Friday Bolts – 5.25.12

Bill Simmons on James Harden’s rookie card: “More important, check this out: Harden has rookie cards on eBay right now going for $355 (14 bids already, five days remaining) and $148.50 (11 bids already, less than two days remaining). The extravagant price of the first card makes sense (just a little) because it’s an “Exquisite Gold Rookie Card” from Upper Deck and only 13 of them were printed. But there were 225 made of the second one — an Exquisite Rookie Card that doesn’t have the word “Gold” in it — and that’s where it seems like James Harden might be becoming a little overrated. Quick question: If you had $250 to 300 to invest in a relatively hard-to-find-but-not-impossible-to-find NBA rookie card, would you rather go with Harden (has a puncher’s chance of making the Hall of Fame if he stays healthy), Julius Erving (already in the Hall of Fame), Charles Barkley (ditto) or Bird/Magic rookies ON THE SAME CARD (and yes, they’re both Hall of Famers)? Call me crazy, but I’d suggest backing the guys who already made the Hall of Fame over the guy who might make the Hall of Fame if 15 different things go right. (Then again, James Harden’s beard IS awesome.)”

Neil Paine for ESPN.com: “Not every superstar has gone AWOL in big games, though. For instance, Kevin Durant has actually improved his PER by 1.1 when you give more weight to higher-leverage situations. However, that mark wasn’t enough to make KD the remaining scoring leader who stepped up the most in the clutch. That honor actually belongs to none other than LeBron James, who has come up huge in Miami’s two biggest games of the postseason so far.”

Alert: Derek Fisher leadership article.

Shoals for GQ: “The kicker: The Thunder, for all their chaos-sowing and trans-positional weirdness, are in many ways based on the Spurs template. Symbolically, their brilliant young GM Sam Presti came up in the Spurs organization. His career took off when he urged the team to target Tony Parker and was proved very, very right. Durant and Duncan are very different players, but both are superstars brought to town via the draft, big dudes with many dimensions to their game, and quiet leaders who dominate games without making a show of it. Westbrook is like Parker if the already feisty Frenchman mainlined an entire candy factory. Harden, whose pro role was unclear when Presti nabbed him in the draft, has emerged as nothing less than Manu Ginobili’s lone heir. Manu is a truly idiosyncratic player but the Thunder have locked Harden into that same role: part-scorer, part-facilitator, and equally discreet and aggressive. Oh, and he comes off the bench when his talent level would seem to demand otherwise. Thabo is Bruce Bowen’s Revenge. Perkins is the largely functional centers that San Antonio for years carried next to Duncan.”

Britt Robson of SI.com: “Both teams thrive via dominant offenses. The Spurs and Thunder ranked first and second, respectively, in points per possession during the regular season and have flipped positions so far in the playoffs. But the way they rack up those points is very different. San Antonio spaces the floor and moves the ball, seeking a high-percentage shot for any of the 10 players in its deep rotation. The Thunder rely more on isolation plays for their three stars — Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden — who all excel at penetration, three-point shooting, drawing fouls and operating in both transition and the half-court game. Whichever team is able to disrupt its opponent’s offensive juggernaut more frequently and effectively should eventually triumph in what could be an epic series.”

Darnell Mayberry: “Kevin Durant has some advice for Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “One thing Scotty needs to do is just shut up,” Durant said. About the team’s turnovers, that is. So far this postseason, Brooks’ silence has been golden. According to guard Russell Westbrook, the Thunder was terrible at taking care of the ball when its coach harped on it during the regular season. But when Brooks piped down in the playoffs, Oklahoma City immediately enjoyed better ball security. Which explains why Durant playfully suggested for his coach to put a sock in it.”

Russell Westbrook remembers Tony Parker’s 42.

Jim Polson of Bloomberg News on Chesapeake and the Thunder: “While the $8 million expenditure so far this year on the team is less than half of what Chesapeake spends drilling for oil and gas in an average day, it underscores how the company’s board hasn’t always erred on the side of caution while overseeing McClendon’s potential conflicts of interest. On May 27, the Thunder will add to Chesapeake’s bill when it enters a third round of playoff games against the San Antonio Spurs.”

Tony Parker on Westbrook: “I’m definitely going to go at him. It’s not going to be like Dallas or the Lakers, where their point guards are not as aggressive. I’m going to go at him and make sure he works a little bit.”

Ramona Shelburne of ESPN LA says the Clippers want Scott Brooks: “Sources say Brooks’ negotiations with the Thunder on a contract extension are unlikely to resume until after the playoffs, with Oklahoma City about to enter a Western Conference finals showdown with the Spurs. Yet the widely held assumption in coaching circles is that Brooks never reaches free agency and will reach terms quickly with the Thunder once the season is over, similar to the Dallas Mavericks’ speedy negotiations with Rick Carlisle earlier this month after Mavericks owner Mark Cuban put off all contract talks until Dallas was eliminated from the postseason. The Thunder are 8-1 in the playoffs, having eliminated the two teams — Dallas and the Los Angeles Lakers — that have won the past three NBA championships.”

Podcasting with the enemy.

A hefty preview from 48 Minutes of Hell: “The problem for OKC? Everything else. While OKC’s bigs kept Duncan from scoring efficiently, in no other way did they shut his role down. Duncan averaged 17 rebounds per 36 minutes with Ibaka on the court, and 15 rebounds per 36 minutes with Perkins on the court. Read that again. And while Duncan’s post-ups were dramatically less efficient, shooting 2-7 in the painted area, he shot slightly above his season average from the midrange. This partly explains why Duncan’s offensive struggles didn’t really impact the Spurs on a macro level. As long as Duncan hits his midrange shots to keep the defense spread, Tony and Manu have the space to go to work and dissect a defense with their passing. Especially when the bigs are so focused on shutting down Tim, which hurt their ability to help on the drive. It’s sort of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation — if you help off Duncan, you’re leaving one of the greatest post-up players of all time with open space. If you don’t, you’re leaving the lane open for the Spurs offense to explode. Hard to assess in the moment, easy to second guess.”

Zeke Campfield of NewsOK: “Finally able to communicate with friends and family, the first thing Norman Richards II asked about from his hospital bed Thursday was whether the Oklahoma City Thunder won the night he was shot. Well, Norman, they did.”