Thunder reaction to the haunted Skirvin: ”When asked about the Skirvin during a press conference Tuesday, Presti joked that the hotel many visiting teams use could become the Thunder’s secret weapon. “Some locker rooms are really small and really hot,” Presti said. “I guess that’ll be our thing.”
A wonderful feature from Britt Robson of SI about Kevin Durant’s improved defense: “But Durant has made that a moot debate this season. By any measure, the guy has suddenly become a stalwart individual and team defender. For those who prefer visual evidence, consider Monday’s game against the Knicks. In one sequence, Durant left his man, Danilo Gallinari, to intercept a pass on the wing, only to discover that he’d fallen for a fake and the pass was going to Gallinari for a three-pointer in the corner. He stopped in his tracks, wheeled around and leaped, up and sidewise, far enough to block Gallinari’s quick-release jumper. Gallinari, who came into the game averaging 14.5 points, was shut out (on 0-for-7 shooting) in 32 minutes.”
ESPN’s Award Watch has KD at seven in MVP, Scott Brooks third in Coach of the Year and Thabo third for Defensive Player of the Year. I must say, I really agree with the Defensive POY list.
Will Leitch of NY Mag: “The Thunder are exactly the type of team D’Antoni would love to coach, even though they’re in Oklahoma City. Seriously, watch his press conference: The man has Thunder Envy. The loss dropped the Knicks’ playoff odds to 46.4 percent, still good enough for eighth in the conference, but just barely.”
Fox 25 did a feature on the Skirvin thing:
Sam Presti addressed the media yesterday: “I mean, Kevin Durant continues to improve on a daily basis, almost a possession basis and a big reason why is because he cares about the game and takes pride in what he does and wants to be one of the best at it. But I do say this about him often and I believe this to be true now and true in the future as well: as much as his development as a player has changed almost on a daily basis, the person that Kevin is has not. It’s the same person that I met when we drafted him a few years ago and that’s one of the things our organization values about him.”
An NBA scout projects the top 10 picks of the draft.
Darnell Mayberry on the rise of Russell Westbrook: ”Westbrook, meanwhile, is mounting evidence that his ceiling might be even higher. The most scrutinized player on the Thunder’s roster, at least in Oklahoma, has silenced critics with all-around ability few players in the history of the game possessed at the same point. Westbrook is on pace to become only the seventh second-year player in NBA history to average at least 16 points, seven assists and five rebounds. He would join Oscar Robertson, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Walt Frazier, Jason Kidd and Norm Van Lier.”
@f5alcon
zing haha
When Durant and Green were playing their first season in Seattle, the Nuggets murdered them twice:
138 to 96
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280227025
168 to 116
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280316007
They both had their then-career best games in an overtime game against the nuggets:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=280406025
Durant's night basically sealed his rookie of the year title.
pushing over old women, thats not a nice way to talk about jason kidd
@Durantula
We'll schedule a memorial service for ya on Monday.
@Durantula
maybe throw in some comments about the cowboys as well, there isnt a faster way to piss off someone from dallas than to insult their cowboys
I'm really hoping that a rivalry develops with Dallas, but like others said, NBA rivalries are largely based on current competition. I still think it can happen with a little effort... Thus, I'm planning on driving to Dallas for the game on Friday, wearing all Thunder gear, and just walking around the stadium flipping people off, pushing over old women, and knocking over people's beer. I think that might do it...
@f5alcon
I'll even throw in a ham sammich...
@f5alcon
agreed
ok so now in clipper tradition of screwing stuff up they should trade us BG for matt harpring
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
Well in that case.. I just found a Euro in my couch cusion! I'm sure Presti could triple that come July!
ZING!
@Mully Mulls
Well, maybe if the Rockets aren't interested, then the Thunder could sign Yao. At least then KD could get voted into the All Star game.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
That doesn't say anything about you, does it?! ;) j/k
I think he can be a highly productive big man again... the only problem is having him rest about every other game or so to try to keep him fresh for a post-season run. I have NO clue what type of money he'll be seeing next season.... For the Rockets, I do hope they go a different way...
@justin
Bill Simmons looks like Nostradamus
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
LOL yeah Vernon Maxwell was no role model. That guy was nuts.
@Mully Mulls
I don't know about Yao. The Houston fan in me wants him to go. The Thunder fan in me wants him to stay and eat all their salary while he sits on the bench.
@justin
yeah looking back on him, he was a pretty up and down player. I don't know any of his stats, but it sure seemed like he could score with Michael back in the day.
I just searched his wiki and found that he was sued once for giving a woman herpes, among other legal battles. Great. A childhood hero of mine turned out to be a bad role model after all.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
Oh yeah! "Sleepy" Floyd... I forget his real first name though... He had, like narcolepsy or something, cuz he used to pass out in the middle of games sometimes...
