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Tuesday Bolts – 8.11.09

by Royce Young on August 11, 2009 at 7:45 am 42 Comments

Jenni Carlson writing about… something. It’s some kind of thing about Twitter and Nick Collison and Seattle and thunderbolt23Oklahoma City and other stuff: ”Collison is a cerebral dude with a dry sense of humor, and on Twitter, that personality comes through. It is evident. It is real. We don’t always get to see that from professional athletes. Twitter might reveal a side of some athletes that we’d rather not see, but in Collison’s case, I don’t like him less for raving about Seattle’s ambiance and complaining about Oklahoma City’s heat.”

UPDATE: I asked Nick about it and he said, “Thought it was strange. Don’t think tweets about weather should be percieved as “taking shots at OKC” … slow time of year I guess.”

The Hawks are working on signing Joe Smith: “While big men have been flying off the free-agent shelves all summer, the Hawks have had no luck in luring talent outside of the organization. The Hawks have been pursuing veteran power forward Joe Smith since last month but haven’t been able to secure a commitment from the former No. 1 overall pick.”

Shoals wasn’t happy with Mike Baldwin’s article on attendance stuff yesterday: ”If you want to wade through an overly-long, vaguely jingoistic piece on why the Thunder are actually doing well in attendance figures, The Oklahoman is the place to be. The basics: the Thunder are doing great in the numbers like season tickets sold, percentage of seats sold, overall attendance and ticket revenue.” Keep Reading…

Let me tell you how it’s all going to play out

by Royce Young on August 10, 2009 at 11:42 am 22 Comments

The schedule came out last week and since there’s not a whole heck of a lot happening right now, why not aimlessly predict stuff? For the record, whatever number I wind up with isn’t the “official” prediction for this season’s win total, just more what I settled on right now. Feel free to add your own and tell me how wrong I am. I’m going to break this down in increments. I wouldn’t dream about doing it game-by-game because that’s FreeDarko’s thing, and they do an awesome, hilarious job of it. So put on your predicting hats and let’s get dangerous.

October 28 – November 15 (Sacramento, @Detroit, Portland, LA Lakers, @Houston, Orlando, @Sacramento, @LA Clippers, @San Antonio, LA Clippers)

The season starts with an incredibly tough stretch of games. We’ve talked about it a little before, but these first 10-15 games are going to tell us a lot about this team. The Thunder could start the season out 2-8 very easily. The best I think OKC can come out of these first 10 is 5-5. And if that happens, that would be a HUGE victory and I think really good things would be in store for this team. That would mean they’re beating teams they should, winning on the road and maybe even beating teams they shouldn’t. They’d be set up to possibly be over .500 in their first 20 because the next 10 aren’t as tough. But I don’t think 5-5 is really that realistic. Five road games, six games against 2009 playoff teams and two back-to-backs. Too tough for a team that’s going to take a little time to gel.

Prediction: 4-6
Record through 10: 4-6 Keep Reading…

Monday Bolts – 8.10.09

by Royce Young on August 10, 2009 at 8:22 am 18 Comments

thunderbolt23The Scores Report looking at teams with cap space in 2010: “The Thunder are compelling because they have a great young nucleus that includes Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green and James Harden. It would be a terrific spot for a big like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire to go if they are serious about trying to win a championship.”

Basketball Fiend breaking down OKC’s offseason: ”Speaking of disappointment, I’m sorely disappointed that Sam Presti didn’t make a play for restricted free agent David Lee this offseason. Lee may not be the defensive presence that Presti is searching for (Lee had a 108 defensive rating last season according to Basketball Reference), but he is a very good defensive rebounder and a classic locker room guy (no, not in a Josh Weinstein-Entourage way). If the price is right (and it is right now), what’s not to like here? The Knicks are low-balling Lee and his agent like crazy right now. Would it kill Presti to jump in and offer three years, $24 million? The Thunder have a payroll under $50 million right now. It’s not like Lee is going to break the bank or put them in luxury tax territory. The move makes sense. What’s preventing this from happening? I want answers! Ultimately, the Thunder didn’t do much this offseason. I like the Harden pick a lot. But when four of your five major offseason acquisitions are Etan Thomas, B.J. Mullens, Kevin Ollie, and Robert Vaden, it’s a disappointing offseason. I give the Thunder a C.”

Brook Lopez talking about who impressed him most at the Team USA mini-camp: “I’d say it would come down to Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose. They are like the two best young players in the world. They definitely showed that at the camp and can take one of the spots on the team.” Keep Reading…

Robert Vaden signs to play next year in Europe

by Royce Young on August 8, 2009 at 10:26 am 13 Comments

I got an email about this, and I’ve been searching all morning for a good source to confirm it. I think I’ve got it. Per Eurobasket, Ridiculous Upside and Sportando.net:

Robert Vaden, selected in the last NBA draft with the 54th overall pick by Charlotte Bobcats, inked a contract with Imola, in Italia Legadue. Vaden, in his senior year with UAB Blazers, averaged 17.6ppg, 4.9rpg and 2.1apg. His best season was in the 2007/08 when he averaged 21.1ppg.

So it doesn’t look like Vaden will be part of either the Thunder or 66er roster this season. He definitely didn’t do much for himself during the Summer Leagues, averaging under five points a game and around 40 percent shooting. Not good for someone that was brought in to be a shooter. That’s one less roster spot to worry about, meaning it’s pretty likely that Kyle Weaver will be part of the active 12-man roster come opening night. This whole roster situation is becoming clearer by the day.

Saturday Morning Cartoons: Top 100 dunks from 2008-09

by Royce Young on August 8, 2009 at 6:30 am 9 Comments

(Morning cats and kittens. Thank you for your undying support of Daily Thunder. Carry on my wayward sons.)

