’s problems: ”Although the Thunder are advanced on the defensive end (fifth in defensive rating), they allow great defensive teams to control the tempo of the game. They run an undeveloped offense, one that lacks the creativity most NBA teams possess. Great defensive teams expose that and when opponents also have a greater range of offensive plays, they exploit them as well. Their other fatal flaw is the need for a big man.”
Ziller at FanHouse recaps the 60 Minutes Donaghy interview: ”One particular anecdote, which is recounted by Donaghy roughly midway through the clip below, tells of the time Allen Iverson, then with the Nuggets, drew the ire of the entire referee corps by threatening an official. The league fined Iverson $25,000, but officials, Donaghy says, didn’t think that was enough of a punishment. So they doled out their own sentence, and explicitly conspired before a Jazz-Nuggets game to give A.I. some tough love with the whistle.”
Mike Baldwin writing about plus/minus: ”Denver coach George Karl thinks so much of it, he uses it to structure game plans. Lakers coach Phil Jackson, the Zen Master himself, tells his staff to toss it in the shredder. He’d rather substitute on sight and feel. The statistic is an old hockey stat that’s now included in expanded NBA box scores. It’s called plus/minus. And it’s reshaping the way some franchises evaluate and deploy players.
The Magic have ripped off seven straight road wins. The last time they lost? You know it: “The last time Orlando lost on the road was back on Nov. 8 — a 102-74 blowout loss at Oklahoma City.”
Tony Durant says KD’s Twitter page was hacked and now he’s getting a new one or something.
Matt Moore of HP on the Oden/Durant thing: “Greg Oden has had multiple injuries since being drafted by Kevin Pritchard and during the same time, Kevin Durant has evolved into one of the best players in the league. This is a coincidence. The two are not outlined in the stars. They’re not bound by that draft. It was just a coincidence. And to consistently compare the two is madness, like comparing a barn fire in Jersey and a stock jump in California. Assess each within the context of themselves.”
John Hollinger on the same thing: “In a roundabout way, it’s unfair to Pritchard too. I know what you’re all thinking, so before we go any further: All you second-guessers out there, just stop it. All 30 NBA general managers were prepared to take Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. All of them. There wasn’t even any question about it. One can fairly ask whether this consensus was borne more of the hope that infects every personnel evaluator upon seeing a talented 7-footer than of common sense. That said, it’s hard to single out a front office for doing what everybody else would have done too.”
David Stern thinks it’s probably, not possible, that we’ll see a female player in the NBA.
This is good. Rockets color man Matt Bullard yells at the officials.
I’ve got a Bowl Pick ‘Em group right here if you’d like to participate. Maybe we’ll treat the winner with some kind of prize. No promises, but we’ll see.
Notice anything different? Check out the new header! Big time thanks to Colin Butler for making it for me. The old one was nice and it held a special place in my heart because it came from my friend and very talented artist Val. Thanks again to Colin.
@Kev
No. Mullens stays in the D-League.
Vega :@kevIf playing to win means possibly stunting the growth of our young prospects by playing Etan Thomas and trading for Erick freaking Dampier, than we shouldn’t do it.
they aren't playing because they aren't as good - you can get better without playing in the game - are you really telling me we should let Mullens play so he can shoot brick after twenty foot brick??
I used DJ White's stats to support an argument that he should play some in lieu of Serge Ibaka, match ups permitting of course. The premise being that both players have played a similar amount of minutes in the NBA; Serge gets an article devoted to him based on such a small sample size so I figured DJ's performance would hold some value as well.
I don't know if White is horrible on defense. But Brooks knows better than any of us. It's not like Brooks is in his 4th year with a GM that's going to fire him if he misses the playoffs. 45 wins might get Brooks Coach of the Year, for Christmas' sake. If he thought White was better than Ibaka, he'd be out there. If he thought White's development was worth sacrificing minutes from Collison, even if Collison is the better player right now, White would be out there. Criticizing that decision because White gets off mid-range jumpers in garbage time -- let's see him get those looks in the 4th quarter down 3 to the Spurs -- is silly. Brooks likes 9-man rotations, and, by the way, he's got plenty of company. Very few teams run 10-man rotations and few in recent memory were remotely successful at it. Basketball is a flow game and giving players 2 3- or 4-minute stints is not conducive to success.
And my points about the backup point guard situation refer to the fact that there's really nothing we can do about the big man situation. Gortat is available on the 15th (though I think a trade during the season is doubtful) but otherwise, we don't have the pieces for a quality big man without adding Green to the deal. I doubt Presti pulls that trigger.
