Friday Bolts – 9.30.11

Chris Bernucca of Sheridan Hoops on OKC and the amnesty: “They have no unrestricted free agents and a future payroll that has room to pay Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Serge Ibaka. They also have the childish Nate Robinson ($4.5M), who may have value at the trading deadline.”

TBJ did an all legends fantasy draft and KD was taken in the fifth round: “At the end, I wanted a perimeter shooter/scorer, so I took Kevin Durant, who I believe not only has great taste in backpacks, but still has brighter seasons in front of him.”

KD will definitely be at today’s do-or-die labor meeting.

Good thoughts from Noam Schiller of HP on the amnesty clause: “The problem with getting out of jail for free is that, unlike monopoly, you don’t go to jail with a bad roll of the dice. Salary cap jail is reserved for those who pushed and elbowed their way in with bad deal after bad deal. Amnesty clauses are a source for quite a lot of fun – Bill Simmons and Jonathan Abrams, for example, had a lot of fun with it, while going over potential cuts – but they aren’t a source for quite as much fairness. Fun, but unfair towards small markets and/or non-spenders. Hmmmm. Kind of like the NBA. Which I miss. A lot. Get it together, guys.”

Marc Stein of ESPN.com on the labor talks: “Yet sources say the owners, in exchange for those two concessions, continue to make stringent demands in a number of other areas in their quest to dramatically slice the amount of annual revenue earned by players, shorten contract lengths and institute a far more restrictive system to divide revenues.”

Teach me how to Gundy. So good.

I wrote about team chemistry at CBSSports.com and used the Thunder in a lot of it.

Roger Mason Jr. says the players are willing to reduce the BRI: “We’re not going to allow the soft cap to take on the system,” Mason Jr. said. “I’m hopeful that even with whatever system changes they want to make, that stays intact because I know what our guys want to do.”

I drove by Chesapeake Arena for the first time since all the new stuff went on it and I have to say, well done. The logo on the roof is a really nice tough and the sign looks great. Once the new exterior construction is complete, I think it’ll have the appearance of a legit NBA arena.