Friday Bolts – 1.28.11

Kevin Durant on his All-Star selection: “Thank you all for voting me into the All-Star game I am extremely humbled! I wish I could thank u all personally!!!! Thank u this is a dream.”

Anthony Macri of HoopsWorld with a good look at OKC’s transition offense: “Oklahoma City also uses handoffs and rub or blur screens in transition very well. They often attack the wings with pass and handoff plays, and use blur or rub screens to free offensive players for quick attack opportunities. Both tactics accomplish the same goal. By bringing offensive players close to each other in a time where the defense is still settling into position they take advantage of mistakes in communication and find easier ways to score. It can also lead to some interesting switches and matchup issues as the play develops.”

Chris Vernon says OKC might be interested in Hasheem Thabeet.

Dime asks if you’re building a franchise, do you take Griffin or Durant?: “Oddly enough — especially if you remember how Durant’s durability was a question mark going into the ‘07 NBA Draft — the 250-pound powerhouse Griffin may be the least “safe” choice. As solid as he is, Griffin has already missed an entire season with a knee injury, and his mosh-pit style of play and nightly attempts to jump over 6-foot and 7-foot human beings makes it seem like another major injury is only one bad fall away. Durant, meanwhile, has held up to the NBA rigors with his skinny frame: Of a possible 293 games so far in his pro career, he has played in 283 of them. He has made the pre-draft camp bench press irrelevant.”

Zach Lowe of SI with a really good thought on Thabo: “Sefolosha is obviously not a good offensive player. He’s what I call a “hider” (or perhaps a “hidee?”) — a perimeter player whose offensive game is so one-dimensional (and stationary) that opponents can hide their weakest defender on that player. I’m talking about Sefolosha, Keith Bogans, James Jones, Antoine Wright, etc. These are the sort of guys Mike Bibby guards. The best teams don’t have a hider getting big minutes — or if they do, they find ways to transform those players into must-guard guys through movement and screening (this is why Derek Fisher isn’t among this group when the triangle is going right). But even a guy like Sefolosha has a hard-to-quantify value when he is good enough — and versatile enough — defensively to give your star guard or wing player a rest. Watch the Thunder, and you’ll see Sefolosha doing this for Durant a lot.”

Hubie Brown thinks Russ is an All-Star.

Darnell Mayberry, trying to make sense of the close wins: “As Kevin Durant said after the Wolves thriller, the Thunder is going through these close games for a reason. And that reason will reveal itself in late April. When the playoffs roll around, we’ll see how much better the Thunder is because of these regular season experiences. Playoff games, for the most part, are close contests. The Thunder is still young and still not supposed to be able to defeat the elite teams in a seven-game series. But with the help of these close games now, the Thunder might be able to steal a few more win they really matter.”