Tuesday Bolts – 8.11.15
NumberFire on the Northwest: “The only movement out of Oklahoma City this summer was their giving up on projects Jeremy Lamb and Perry Jones III, who they traded to Charlotte and Boston, respectively. Of course, the Thunder hope to be welcoming back a healthy Kevin Durant this year (whose last healthy season in 2013-14 yielded a league-leading 27.0 nERD and an MVP trophy), so they’ll probably be ok. Especially seeing as how they made their most important acquisitions at the trade deadline this past season when they picked up Enes Kanter, D.J. Augustin, and Kyle Singler. With Kanter and Singler re-upped, we’re about to see — once and for all — if this iteration of the Thunder can win a championship before Durant hits free agency in the summer of 2016.”
Really great stuff on Enes Kanter from Andrew Schlecht for Vantage Sports: ”What if Kanter is more of a Zach Randolph-type player than anything else? There is only one category in which they are not similar and that is passing, and we saw Enes has some room to grow and showed that to a small degree. Randolph is a unique player and perhaps comparing these two may not be all that smart, but you cannot deny the similarity. Kanter is still only 23 years old and has room for improvement. He is also on a team that prides itself in player development and has developed four max players since 2007. Many would argue that Durant would have been no matter what, and they are correct. But there is an argument to be made about Westbrook, Harden, and certainly Reggie Jackson. Do not ignore Serge Ibaka either. If he hit the open market this summer, he would demand a max contract as well. Kanter does not yet deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the players mentioned above, but we do know he is in the right place to make an improvement and show he is worth that money.”
This MJ-KD parallel thing is fun.
Kevin Love on best crossover: “Best crossover in the game, I would say, well there’s a few. Kyrie is right there. So shifty and can do so many things with the ball. Derrick Rose, his change of speed and change of direction is unlike any other,” Love continued. “Russell Westbrook is right up there because he’s so powerful. You know, those guys are amongst the elite when it comes to handling the ball.”
Michael Pina for Fox Sports projecting the 2016 U.S. roster: “Durant would be the second name in Tier 1 if not for the uncertainty surrounding his foot. There’s much less doubt about Griffin, but he injured himself leading up to the London Games three years ago and has no experience on the international stage.”
Thunder-Spurs to open the season?
Dana O’Neil of ESPN.com on Billy Donovan’s replacement: “Before Donovan (B.D., if you will) Florida had made five NCAA tournament appearances in hits history. With him, the Gators earned 14 trips with the bolded plusses — two national championships, three national title games, four Final Fours, six SEC regular-season crowns. If Florida wasn’t quite a phoenix lying in the ashes — Lon Kruger did take the Gators to a Final Four — it was an unfinished monument waiting to be completed. And really no one thought it could be completed, not under the immense shadow of football at the school, in the conference and really within the entire geographic corner of the country. Instead Donovan defied convention and logic by making Florida into a basketball power.”
