Ben Golliver of SI.com collected a bunch of reactions on the jerseys: “Rob Mahoney, The Point Forward: “There’s some definite potential in the minimalistic design of the Thunder’s new alternates, but stripping down a uniform scheme to its basics puts an even greater attention on its specific execution. Vertically oriented text? Broken lines from jersey to shorts? It’s as if OKC’s designers got so caught up in simplification that they abstained from common aesthetic sense.” Rating: 3 out of 10″
Sam Amick of USA Today: “Kevin Martin showed up two and a half hours early to practice with his new Oklahoma City Thunder team recently and discovered a most peculiar thing: He was late. “Our practice starts at 11, and I’m getting there at 8:30 and seeing Russell (Westbrook) and Kevin (Durant) – the two best players on the court,” Martin told USA TODAY Sports this week. “That just makes me want to get there at 8:29 and show them that I’m here to do whatever they need me to do.”
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports talking about the Thunder.
Darnell Mayberry: “Kendrick Perkins didn’t look like he wanted to be here tonight. At one point in the second half, when Joakim Noah was called for traveling, Perk began talking a bit of trash to Noah when he tried to dispute the call. It almost seemed as if Perk was trying to fire himself up. There was no other reason for it. I don’t have any other plausible explanation for Perk’s performance in this one. He had five rebounds, the first coming with 28 seconds remaining in the first half, a steal and a foul and two turnovers. Rough, rough night for the big fella.”
Shaky Ankles on Russell Westbrook: “I was honestly beginning to doubt if he could help Oklahoma City win basketball games when he wasn’t scoring in a variety of athletically marvelous ways, but tonight he proved me wrong. Is Russell Westbrook an elite player when it comes to elevating those around him? On Thursday, the answer was an emphatic yes. This wasn’t a good game from Westbrook, it was great. I’ve re-lived a few sequences in my mind several times since the final buzzer, and—just, wow—the vision, the precision, the patience; these are the plays Westbrook makes that nobody wants, nor is able, to remember when the Thunder lose and he attempts more shots than Kevin Durant.”
The Thunder revealed the “inspiration” behind the new unis.
Bill Haisten of the Tulsa World on the jerseys: “I like the vertical Thunder lettering on the front, and I don’t have a problem with the colors and the numeral style. For Friday’s clash with Detroit at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, the Thunder will be attired in the new uniforms. While it isn’t as striking as ones worn by the Chicago Bulls, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, the new Oklahoma City jersey might be a hot sales item because Thunder fans are fanatically loyal.”
Hasheem Thabeet is making his homeland proud. And here’s Thabeet’s yellow hair patch explained.
From Elias: “Serge Ibaka scored 21 points in Oklahoma City’s win over Chicago, three shy of the team leader, Kevin Durant, who scored 24 points. Ibaka has never led his team in scoring in 226 career NBA games. This is the third time in his career he has come within three points of the team leader, and he’s done so in each of his last two games. Ibaka (17 points) came within two points of Russell Westbrook in the Thunder’s previous game, versus Toronto.”
Kelly Dwyer of BDL: “The Oklahoma City Thunder’s new alternates, officially released on Thursday, fall into the latter category. That doesn’t mean the duds are no good, though. Rather, we think they’re kind of cool; especially considering that the designers were working off of a relatively staid logo and pattern with the typical Thunder uniforms. Sure, they’re a money-grab; but it’s still a pretty fetching design.”
Is it possible that OKC is planning for another trade this year with Perkins? Isnt the data so glaring that Presti cant be oblivious to it? at a certain point if "toughness" doesnt translate to production then the organization has to move on.
@Thunder S Highly doubt it. Perkins is beloved by the Thunder organization.
@supreme35 Presti is not a foolish man though- i get intangibles but Perk literally adds nothing at this point. I dont think setting screens is enough to justify being on the team, let alone a starter.
DT disagrees a lot, but i think the stats guys, hardcore fans, and even casual watchers can see he's not adding value right now. the chorus has become deafening, and i cant believe presti doesnt see it
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/11/dt-mailbag-draft-picks-free-agents-and-financial-flexibility/
Worst season +/- (total, not per minute)? Perkins at -13. Nobody else worse than -2.
http://www.nba.com/statistics/plusminus/plusminus_sort.jsp?pcomb=1&season=22012&split=9&team=Thunder
@Crow Have Thabeet and Ibaka played together yet? I'm still waiting to see the "Block Brothers" together in action manning the paint.
@Daniel Hawaii Actually 1 minute, neutral.
Maynor /Westbrook +3 in 3 minutes. @Daniel Hawaii
@Daniel Hawaii Collison continues to be wildly successful with Westbrook and Durant.
@Daniel Hawaii Last season those were moderate positives.
@Daniel Hawaii Westbrook and Durant both have 145 minutes with Ibaka and team is just a flat neutral with those pairs.
@Daniel Hawaii Martin's least productive but still positive pair is with ibaka.
@Daniel Hawaii Thabeet with Durant +19 in 32 minutes. Thabeet without Durant +1 in 36 minutes. So that edge is probably coming from Durant and others.
@Crow Thabeet is +20. Thabeetles, go nuts!
@duhsweetness Thabeet with a slight lead over Collison for best raw +/- per minute.
@Crow According to Basketball Reference, Thabeet's ORtg and Drtg are 118 and 92 respectively this season!
@duhsweetness @Crow Woo!
