Daily Thunder.com

First off, a big happy birthday to my wife who is celebrating her golden birthday today. I got her a game worn Robert Swift jersey. She’ll love it, right?

• Jeff Green says he called bank on Wednesday’s game-winner: “SLAM: Did you call ‘bank’ on your game-winner? Jeff Green: (Laughs). Yup. SLAM: You did? JG: Yup.” Be sure to read on to see a good interview with Russell Westbrook too.
• Excellent lengthy feature by Chris Colston of USA Today on Oklahoma City and the ride that is professional basketball: To some, this game might be a meaningless blip in the NBA’s 1,230-game regular season. But inside Ford Center on Sunday, it doesn’t feel that way. Overhead speakers rumble with recorded thunder, and nearly all game the pale-blue-clad crowd roars when the home team scores. It’s Oklahoma City’s ninth sellout in 23 games — and third in its last four. Even with the NFL conference championship games on TV, the upper deck is packed, going we-just-won-the-NBA Finals crazy when team star Kevin Durant hit a three-pointer to cut the Miami Heat’s lead to five with 9:44 left” The best quote from the piece came from David Stern -  “I can’t imagine any scenario where that franchise would leave Oklahoma City.”
• What’s that you hear Washington? That’s right, it’s Thunder: “Once the ball banked off the glass and through the hoop, I immediately thought to myself that the Thunder could actually enter the all-star break with a better record than Washington. It seemed impossible at the end of 2008, but the Thunder is playing better basketball than the Wizards right now and its schedule between now and the all-star break is slightly softer.”
• Really interesting thinking here by Shoals about alley-oops: “Maybe we’re putting the heads ahead of the other heads. But remember, the dunk itself was once thought of as useless tomfoolery. Now, most people would agree that relatively sane dunking is the easiest way to ensure the ball goes through the hoop. The paradox of progress is that imagination is always linked to style, and yet it also provides the seed for innovation that changes the face of function. Think about the way the Suns or Warriors use to alter the dimensions of the court (scrapped book idea: using advanced physics to prove this), all through a mode of play dripping with style. Is a team like the Magic or Hornets this close to another great, sustained breakthrough?”

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• Well wouldn’t you look at that. The ESPN “Worst Ever” tracker is missing a team.

• David Thorpe has Russell Westbrook at No. 2 in his latest Rookie Watch: “All of which makes Russell Westbrook‘s rise more impressive. He’s fourth in this class in minutes played, yet he has been able to advance his game every month. He is now playing at a level equal to Rose and Mayo, and he has even been better in some areas. Most importantly, Westbrook has helped his team earn four wins thus far in January — equal to Chicago’s win total this month and three more wins than Memphis has in 2009. Of course, having Kevin Durant as a teammate is a big help, but Westbrook was huge in three of those wins. He is playing like a legit ROY candidate now. I expect Rose and Mayo to regain their edge and finish the season in grand style. Both of them were ready for this season long before it started. They have the pride and smarts to figure things out and get themselves going again. But the question is, when will Westbrook hit The Wall? And when he does, will it knock him down for good or just prove to be a temporary obstacle?”

• Ball Don’t Lie, Behind the Box Score: “This game should have been fun, and maybe it was the six hours of basketball-watchin’ talkin’, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I dug seeing the Thunder play well, and attack attack attack, but it just doesn’t feel legit against that Warrior “defense.” That’s not said in retrospect, either. It felt that way during the actual, close, contest. Kevin Durant missed some shots, but 27 and 12 boards and five assists … yes. Jeff Green, very active, very nosy, game-winning bank shot that you know he didn’t call, 26 points in 32 minutes. And Russell Westbrook? This cat can ball. Strong as hell, 30 points and seven assists, and Sam Presti really nailed this one. Gutsy call that looks like one of the bigger draft steals of the last decade. Nobody had this guy going at fourth overall except for Presti, and it looks wholly deserved at this point.”

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I don’t want to detract from tonight’s game and pregame write up, so I will make this brief.  There was a little news blurb out of Tulsa today, specifically our 66ers D-League Affiliate. Apparently Presti’s people down there (we are one of only three teams that actually own our own affiliate) re-acquired the shaggy one Steven Hill who had a little cup of coffee with the big team earlier this year. They traded former Thunder player Ronald Dupree who was in Tulsa.

But in other news, Presti’s guys acquired Gary Forbes in a trade for Chris Ellis. I’ve never heard of Chris Ellis, but I have heard of Gary Forbes. He was doing his best last spring trying to get drafted out of UMass. He had a good showing at the Portsmouth invitational, and was the MVP of the Orlando pre-draft camp (which is the camp that all the guys that aren’t a lock to get drafted go to). He is a scorer, not so much of a defender, and he is a shooting guard/swingman. He’s about the same size as D-Wilk.

The only real significance here is that we need a shooter, and he has been shooting well in the D-League.  He was traded for, and so it gains significance with the trade deadline less than a month away. If we consolidate our roster, moving out one or more guys, this may be somebody that fills a role on the team if we are short handed. Same goes for Shaggy Hill.

The press release is here.

Gary Forbes’ Draftexpress bio.

Over at Clipperblog last week, Kevin Arnovitz wrote a nice little diddy about sharpshooting forward Steve Novak and the concept of the 180 shooter. Rick Majerus evidently coined the term and it means adding a players’ field goal, three point and free throw percentages and see if it total 180. If it does, then you’re a dang fine – DANG FINE - shooter.

So I got to thinking: Does OKC have any potential 180 shooters? Well, obviously Desmond Mason, right? Oh, he’s just a 97 shooter (in his defense, he is just 0-3 from three). Obviously, on the Thunder roster just one player is even in the discussion. But looking at the numbers, what Durant is doing is kind of amazing. Right now KD’s total is 175.9. He’s shooting 47.2 percent from the field, 43.3 from three and 85.4 from the free throw line. Compare that to last year, where Durant’s total was 159.1. He hit 43 percent from the field, a paltry 28.8 from trey and 87.3 from the line. (One thing that I’d like to point out is that a lot of people chalk up Durant’s low field goal percentage last year due to shot selection and too many threes. The thing is, he’s taking 3.1 threes per game compared to 2.6 last year. The difference? He’s making them. He’s not forcing it. He’s letting the looks come when they do. Just wanted to throw that out there.)

For perspective, look at the top five scorers in the league. Dwayne Wade leads the league in scoring and his score is 149.4. LeBron has a 156.1. Kobe is a 169.3. Danny Granger has a 171.3. Dirk Nowitzki clocks in at 177.0. What’s separating guys like Dirk and KD is their ability to hit the three. That’s where most players fail. LeBron hits a high percentage of shots, but that’s because he’s only four feet away from it most of the time. The trend with 180 shooters (or guys close to it) is that they are typically guards or “specialist” players. You don’t typically see scorers like Durant and Dirk in the upper 170′s. Keep Reading…