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Live Lotto Diary (and open discussion if you please)

by Royce Young on May 19, 2009 at 5:26 pm 233 Comments

Who’s ready? I just got back from Quail Springs Mall. I ended up throwing $600 worth of pennies into their fountain. I hope that’s not wasted cash. We are in a recession you know. Truthfully, I’m just ready for this to be over and done with. Come 8 p.m. tonight, we’ll all know where we’re picking and then we can spend a month talking about what will happen with the next step. But I’m just ready to be on to that next step.

7:26 p.m. CST: Let’s do this. I just got through with my 114th viewing of Sons of Thunder, so I’m almost there.

7:29: A mock lottery has about as much chance of being right as a mock draft, but I’m going on record: 1. Wizards 2. Kings 3. Thunder 4. Clippers 5. Timberwolves 6. Grizzlies 7. Golden State 8. New York 9. Toronto 10. New Jersey 11. Milwaukee 12. Indiana 13. Charlotte 14. Phoenix. I didn’t have the stones to pick it (as if my picks really matter), but for some reason I really feel like the Knicks are going to win it. I have no idea why, just a feeling.

7:30: By the way, I would have just live Twittered this thing, but I can’t keep comments to just 140 characters. I just can’t. I have to write more than that. Because… I just can’t stop typing. I just always want to say more. I write and write and write. See? I’m doing it again. I mean, what’s wrong with me? (trails off, mumbling to myself)

7:32: I’m not going to lie, I really dig Ricky Rubio. The guy is likable. He always struck me as a “rock star” type player, but he said in a little featurette that he’s extremely shy and doesn’t like to be the center of attention. Nice to know. Keep Reading…

Essential tips to prepare for the lottery

by Royce Young on May 19, 2009 at 10:12 am 44 Comments

Where: NBA Entertainment Studios, Secaucus, New Jersey
When: 7:30 CST
Where to see it: ESPN

Tonight that whole lottery thing happens. We finally can quit speculating about if we pick here or if we land there. It will be nice to stop wondering. It all just comes down to those 119 lottery balls and where they land. It’s really all out of our hands now.

Or is it?

You’re probably asking yourself, “But Royce, what can I do to help?” Well here, let me give you some essential things to do today in preparation for tonight’s lottery.

Buy a custom Thunder No. 23 jersey with GRIFFIN on the back right now. Make sure it’s non-refundable. And one of the $250 kinds. Go big or go home.

Urge Sam Presti to make a promise to sign Taylor Griffin. Blake only plays with Taylor. Everybody knows that.

Ask Gary England to make it thunder today.

Play ESPN’s lottery generator until Oklahoma City gets the top pick 23 times.

Like Silas in the Da Vinci code, put yourself through Blake’s transgressions: take a shot to the nards, get tripped while running, take a phantom elbow and get a concussion, hit your face on the backboard (ladder/trampoline may be required), get judo-flipped onto your back and make your nose bleed every 15 minutes.

Promise your husband or wife that you’re naming your first born (or next child) Blake – boy… or girl.

If you’re already done having children, legally change the name of your first born to Blake. Or just have another one. Whatever’s easiest.

Make outlandish, over-the-top statements about what you’ll do if OKC lands the top pick. If we get the No. 1 pick, I’ll sleep on broken lightbulbs for a year. Or, if we get the No. 1 pick, I’ll let someone shoot me in the chest with one of those police bean bag guns. Or, if we get the No. 1 pick, I’ll swim across Lake Hefner… naked. Or, if we get the No. 1 pick, I’ll personally pay Blake’s salary. You get the idea.

Make out with a picture of Blake. Like MAKE OUT with it.

Don’t let any “Hey, maybe I’d be OK with getting the No. 2 pick anyway” thoughts creep into your head. I know. I’ve been fighting them too. There’s just something about that Rubio guy that is so dang likable. (But I will take number two David. It’s better than six.)

Watch the following video 119 times.

Send a letter to your congressman. I have no idea what that does, but everyone always says to do it when you want something.

Come up with three totally awesome nicknames for Blake that only work with Oklahoma City or Thunder.

Remind David Stern about how Blake Griffin is, you know, from here and all. And how that will be good for the league. And how much money that could make the league. And also about that Tyson Chandler deal that we gave back to help NOLA save face. Yeah, remind him about all that.

Promise to hurt yourself badly if Oklahoma City doesn’t get the No. 1 pick.

Promise not to cry, NO MATTER WHAT.

Create a player named “B. Griffin” on NBA 2K9 and put him on the Thunder. See what I did there?

Ask Randy Roper to sprinkle some holy water on our 119 lottery balls.

Most importantly, mentally prepare yourself for the fourth pick. Convince yourself that it’s probably better to get the fourth slot than the first anyway. Because that’s what’s going to happen. So just get ready for it. Just spend the rest of the afternoon getting ready for disappointment. It should make the let down a little more gentle. I know that’s what I’m doing. I just picked up a THABEET No. 34 Thunder jersey today. Non-refundable too.

Tuesday Bolts – Day of Reckoning Edition

by Royce Young on May 19, 2009 at 7:54 am 32 Comments

That’s what my wife called it this morning. And she is right. The Day of Reckoning is upon us. Is anyone else already nervous? Because I’m really working myself up here. I think I could be a mess at about 5 p.m. tonight. Don’t forget, thunderbolt2312 live running diary tonight. Be here to join in on the fun. I’ll make unbelievably interesting and insightful comments and you guys can respond and chit-chat. It should be quite a scene, man.

Sam Amico with some wise words about the lottery: “Is the lottery pre-arranged? Absolutely not. It just seems that way. Actually, I’d be in favor of rigging the thing, provided the team with the worst record got the No. 1 pick. That’s how it works in other sports and that’s how it should be. My theory is if a team wants to lose on purpose, let it. Honestly, could the Clippers have been any worse even if they had tried? I doubt it. You can’t get beat by Sacramento in three out of four games (as the Clippers did) and convince me that you’re giving maximum effort. So what difference does it make? … Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get ready to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder win the right to draft Oklahoma University star Blake Griffin. Oh, wait. Did I just say that out loud?” I like the way he thinks.

In case you missed it, Jodie Meeks and a few others worked out Saturday for the Thunder: “Jodie, along with Dar Tucker, Danny Green, Antonio Anderson, Marcus Landry, and Leo Lyons worked out with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday and that figures to be the first of many for Meeks. The Thunder have a lottery pick then the 25th pick in the Draft, so they clearly are looking at guys who fit the late first round bill. I haven’t heard anything about how the workout went, but Oklahoma City could be that one team.” I love Danny Green and Meeks is quite the scorer. I like both of those guys in every way with our late round pick.

Rip City Project on the lottery: “Then I wanted to put Oklahoma City in the #1 spot because my inner conspiracy theorist says if the Thunder are going to work long-term why not give them the best player and a hometown boy. But my inner conspiracy theorist then remembered that they stole the team from Seattle and David Stern might light their ping pong balls on fire to make sure they don’t come out with #1. So even though I secretly think they are going to get it, I can’t in good faith predict it.” Keep Reading…

Fast Break Rumblings

by Royce Young on May 18, 2009 at 2:54 pm 29 Comments

Over the weekend while watching some basketball and such, I had some thoughts. Here they are.

Shane Battier became a basketball cult hero this season with Michael Lewis’ Moneyball article on him and then with his outstanding defense on Kobe during the Western semis. So it seems to me that other GMs would be looking for a guy to mimic Battier. And so while I was thinking of college prospects that could be the next Battier, one guy popped in my head – Thabo Sefolosha. Both are 6’7″, both are extremely lengthy and both take pride in their defense. Battier has been in the league for four more years than Thabo, but I can definitely see Thabo becoming an elite defensive stopper for this team. And if he develops a nice three-pointer like Battier has, well then color me excited.

I absolutely can NOT wait for next season. I don’t know what the deal is right now, but watching the playoffs, I just can’t wait to watch my team again. I was excited for this season, but it was more of a shock I-can’t-believe-a-team-is-really-here type of excitement. Now I’m genuinely psyched for basketball next season. Almost as much as college football. Almost.

I really wish Oklahoma City’s in-game production people would take the Laker approach instead of the Cleveland one. Instead of clips of Kashmir and other rap and rock songs mid-game, I’d much prefer the more classic organ-ish music. I love the way it sounds. It’s much better than hearing the same stinking songs every game. The organ (thing) is so much more classy. And I think that’s the type of organization the Thunder wants to be. So drop “Sexy Back” and bring in an organ version of Rocket Man Benny and the Jets. Keep Reading…

Monday Bolts – 5.18.09

by Royce Young on May 18, 2009 at 8:22 am 46 Comments

Tomorrow night I will be busting out another live running diary for the lottery. Last time was a smashing success thunderbolt2311 (well, as much as it could be). It will be an open discussion thread of sorts as well, so be sure to by here to discuss the heartbreak victory.