Ibaka at only +3 in 154 minutes to date is far different than the 7 other more positive rotation players.
I think Serge's ability to spot up for the short-corner three consistently is going to be a huge factor in determining if Perk can be a viable starter for us. At worst it allows Perk to simply put a body on the opposing center and actually get some offensive boards. If Brooks is going to stick with the current starting lineup all season I hope he at least runs some plays to get Ibaka that shot consistently to spread the floor.
@DSYIII I'm done with the Perkins/Ibaka pairing. The starting lineup is going to continue to be poor with both of them in it. I don't think Brooks is doing Perkins any favors. Both were better with the other on the court last season and through these games Ibaka is better with Perk on the bench.
@Jooseppi @DSYIII Perkins does not have positive +/- with any player.
@Jooseppi @DSYIII Ibaka positive only with Nick, KMart and Thabo.
@DSYIII Perkins has been more terrible with Ibaka on the bench this season, but that's in contrast to how it's been since he got here and will probably level out as the season goes on.
@Jooseppi Everyone sees how bad Perk's been, but I think we all know that Brooks is more likely to bench Thabo thank Perk. Assuming that's true, I'd love to see the early part of the season as a trial to see if Ibaka can hit that shot as a regular part of the offense, and if that can invigorate perk any.
So long "Princeton Offense" for the Lakers? Will they return to the default value of letting Kobe do whatever he wants with the ball?
@PostBeardStressDisorder back to the thunder offense for them... iso iso baby
Mike Brown looks like comedian Hannibal Buress
@RRRWHATEVER I think he looks like Mr. Peanut.
@Daniel Hawaii you mean Mr. Potato Head
google it, i'll wait....
With all the talk about coaches (Mike Brown fired) and the hatred of Brooks by many, do people here have any preferences about who they'd like to replace Brooks (if they could)?
Sloan? McMillan? Van Gundy?
Argh...the Thunder's "inspiration" for the new uniforms uses "simplistic" when it means "simple." Word to the wise: more syllables don't necessarily make your writing more sophisticated...and they'll often change the meaning!
has a coach ever been fired this fast?
Tark only got 20 games with Spurs. @RRRWHATEVER
@RRRWHATEVER cism
@RRRWHATEVER no last time happen it was in the 70s
@tydude I still think they should have gave him more time. i dont know what else took place behind the scenes, but damn.... i been telling people on DT you have to give teams with new personell time to gel. guess the lakers did not agree
Mike Brown was in a coaches meeting was call out of the meeting and then return 10 minute later and told the coaches that he was fire
@tydude ha, wow. classless lakers
@BallSoHard @tydude http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Obm6bEH80
Thunder have used 32 lineups so far. Starting lineup with the most minutes and the worst overall +/-. Only other lineup used 20+ minutes is K. Perkins K. Martin K. Durant R. Westbrook S. Ibaka and it is negative too.
@Crow Yes, one of my main reasons for supporting changes to teh starting line up, at least experiement
@Crow I mean, how often do our starters fall behind other teams starters? Its been a common refrain here. I dont like the idea of Thabo merely playing the bench, so in all my configurations, I feel like the line up with the most potential usied without making our bench anemic, would be to try out Lamb with the starters, especially against teams with weak SG's, than with the second unit, play 1. Maynor, 2. Martin, 3. Thabo, 4. Collison, 5. Thabeet. We could still bring Martin in with the closers. I dont see a real threat to our starting units prowess since there isnt one. Those 5 have had two years to gel and tehy are second rate.
@Lambchop the starters actually were positive in last two regular seasons though they were 2nd rate to other lineups. they sucked horribly playoffs in a row. I don't want it to happen for a third.
@Crow 32? How can that be? I've heard Brooks never changes.
@TaoMaas @Crow The real reason is Brooks almost never subs in more than 1 or 2 players at a time, so with 9 rotation players and 5 slots you have 9 choose 5 or 9*8*7*6*5 =15120 possible lineups. Obviously not that hard to get 32 out of that.
@Crow @TaoMaas Was not replying to you. Agree with your points. The answer to TaoMaas' question was a probabilistic one, not a philosophical/basketball one.
@senseandsenescence @TaoMaas he used 60 in the playoffs last time.
A little over 200 lineups last season. Most teams probably used that many or more.
Should find top 10-20 and then don't need the others much.
@TaoMaas @Crow He's actually played around with multiple lineups this year. Very suprising...he just hasn't stuck with the right one's very often.
@TaoMaas The criticism is that he never significantly changes the main pattern, the main lineups.
@TaoMaas Brooks so far is using the starters for 17 minutes, his second preference for 6.5, third for 3.5. 20 other lineups get the other 21 minutes per game. I'd like to see the best 3-8 lineups from that pack get more minutes over time and the rest less. I'd like to see better results with the most used lineups after 20 games.
@TaoMaas I don't know if the criticism is fair this year. It was last season.
@TaoMaas Very small minutes at this point.
@Crow But that's not true, either. He's changed up our closing line-up quite a bit the last couple of games. He does make changes...just not the ones people think he should.
@Crow Hmm... and the common denominator is... Kendrick Perkins. Shocker.
@Daniel Hawaii 5 best lineups on raw +/-: Perkins is not in any.
Collison in 3, Martin 5, Durant 4, Westbrook 4, Thabo 3, Thabeet 3, Jones 1, Maynor 1, Ibaka 1.
@Crow Thabeet in 3? BANG!