Tuesday Bolts – 10.13.15
Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com: “Ellie’s favorite team? The Oklahoma City Thunder. Favorite player? Kevin Durant. Why? ‘It’s simple, her mother, Dana, says. ‘It’s because he [KD] is a really good player and they [OKC] are a really good team.’ Her friends feel the same way. They wear KD shoes, compare KD socks — ‘anything with the KD logo,’ Ellie’s mother says. And if they have time to watch a game, it’s the Thunder on the screen, not the Lakers.”
Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report: “It is the calm before what will be, as surely as Kevin Durant’s contract is set to expire, a season of storms. The final tornado could be a whirlwind NBA championship parade, creating unprecedented civic pride for a place perceived to be just a minor league city. Or it could be the absolute downpour that would be Durant’s departure from Oklahoma City. To call on this town now means picking up more on excitement than awkwardness. That’s largely a product of how immaterial last season was with Durant’s foot injury sidelining him so long that the Thunder didn’t even make the playoffs.”
A podcast with Ramona Shelburne on her Thunder story.
Rob Mahoney of SI.com on the Pels: “Only in the West would a young, 45-win team fresh off its first playoff run in four years feel compelled to make this kind of change. Even subsistence in the conference requires improvement. For New Orleans to merely qualify for the postseason again as the eighth seed, it would need to stave off hungry opponents in Utah and Phoenix, to say nothing of the potential challenges Dallas or Sacramento could mount. The need for growth and reinvention is unrelenting. The Pelicans hope that by running, they’ll do better than keep pace.”
The Thunder are seventh in ESPN’s Ultimate Standings: “Oklahoma City doesn’t have one transformative landmark star; it has two. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both among the 10-best and most popular players in the NBA, have owned the city since day one — the key reason the Thunder are ranked fifth in players among all pro sports teams. That and OKC’s perennial status as a title contender have made the recent injuries to Durant and Westbrook even more painful.”
Erik Horne: “One of the biggest defensive changes the Thunder has made in preseason camp is in positioning. The Thunder’s frontcourt players are now asked to sit deeper, particularly in defending the pick-and-roll. It’s a challenge for the guards, as Donovan wants them to toe that balance between defending the 3-point line and not conceding driving gaps and opportunities at the rim.”
