Monday Bolts – 9.23.13
Anthony Slater of NewsOK.com: “Three seasons ago, when the Thunder clinched its first Northwest Division title, it was viewed as a huge milestone for the burgeoning franchise. ‘It’s great for our fans,’ coach Scott Brooks said at the time. ‘It’s great for our city to be division champs. It is definitely a step in our process.’ Two years and two division titles later, the feat has become little more than a formality. Just a nice footnote in the season’s bigger picture. This isn’t the MLB, where playoff spots are fewer, or the NFL, where postseason byes are offered. So the importance of division championships in the NBA is dwarfed. But they still come with a guaranteed top-four finish in the conference and bragging rights within the division. And for the Thunder, which enters camp later this week in search of a fourth straight Northwest crown, the path has never looked easier.”
Zach Lowe of Grantland on the hot hand: “Players are indisputably more likely to take their team’s next shot if they have made their previous shot, or the last two or three shots they attempted. Here’s a graph showing how much more likely J.R. Smith was to shoot on any New York possession that came after Smith had made a certain number of shots in a row within that game … The numbers inside the circles represent the number of instances in which Smith could have attempted a shot under the listed criteria; the “9” above the little circle over at the right indicates Smith had only nine instances in which he was on the floor while having made his last five shots.”
Brian Robinson of Sonics Rising on KD returning to Seattle: “The impact of the Crawford Pro Am, and of Kevin Durants amazing return was really subtle but for me it was substantial. We really, really needed a few good moments like that one. I also think it felt really appropriate that Durants return was understated. Given what we have gone through it would have seemed fake if he came back here in some big ceremony with lots of publicity. It would have been too much and I prefer the way he did it.”
Larry Coon of ESPN.com looking at the CBA in year three: “To put it simply, the new agreement cost the Thunder Harden, whom they likely would have retained under the old system. But in a system in which the tax bill is progressive, small-market teams cannot afford to stray very far into tax territory — so their hand was pretty much forced. To make matters worse, the Thunder are net payers into the revenue-sharing system, despite occupying the league’s third-smallest market. The league also didn’t do the Thunder any favors in its interpretation of Kevin Durant’s extension. Durant’s extension language specified that he would be paid the maximum applicable salary, which the league interpreted to mean the seven- to nine-year maximum salary as allowed by the Derrick Rose rule instead of the lower zero- to six-year maximum. The board of governors later reimbursed the Thunder for the extra money this decision cost them but did not adjust the team’s cap. With a lower team salary, the Thunder might have retained Martin or signed another free agent this summer.”
