The Thunder wrapped up preseason with a 101-86 win, meaning they went 4-3. KD had 19 and eight assists (and no turnovers!), Russell Westbrook 17 and seven assists and Byron Mullens had nine rebound off the bench. Nenad Krstic also returned for his first action. Now the real deal comes next Wednesday against the Bulls.
SLAM has KD as the third best player: “Kevin Durant is one of the five biggest stories the season. He’s fresh off a legacy-building summer and regular season that put him in exclusive discussions. About midway through last season, I tweeted that Kevin Durant was playing the best basketball a 21-year-old guy had ever played. I wasn’t saying he played better basketball than 21-year-old LeBron or Magic or whomever, but it was just as good. That means when his career is over, we could be discussing him along with Magic and Kobe or Bird. That’s not a farfetched scenario. That career arch started last season, but it really gets going now.”
KD is on the cover of ESPN the Mag too.
The Thunder’s holding an event at MidFirst Bank tomorrow at Grand and Western to kick off the season. The rally will have appearances by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and is at 1 p.m.
Also, don’t forget, new Daily Thunder shirts from Tree and Leaf go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. They look good people. For example, here are some lovely people already wearing them.
Opening night plans from the Thunder: “In addition to heart-racing NBA action, Opening Night promises plenty of entertainment. The party atmosphere of Thunder Alley will begin outside the Oklahoma City Arena at 5:30 p.m., featuring a live performance by rock-pop recording artist and Oklahoma City native Graham Colton. Thunder Alley has something for the entire family, including $1 Budweiser beers, inflatable games, face-painting and a basketball court. The game’s halftime entertainment will feature performance painter David Garibaldi, renowned for his amazing created-before-your-eyes artworks. The painting he makes will later be auctioned to benefit the Oklahoma City Thunder Community Foundation.”
Kevin Durant is the No. 1 fantasy player according to Dime: “Among the many things he did differently from a certain NBA superstar-gone-South-Beach this offseason, KD managed to elevate his fantasy (and real-life) status rather than stifle it. He was essentially tied for Fantasy Player of the Year honors in 2009-10, and after putting up insane stats last season (48 percent from the field, 90 percent from the line, around 30/8/3 and a combo of 4.0 threes/steals/block per game) it’s easy to write the kid’s name in at No. 1 on your draft cheat sheets. Oh, and get this: Durant will be 22 years old when the season starts. Yeah, he still has some serious growing to do. Hide your kids, hide your wife.”
Darnell Mayberry’s notes from last night: “Durant’s eight-assist, zero-turnover performance was one of the night’s highlights. He made it a point to find his teammates tonight — and to correct the stat crew when they short-changed him an assist. Said Durant: “I’ve been working on that a lot. I’m noticing that if I start to pass the ball, points are going to come my way. Everything’s going to come back around.’”
In SI’s scout survey, the Thunder is second in the West.
Paul Flannery of WEEI says KD is a major storyline this year: “Whether he has been put in this position by a revved-up media looking for an antidote to The Decision or he is actively staking out this turf remains to be seen. But, while it’s an imperfect analogy, the potential for Durant-LeBron to be this era’s Bird and Magic is simply too good to ignore. His team might be a year away, but the time is now for Durant.”
@DizzyDai
Yeah Stern has lots of bargaining ideas. Most mean getting rid of things he allowed to happen in the first place though. The owners probably don't call him on that much given the way he dominates them but I imagine some of them think about it.
@Crow
Smaller rosters & losing teams = great bargaining tools for Stern.
I'd hate to see teams dissappear, but the idea of limiting roster spots makes sense. Especially if teams are able to retain players rights while they play in the D-League.
Greg :@kfmsooner Krstic is an above average defender, and above average rebounder, in comparison to the remaining Thunder frontcourt players.
I agree with kfmsooner's view on Krstic.
There is no way Krstic is a better rebounder that Collison or Ibaka. I don't care what numbers you pull. I watch every game. Krstic is almost always out of position to grab rebounds.
Contraction would likely have some impact on future national TV deals, sponsorships and merchandising revenue. It might even affect current TV contracts. There would be costs of contraction beyond the sticker price. One less dot of the map really tuned in to what the league is doing.
Expansion would be tricky financially too but maybe more solvable than contraction.
