Daily Thunder.com

The full Draft Combine list: 52 players will be there in all and the list includes Blake Griffin, DeJuan Blair, Earl Clark, Stephen Curry, James Harden, oh heck, you just click the link and look for yourself.

Darnell Mayberry writes about the “mythical All-NBA Fourth Team,” saying KD would have made it because he got 34 points and finished honorable mention. He goes on to say Durant could easily replace Pau Gasol, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan or Dirk as early as next year. But then he says this: “What it’ll take, though, is at least 20 more wins for the Thunder and for Durant to string together an entire season of performances similar to those he showed us every night from January through the end of February. Durant’s numbers, which are already worthy of placing him on an All-NBA Team, are likely to increase again next season and only bolster his case. But of the players on this year’s All-NBA Teams, Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat finished with the worst record at 43-39. The Thunder finished 23-59. A 20-game improvement for the Thunder next season is not far-fetched. And by the looks of it, neither is Durant earning his first All-NBA Team selection.” Hey, I’m all for 43 wins next year. But as we piddle through this offseason, I can just feel expectations beginning to rise. It’s not far-fetched I guess, but it’s kind of a long shot.

I played ESPN’s Lottery Generator yesterday, and OKC won the lottery three straight times. That was after about 50 misses, but still. Keep Reading…

Any time you start to doubt Blake Griffin, take a look at this quote from Chad Ford: “Thomas (Memphis, TN): How legit is Blake Griffin as a #1 pick in the NBA? Chad Ford: I just spent the day with him in San Francisco on Monday. All I can say is wow. The physical tools are amazing and the workout he goes through everyday is the most grueling I’ve ever seen. Griffin looks like he’s training to be a Navy SEAL. However, what was really impressive was the basketball part with former Spurs head coach Bob Hill. He’s much more skilled offensively than you think. Excellent ball handler and nice stroke with some three point range. And he’s a nice, grounded kid with a very cool family. I was super impressed.”

Also: Craig (LA): “Which lottery team is the best situation for Blake Griffin? Chad Ford: If I’m Griffin I’m praying that the Knicks or Thunder win the lottery. Worst case scenario for him is the Clippers or Timberwolves.” Basically just read the whole chat. Lots of info about Griffin as well as Steph Curry, Jrue Holliday and Hasheem Thabeet. I think Ford has a story coming on Griffin later today and I’ll update when it’s out. He said he’s going to watch Thabeet work out today so that should be interesting.  

I thought this was an interesting post from Bullets Forever in regards to the whole Rubio-Griffin debate: “The point guards on that list certainly aren’t terrible, but Tony Parker is the only PG on that list who made it to the All-Star Game in the same year that he also won the championship, and that was only in the 2007 season.  On the other hand, every big man on that list played in the All-Star Game with the exception of Duncan in ’99, since there was no game because of the lockout.  Furthermore, the top 3 big men of the decade (Shaq, Duncan, and Garnett) all have titles to their name, whereas the only one of the three best point guards of the decade (Kidd, Nash, and Billups) has won a championship. Recent history shows strong support for putting more importance on an elite big man rather than top point guard, but this year may start to turn those tides a little bit.  More likely than not, this year’s champion is either going to be the Cavaliers or the Lakers.  If that’s the case, the best big man on those two teams are Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Pau Gasol.  Both solid big men but neither is on the same level as Shaq, Duncan, or Garnett.  Then again, just because it doesn’t look like an elite big man will walk away with a title this year doesn’t mean that the elite point guards are starting to make the NBA a point guard driven league since the most likely candidates to win a title this year are Mo Williams and Derek Fisher.  Again, both are nice players, but neither would be mistaken for an elite point guard.” That’s good stuff. I wish I had thought of that. Keep Reading…

Rivals talked with Jermaine Taylor after his workout with OKC: “At first I just did athletic drills – my vertical leap, how many times you can bench 195, things like that. Then we did some shooting drills. Then we did some one-on-one, two-on-two and three-on-three (drills). I didn’t know what to expect, but I wasn’t nervous at all. I’m never nervous to play basketball. I thought I did pretty well. From what my agent was telling me, they thought I did really well.”

