Tuesday Bolts – 9.18.12

John Hollinger of ESPN.com with must-read Thunder player profiles: “Defensively, Westbrook has the talent to be awesome, but in reality is pretty average. Synergy Stats rated him the worst defender on the team and decidedly below the norm for his position; the Thunder weren’t any better or worse with him on the court defensively, and opposing point guards had a 15.7 player efficiency rating against him, according to 82games.com. Westbrook is actually too aggressive for his own good at this end, often running himself out of position and overgambling, offsetting his advantages in size, quickness and athleticism.”

The Lost Ogle on the Thunder hiring Sebastian Pruiti: “I like this hire for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s cool to see a blogger get recognized for his work and get real job. Sure, Pruiti also doubled as an assistant coach for the Ft. Wayne Mad Antz of the NBADL, but I really doubt working for a sports team that spells ants with a “Z” helped him get this job. Also, this hire confirms what we’ve long suspected: Sam Presti is a cool-ass nerd who reads blogs. In fact, I’ll bet Sam Presti is reading this right now. And I bet he’s now creeped out and blushing. And I’ll bet he’s now clearing his search history and about to close his internet browser.”

Metta World Peace wants the Lakers to go 73-9. Okay.

Dan McCarney of the San Antonio News-Express: “The Thunder did everything the old-fashioned way: i.e. they actually drafted and developed their key players, instead of poaching free agents and disgruntled superstars to form one of the so-called “Super Teams” that whipped so many into a frenzy. (Think Miami and the Lakers.) And yet they might not be able to reap the full benefits of their ingenuity should Harden walk. If so, that would seem to be a classic case of unintended consequences for a new set of rules that were supposed to help, not hurt, small-market franchises.”

Rip City Project on the Northwest: “The Thunder are the clear-cut front-runners in the Northwest. Boasting four Olympic superstars (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Spain’s Serge Ibaka), OKC is most likely to face off against the new-look Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals this season. And if they can get Perry Jones III motivated to play ball, it could be a long season for the rest of the NBA.”

Blake Griffin: “I think there’s a lot of tough teams in the Western Conference. There’s one right here (in Oklahoma City) that the Lakers have to get over,” Griffin said. “The Spurs have been a good team for the past 500 years. And I think we’re preparing for that. So that’s kind of what you expect people to do. You expect them to hand out the trophy in the middle of the summer. So we’re not worried about that. We’re not worried about just the Lakers.”