Thursday Bolts – Deadline Edition
It’s trade day! Make sure to refresh like a maniac all day long. You never knew when a deal has gone down!
Mike Prada of SBN ranks the top 20 NBA games of the season and the Thunder was in three of those: “Grizzlies vs. Thunder: I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to rank this game first. Seriously. This was the ultimate showcase of the two most promising young teams in the league, and it ended in a perfect way with Rudy Gay’s buzzer beater. All the key players starred, particularly Kevin Durant. Both teams played great defense all night, showing the type of effort you don’t usually see from young teams. Both teams played together and didn’t beat themselves. It was a great showcase of the future of this league.”
Kevin Durant is second behind LeBron in SI’s MVP watch: “Having scored at least 25 points in a string of 26 straight games, and with his Thunder edging up the playoff ladder, Durant gets the call here, especially with the next guy’s injury.”
In Stein’s power rankings, OKC has moved up to eight: “Wait a sec. The Thunder had the same record as San Antonio at the All-Star break and only one top-flight finisher? Book it: Durant is going to finish in the top 5 in year-end MVP balloting … and maybe in the top 3.”
Looking at Scott Brooks’ Coach of the Year case: “It’s the defensive gains that illustrate what an outstanding job Brooks has done with the Thunder. Oklahoma City was dead last in defensive efficiency last season and had no where to go but up. To the surprise of everyone, everywhere, Brooks has installed a defensive philosophy and mindset in OKC, transforming the Thunder in the process and making them a legitimately scary match-up in the first round of the playoffs this postseason. This defensive transformation has to be unprecedented. The closest recent defensive leap would probably be the Boston Celtics’ jump from 2006-07 (17th) to 2007-08 (1st), although they did it by adding two future Hall of Famers to their roster. Brooks has done it in OKC through repetition and by instilling simple defensive philosophies and focusing on the fundamentals — simple as that.”
KD fit right in at All-Star Weekend: “For the newcomers at All-Star weekend, the chance to hang out with a new set of peers can be more important than the actual game. A player can’t help but be influenced being in the same room with Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James and others. “Just being around these guys, seeing how they act,” Thunder forward and first-time All-Star Kevin Durant said after Sunday’s game. “Everybody was cool. They welcomed me in like I’ve been here for the last 10 years and I felt right at home and like I belonged, so it was a lot of fun. And I’m glad I was able to come out here and got an opportunity to play.”
From John Schuhmann: “Kiki Vandeweghe on the deadline: “I like our team.” That says it all, doesn’t it?”
A great recount of the “Scott Brooks Rule”: “The NBA actually has no formal “Scott Brooks Rule,” but the experience was so gut-wrenching, Brooks quickly became a martyr amongst his peers. Here’s what happened: Somewhere around 8 p.m. local time on Feb. 23, 1995, Brooks was on the court during his team’s halftime warmup session when Houston Rockets general manager Bob Weinhauer waved Brooks over and informed him he had been traded to Dallas. “Well, that’s a great way to tell me,” Brooks said, or words to that effect. Brooks never saw it coming. He thought he had survived the deadline. Nine days earlier against the Los Angeles Clippers, Brooks had erupted for 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting and also had four rebounds and four assists.”