The NBA has never offered enough to buyout the St Louis ABA team owners who got a perpetual share of national TV revenues for contracting their team out of the league at the time of the merger in 34 years but they are going to reach agreement to buyout a current owner of a fatter revenue stream that might get even richer with more internationalization? I guess it could happen but I doubt it.
If contracting a team cost between $300 - 450 million that is a bit over $10-15 million per team out of pocket. The contraction would raise their share on league level national and international TV money, sponsorships and merchandising. How much that is per team I am not exactly sure but I think it is something like $40-60 million. Buy out a team and you increase your team's take by $1.3 to $2 million before any taxes (if they actually pay any). If they do it would have to a deal that 18-20 or more teams actively want and think it is better than outside investment opportunities rather than it being about punishment of the players. And you have to have an owner think that today's buyout price is the best offer he will get, right at the time that the league is trying to make owning more attractive. If they are successful, why sell? If they are not successful why buy out somebody else unless you can do so cut rate? Their business but doesn't seem too likely to me that seller and league buyers agree.
There are more votes to protect the total number of jobs and minimum salaries and the exceptions than some rules that most heavily help the very top players. Stern will play off the factions. The top players will try to control the negotiations or at least protect their interests. How well the rank and file participate and direct the outcome is key.
Hunter will try to maintain peace and order and his own job.
But it is still 8 months away.
Smaller roster size minimums and maximums for teams would save a little money. That may well be negotiated pretty hard. If players want to keep the same number of total jobs- and they will- they will have to give ground on some other things.
Sacramento's owners don't "want" out altogether. Whether they want or would prefer out of Sacramento is a little ambiguous or debatable. If pressure from their other business interests got unbearable I'd think they'd sell for top dollar to a new owner in Sacramento or otherwise rather than taking what would probably be moderate to low dollar from the other owners.
Memphis' owner probably can't get out before sometime between 2015-2020 without paying major penalties to the city. After that he too would rather take top dollar from someone wanting to move the team over the likely league offer.
I think contraction is mainly an empty threat.
I doubt the union leadership is not phased by any of this talk at all. It will unsettle some of the rank and file but union leadership will respond to them, privately and publicly.
Stern thinks league contraction may be a possiblity.
http://www.nba.com/2010/news/10/22/stern.contraction.ap/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2
The cities of Memphis and Sacramento should be a little scared right now. We are not in any danger since the Thunder is one of the few teams actually making money right now.
@Bryan
krstic has a slightly below average ast% 17th among starting centers.
f5alcon :@kfmsoonerYou say krstic has bad hands and passing yet you think ibaka should replace him? ibaka has horrible hands and one of the worst assist rates is the history of the league(3rd worst for players for over 1000 mins).
Neither of them can catch or pass the ball. They both have value. And I think people really under rate Krstic. I think he is actually past his injury hangover. I have a feeling we will see improvement. He looked very mobile and agressive last night.... which is something I have not seen from him before.
@f5alcon
aldrich will replace him eventually but in preseason he was foul prone, so until he fixes that, probably wont get huge mins.
justin :
If Collison isn’t ready to go I’m guessing that means Aldrich will get the minutes?
Krstic 24 / Aldrich 20 / Ibaka 4
Green 28 / Ibaka 20
Durant 40 / Green 8
Sefolosha 24 / Harden 24
Westbrook 35 / Maynor
I’m guessin gour rotation will look similar to that.
I can't imagine that Aldrich is going to take all the backup Center minutes. Ibaka will split time at both front court spots and I don't think Aldrich will get much more spot minutes at first..... other than that, I pretty much agree unless they start Harden.
@kfmsooner
You say krstic has bad hands and passing yet you think ibaka should replace him? ibaka has horrible hands and one of the worst assist rates is the history of the league(3rd worst for players for over 1000 mins).
@kfmsooner
I think he fills a role, like Thabo has the D specialist, like we are hoping Cook or MoPete are for the sharpshooter, like Ibaka is for post D.
I think if Nenad could get past his former injuries, he will be a great fit now and in the future (although in the future I do hope it is a backup role)
@kfmsooner
Well of course people would rather have Ibaka and Aldrich going forward. But for now, Krstic plays the position better than anyone else on the roster IMO. There are quite a few better options out there, they're just not on this team.
