Danny Chau of The Classical on Perry Jones III: “Jones’ freakish ability on the court had me smitten, but his self-awareness is what made me a real believer in his success. Despite a ridiculous NCAA suspension at the end of Jones’ freshman year—one of the NCAA’s using-a-bazooka-to-remove-a-ketchup-stain specials in its long-running conflict against picayune violations—Jones decided to return for his sophomore year, mature enough to know he wasn’t yet mature enough for the pro game. His time with P3 was a preemptive measure to help his body best defend against the unknowable future. It’s the kind of proactive effort that could have saved the prime years of Tracy McGrady’s career. Potential is fleeting, but Jones is doing what he can to protect it while he’s still young.”
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com on the lockout a year later: “As far as reducing player costs as a percentage of revenues, that goal was achieved almost immediately. The players’ share of basketball-related income (BRI) was reduced from 57 percent under the previous agreement to 51.15 percent for the 2011-12 season and to a sliding scale between 49 and 51 percent thereafter, based on revenues. The escrow system remains in place to account for any shortfall or overage in the amount of negotiated salaries. How that reduction is being achieved will be the most interesting and important aspect of the agreement. With only one truncated and one full free-agent signing period under the agreement so far, it’s too soon to conclude whether the player cost reductions are being achieved in a way that promotes competitive balance.”
Stein’s power rankings from yesterday: “We’ll dig into the Thunder’s recent defensive slippage or the most well-rounded ball of Kevin Durant’s career some other Monday. Nothing else in Loud City matters this week beyond James Harden’s first return to town — and his only scheduled return this season — in Rockets colors.”
The Thunder will have their 1000th community appearance today since moving to Oklahoma City. That’s pretty impressive.
Mike Wallace of ESPN.com picks Z-Bo and Perk has his top individual rivalry: “Kendrick Perkins-Zach Randolph. Forget Pacquiao-Mayweather, which may never happen. Thanks to NBA conference scheduling, we already know we’ll get at least a few more rounds between Z-Bo and Perk, who carried their last on-court beef into the arena hallways and locker room areas. The intense rivalry between their respective teams is just as fascinating.”
KD has a new rap song called “Tha Formula.”
Jeremy Lamb is writing a rookie diary for NBA.com: “I have one rookie teammate, Perry Jones. That’s my man! I chill at his house and we eat together sometimes. He’s a cool dude, and since he and I are both rookies, I’m thankful we are going through our first season together. It’s nice that there’s another guy to look up when someone yells “Rook!” and somebody who else who has to do rookie chores.”
Darnell Mayberry: “Here’s something else I noticed tonight. You know who is starting to benefit from moving the ball more? The Thunder’s second unit. The B Team came in and shared the rock and got one high-percentage shot after another as a result. Not just in garbage time, either. In the second quarter, even when KD started the period with them, they moved it so well you barely even knew Durant was out there.”
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/11/practice-report-okc-prepares-for-the-beards-return/
I have family coming in town around Christmas. My dad hasn't ever seen a Thunder game live, so I want to take him, my sister, and my wife to a game.
Anyone here going to be gone for the holidays and needing to sell your tickets?
I'll check stubhub and totallytickets, but I thought I'd ask the DT crew first =)
Watching Reggie last night was fantastic, but it definitely did make me (more) sad that we wasted half a season of his development to watch Derek Fisher play 90 minutes a game.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 The only good thing I've seen from Reggie is his confidence, and his general ball handling. His shooting and decision making has been really sub-par.
Maynor's been pretty bad, but I haven't seen anything from Reggie that has me clamoring for more minutes.
@alvarex You can tell Reggie feels more confident on the floor now. Last year, I don't think he was convinced he deserved to be there. If given a chance, I think Reggie would make a lot more out of an opportunity this year. I know I'm a bit stubborn, but I'm not ready to give up on Maynor just yet. I remember how it was pretty much universally agreed that we needed to dump Thabo 2 years ago. Seems kinda crazy now.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 I'm not sure how much it would have helped Reggie to have kept playing last year. He got quite a bit of playing time before we picked up Fish and wasn't making all that much progress.
@TaoMaas @TonyMitchellForPresident13 To be fair, we've only seen him play over 7 minutes once all year, and it was last night against the woeful Bobcats. He looked good for a backup for one game, that's it. I didn't like the Fisher experiment because of the minutes Fisher played, but Reggie wasn't exactly putting the backup position on lockdown before then. At this point I would like to see Reggie getting more burn at the expense of Maynor. Maynor's assist rate and scoring efficiency have gone down every year, despite his usage going up. It's early, but Maynor has shown nothing to support confidence in his abilities.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 he played football (soccer) as well? what a guy, i say bring him back, maybe we should take him and just amnesty russel
Anybody here ever sit court side? How would one go about getting tickets (if even possible)?
@bmuelle21 Pick a midweek game against a so-so team and you can get the 100 section for like $50/ticket and floor for maybe $100. Obviously more money depending on the team.
@thunder_mike I have season tickets in the 100 section...I have just always wanted to sit court side lol
@bmuelle21 Have you tried calling your thunder rep? I did that few years back for my moms bday. Have had season tix for few years now but he hooked me up with floor seats while in the corner but still on the court. Id call your thunder rep and possibibly with a good excuse as to why ie... anavirsery, bday, xmas gift something along those lines usually get me upgrades lol
@bmuelle21 @thunder_mike
Security around Serge is quite heavy. Not that I'd know . . .
:)
@bmuelle21 I did once. (It was awesome.) Tickets were given to me by the Thunder as a work-honor thing.
@ThunderChick2010 @bmuelle21 you work for the Thunder?
@BallSoHard @ThunderChick2010 @bmuelle21
I wish . . . but, no. :)
@bmuelle21 KD told lil whine to call him next time for tickets so I'm sure he meant the same for everyone else too. Just call, text, or tweet KD
Thabo shooting 46.7% on 3s this year! Probably will come down, but looks more confident taking them
@Thunder S I can't get too excited about that since he started the same way last year, and by playoffs was back below career average for the last few months of the season. Not to be a downer though, because I'm extremely excited about Reggie
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @Thunder im excited.
if it worked for Shane...it can work for Thabs.
I liked this one:
The Thunder broadcasters mentioned a few games back about the coaching staff working on Serge's hand eye coordination using some unorthodox methods. Can you confirm and elaborate?11:34
They've done that for years with Serge and others. There's a funky set of glasses that Serge has work that distorts his vision. With those on, he has to catch different types of passes from a coach. Bounce passes in different locations and soft chest passes, for example. Another drill is throwing a tennis ball off the wall and catching it.
@Thunder S
Yeah that was good to know. I want to see what the specs look like on someone.
Here you go:
http://goo.gl/rFdTE
@ThunderChick2010 if you can dodge a wrench....
Here is another good one, Taking about the Tor pick and best choice. I ,for one, dont care if the guy is a center or pg as long as he is the best tallent avaliable.
"Comment From Zach Zach : ] Lots of bigs in the draft this year. Can / will the Thunder snag a talented one with Tor's pick? Zeller, Noel, Len, Plumblee?
Tuesday November 27, 2012 11:08 Zach 11:09 I'm thinking that pick will be somewhere between 4 and 7. If that's the case, I can't see the Thunder not taking a big man. I haven't seen much of the names you mentioned aside from MP3. But the one game I saw from Noel, he seemed to need a lot of work offensively. Defensively, he has raw talent that could help. But this team already has the league's leading shot blocker."
