Peace, Love and Thunderstanding: Get Better – Nick Collison

The season is over and the team has left town.  Most of the guys have returned to their hometowns to get some quick quality time with their families before spending the Summer doing the plethora of events young, rich young men get involved doing. 

For some (Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook) that will include playing basketball for the United States.  A couple (Nenad Krstic and Thabo Sefolosha) others will likely be playing for other countries.  The Thunder’s young  bench warmers (Mustafa Shakur, D.J. White, B.J. Mullens, Kyle Weaver, James Harden, and Serge Ibaka) are likely going to be playing in the summer leagues with the new draft picks.

What is the common thread?  They will all be working to improve so that next season they can try to take the next step toward making Oklahoma City a basketball dynasty.  So, expect several articles over the off season from me with opinions on how the individual players can make their games better.

Today I start with Nick Collison, who to be honest, is pretty much as polished as he’s going to become.  We know exactly what Nick is going to bring to the table night in and night out.  He will play scrappy defense, grab some rebounds, and most importantly, sacrifice his body to draw charges.  For me to make any suggestions about Nick needing to get stronger or make efforts to extend his shooting range is unrealistic.  He’s going to be 29 years old next season.  He is what he is.

That doesn’t mean Nick can’t get better.  Step one (also the final step):  Collison needs to follow through on his collossally great ideas.

This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned this, and it won’t be the last, but just before training camp last year, Collison tweeted:

If i had a handlebar moustache then cut off the top leaving the sides and called the look the “absolute value stache” would it be cool?

Did he really need to ask?  Do it man!  That would be the douchiest facial hair in professional basketball, better than anything Adam Morrison would do even, so therefore it is of great importance that he make it happen.

Of course, what he described only worked because he was short on time before the season tipped off.  With a whole summer to work on his mustache, the sky is the limit.  So, after the jump, I have some inspiration for Nick to take with him as he relaxes with the fam in Seattle.

I like how this one looks a rope connecting between the guy’s two ears that is resting on his upper lip.

Collison could alter this one so it looked more like an N on his face…you know, for “Nick.”

This is art, really, and when I think of Nick Collison, I think of artistry.

Rollie Fingers had, for my money, the greatest mustache in professional sports history.  It’s time someone brought it back.

This is a slight, but amazing, variation to the Rollie Fingers.  The thing about a basketball player doing it, as opposed to a reliever who sits in the bullpen chewing on sunflower seeds for the first three hours of the game, is that it’s going to get sweaty and fall.  It might actually work to the advantage of a guy like Collison who could swing the handlebar portion of the mustache like a whip where it would hopefully catch Pau Gasol in the cornea.

This is the highest degree of difficulty of all the mustaches I’m going to promote.  However, if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right.  I think captain K.D. would agree with me.

This is probably the most practical option for Collison.  As many charges as he takes, the thick portion of beard on the jowels could serve as padding to protect him from injuring his jaw.

Going with the “Charlie Chaplin” would have no possible repurcussions, right?