For me, Krstic is the worst of the 9 rotation players based on the fact that he only does one thing really well: shoot jump shots. However, he is very hot and cold doing that. In games where his shot is falling (10 pts or more for Nenad), we won a whole lot. However, that didn't happen very often. He is only a pick and pop guy on the offensive end, not a pick and roll. He rarely is successful in back to the basket opportunities. Defensively, he is OK. Not great, not terrible.
Let's imagine the OKC franchise were contracted and the rest of the league could pick Thunder players for their roster. Where would Nenad rank? I think he would be 8th or 9th battling with Thabo for that spot. Everyone else would be picked ahead of him based on production and/or age.
Not saying Nenad is 'turrible', but he is not a great option either.
I'd love to see more Krstic-Ibaka this year to start out, especially while Collison is out. Seems like they were very rarely ever out on the court at the same time last season.
@Mark!
Krstic looked positively spritely last night. He's fighting for minutes, and he's in a contract year. He's so fired up, he's throwing chairs at people in frustration, just waiting for the season to start.
He's got my vote to start and play his 20-24 MPG unless Aldrich breaks out at some point.
@kfmsooner
Krstic is an above average defender, and above average rebounder, in comparison to the remaining Thunder frontcourt players. He has a much better understanding of the game (especially where to be on defense) than Ibaka or Aldrich. Krstic is the best center on this roster, at this point. That's why he'll start there for the foreseeable future.
@kfmsooner
We don't have a more traditional center. Ibaka's small, Nick's small, Aldrich is a rookie. We looked our best this preseason with Krstic on the court.
I'm not denying there are better options out there, but they aren't on our team.
@kfmsooner
Easily the worst? What are you basing that on? The team performs fairly neutral when Krstic is in the game compared to when he is not.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
4 minutes per game is pretty generous for Mo Pete.
Never been a big Krstic fan...hoping he would have been passed by Ibaka/Collison/Aldrich. Krstic is an average defender, poor passer, poor catcher, below average rebounder. He's a good shooter when hot. When he is not hitting that jumper, he is barely serviceable. Of the 9 players in the rotation, Krstic is easily the worst. I hoped we would upgrade and push his minutes way down. I would rather see a more traditional center with Jeff Green's tweener game...
kfmsooner :I Krstic plays 24 minutes a game, I will be sorely disappointed…I was hoping he would drop out of the rotation entirely…
Why?
I Krstic plays 24 minutes a game, I will be sorely disappointed...I was hoping he would drop out of the rotation entirely...
Darnell also says Collison is "not even close" to returning. What are we talking, several more weeks? A couple months?
Per Darnell's game notes
"Jeff Green had a rough time with David West. But you can say that for a lot of defenders trying to guard West. The only thing is, after saying the same thing about Green after facing Chris Bosh and Miami and Zach Randolph and Memphis, you start to wonder if this is going to become a recurring theme this season."
Wasn't that a recurring theme all LAST season as well?
That CBS reason for the ranking cracks me up.
Why the upgrade: Quietly, everyone's up-and-comer brought in Morris Peterson to provide depth behind a core group that gave even the Lakers fits last season.
There you go, Mo Pete's 4 minutes a game is going to get us past the Lakers this time.
Kd averaged 2.8 assists last year, I think him averaging 3.5 this year would be a big improvement. I think rebounding could go up slightly if he plays more at the 4, maybe 8 per game.
I think longterm he can play the 4 but is not quite strong enough now except against backups/stretch 4s like rashard lewis
@Daniel Plainview
The Thunder lost by an average of 10 points per 48 minutes with KD off the court. So yes, the team stunk without KD.
Brooks has seemed more open to playing Durant in different spots in the preseason and he moved people around in the playoffs. There is some hope, yet.
justin :@Daniel Plainview
Players don’t magically double their assists. Four assists a game would be a reasonable expectation, I think. But he would have to cut down his turnover rate also to make that work out for the team. I think he could average four assists a game if that’s what he was concentrating more on. But you could also see his TO’s rise a bit since he’d be handling the ball more in turnover prone situations.
KD can improve his floor game for sure but it’s going to be progressive…
Sorry, my comment was in reagrds to you saying the team stunk without KD. I agree, he is not going to double his assists, I made that point with like the 6th comment
@dj
I went with this one... http://www.twitpic.com/2k8g5z
@Keith
Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either. You'd think we'd have small and big lineups ready to go if a mismatch presents itself, but Brooks is all about sticking with his steady rotation. It's not very often he pushes an advantage with mismatches if it requires him to break his rotation.
