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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…

• New ESPN Power Rankings are out and OKC is up two spots at No. 26:  ”Halfway through the schedule, OKC can finally look at the standings without cringing. The Thunder rolled into 2009 with a mere four victories, but check out the L10 column now: 5-5 in the past 10 games is no misprint.” Also, the fans have the Thunder No. 25 and John Hollinger puts OKC at No. 26 as well.

• 48 Minutes of Hell talks about the rumored Nick Collison to the Spurs deal: “Right now, it looks as if only Memphis is likely to be in the same cap space neighborhood as OKC. But how much money is Michael Heisley willing to spend in a bad economy? In other words, would Sam Presti want cash to spend in a buyer’s market? And in a year when the competition for talent is scarce? More specifically, does Presti want to add a Carlos Boozer or David Lee–with money enough left for, say, Zaza Pachulia–to his core of Durant, Green and Westbrook? This might be the perfect storm of opportunity for the ambitious young GM. Turning Nick Collison into Carlos Boozer would be a neat party trick. On the court Collison is an ideal fit for San Antonio, but is he worth jeopardizing their 2010 cap space? I’m not sure. Perhaps, there is a different way to ask the question. Are the Spurs playing for championships now or later? Collison is not a bit player. His presence would immediately shore up the frontline.”

• Joe Smith prefers to stay with the Thunder: “I like the young fellas and what they bring to the table,” Smith said of the Thunder. “A lot of people want to chase that ring and things like that. But when you have a group of guys like this giving it their all every night, I don’t get involved in stuff like that. We dug this hole together. We have to fight out of this hole together.”

• OKC is trying to get over the nine-win hump and that means the players only take days off when Scott Brooks makes them: “Interim coach Scott Brooks, who took over when P.J. Carlesimo was fired after a 1-13 start, believes his team is “still learning how to win” but has improved because of an unwillingness to quit despite a hopeless 3-29 start. After the team returned from a recent overtime loss at New Jersey at 3 a.m., he decided not to hold practice later that day. When he showed up hours later, there were nine players at the practice gym. “I needed a day off. I’m like, `Get out of here,”‘ Brooks said. “We have a team full of that. They’re young guys that want to get better,” he added. “They’re thirsty, they’re hungry, they want to enjoy this league, but they enjoy it by working hard.”

• Ian Thompson on OKC’s chances of re-signing Kevin Durant: “The timing here is interesting. The owners will seek a new collective bargaining agreement with the players in 2011. Under the current terms, Durant will be, at most, a restricted free agent, enabling the Thunder to match any offer he receives. Unless he has an unexpected falling-out with team management, he won’t be going anywhere. It could be in his best interests to sign an extension with Oklahoma City under the terms of the current agreement, because the new CBA (to be negotiated in 2011-12) is expected to be less accommodating to the players, who are likely to face shorter contracts with smaller annual raises.”

Box Score

What else can I say about this game that is more to the point than “too much Dwayne Wade”?

Forty eight minutes of deep shooting brilliance by the Heat, offset by mini runs and mini slumps by the Thunder. This game never really seemed like a game that the Thunder were going to win. It was close for most of the first quarter until the Heat took the lead at 22-19 late in the first, and never relinquished the lead.

The Thunder did many of the things that they’ve done successfully in the last 9 games, like getting to the line quite a bit, and win the battle of the boards, yet still the Thunder turned the ball over too much, and couldn’t seem to do anything about guarding the perimeter. The Heat just let fly from deep all night long, and the Thunder could only seem to counter that with average field goal shooting and a lot of free throws. The Heat launched 21 three pointers and hit 11 of them (52%). It’s tough to win countering that with one point free throws.

Tonight’s game was a bit unusual even for the the Heat. The Heat go to the line an average of 23 times per night. Against the Thunder, they didn’t bother with attacking the rim too often and only got to the line 14 times. Dwayne Wade averages 10 free throws alone, yet only got 2. He had twice as many three point attempts as he did free throw attempts. He also averages 21 field goal attempts, but tonight had 28. Why attack the basket? That’s a lot of work, and you get knocked around when you get there. It’s much easier to jack up shots if you can make them like Wade does. Keep Reading…