@PerkPunt No mention of Gobert? All the bigs are a project, but to me, he's got the most potential for becoming a good true center of this crop of bigs.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @PerkPunt The main questions on Gobert are strength and polish. Obviously he has the requisite height and length, but he still looks like a stick figure. That's fine for KD who is out on the perimeter contesting jumpers, but could put Gobert at a significant disadvantage in the post. Of course, it's notable that the game is actually less physical in the NBA compared to overseas (due to officiating, same with NCAA), so it may not become as great of an issue. He still should add 20-30 lbs if he intends to hold positioning against post players.
The polish is another thing. Right now he's pretty much just tall. He's athletic for his size, but not really skilled in any one area. Thabeet was a tremendous defender in college, but is a bench player in the NBA. Gobert looks like he has some athletic advantages over Thabeet, but a similarly raw game. The only significant point in Gobert's favor is that he's likely to get better coaching and see greater development overseas than he would here.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @Keith00 @PerkPunt All good points. Austin scares me because he seems to have a Byron Mullens side to him. Having range to the 3 point line is only good when you are spacing the floor or don't have a better option inside. I think he's a bit too perimeter oriented, and is weirdly bad at making free throws.
Noel gets the higher grade simply because he's the most athletic big man in the draft. I think he might ultimately end up at PF because of his size, but he can legitimately chase stretch 4s while still owning the boards. He's essentially a more polished (at age) Ibaka. Someone will all the tools to be a gamechanger defensively, but who still has to put it all together.
Gobert is more coordinated and athletic than Thabeet. But at this very moment, I haven't a seen a great deal of skill. You can't rely on him to pop out and make a short jumper, nor can you really expect him to dominate the boards against savvy opponents. He might learn those things, and I have more faith in his ability to gain the fundamentals with overseas coaching, but right now I think he's easily the most raw of the big man crop.
@Keith00 @PerkPunt i agree to some extent and think you make very good points. I don't quite see the Thabeet comparison the same though, in that while Thabeet was a defensive monster, he was his own level of extremely awful at everything else (although for whatever reason. people drooling over him liked to ignore). At most times, anything positive he did looked like the sole reason it happened was because he was tall. Gobert's more athletic and more coordinated, with the second being why I think he could turn out much lest bust-ish. That, and I find it hard to worry about his frame when some of the other top choices are Nerlens Stick Figure Noel and Isiah Also Stick Figure Austin. But agreed, like I said, he, along with pretty much all of the other top bigs in this crop, is definitely a project.
@PerkPunt I am on Len watch for the rest of the year. Love his size and potential as a 2 way player. Gobert is intriguing but seems to have a lot of bust potential. Anyone seen much of Steven Adams?
@BroncoDoc @PerkPunt Watched some of him. He has some intangibles that I like, but the jury is definitely still out on him. He's already got a pretty good hook shot, and does a good job of positioning himself to make plays off the ball. I'd like to see him work a little harder in those situations and it'd increase his rebound numbers, but he could be good. I definitely will be watching more of him as the year goes.
@PerkPunt I wouldn't put Plumlee in that group.
@FreeFezzyFel/BIG3little2
neither would I. I think we have to stop looking at just big men and go for the best all around player at whatever spot we pick. Our bench will be slim pickinigs by then with the departure of Maynor maybe Martin, the uncertainty of the little 2, and Thabo on an expiring contract. It would be good to have another top quality scorer to put out there
Darnell in his roudup, is pushing for a Derrick Williams trade before the deadline. I'm interested in seeing what everyone at DT has to say about his analysis.
"The pickings are indeed very, very slim, especially since any trade that brings back a little more salary will put OKC over the tax line. That's something the Thunder can't afford to do this year. But I've got a name for you. Derrick Williams. He appears to be on the outside looking in up in Minnesota, and the Thunder might be able to get the former No. 2 overall pick for peanuts (stop me if you've heard that before). But Williams has a sizable contract that could do to the team's payroll exactly what the team can't afford. Presti would have to get creative."
@PerkPunt Square peg, round hole.