With Green and Durant both able to shift around (not to mention Westbrook and Thabo), you'd think we'd be able to throw out some viable lineups.
Westbrook-Durant-Green-Ibaka-Aldrich
Maynor-Westbrook-Harden-Durant-Ibaka
Those seem like pretty ideal small ball and big lineups, right?
@Mark!
While I'm not in the boat that the 4 is KD's ultimate position, I agree we would do well to move him around the 2 and 4 for spot minutes. As I have been banging for quite some time, it bothers me that we tout versatility across the board but never actually utilize it. We don't force the opponent to change to what we have, we just roll out the same lineups with the same flaws and let them get exploited.
All the team tshirts are nice, but I'm still waiting for the one that reaches out to us Sonics fan who still love the team even though we hate Bennett. Ya, it's a underground movement. :)
So in the spirit of inclusion I call for some sort of tshirt. Perhaps something funny or ironic to take the edge off the hurt?
@shiki=4 seasons
I think KD can average a good deal more assists, but that the ones he gets may come at the cost of 1-2 ppg. He could get more assists easily just by passing better out of double teams. But by not taking as many shots while doubled, he loses some points.
@justin
Whether the minute allocation is prudent or not wasn't really a factor in my claim. The minute allocation didn't change last year even when it was obvious it needed to, so I expect little variation from the "tried and true" method until proven otherwise.
@justin
We've talked a little in the past about KD playing some PF and that PF might be his real position at some point in the future.
Do you really think he would be a viable defender at the 4? I just don't see it.
Defending 3's seems the be the best position for him to leverage his strengths (length and effort) against his weaknesses (lack of quickness compared with most 2s and lack of strength against most 4s). Those things seems to average out across most 3s.
I think he's perfectly capable of playing spot minutes at the 2 or the 4, but I wouldn't want him there long term. It seems advantageous when the other team isn't prepared for it (like against Kobe in the playoffs or West last night). I dunno if that same advantage would be present if there was time spent scouting and preparing for it.
I dont think KD can have 6 assists.We have two good PGs and Harden is good at passing the ball.Maybe 5 assists will be his limitation
And Keith beat me.
justin :
If Collison isn’t ready to go I’m guessing that means Aldrich will get the minutes?
Krstic 24 / Aldrich 20 / Ibaka 4
Green 28 / Ibaka 20
Durant 40 / Green 8
Sefolosha 24 / Harden 24
Westbrook 35 / Maynor
I’m guessing our rotation will look similar to that.
That seems reasonable, but it also doesn't match Brooks' MO from last season. I'd expect something more like:
Krstic 27 / Aldrich 15 / Ibaka 6
Green 30 / Ibaka 18
Durant 40 / Green 8
I'd be surprised if Aldrich averaged 20 minutes due to foul trouble and Brooks' preference for Green and his rotation players. I'd expect Krstic and Green to get the lion's share of Collison's missing minutes beyond the cursory amount Aldrich will get to start the season.
In fact, 15 is probably too generous still.
I know I'm picking nits with about 10 minutes allocated differently.
@Keith
Yeah probably. Krstic at 30 minutes a game is too much for my tastes too.
Maybe they run KD at PF more and get Harden more minutes or Maynor.
I don't want KD to chase stats, either. Last year during the streak he seemed to get a little caught up with it and it became a distraction. Today in Darnell's notes he says KD talked to the scorer about an assist he wasn't credited. Sounds a little 'Wilt-ish'.
@ThunderHorn
Blargh!!
@justin
20 minutes for Aldrich is probably a bit too much. Even discounting his fouling, I would guess Krstic plays closer to 30 and Ibaka closer to 10, effectively cutting Aldrich's minutes in half.
@Daniel Plainview
Players don't magically double their assists. Four assists a game would be a reasonable expectation, I think. But he would have to cut down his turnover rate also to make that work out for the team. I think he could average four assists a game if that's what he was concentrating more on. But you could also see his TO's rise a bit since he'd be handling the ball more in turnover prone situations.
KD can improve his floor game for sure but it's going to be progressive...
@justin
Thas extrem ebven for you Justin
@JoCro
Not double his assists, maybe 4.1. 33/9/4. His steals blocks are going to make a jump as well. And his 3pt%
KD should be on the floor as much as humanly possible. The team stinks without him in there.