Report: Thunder and Heat frontrunners for Derek Fisher

@Clark Matthews If you had asked anyone on this board a few months ago whether Ivey had any value other than a place-holder on the bench, you would probably have gotten a 100% vote that he was worthless. Now...after having been given a chance, we're suddenly much smarter about Royal. I'm not sure whether Royal could handle running the 2nd team, but what I DO know is that we've been very, very wrong about his abilities in the past. I like Reggie, but I kinda feel like he's a new driver who has been tossed the keys to a Porsche. You can let him drive it every day to school and at the end of the year he still won't know how to get the most out of it as even an average driver who has had the opportunity to drive a Porsche every day for the last 10-12 years in all sorts of situations...grocery trips, cross-country vacations, and on race courses. I think the Thunder need a more seasoned hand running the 2nd team. Harden can do it with Reggie in the line-up, but I feel like he ends up doing as much on-court coaching as scoring. Our 2nd team is very much an "old school" team. They need an old school PG.

 @Clark Matthews That's all he's really been his seven previous years in the league... Not a great one, I'd admit, but that's been his primary position.

 @courtsense I'm not really sure about Ivey handling the ball. As you said, he hasn't really played at the position much during games. But Ivey has one thing that (in my opinion) is much more valuable that anything Fisher would bring to a team hoping to make a deep playoff run. Defense. Fisher doesn't have it, which is why he was traded.  Looking at the point guards on Western Conference teams in the playoff hunt, if Reggie starts to struggle bad enough to require replacement, I'd rather have Ivey in the game with Harden running the offense as opposed to Fisher running the offense while being a defensive liability.

I think I have seen Ivey run the PG position--just not recently.  Seems Royce thinks he's an option . . . .

 @Thunder S Harden's old-man game and Fisher's old-man speed would match up rather nicely.  Add in Collison who never seems to rush anything and we'd be able to grind a lot of time off the clock in letting RW and KD rest.

 @dream catcher I wish he would do this kind of video after every game so people could see that this type of play from Russell isn't indicative of a bad game that we lost, but every game that Russell plays. 

 @dream catcher Response to the bballbreakdown analysis from WelcomeToLoudCity:

http://www.welcometoloudcity.com/2012/3/20/2885885/why-russell-westbrook-is-a-championship-point-guard-end-of-story

 @dream catcher What's in a name?  A Rose by any other name is a Westbrook.  Why do people insist on placing labels on RW?  We have one of the best records in the league with RW the way he is. His strength is that he is not conventional. Could RW play better in certain situations? Sure. Does that mean he is NOT a point guard? Technically there is no such thing as a PG position.  Last I checked, there are 2 guards, 2 forwards and a center that start. 

 @dream catcher   Absolutely useless, IMHO.  There's not a person alive who couldn't be shown to be horrible at their job if the only evidence we use is their worst moments.  True analysis weighs the positives and the negatives...then comes to a conclusion.  We might as well look at the other night's Portland game to prove "why Lemarcus Aldridge isn't really an All Star".  We could have plenty of highlights showing why he can't even beat an old center with bad knees.

 @dream catcher It's brutal and accurate, but I think the jury's still out on whether all the bad habits he has are enough to nullify all the positive assets he provides. That Spurs game was an especially brutal example of Westbrook's poor decision making, and I think it's already a foregone conclusion that Russ' bad habits cost this team several games a season and in the playoffs. What the net balance is, though, is much much harder to tell.

 @dream catcher Ive always notice the stuff on the offensive end which kills me, but im not an astute enough observer on defense to where i can really judge someone on something other than man to man (which this video mercifully does not comment on)....so as someone who has never been very high on westbrook this did not help

 @dream catcher This should be required watching for everyone, ESPECIALLY Russell Westbrook.

 @dream catcher Geez, that was disturbing to watch, to say the least.

After watching that, Royce might want to revise his weekly Thunder player rankings. Russ should not be #1. I didn't even think he should've been #1 after the Cavs game debacle.

This is all scouting work that should be done by the coaching staff. We shouldn't have these many major defensive gaffes in one basketball game. It's just embarrassing.

This video supports my stance that we are still at least 2 years away from a championship.

 @dream catcher It's all accurate.  Many of the 'little things' pointed out I hate that Westbrook does.  The 3PA with nobody in rebounding position, falling down on layup attempts, mid range jumpers early in the clock.  He definitely has to get better.

Plenty of valid criticism and lots of room for improvement, but . . . . if I pick any point guard and declare that he will not lead his team to a championship this year, I have a 96.66666666666666667% chance of being right.

 @dream catcher Ouch brutal, but good analysis.  The only way to correct these things is to have the coaching staff call him out on this kind of play.  But alas, that aint going to happen.

 @Stringer Bell Spurs already signed Patty Mills

 @DennisBerry Really hoping we make a run at Hickson, but looks like he pretty much made up his mind already.