Draft Express on this year’s point guard crop: “Ty Lawson looks as good as anyone from this perspective, regardless of position. As we put this data together, we weren’t surprised that Ty Lawson excelled from a situational perspective, as he did play for the most potent offense in all of college basketball, but we didn’t expect him to look this good. He ranks first in a number of key categories, including overall FG% (52%), Points Per Possession [PPP](1.13), pull up jump shot FG% (47%), and %shots he was fouled on (16.1%). Though his teammates did a lot of scoring as well, Lawson functioned seamlessly as a complementary scorer. Looking past his efficiency as a shooter off the dribble, he was second in catch and shoot field goal percentage at 48%. From a purely statistical sense, no player on this list scored more efficiently than Lawson.”

This is the type of person ruining America. The father of the kid that Big Baby Davis bumped into sent a letter to the league demanding an apology for acting like a “raging animal with no regard for fans’ personal safety.” A raging animal with no regard for fans’ personal safety? What? Davis bumped the kid. His hat fell off! Didn’t knock him over, didn’t hurt him and didn’t even really move him. He bumped him and his hat fell off. But he was the type of punk kid that was wearing his hat sideways barely sitting on top of his head so if a toddler waddled into his leg, his hat probably would have fallen off. I just really can’t believe that moron guy wants an apology. Moving on. Keep Reading…

Nine days until the lottery. Go to your local Catholic establishment and find some holy water and start sprinkling it everywhere.

USA Today’s No Defense team: “G/F Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder: Made an incredibly strong run at No-Defense Player of the Year to follow up his very deserving No-D Rookie of the Year nod last year. I don’t get it-long arms, great talent . . . yet the numbers scream out that he’s an awful defender.”

A story about Shaun Livingston where he talks about his involvement with the movie industry: “When the credits roll to the motion picture “Next Day Air” there will be a familiar name that scrolls across the screen. Thunder point guard Shaun Livingston served as one of the film’s executive producers, which was released in movie theaters on Friday. The movie stars Mike Epps, Wood Harris, Donald Faison and hip hop recording artist Mos Def. “We had a hand in it,” Livingston said via cell phone from Miami, where he concluded a three-day workout with Thunder player development assistant Brian Keefe. “It was minimal, as far as creative control. But we were there and we were in it.”

Would you look at that – Livingston’s even got an IMDB page: He’s got two appearances on Rome Is Burning and is also a produer for 2009′s Pastor Brown. Quite a page he’s got there. Keep Reading…

I enjoyed the read over at NBAdraft.net on the main page today, it is full of little draft rumor gems. With the draft lottery just about  a week and a half away, I am getting pretty excited. I was trying to decide if this year’s draft will be more important to the franchise than last year’s draft was. I think after reflection the answer is that it depends. It depends on how we fare at the lottery. If we get the top pick or the second pick, then yes, I think it is. The player we get with 1 or 2 will likely be a 40 mpg player for us for years to come, and as important as any other player on the roster in years. If we get picks 3 through 7, it becomes less sure.

 At pick 3, a guy like Harden could be a bonafide starting SG for years, but maybe Presti makes us all fall out of our chairs with a pick like Hasheem Thabeet……I don’t think Thabeet will ever be a 40mpg player in the NBA, and if he is, it will be a few years down the road, that much is for sure in my opinion. Also at 3-7, a guy like Stephon Curry would help this team immensely with ball handling and shooting, but it’s not a sure bet that he would even start, or ever start consistently. He seems like an offense off the bench/backup point guard to me at the moment. 

For those reasons, I think last year’s high lottery pick of Westbrook, in a very solid draft was more important, but, if we get a top 2 pick this year, in a weak 2 man draft, then this year would be more important.

Anyway, according to the NBAdraft.net article, the rumor is that the Knicks have given guarantees to Curry Keep Reading…