That said, the backup 1 is killing us. Westbrook went off on his own again in the Celtics game (I'm his biggest fan, and even I'm getting fed up) but what can Brooks do? He can't play Wilks 25 minutes just to send a message to Westbrook. If we had a competent 1 -- and they're available, and we have 5 picks -- that improves us now. At every other spot in the rotation, there's not an urgent need for an upgrade, at least not until we have a better idea of what we have. (Again, we're arguing about White, the 10th man on th roster right now, with 5 picks coming in 6 months.)
@kev
If playing to win means possibly stunting the growth of our young prospects by playing Etan Thomas and trading for Erick freaking Dampier, than we shouldn't do it.
@Vince
I agree that our most pressing need is OFFENCE, and positionally it needs to be from a front court player able to score 8-10 points from 8-10 feet, or God forbid, the free throw line (take note Messrs Green and Krstic). A jump shooting front court will simply not get anything done in any playoff series. We need a more balanced offence.
Back up point guard is not our biggest concern. That's a concern for a team 14-6, not 9-8 or whatever we are. We have bigger holes than concerning ourselves with someone who will play 15 mins a night max.
@Big G
You dont need a great center/pf to win, but it helps a lot, most of the championship teams of the last 20 years have had a very good C or PF. miami/lakers had shaq, spurs have duncan, lakers last year had gasol and bynum, boston had garnett, detroit had the wallaces, houston had olajuwon, pistons had dumars. the 80s boston had mchale, the 80s lakers had kareem, philly won with moses malone.
really with the exception of the bulls and the 70s almost every title in the NbA was won with a great frontcourt
This is the deal about the center thing there are not any center
available that so good that we should do anything right now. The idea
that you even need a dominant center is not a proven philosophy.
All we need a big or combo of bigs that can rebound, block shots,play
D,and dunk the mess out the ball. I would give Serge and Mullens a chance before spend big dollar on a guy that is not that much for his current team. As for a post game I think we have guy on our roster who is going to be great post up guy in a few years. That guy is KD .The reason I believe this when they said he could not shoot for % he showed them. When they said he would be defensive liability he improved.So just tell him he can't post up and watch out.
@Anonymous
Aye aye. You dig?
Check the last Bolt for a shoutout to our artist.
@Vince
but see its those same people that say we shouldnt use his numbers that say his defense is horrible based on that same lack of minutes. I have been at every home game that white has played in, he deserves more minutes, without the numbers, he can flat out score better then any other backup we have, with maybe the exception of harden, and even that is debatable. The reason why he isnt in the d-league is because he according to what darnell mayberry wrote was that the team thinks he is too good for the d-league.
Also its not like ibaka/collison/thomas have played amazing every game, the minutes are there, brooks just wont play more then 9 players in a rotation.
Just because the coaching staff sees him everyday doesnt mean they are always right, brooks plays favorites with vets, like ollie.
really it just needs to be situational, if the other team has a non scoring PF in the game his defense doesnt hurt us and his offense helps us.
Vega :I’ve been saying that DJ should start a few games for a while now. We’re still at the point where learning on the job is okay. We can afford to play our young guys and let them make mistakes and work through them, because, let’s face it, we’re not making the playoffs. The West is simply to tough for a team slightly over .500 to make the playoffs, and even by some miracle did we make it, we would probably match up against a team like the Lakers or Nuggets, who would wipe us out in five games with relative ease.
As a matter of fact, it would probably be better for us to miss the playoffs. If we got a pick in the 11-14 range, we could use that to get a center prospect, or trade it to get an established player.
come on Vega - obviously it would be better if we missed, but "you play to win the game!!!"
I've been saying that DJ should start a few games for a while now. We're still at the point where learning on the job is okay. We can afford to play our young guys and let them make mistakes and work through them, because, let's face it, we're not making the playoffs. The West is simply to tough for a team slightly over .500 to make the playoffs, and even by some miracle did we make it, we would probably match up against a team like the Lakers or Nuggets, who would wipe us out in five games with relative ease.
As a matter of fact, it would probably be better for us to miss the playoffs. If we got a pick in the 11-14 range, we could use that to get a center prospect, or trade it to get an established player.
And, in agreement with JG's excellent post the other night, PLEASE stop using statistics to insist that White be playing more. 170-odd minutes in the NBA -- with, what, 20 of them that mattered -- does not override Brooks' (and Cheeks', and Bryant's) judgment and ability to see these players day-in and day-out. I love how Collison goes for 18 and 6 against the 76ers and it's "Welcome back, man, we missed you" and four days later White is supposed to be taking his minutes.
I find it highly unlikely that we'll trade for a big-time center. They're very rare right now, and hence at a premium. Guys like Biedrins and Gasol simply won't be had for mid-first round picks. And trading a member of the core seems unlikely.