What do you think is gonna happen with Yao? I think they will resign him if for no other reason than his merchandise in China alone makes his salary back, but stranger things have happened...
Did Maxwell charge the fan with the Sonics?
Maybe it's better to have a committee of big men than 1 great big guy on your team, cuz they are always getting injured, or at least it seems like tall big players get hurt more often than small more agile players. There are plenty of exceptions on both sides but having a really large body makes it easier to sustain injuries, and when you bounce bodies in the paint, it takes a toll. So maybe in the long run, its better to have kristic/ibaka/mullens than bosh or O'neal or chandler. Same cost overall but since you have a group, you have more flexibility. We just have to wait for ibaka and mullens to mature for a couple years if we don't want to take the short cut.
Vernon Maxwell spent a year on the Sonics and was so bad. I think he shot under 35% from the field, and just kept shooting and shooting. The first week of the year he had several 20+ point games and everyone was excited but then he started missing shots.. and missing.. and missing..
heres the link to that simmons article it is definately worth the read
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090624&sportCat=nba
Mully Mulls :@Jax
Raging Bile Duct
Wow! Mad Max, eh?! Now THAT’S a name I haven’t heard in QUITE some time! Kudos to you, sir!
Ha! Yeah man, I was just at that age where I chose my favorite player based on my understanding of the game. I didn't fully appreciate how dominate Hakeem was, but I knew he was good. I guess it was just that he could score at will and could play good defense too. Plus they had a guy nicknamed Sleepy on the team, and I thought that was awesome.
Lots has changed since then. LOTS.
You never know with knee injuries, especially serious ones... hopefully he'll be able to come back with most of his explosiveness, he doesn't have ideal size and it's what makes Blake Griffin so good.
I guess this means Chris Kaman isn't going anywhere.
wow sucks for blake, dont know if u saw it but simmons had a column about the ill-fated clippers and the gruesome injuries their draft picks get, it was a good read dont remember when it was, but yeah the second i heard blake was going to the clips i knew he was in for some serious clippers-curse-bad-mojo
@justin
WOW! So does this mean it's gonna be Blake Griffin vs John Wall for ROY 10-11? Hopefully Grif doesn't turn into another Greg Oden!
@Royce
Those were the good ole days of basketball in my eyes... When Reggie Miller hit like 8 pts in 6 seconds, Dan Majerlie (sp) when he was with the heat and of coarse Chicago were ALL rivals with the Knicks back then. I loved watchin John Starks' dunk and Grandma-ma's 4 point play. I really wish NY was good again....
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
Wow! Mad Max, eh?! Now THAT'S a name I haven't heard in QUITE some time! Kudos to you, sir!
Nevermind.
@justin
Woah. Source?
i still think our rival is Utah moreso than Nawlins. A) becuase they are in our division and B) They have that nice pg and big man people kinda like to hate on aka Booze Cruise and Derron
http://www.nba.com/clippers/news/breakingnews100113.html
Mully Mulls :@Jax
Raging Bile Duct
Mine too Jax! I have since become more of an OKC fan, but I still have mad love for the Rockets. When did you first become a fan?
I was a follower over when they got my favorite player of all time in Clyde Drexler. It’s funny to think how hard core of a fan I was of them considering the season before I was pulling for Ewing against The Dream!
Followed the NBA as a kid when I would watch Jordan play with my dad on WGN. After he retired, I followed the Rockets since I could find them on our basic small town cable package. They were the team to beat back then, so they were on TV the most. Vernon Maxwell was my favorite player. HA!
Blake Griffin out for the year.
@Brew
yeah well i was born and raised in san antonio, lived there for a while before moving to tulsa and while there i fell in love with the admiral...i'd really hate to see us develop a rivalry with the spurs...it already eats at me when they play each other. i could see maybe denver or utah becoming one bc they are divisional opponents and our success over jazz has rubbed some people in utah the wrong way, and the way melo ends games against us
Lets pick the Raptors, crazy Canucks, with their peacefull highschools.
@dork
I agree. I think they are on the way down. It just has the history for a potential future rivalry, although it likely won't turn out to be one. If nothing else, it will have a good story line for as long as Chris Paul is on the team and they are visiting the Ford Center. We need to beat them so I can feel better. I really despise that team right now.
More than the Hornets, I have a growing hatred for the Nuggets. Depending on how things develop (future playoff matchups, Division title races), I could really see something developing between us and them. Like I said, our players really got feisty against those guys up in Denver. I'm interested to see how things turn out when they visit us in Feb.
@Aenema
Hornets won't be a rivalry for two reasons..
They aren't the team they were and are on the downslop it appears...