HoopsWorld has the top eight players most likely to be traded: “Earl Watson and Chucky Atkins – The cliché says the hardest two positions to fill are point guard and center. While that’s not always true, Earl Watson is a veteran guard in the last year of his contract playing for a young team that simply doesn’t need him. He defends well, looks for his teammates and is relatively low maintenance. The Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the few teams with significant cap room this summer. In addition to Watson’s $6.6 million contract, Chucky Atkins is only guaranteed $760,000 of his $3.48 million salary. The Thunder can spend on the free agent market. They can make deals where the incoming salaries are far greater than the outgoing. They can cut Atkins to increase their own cap space or send him out in trade (either alone or with Watson). With a bright young roster including Kevin Durant, Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City could vastly improve their team this summer. The Thunder should have plenty of callers from teams looking for fiscal saving and/or a veteran point in Watson. Both players are eligible to be moved at any point this offseason.”

Chris Silva from the team site attempts to explain the lottery: “The Thunder will receive anywhere between the No. 1 through No. 7 draft selections. By now, you’ve already heard that the Thunder’s odds of landing the top overall pick in the draft are just 11.9 percent. That’s just a gentler way of saying the Thunder has an 88.1 percent chance of NOT drawing the top pick. So, should the Thunder not receive the top pick, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Thunder has a 12.57 percent chance of nabbing the second overall pick, a 13.24 percent chance of getting the third pick, a 9.98 percent chance of landing the fourth pick, a 34.99 percent chance of getting the fifth pick (its highest percentage for a pick), a 16.05 percent chance of having the sixth pick and a 1.26 percent chance of ending up with the seventh pick. But before your brain goes into overdrive with all these possible scenarios, heed this: the Thunder will get a good player wherever it falls in the lottery, whether it keeps or trades the pick. It’s a valuable asset to have. And it’s a pretty simple concept to grasp.”

Evidently, the Knicks would take Rubio over Griffin if given the chance: “If the Knicks beat the odds and surge to No. 1 or 2, they are expected to take Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, the 19-year-old phenom whom Mike D’Antoni faced in the 2008 Olympics. Blake Griffin, the bullish Oklahoma forward, is the consensus No. 1 pick, but the Knicks prefer the Spanish playmaker. UConn 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet is the consensus third pick and could fill the Knicks’ glaring lack of shot blocking.” Seems like pretty strong speculation. I can understand D’Antoni trying to find another Steve Nash, but he needs another Amare Stoudemire to make it all work too. Keep Reading…

Saturday morning cartoons: Last year’s lottery

by Royce Young on May 16, 2009 at 7:30 am 22 Comments

I think a lot of Oklahoma City folks were paying more attention to the lottery last year than ever before because of the prospect of getting a team soon, but still, let’s have a refresher. It’s one of those things that takes about four minutes, but they try and turn into an hour long special. But once the envelopes start opening, it’s over just like that. And the sting of where you land hits you pretty hard. Sixth? SIXTH? COME ON!!! Let’s hope Coach Scotty has a little better luck than KD did. But then again, KD got us Russell Westbrook, which I’m pretty darn happy about. Anyway, watch the video.

The Official Daily Thunder Big Board (Part I)

by Royce Young on May 15, 2009 at 1:08 pm 81 Comments

That’s right, official. Meaning Joe and I got together, spent hours debating, crunching numbers, debating, watching tape, arm wrestling, debating and… debating coming up with this list. It really was quite an ordeal. In coming up with our big board, we weighed Oklahoma City’s team needs along with the best player available. Surprisingly, we didn’t have to do a whole lot of moving around because we agreed a lot on at least the top 15 or so players.

To be clear, this is a draft board, not a mock draft, or a “if we get this pick, we take this guy” list. For those of you that aren’t clear on a “big board,” basically it just a list ranking players that you would take if they are still available. Once a player gets taken, you cross him off, and then you move to the player next highest on the list. It’s like the AP Top 25, but for individual basketball players.

This is part one. We’ll have part two with 13-30 up in a couple weeks, but we wanted to be on record before the lottery dashes our dreams of thinking about No. 1 or 2. We can also just call this “Version 1.0″ as well, because post combine, we may do a little revising. And as always, feel free to tell us how wrong we are in the comments. That’s really what it’s all about. But as Joe said, when in doubt, just go with the guy with the fewest tattoos.

1. Blake Griffin – 6’10″/ F/ Oklahoma (highlights)

Royce: There’s just no doubt. Every scout, every GM, every analyst says he’s No.1. Basically, if Sam Presti had the chance and passed on Blake, Tony Almeida would be hired to release a canister of whatever-the-crap-that-is inside Leadership Square. He fits every need the Thunder has, plus you know, he’s from here. I know some people like the flash of Rubio and they may say a playmaker like Rubio doesn’t come along very often. (Except for Tony Parker, Deron Williams, Devin Harris, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Mo Williams, Rajon Rondo, Chauncey Billups, Derrick Rose and Steve Nash. You know, besides them.) The reality is, power forwards of Blake’s caliber don’t come along very often. Go ahead, name the top 10 power forwards in the league. You’ll be surprised once you get to No. 10.