And to repeat myself (though I posted it at the tail end of an older thread), I'm not sure why a team that's fifth in defense, above-average in rebounding, and fourth (at last check) in blocks has a big man as its most pressing need. OFFENSE is our most pressing need. I submit that if you get improvement out of the young perimeter players, that a signing like Dampier or Camby can position us well. If you're running out Green/Ibaka/Camby/Collison/2010 Draft Pick (or some version thereof) I think Brooks can mix and match enough to have an edge at the 4 and 5 over most teams (most of whom, remember, don't have a quality big man either).
I still say our most pressing need, right now, is the backup 1 (and, no, Weaver is not the answer; if he were, he wouldn't have lost out in camp to Kevin freaking Ollie). #1, Brooks needs to have some leverage over Westbrook, which he doesn't with journeyman vets behind him; #2, our second unit offense has less movement than your average pickup game; and #3 I did like Westbrook playing off the ball last year a bit and I think having a solid backup 1 would allow Russell to do that again.
yeah his p36 numbers are great 21.4PPG 7.8RPG 1.1 blocks, 1.7 steals, so if he could figure out how to play defense he would be a monster, 2nd best scorer on the team.
@f5alcon
I forgot about DJ. He needs to play more as well.
@Vega
I doubt mullens gets called up til near the end of the season. Ibaka seems to be getting thomas' minutes now, but id like to see more DJ white in games where his offense is more valuable then his lack of defense. Tonight is a good example we need to score a lot tonight
@f5alcon
Precisely. That is why we should be playing Mull-Baka, not Etan Thomas, and certainly not Erick freaking Dampier.
does it really matter if we do better this season? its not like we are getting out of the 1st round of the playoffs.
L. Williams is strong and can rebound. Still learning the rest.
Apparently Swift has a baby that is or has been in the hospital recently. Best wishes with that and other stuff later.
As I said before, the Thunder is actually tied for the tallest team in the league but it is based on perimeter height and bench height. The Lakers are dominating with frontline height - and of course Kobe.
The article on plus-minus never even got to Adjusted +/-, much less all the variations and improvements out developing there. Most of the NBA coaches appear little informed or moved by the stat revolution. Right or wrong or half of each.
Vega :@justinI’d rather try to develop Mull-Baka than trade for Erick freaking Dampier.
Hahahhahahaha! ROFL!
@Vega
There is no reason you cannot do both at the same time; they are not mutually exclusive propositions.
I don't see the negative about trading for Erick Dampier. Dalembert I understand because he has a year left on his contract; Dampier would be gone before his salary could even impact anything. If he does well, great, and you can resign him to the MLE or something reasonable for another couple years.
I'd be shocked if either Mullens or Ibaka are as productive as Dampier's been this season within the next three years.
@kev
yeah weaver can play backup PG, the question will presti/brooks want that though, presti likes vets behind westbrook
@justin
I'd rather try to develop Mull-Baka than trade for Erick freaking Dampier.
Actually, my above statement is incorrect. Two different GMs were responsible for the Dalembert and Brand deals. So instead of one idiot being responsible, two are.
Sam Dalembert is overrated compared to who? Even playing the way he's played this season in erratic minutes he'd instantly be the best center we have on the roster. He's always been a good rebounder, he's always blocked a lot of shots, he was even fairly efficient on offense for awhile. With a good coach and a system that utilizes his skills correctly he could turn it around, Sam Dalembert from 2006-2008 was an above average NBA center.
Erick Dampier - same as Dalembert; he's playing better than any other big man on our roster, by far.
As far as overpaid, of course he's overpaid, otherwise he would not be available. Teams don't give away big men for no reason. There's no way that Sam Presti is going to acquire a starting center better than Nenad Krstic without over paying for one unless he gets lucky in the draft.
Take a look at Kenyon Martin. He was overpaid when Denver acquired him, he's still not worth his contract at all but he's been excellent for that team. His $$$ will expire soon, and they'll probably extend him to something more reasonable.
We will need some kind of upgrade at center eventually barring some kind of miraculous development of Serge Ibaka, and the only way that's going to happen is by spending $$$ / taking a risk.
f5alcon :dampier would only be worth minimum wage as our inactive player.At the end of the season we will lose ollie, thomas, livingston, so we need a vet PG and a vet big guy at the very least
Weaver is good enough to play backup PG - we can get anyone to be the 3rd PG . . .
Vega :@kevThe same GM who gave Dalembert that contract also gave Elton Brand his gargantuan deal. So the answer to your question is stupid GMs.
Brand is overpaid, but at least he has some skills . . .
@kev
The same GM who gave Dalembert that contract also gave Elton Brand his gargantuan deal. So the answer to your question is stupid GMs.
dampier would only be worth minimum wage as our inactive player.
At the end of the season we will lose ollie, thomas, livingston, so we need a vet PG and a vet big guy at the very least
Vega :Sam Dalembert is also overrated and expensive. No thanks on him too.
amen - geesh he is horrible - how do these guys get these contracts???