First and foremost, I want to wish a happy one-year anniversary to my wonderful wife. Thanks for not killing me. To celebrate, I think we should all watch what we pay the money to see: slamjam dunks. The top 100 hammers just came out this week and there’s a few Thundermen making appearances. Kevin Durant checks in at No. 70, Jeff Green at No. 35 with his left-handed bee-auty and Russell Westbrook was the runner-up dunker of the year with his off-the-backboard flush from Earl Watson. Enjoy. And tell me happy anniversary.

(This is the top 25. For 100-70 click here, for 69-47 click here, and for 46-26 click here.)

Smart thoughts of the week: July 31 – Aug. 7

by Royce Young on August 7, 2009 at 11:06 am 12 Comments

Throughout the week some of you drop some brilliant or at least somewhat thoughtful comments and so this is a try at highlighting some of them. Disclaimer: It’s not that I necessarily agree with all of them, but they were interesting and for the most part, well put.SMTOTW

Snarky? More like smarty. (Bang4ur$): “I may be a bit snarky, so don’t take it personally – but criticizing Presti for failing to flip Chandler for Okafor is like criticizing the weatherman for failing to predict lightning would strike your house. Besides, if OKC had Okafor we would all be feeling some buyers’ remorse for that contract.

Presti likes draft picks because of where the team is in the cycle of building (opposite that of the Spurs). We know he is taking the patient, slow approach, and right now, draft picks are great. They can be traded, sold, or used, and they bring in young guns for a tryout on a team that still has some time and (roster AND cap) space for development. Once OKC signs some big-bucks contracts, and has a clear idea of the core players, they will stay away from draft picks, too. San Antonio doesn’t hate draft picks (look at Blair), but they can only afford to be very selective. They lack the cap space, court time, and window of opportunity to bring in rookies, and pretty soon OKC will be in the same boat. But not yet.

Speaking of Blair, how many of you would flip Mullens for Blair in a heartbeat? I hate to say it, but “Mullet” Mullens already looks like he will never be the kind of post player OKC needs. But that’s hardly an original thought.” Keep Reading…

Friday Bolts – Hyperizers Edition

by Royce Young on August 7, 2009 at 7:58 am 25 Comments

A couple housekeeping notes: People ask me every now and then how they can just get a list of Bolts or News or Video thunderbolt23sometimes. Two ways: Every post is tagged and put into a category. So you can either click the category name at the bottom and it will give you a list of every post that falls into that or you can go over to the sidebar and click the drop-down “categories” menu and select one there. I’m making a few changes to thing over the next few weeks so if things are different, that’s why.

Dime had a nice Q&A with Russell Westbrook: ”Dime: Do you have to work on getting a vertical leap like that, or has that been something you’ve always had naturally? RW: To be honest, I was never really jumping that high when I was younger. I had to work on it. I didn’t dunk for the first time until the last game of my senior year in high school. I didn’t really start dunking regularly until college. I just work on my legs and my core: Running the stairs, squats, working my hamstrings and quads. Then just sit-ups for my core.” Wow. You hear about other guys dunking for the first time in like seventh grade and Russ didn’t throw down until he was a senior. That’s wild.

Evidently, KD played in something called the Kenner League recently: “Either I read the schedule wrong or the schedule was wrong (I’m actually guessing that it was both), but I thought there was only going to be one game with Hoyas in it. Anyway, I showed up with one minute left in the first game and to my surprise Chris Wright (who has added some serious muscle) and Greg Monroe’s team (does anyone REALLY know or care what the team names are?) was in tight one with a team chock full of people I didn’t know. Even more shocking was that Kevin Durant was playing with Chris and Greg. KEVIN FREAKING DURANT … Kevin Durant is awesome. I mean, really awesome. He can do whatever he wants on a basketball court even with the skinny frame. He kept making this guy who I would swear was Mikki Moore look like even more of a fool than looking like Mikki Moore makes you look.” Keep Reading…

Thursday Bolts – 8.6.09

by Royce Young on August 6, 2009 at 8:12 am 59 Comments

An offseason breakdown from Bleacher Report: ”Kevin Ollie—Oklahoma City Thunder: Ollie’s a glorified assistant thunderbolt23coach who’s role with the Thunder will be to play defense and move the ball for 16 minutes, while teaching Russell Westbrook about playing defense and reading the court as an offense. Since the Thunder are putting all their stock in the future, a mentor to Westbrook is more important than talent. Should Shaun Livingston fully return from his horrendous left leg injuries, then Livingston will slide into the backup point guard role over Ollie.”

Susan Bible with a great look at Kevin Durant and a potential third year leap: ”Rising star Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder, named the NBA’s 2007-08 Rookie of the Year, is headed into his third season in the league. There has been some speculation that those players seemingly destined for superstar status experience a performance “jump” in their third year of play. With this in mind, we wondered if previous ROY winners saw a significant third-year improvement, perhaps indicating a correlation to predict how Durant’s 2009-10 season could play out. So we set about looking at box score averages and varied sources of statistical information of those players named Rookie of the Year the past five years.”

This guy has some weird preview for the Lakers season, and here’s his prediction for OKC’s first  matchup with the champs: ”Lakers survive on the road against upstart Thunder … The Thunder’s young core, led by Kevin Durant’s 30 points, give the Lakers a scare, but the Lakers’ experience leads them to victory. Even with the loss, the Thunder establish themselves as a legitimate playoff contender. Coincidentally, that night Seattle suffers its worst thunderstorm in the city’s history.” Keep Reading…

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