Daily Thunder.com

Neil Paine for ESPN.com on Thunder vs. Heat vs. Lakers: “Complicating matters is Kendrick Perkins. The advanced stats are none too fond of the big man, with both box-score and plus/minus metrics ranking him in the bottom third of the league on a per-minute basis. Replace him in the simulation with an average center, and OKC’s odds shoot up; plus, you might argue he isn’t terribly relevant in a series against the small-ball Heat anyway, since he logged just 23 minutes per game in the Finals. At any rate, the league’s current Lakers-Heat-Thunder triangle projects to be as compelling as any three-team battle we’ve seen in recent memory. While it’s certainly possible for another squad to unexpectedly crash the party, we’re probably going to see some combination of those three battling it out next June.”

Dylan Murphy of Dime doesn’t seem to get it: “For all intents and purposes, the Thunder had a decision to make: Serge Ibaka or James Harden. Ibaka’s recent four-year extension clearly indicates, however, that the decision was made. Many have flirted with the possibility of amnestying Kendrick Perkins’ bloated $8 million per year deal to make room for Harden, but that still won’t cut it: OKC will still be at least $6 million over in year one, which is only slated to rise as the contracts of Westbrook, Durant and Harden elevate with each successive year. (Contracts are typically backloaded, with the yearly salary increasing every year.) So really, it boils down to some creative cap-fenagling or basketball fans coming to grips with a fact we’ve only skirted around. James Harden is entering his last year in Oklahoma City.” Keep Reading…

Andy Kamenetzky of ESPN LA on how the new Lakers would’ve helped the old: “Westbrook earns an and-one after beating Kobe off the dribble, then drawing the reach foul from Gasol, who’s caught from behind on a backscreen. In the meantime, a flat-footed Bynum makes no real attempt to prevent Westbrook’s easy score after the foul. While obviously impossible to prove a negative, it’s tempting to wonder whether Howard would have done better as the last line of defense.”

Royal Ivey on something we don’t know about KD: “He doesn’t like greens. He just started eating salad like a year ago. He loves chicken wings though, but yeah, he won’t eat greens, and he’ll tell you that he doesn’t like greens or salad. I don’t know how he got so tall, or how he stays so skinny without eating greens, but he doesn’t. I sit next to him on the plane and have never seen him eat greens.” Keep Reading…

Sam Amick of SI.com polled NBA executives on the Finals: “The final tally, with three of the voters submitting only first-place votes: The defending champions in Miami received 15 first-place votes, one second-place vote and two third-place votes; their Finals foe, Oklahoma City, garnered two first-place votes, six second-place votes and eight third-place votes; and the Lakers, who have added Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, got two first-place votes, nine second-place votes and six third-place votes. The Lakers may not be seen as the favorites to win it all, but the idea that they’re the top threat to the Heat is not only a topic of much discussion in the media but also clearly a very real sentiment in NBA circles.”

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com on the poll: “When the Lakers first landed Howard, there was excitement, but also a move to consider how good Oklahoma City still is, and how they match up with the new-look L.A. after bouncing them in five games last year. But the more you look at the Lakers’ roster, and how good it looks, the more the feeling is established that the Lakers may have leap-frogged the Thunder. This poll is a reflection of that. It doesn’t mean anything, of course. “They still have to play the games” and all that. But that goes both way. Oklahoma City isn’t guaranteed to have the same success, nor the injury luck they’ve managed over the past two years. Things could just as easily go wrong for OKC as they could for the Lakers, or Miami. Basketball and its chemistry is a tenuous, delicate thing.” Keep Reading…