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Tuesday Bolts – 1.7.14

Tuesday Bolts – 1.7.14
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Berry Tramel on Scott Brooks being a players’ coach: “In the same way that we all love working for bosses who show us consideration on a variety of fronts, Brooks’ play was a small token that Perkins won’t forget. Ironically, in the building Sunday night was Brooks’ predecessor, P.J. Carlesimo, filling in on the Celtic broadcast. Carlesimo clearly is an excellent basketball coach. But he never connected with his players during one year in Seattle (Durant’s rookie year) and 13 games with the Thunder. Carlesimo was fired after a 1-12 start in November 2008. Brooks took over, and the Thunder has been on a rise ever since. Part of that is because his players play for him. They’ll go to the mat for their coach. That’s always a good place to start in building a team.”

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN Insider has KD as MVP: “And here’s the thing about the Westbrook injury: The numbers say Durant hasn’t missed his co-pilot at all. In fact, Durant’s been playing at superhuman levels without his star point guard. In the past six games, Durant is averaging 32.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists on 51.9 percent shooting from the floor and 40.5 percent shooting from downtown. This follows a fascinating trend that has been true all season: Durant has played much better with Westbrook on the bench. Get this: According to NBA’s StatsCube database, Durant has put up a 35.4 PER in the 488 minutes with Westbrook riding pine. I repeat, 35.4 PER.”

Marc Stein has OKC fifth this week: “Kevin Durant is scoring at a 32.8 PPG clip since Russell Westbrook went down, but OKC wasn’t supposed to be struggling like this — or leaning on KD this heavily — in the short term. Which suggests that, no matter how often it’s happened since April, maybe you never get “used” to life without Russ.”

Andre Miller is very available right now. By dealing Ryan Gomes, might the Thunder be positioning to nab him? (Probably no, since Miller makes $5 million this season and even with dumping Gomes, that doesn’t fit under the tax.)

Darnell Mayberry: “Jeremy Lamb hasn’t been as good as advertised. He’s been better. Acquired as the main piece in the trade that sent James Harden to Houston just before the start of last season, Lamb is quickly coming into his own after a year spent learning the ropes. He’s been effective and efficient in his role as a scoring spark off the bench, and he’s showing more potential as an all-around impact player with the passing of each period.”