@Jooseppi @PerkPunt Agreed. Doesn't fill a need. Instead just creates more of a logjam and another potential D Fish (low production, more experience) situation with PJ3 like we had last year with Reggie. We stand more to gain giving playtime to PJ3 than finding playtime for Williams.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @Jooseppi @PerkPunt I wouldn't say that. I'd take a player that can theoretically play the three, and even better if he has the size to play small ball. But not another young one who is bad right now.
@PerkPunt Isn't Williams a defensive Liability? That's exactly what we don't need.
@PerkPunt yea like we would play him.
@Lost Ones @PerkPunt Or we can just attempt to develop PJ3 for the rookie salary.
@PerkPunt Why would he make a suggestion like this. He's Ibaka's position.
Would this be for perk? No disrespect but do we need a Udonis Haslem on the squad? An undersized big man!
I say no. But I could be wrong. Just looking at stats.
@Perkfection
i think he is more a three than anything.
@PerkPunt Not sure where he'd get minutes but I wouldn't be that opposed to it. I wouldn't touch the BIG 3 or the little 2 though in said trade.
@FreeFezzyFel/BIG3little2 @PerkPunt I really don't mind the prospect of letting Lamb go, but probably not for Williams. While he's a great talent he a) will develop better elsewhere and b) even if he develops, I honestly believe unless he's stepping into a void left by Kevin Martin (or whatever high minute feature scoring 2 guard role replaces him if he goes) he'll either never realize his full potential here or will go elsewhere for a contract we can't afford (if KMart or good 2 guard replacement stays)
@FreeFezzyFel/BIG3little2
I'm not a fan of his contract and i really dont know his game. Doesnt he take a lot of ill-advised shots most of the time. Does he have a post game? is he a three or four.
@PerkPunt It all depends on what we give for him. I'm not a huge fan of him but if the cost is minimal, why not
@FreeFezzyFel/BIG3little2 @PerkPunt Who are the little 2 lol?
@dollarbillrussell @PerkPunt Kmart
@FreeFezzyFel/BIG3little2 @PerkPunt So who's left out of the big 3 that you would be willing to deal? Ibaka or Kmart?
@dollarbillrussell @PerkPunt PJ3 and Lamb
@PerkPunt Who would we trade for him and where would he find minutes?
@dollarbillrussell @PerkPunt
i think they where talking about maynor on the chopping block. and us taking back the salary
@criznazy53 @PerkPunt @justin_mia @dollarbillrussell We're talking about a guy who shot 41% last year and is currently shooting 38% from the field. His 3 point shooting has jumped way up this year, but also in an extremely small sample size. Add in that he's not much of a rebounder and is an atrocious passer, and what do we get? He's young, perhaps he could improve, but I'm not sure how much given the situation. Jones III barely plays as it is, and Williams simply isn't good enough to displace minutes from anyone else in our rotation. How would he develop into his potential playing 5 minutes a game when he couldn't do it in 20+mpg in Minnesota?
@Keith00 @PerkPunt @justin_mia @dollarbillrussell i'd say Williams is better than PJ3 at this point. He doesnt' look lost and he can score . I haven' t seen any signs of PJ3 being able to score or do anything well on the floor
@PerkPunt @justin_mia @dollarbillrussell I just see no value in Williams. Whatever position he plays, it will be as a backup, and he makes too much to be a long term backup. Moreover, he's just not been any good thus far. We already have the Thabeet reclamation project going on, and Perry Jones already duplicates everything Williams would do. Taking on that kind of salary for a low minute bench players is irresponsible.
@justin_mia @dollarbillrussell
what would it take
@PerkPunt @dollarbillrussell You can't just take back salary if you're over the cap you have to match it. We have a trade exemption from trading Aldrich but I don't believe it's large enough to cover the difference between Maynor and Williams' contracts.
@dollarbillrussell @PerkPunt Backup 3 I'm assuming.
@justin_mia @dollarbillrussell
limit thabo a little
@justin_mia @PerkPunt So 6 minutes a game?