Daily Thunder.com

Darnell Mayberry on Ronnie Brewer: “A defensive identity was being built, on the backs of a motley crew that consisted of Reggie Jackson, Kevin Martin, Thabo Sefolosha, DeAndre Liggins, Nick Collison and Hasheem Thabeet. They did the dirty work. They didn’t mind. They just got the job done. And then Oklahoma City started overthinking. The Thunder inexplicably went away from what was working, sitting various pieces that comprised that effective combination and slowly suppressing the successes the second unit had enjoyed. When the trade deadline arrived, the Thunder acquired Ronnie Brewer for peanuts. He appeared to be a perfect fit, a defensive-minded player with a pristine reputation who could step in and immediately help revive the second group’s one-time tenacity. Wrong. Brewer hasn’t played. Not much, that is, and the question many now want an answer to is why?”

KD on his shot attempts: “I can do whatever I want on the offensive end,” Durant said. “I can come down and take 30 shots. That’s not the right brand of basketball for me, to just come down and shoot. It’s not because of the defense limiting me to 13 shots. I could have shot more than that, but I was trying to make the right basketball play.” Keep Reading…

Read Matt Moore of CBSSports.com’s terrific feature on Scott Brooks: “Surely, the biggest cause of Durant’s liftoff was his own talent and work ethic. But sometimes the best of potential goes awry. You have to put the team around him, and you have to work with him to improve. That’s where Brooks comes in. Brooks is rarely talked about for his development chops, as if the Thunder just sprung up from the ground without cultivation. But turning good players into great is a process. Brooks is quick to acknowledge that turning these players into a Finals contender took a lot of work. He’s just not willing to take any credit for it.”

Neil Paine of ESPN Insider on KD’s ring chances: “Theoretically, Durant would be in his prime, just as James is now. By then, James should be in clear decline in his age-33 season, and there’s no guarantee Wade or Bosh will have anything left by then, nor whether James still would be playing with them. Fact is, that sweet spot could come even earlier if things break right for Durant and wrong for James. Having said that, James has such a huge edge on Durant and everyone else productionwise that he could lose 15 percent of his value and still be ahead of Durant. That means we shouldn’t be surprised if the first decade or more of Durant’s career plays out in parallel against James’, with LeBron getting the better of him in terms of ring count simply because he continues to be the game’s most dominant player. In some sports, there’s no shame in being second-best because sometimes you even get lucky and win anyway. Unfortunately for Durant, basketball just isn’t one of those sports.” Keep Reading…