Daily Thunder.com

Bradford Doolittle of ESPN Insider: “Martin is not as good as Harden, and it’s not really close. However, he’s filled his role on the Thunder this season almost as well as Harden did for last season’s squad. Close enough, anyway, to avoid offsetting the improvements OKC has made elsewhere. Harden averaged 19.3 points per 36 minutes, and had a .660 true shooting percentage on a .216 usage rate. Martin comes pretty close: 18.2 points per 36, .617 true shooting, .209 usage. The bottom line is that Oklahoma City is outscoring opponents by 11.2 points for every 100 possessions Martin is on the court. That number for Harden last season was 9.9. The question now is whether Martin can maintain that effect in the playoffs.”

Jack Winter of Warriors World in a 5-on-5 on a made-up J.J. Redick deal: “Redick to the Thunder for Jeremy Lamb, Perry Jones III and Eric Maynor. Orlando is in full rebuilding mode but is devoid of young players with star potential. Andrew Nicholson and Moe Harkless will obviously build on solid rookie seasons, but neither has the ceiling of Lamb or Jones III. In a league where superstars reign supreme, a small-market team like the Magic needs to roll the dice when they can. The Thunder aren’t playing either rookie anyway, and Redick would be a lethal floor-spacer for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.” Keep Reading…

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com on an imaginary Offensive Player of the Year award: “Durant is unquestionably the best scorer in the league. He’s averaging 29.6 points per game while shooting 52 percent from the field, 41 percent from three and 90 percent from the free throw line, putting him on track to be the first scoring leader in history to average 50-40-90 in a season. If we examine some of the scorer-defining play sets through Synergy, though, there are some interesting results. Durant is actually a better post scorer than you’d expect, as he has transformed his game this season. He’s second among all post scorers with 100 possessions behind Kobe Bryant.”

Tom Ziller of SB Nation on assets and when to deal them: “So perhaps the lesson here isn’t that you should not trade your cheap blue chippers, but that you should leverage their cost-effective production for 1-3 years, let the hype build as everyone realizes what a good deal they are and then flip them … unless, of course, they have that star potential. Bradley and Bledsoe might. Parsons, Sullinger, Seraphin and Vasquez likely do not. Faried is so ridiculously productive that trading him would be too risky. In the end, the decisions need to be weighed like any other, and good front offices will do this better. But the lesson of Parsons is to use those non-lottery picks instead of selling them off, and to look for players who can be productive early, and to keep a reasonable mind about their long-term potential and trade value.” Keep Reading…