Thursday Bolts – Deadline Edition

Darnell Mayberry: “That kind of felt like a nightmare come true, no? The ghost of James Harden coming back to exact some revenge on his old team. Each shot hurting worse and worse. Each drive, each Euro-step, each pinpoint pass only exacerbating the fact that he not only no longer plays for your team, but he also is excelling with someone else. It’s one thing to see it from afar. It’s entirely another to have to watch Harden rip your heart out, like you used to delight in seeing him do to so many others, and know there isn’t a thing anybody can do about it. The Thunder has never encountered that. Not before Wednesday night, when Harden shook off miserable performances in his first two meetings against his former team and hung a career-high 46 points on the Thunder in a 122-119 win inside the Toyota Center. It’s convenient to say it’s only one loss for the Thunder and just one win for the Rockets. But it’s really not. The reality is it’s not about today. What we witnessed Harden do here was a cold-blooded reminder of what could have been in OKC. Nothing has ever drilled that home quite like the show Harden just strung together.”

Jonathan Tjarks of SB Nation: “While Oklahoma City is far from a perfect basketball team, any upgrade they could find on the trade deadline is unlikely to be worth pushing them over the luxury tax limit. The looming penalties, which could cripple a small-market team financially, were why they dealt Harden in the first place. They’ve already got $66 million in salaries committed for next season and more than $50 million each in 2014 and 2015. Since they can’t take on much salary and don’t have any “dead salaries” on their roster, any significant deal would force them to give up an important player on this year’s team. Even their mid-level veterans, guys like Kendrick Perkins and Sefolosha, have a clearly defined role, so there’s not much room for them to maneuver without affecting cohesion both on and off the floor.”

Per Sam Amick: “Oklahoma City has been seeking first-rounder for PG Eric Maynor, but no takers so far.”

Matt Carney of The Lost Ogle on 10 rap songs with Thunder shoutouts: “Young rappers like Meek Mill who’ve greased fast-moving, ephemeral rap blogs with mixtapes on their way to major-label contracts have been more prone to writing raps that turn into antiques really quickly like this. In fact the “verified” reference to Twitter is pretty telling too, now that I think about it. In Meek’s defense there weren’t a ton of people outside of OKC regularly watching the Thunder way back in 2010 (at least compared to now) so this reference made sense then. Oh look how far we’ve come.”

Tom Ziller of SB Nation: “In my view, restricting trade doesn’t just make the deadline less exciting. That’s almost beside the point. Restricting trade damages an advantage smart teams have: knowing how to manage salary properly. Of course, that will still exist, and every team that lacks a “capologist” will suffer. In some ways, the inability of teams to buy their way out of mistakes will keep the worst-run franchises in the mire, which does follow a merit-based design. But the reward for being sane with your cap figure will be less notable, because everyone (except the Nets, apparently) will need to be sane with their cap figures. So much of the Spurs’ excellence has been tied to the ability of R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich to properly manage the cap in order to keep the roster flexible. That flexibility is now being restricted, and other teams are being forced to prioritize cap management. A major advantage of smart, ahead-of-the-times thinking by San Antonio is diminished.”

Construction has started on KD’s restaurant.

From Elias: From Elias: “James Harden, who was traded by the Thunder to the Rockets last October, scored 46 points against his former club on Wednesday night. That’s the highest point total by a player against a team for which he played either earlier that season or in the previous season since Tony Delk scored 53 for the Suns at Sacramento on January 2, 2001.”

Ranking OKC’s deadline deals.

Red 94: “All of this is because I am but a mere worthless insect, unworthy to behold the sight of James Harden submitting not just the greatest performance by a Rocket this season, but submitting arguably the best game by any player in the league this season, and yes, that includes another King James. A new career high of 46 points on 19 shots, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and while I have always been someone to favor the moneyball belief of “clutch is a statistic”, tonight was an absolutely inspired performance at the end of this game which made me a believer for one night.”

Berry Tramel with thoughts on the Perk-Gortat deal that’s not happening: “Here’s what I don’t like about it: If it’s the Toronto draft pick, which this year would be between 4-14 in the first round, I wouldn’t do it. But if it’s the Dallas pick, which figures to be somewhere around 20, that’s fine. That Raptor pick will be valuable. Like I said, the Thunder would miss Perkins against the Spurs. And that’s no small deal. Tim Duncan made 40 of 91 shots in the West finals last season. That’s 43 percent, for a career 50-percent shooter. Gortat was critical of then-Suns coach Alvin Gentry, in an interview with Polish media. That’s not really the Thunder way.”