Joe: The most skilled big man in the draft since……Can we just hand him the rookie of the year award before he even gets a paycheck?

2. Ricky Rubio – 6’3″/ G/ DKV Joventut (highlights)

Royce: Rubio may very well become a fantastic player. But let’s all look at the facts: He averaged 10.0 ppg and 6.1 apg this year in 22 games against second tier competition. Sure he was nice in the Olympics, but his best game was eight points and three assists. Seriously, look over his Olympic stats. People act like he was putting up 20 and 15 in Beijing. He grabbed everybody’s attention at the Games, but was it because of his actual play, or just his flash, style and hype? The thing about Rubio is he’s a relative unknown. We’re all basing what we think about him on some articles and commentary by others. I’ve seen him play a total of six games. I thought he was very slick and a pretty good point guard, but I didn’t immediately think, “Oh yeah, he’s totally Chris Paul good.” He’s absolutely deserving of the second pick, but Blake Griffin stands alone, unquestioned, at the top. Rubio is quite a consolation prize for No. 2 though, no doubt. But I just can not get behind him being picked in front of Blake.

Joe: He makes passes that you just don’t see very often. He reminds me of a long armed, rangy Jason Kidd, mixed with a little Jason Williams “white chocolate” showtime.

3. James Harden – 6’5″/ G/ Arizona State (highlights)

Royce: People have tried to come up with words to describe Harden’s game – crafy, inventive, refined (why is it always the lefties that get called “crafty”?). What they’re trying to say is he’s just a good basketball player. He’s not going over the top of you for a dunk and he’s not going to run past you, but he’s still going to score. But it’s not like he’s some slow slob. He’s sneaky athletic. The type of guy that rises out of no where for a big dunk. And he fits this team in most every way. People point to his poor tournament showing, but Harden was doubled and even tripled at times. One thing that scares me a little about Harden is we don’t know a lot about his man-to-man defensive skills. At Arizona State, he played almost exclusively in a 2-3 zone. Was that to protect Harden from foul trouble? Was it because the team was a bit undersized? Or was that to mask defensive defienciencies? Who knows. What I see is a lefty Brandon Roy. A guy that can handle the ball, pass extremely well, scores in multiple ways and just has that “good basketball player” look. And he’s got a beard. You’ve got to love the beard.

Joe: What I like about Harden, more than any other player in the lottery is his ability to create his own offense. That is a skill that never goes out of style. When the jumpshots aren’t falling, or nobody can get an open look, it’s a good thing to be able to make something out of nothing. Plus, Harden is almost like another point guard with his great court vision, willingness to pass the ball and complimentary style. He’s a very efficient guard with a beefy body that won’t get pushed around. Keep Reading…

Friday Bolts – RIP Wayman Tisdale

by Royce Young on May 15, 2009 at 8:27 am 32 Comments

A report from CBSSports.com says that OU legend Wayman Tisdale has passed away after a long battle with cancer. I can’t tell you how sick I feel to my stomach right now. An absolutely devastating day for all Oklahomans, school colors aside. Rest in Peace No. 23.

Yep, I cried pretty much the whole way through that. The rest of this feels pointless to me right now, but I’ll carry on…

A Q&A with Kevin Durant from Hoop Magazine. I especially like this part: “HOOP: Speaking of flying, we hear Michael Jordan nicknamed you “Flight 35″? Durant: Michael Jordan named me that? That’s the first time I’ve heard that nickname. That’s unbelievable. I didn’t know Michael Jordan even knew who I was.” It just shocks me how down to earth and humble KD is. Most guys probably think, “Of course Michael Jordan knows who I am!” but not KD. My list of reasons that I love him is turning into one of those super-long connected printouts like Doc Brown was running around with in Back to the Future. And growing.

A very interesting Sporcle: Name all the relocated teams. Some of them will kind of surprise you, especially the years it happened. I did better than I thought I would (19 for 26). Kind of amazing how many teams have relocated and how little those teams are hated. (sarcastic cough) Keep Reading…

1. Blake Griffin – 6’10″/ F/ Oklahoma (highlights)

2. Ricky Rubio – 6’3″/ G/ DKV Joventut (highlights)

3. James Harden – 6’5″/ G/ Arizona State (highlights)

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