After trailing early three games in a row, the Thunder’s late game heroics finally fall short in Atlanta. This week the guys introduce the Thunder Radio Recap segment, giving their spin on the 3 eastern games this past week.
Other topics covered:
- Will Westbrook ever be a PG that makes his teammates better?
- Comparing late game LBJ to late game KD.
- Some belated sound-offs from All Star Weekend.
All this and tons more…
Download, listen and comment.
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Was that a preview of playoff thunder defense?
I will feel so sorry for Duba fans if they end up talking themselves into Joe Johnson.
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@PlusMinusGod Ugh please no.
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What would we have to give up? certainly more then Nazr, Lazr and a box of chocolates
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@PlusMinusGod From the little I seen he's a major upgrade to what we have.
@PlusMinusGod Give Russ a big to play catch with (other then KD) in the starting lineup and watch his assist numbers go up.
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@PlusMinusGod There is a reason Blatche is getting little interest even though the wizards have had him on the block. He is a headcase and bad for team chemistry. He also was battling a calf injury recently. I'm not sure if he's over it or not.
any idea how much longer thabo is out?
@Remify I haven't heard anything different than "late March".
Can Denver hang on???
@ThunderChick2010 They can and do.
. . . which puts us back to a 4-game lead in the West
@ThunderChick2010 Not often im happy when the lakers and nuggets win.
I think I'd just cut Ivey and bring in some PG on a 10 day.
If it doesn't work out, cut him and try somebody else or bring Ivey back.
@Crow why ivey? hes actually a good perimeter defender who can knock down a 3. plus he is a great guy for team chemistry. i dont see them getting rid of him.
@ThunderWins @f5alcon @Remify I'd be fine with cutting Hayward instead. I suggested cutting Ivey because I don't think Presti will so soon. It seems to take him several years to recognize / admit to mistakes and act on them.
@f5alcon @Remify @Crow Im still wondering why we picked up lazar.
@Remify @Crow lazar would be the better player to cut
I wish we had a big that can score, he doesn't even have to be an above average offensive player. Just give us an average offensive big. We have too many guys who suck ass on offense and are supposed to be defensive and suck a little bit less ass at that.
@mjokc88 Make Minnesota an offer for A Randolph.
@Crow Randolph is incredibly athletic. It would be interesting to see if he could help the team. Whose minutes would he take? Nazr's minutes, maybe? I guess Scotty could go with Collison at the 5 on the 2nd unit. He seems to do fine against big post defenders as long as they aren't agile true 7 footers.
@areayewhy Randolph is an underperformer / mystery but I might give him a chance if the price was modest. He is doing fairly decent overall this season.
@Crow defenders=players
@mjokc88 Just slam it down like Griffin thats all LOL
How about trying Harden at PG 4 minutes a game and see what happens?
I dunno. Only way to know is to try it.
Then either expand or eliminate after a few weeks.
I was thinking of Harden as Westbrook's sub instead of the alternatives.
@Crow Taking a shot even a bad one is better then the drive into crowd turnover we get a lot.
@ThunderWins He could just walk it up and take a 3 and that might be a better 2nd unit offense than what we often see.
@Crow KD must learn to run the offense without turning it over as much.
In a game against a weak opponent I might let KD run the point some just to see what happens.
@Crow Would Russ and KD ignore him those 4 mins?
Mohammed to Boston for something?
@Crow Avery Bradley!
Like they would ever do that...
@Stringer Bell I was at the game where Bradley started for a suspended rondo and he seemed like a very good 2nd unit pg. He defended well against one of the quicker players in the league in westbrook and made some explosive plays on offense. But, I think Boston is going to want to keep bradely for when they ship rondo for picks and alary relief.
@Stringer Bell I was toying with the idea of taking JuJuan Johnson.
@PlusMinusGod The Thunder should have gone after Bass previously. I doubt they did. Or will in the future. May be too expensive next time.
@PlusMinusGod He would be a great pick up too. His contract is a bargain too. And he would expire at the end of the year unless he picked up his player option (I highly doubt he will).
However, where is Boston's motivation to part with Bass for Nazr?
@Crow I think we could do far worse than JuJuan Johnson.
I would absolutely love Bradley's defense though...
I think realistically, we need a spark plug player to score off the bench more than anything else. We need a fourth player in those crunch time minutes who can sink an open shot. As much as I disliked J.R. Smith he was the kind of player this team needs.
Our bench is very solid. There's no two ways about it, but it lacks scoring and variation. Every game is the same. If Harden can't score the opposition eats them up. Fortunately the second units defense is above average so we don't end up in too deep a hole. Eric Maynor's injury has been a big loss for that second unit he created a lot more offense than people tend to realise. I think Eric had a much better PG brain for the game. He usually called the right play down the floor. Reggie isn't, yet.
Anybody see Donald Sloan at Texas A&M? Putting up pretty good stats in the D-league. A scoring combo guard.
If Thabo doesn't come back 100% (pushing Cook back to the bench) I'd say that a trade is a necessity of the team is planning on contending. The starting unit with Daequan Cook in there is abysmal. And the 'all bench unit' with Ivey in for Cook is even worse. I would like to see Cole replace Nazr - not only is Nazr unproductive, but his pairing with Nick really puts a damper on Nick's effectiveness IMO since they both have trouble rebounding. But the important thing is either to get Thabo back and have Cook in that second unit again, or trade for a reserve wing (or replacement backup PG) who can put some points in.
I like Reggie and think he can develop into something interesting, but our bench units with Durant and Westbrook not in the game put too much pressure on him.
@justin_mia we have too many defensive minded players, that are average at defense.
@Lost Ones @justin_mia This is as much a system problem as anything. Those players can be productive if they have the right pairings and a plan of attack when first option breaks down.
@justin_mia Jackson should always have Harden and Collison out there with him and Durant as much as possible. Along with Cook those are his 4 best player pairs. The only positive ones.
@justin_mia Jackson is having to create in a second unit without any scorers except Harden.
@ThunderWins @justin_mia he is not perfect,but it was not his fault if his teammates cannot make open shots
@justin_mia Agree.
Harden has just 5 games at 36+ minutes this season or 14% of the time. Last season it was 10%. Still some headroom, if only in the playoffs. Scotty only played him 36+ minutes last playoffs 11% of the time. Should be 80+%.
Probably.