Sam Dalembert is also overrated and expensive. No thanks on him too.
I hope Swift invests his money well. Who is going to hire a 7 foot guy with those ridiculous tattoos?
@kev
Exactly Kev.
justin :B. Haywood has already sold his home in the D.C. area.
Oden’s injury may make it tougher for Portland to allow Joel Przybilla to leave, but you never know with Pritchard.
Drafting centers is too much of a crap shoot and I think a veteran big man would be a better fit anyway to temper all the youth on the team.
On trades, I’ve soured a bit on Okafor due to the length of his contract and think that we might benefit a lot by taking on a malcontent or a player with only a couple years left who is in a bad situation or on a bad deal. An example being Sam Dalembert; he was an automatic double double and legit starting NBA center but has fallen out of favor in PHI. He’s paid a lot but only for two more years; wouldn’t hamper our ability to extend KD & co.
Erick Dampier won’t trigger the last incentive year of his deal (so he’s essentially an expiring), and he’s been fairly productive this year and might be alright for a couple more.
Definitely slim pickings.
Dampier isn't worth it . . .
Royce :@kev I hear that Kev.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2009/07/byron-mullens-and-the-death-of-the-big-man/
thanks for the link - I think I was out of the loop when you wrote that . . .
excellent job . . .
too many big guys want to shoot jumpers - one of my favorite post players of all time is Kevin McHale - he rarely dunked, but could if he wanted, but he was so skilled - Al Jefferson has issues (passing, desire) but his post game is very good, thanks to McHale . . .
If you think about it, post games aren't really taught at the high school level - go to some AAU games - tall guys are playing pick and roll and trying to dunk - there is very little post play . . .
B. Haywood has already sold his home in the D.C. area.
Oden's injury may make it tougher for Portland to allow Joel Przybilla to leave, but you never know with Pritchard.
Drafting centers is too much of a crap shoot and I think a veteran big man would be a better fit anyway to temper all the youth on the team.
On trades, I've soured a bit on Okafor due to the length of his contract and think that we might benefit a lot by taking on a malcontent or a player with only a couple years left who is in a bad situation or on a bad deal. An example being Sam Dalembert; he was an automatic double double and legit starting NBA center but has fallen out of favor in PHI. He's paid a lot but only for two more years; wouldn't hamper our ability to extend KD & co.
Erick Dampier won't trigger the last incentive year of his deal (so he's essentially an expiring), and he's been fairly productive this year and might be alright for a couple more.
Definitely slim pickings.
Also, something I whipped up in MSPaint.
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/GT93/Stuff/serge_approves.jpg
@kev
I hear that Kev.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2009/07/byron-mullens-and-the-death-of-the-big-man/
Funny picture of Robert Swift.
http://blogs.trb.com/sports/jjs-audibles/centerswift.jpg
justin :Best bet at center is free agency. Joel Pyzybilla, Brendan Haywood, either of them would fit our needs for a few years. It’s tough to draft a good center without having a top five pick; the better college big men are always gone early, and you’re really rolling the dice drafting a C at the end of the lotto and thereafter.
good post, but I can't see either team letting those guys go - I know I wouldn't . . . now if they wanted to leave, then that's a different story, but I'm betting they stay put . . .
Vega :Okafor is expensive and overrated. No thank you.
I concur . . .
Danny :@DuncanI guess it depends on how confident they are in Thabeet. Which probably isn’t very.
I would like very much to have him however.
Thabeet = wasted draft pick . . .
Have we already given up on developing Serge?? Can someone please teach him a post game?
This is probably blunt, but I will say it: Why can't "big men" assistant coaches teach people to post up??? I watched the pre-camp drills with BJ Mullens, he was having issues with open hook shots five feet in . . .
also, for your viewing enjoyment this evening, we have the return of Allen Iverson to Philly, as one of his old teams (Nuggets) comes calling . . . NBA TV has the telecast - thank goodness for DVRs . . .
I don't like Iverson's game, but the drama is must see TV . . .
Best bet at center is free agency. Joel Pyzybilla, Brendan Haywood, either of them would fit our needs for a few years. It's tough to draft a good center without having a top five pick; the better college big men are always gone early, and you're really rolling the dice drafting a C at the end of the lotto and thereafter.
I like the new artwork. Well done. Jazzy.
I'm pulling for LaTavious. Of course, I pull for just about everyone, but I like seeing the "path less taken" stories work out.
I have seen 90% of the GS games this year, so I will have a breakdown of tonight's matchup on the pre-game thread this afternoon . . .
phoenix is slumping some, but (barring a major injury) they will make the playoffs easily . . .
gortat isnt the answer anymore then okafor is, our best bet is draft or ibaka/mullens development.
We could still get really luck, have us and pho, end up 9th and 10th in the west and get the 1st and 2nd pick in the draft