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Bradford Doolittle of ESPN Insider on spacing: “Team defense has been altered since the illegal defense rules and hand-checking protocols evolved into the form we now know. Smart coaches like Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau and San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich figured out how to load up the strong side of the court while sagging from the weak side of the defense to protect the paint. Unless there is a defensive breakdown, the only good option on many possessions is to swing the ball from one side of the court to the other in hopes of finding a weakside shooter. This requires precision ball movement and a player who can hit those open looks before the defense can recover and close. If you don’t have that kind of stand-still shooter, then the defense shuts down the lane, stifles the pick-and-roll and reduces an offense to hero shots. We saw that time and again in the Memphis-San Antonio series.”

John Rohde: “From the outset, Martin essentially was in a Catch-22 situation. Had his productivity remained on par with Harden’s, the Thunder wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep the 30-year-old Martin, who earned $12.4 million this season and will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Oddly enough, when OKC’s season abruptly finished by losing 4-1 to Memphis in the second round of the playoffs, Martin was left thirsting for more playing days with the Thunder.”

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Brandon Parker of the Washington Post: “The texts typically start rolling in around early May, players inquiring about the availability of DeMatha’s gymnasium for a workout or pick-up game. Of course, Stags Coach Mike Jones is happy to oblige, opening the space a few times a week as a who’s who of local basketball products streams through the doors. But for as many familiar and talented faces Jones sees during the typical flow of summer sessions, even he was a bit surprised when a certain NBA All-Star strolled into the gym on Saturday. Flanked by three friends and just a couple weeks removed from the end of his team’s NBA playoff run, Oklahoma City forward and Montrose Christian alum Kevin Durant came ready for what would be an intense set of contests.”

Darnell Mayberry: “Is the Thunder so talented that it couldn’t use a steady stream of points, rebounds and blocked shots from Perk? ‘With us, we don’t need the scoring,’ said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. ‘We need his toughness. We need his defense. We need his ability to guard.’ But why can’t Perkins be a stat sheet stuffer? Why can’t he provide the most basic plays from his position next season? Because we now know Perkins will in fact be back next season. Thunder general manager Sam Presti recently put to rest any and all doubts over whether Perkins will be waived under the league’s amnesty clause. So that ship — at least for this summer — has sailed.” Keep Reading…

Bill Simmons on Dwight Howard: “Jumping to Houston makes sense for Howard on just about every level … well, except for one. His critics would eviscerate him for running from Orlando and Los Angeles. And they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. We already know that Dwight is oversensitive. Some believe Dwight reversed course and agreed to that one-year Orlando extension because he couldn’t stop reading his Twitter replies right before the 2012 trade deadline; as the theory goes, he kept reading fans calling him a quitter and a loser, then melted down. So even if he believed Houston (or Dallas, or Atlanta, or wherever) was a better situation and wanted to play there, could he handle the inevitable “YOU QUIT ON THE LAKERS!” critics? Could he summon the intestinal fortitude to leave?”

Darnell Mayberry on “picking” Ibaka over Harden: “In the short term, yes. In the long run, no. Harden is a much more polished player than Ibaka and could have given the Thunder a couple of years of the best trio in basketball. It would have been a three-headed monster most teams would not have been able to defend. But three max contracts on the same team has quickly become a fading format thanks to the league’s more punitive rules. So the window would have been open for roughly two years and then the Thunder, in all likelihood, would have lost both Harden and Ibaka — possibly for nothing in return.” Keep Reading…