Or if the Refs start calling a game with kobe calls and not turn a complete blind Eye on chris paul they will get killed... Chris Paul most overrated PG of all time. gets eaten alive when officals call a game correctly.
Yeah NBA rivalries kind of go in cycles. I think there are longstanding ones (Lakers-Celts, Mavs-Spurs) but mostly it just depends. No one thinks of the Pacers and Knicks are MONSTER rivals, though they were in the 90s. Same with Bulls-Pistons. And Lakers-Kings back in the 2000's (weird to say that).
True NBA rivalries are few and far between, develop in the playoffs, and usually are short lived. The exception to all 3 of these rules is the Lakers and Celtics rivalry, which was dormant for nearly 2 decades while the Celtics sucked it up for the 90's and most of the new millennium.
Probably the greatest 2 rivalries in the "L" over the past decade are the Lakers and Kings, and the Pacers and Pistons... both of which are completely non existent now.
Rivalries in the NBA are short lived, so when we DO develop one, enjoy it. But it likely won't happen this season. This is one of the big ways pro sports are different from collegiate.
Denver is definitely the team I'm thinking of in terms of rivalry. Carmelo vs. Durant is going to be pumped up..
@Mark!
I'm not saying that Denver is already a rival, we're too young of an organization to have a real rival, but I could definitely see one developing sometime in the near future. Both teams seemed to get pretty angry playing each other.
@Mully Mulls
I'm with you. There seems to be a lot of bad blood when we play the Denver Thuggets. I'm really pumped to play them in the Ford Center in a few weeks. Our guys were all fired up over how physical that game was.
Aside from them, I can't stand Chris Paul and the hornets and really want to beat them. I could see an eventual rivalry between our old team and the new kids.
Portland is an obvious choice, with their youth, and being in the same division.
I could also see some of the other young, up and coming teams developing into future rivals, like Sacramento or Memphis. It's yet to be seen how they will end up developing, but both teams have potential.
@Mully Mulls
That's definitely still raw. It's just hard to base a rivalry on that... I mean, if similar things like that continue to happen, then definitely. The lack of history makes any real rivalry discussion difficult.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
I'd have to say Denver with Melo hittin those two game winners last season... Either them or Nawlins as our rivals...
@Brew
We really need more time. As a city, we're still adjusting to having a team of our own. There are a lot of NBA fans here, but a decent number were committed to another team long before the Thunder came. Give it a couple more years + some success from the Thunder in the playoffs (in the order of a first round victory) and I expect that will change considerably. Once more fans are fully invested in our team (as opposed to enjoying the spectacle), the fans will decide which games they care the most about. Too early now to say with any certainty.
I would say the most likely suspects are:
*Portland: Young team who's prime will have a lot of overlap with ours over the next several years
*Dallas: Closest team, talented enough to justify attention, and Cuban was vocal about his opposition to the team moving here
*Houston: This is the team I'm learning to loathe playing, and I'm sure I'm not alone. They play us hard and we've had a lot of trouble with them.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
Mine too Jax! I have since become more of an OKC fan, but I still have mad love for the Rockets. When did you first become a fan?
I was a follower over when they got my favorite player of all time in Clyde Drexler. It's funny to think how hard core of a fan I was of them considering the season before I was pulling for Ewing against The Dream!
@Brew
The Texas teams have been tossed out as a possibility before, but the only problem is that half our current fan base are converted from those teams already. They were the closest thing to home for NBA fans, so it's hard to turn on them. For example, the Rockets are my second favorite team (tied with the Hornets, from their relocation).
Portland was an idea, which I can see, because of the old rivalry for one, and because they have been built to be an annual playoff contender like we hope to be for the next decade. But, also due to the prior rivalry, it just isn't the same, because the Portland fans have Sonic hating history, and we don't have Trailblazer hating history. If it's not the same as it used to be, it just doesn't have that fuel to keep the fire burning.
I personally think that our rivalry will develop from a playoff series. Only then do you get to intimately know another team on a 7 game basis, with stakes that high. If we lose to the Lakers this year in the playoffs, that's expected. But if in future years another team knocks us off a time or two, I can definitely see that team being our rival.
@Andy Sweeter than Candy
I remember asking earlier in the year what team that locals want to have a rivalry with. I got a mixed bag of Texas teams. Anyone want to chime in? I would think from an outsider's perspective it would be SA due to both squads having a similar market size and the Presti Connection (why do I feel like I need to capitalize this phrase?).
@Rich from Sacramento
Edgar Cruz is talented. I've seen him play before.
Also, I think it takes a special person to arrange a good look into the culture of Oklahoma. It'd be a fun challenge though. How much fun would it be to see Mullens pull out a 45 lb. catfish he caught noodling? Awesome.