Friday Bolts: 12.06.19

Cray Allred -

Sam Presti was the guest on Adrian Wojnarowski’s Woj Pod last night. He talks summer trades, the shifting landscape of the league and, yes, how sustainability is still the best path to success for team-building today.

We’re gonna rename the site to Daily Justin Patton Updates. Patton has been reassigned to the Blue, per the team.

Erik Horne (The Athletic) tracks Steven Adams’ improved play, parallel with his improved health this season. I concur with the conclusion, but not with the setup (that his free throw shooting is evidence of his injury recovery): “When the Pacers drilled the Thunder by 26 points in Indianapolis, Sabonis was dominating the Thunder’s front line. He had to work a little harder for his double-double this time. “He was a lot more aggressive from the jump ball,” Sabonis said of his former teammate compared to the first Thunder-Pacers meeting. “He came out and was aggressive in the post, trying to score. “That really helps the team when he’s being aggressive.” Adams was trying to be aggressive earlier in the season, but his body wouldn’t let him. Performances like Wednesday’s, however, are becoming more commonplace for Adams.”

Addam Francisco (The Suave Report) on the Thunder’s habit of forgetting Adams on offense throughout the game.

Joe Mussatto (The Oklahoman) has the background of Danilo Gallinari’s weird theme song, and the scoop on whether it will be played at Thunder home games like it was when the forward was with the Clippers: “Someone emailed Leach a link to the Gallinari Anthem, and a Thunder staffer clipped a portion of it to play at games. Leach hinted that another clip of the song might soon be played at the Peake. “It’s brilliant,” (John Leach, who oversees which songs and sounds play from the speakers at Thunder games) said. “It puts a smile on peoples’ faces every time they hear it.” De Vet Du visited Gallinari in Los Angeles, and the group would like to come to Oklahoma City. Gunterberg even floated the idea of performing the song at halftime.”

A growing social media genre I’m not too fond of: redditors trying to publicly shame athletes into coming through with perks. In this case, it’s an autographed book from a Steven Adams cancelled appearance.

Jay Rigdon (Awful Announcing) on Adam Silver’s suggestion that the NBA’s viewership is suffering because cable TV is “broken”. As an early cord cutter and NBA junkie, I can assure you League Pass has always been more broken.

I post this by faith and not by sight: where Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ranks among all sophomores in TPA: