Friday Bolts – 9.4.15
Tom Ziller of SB Nation is back on Waiters Island: “My belief that Waiters is a viable breakout candidate is based fully on what the basketball spirits whisper to me in my fever dreams, not what the data says. (Because the data says he is one of the least productive players in the NBA.) Waiters is 23, he’s been in a tough spot his entire career and he’ll finally have a chance to live in the shadows under a healthy Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Billy Donovan will find ways to make Waiters acceptable, and acceptance is the first step toward change. (That’s how it works, right?) Most importantly, Waiters — assuming the Thunder don’t give him an early extension — is in a contract year. Has there ever been a Contract Year Phenomenon like the one we could witness from young Mr. Waiters? Contract Year Phenomenon theorists are salivating at the process of this trial. Let’s get it, Dion.”
SI.com has Kevin Durant second in its top 100: “The NBA’s premier scorer was stuck playing defense in this year’s Top 100 discussion, thanks to three surgeries on his right foot in less than seven months and two rising superstars—Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry—turning in career years as he watched from the sidelines. Thunder forward Kevin Durant was no automatic write-in for the No. 2 spot on this year’s list, but he wound up holding steady for the third straight year. Four major factors influenced that decision: the quality of his play prior to his injury, his durability prior to last season, the Thunder’s rough go in his absence, and the sense that he enters 2015–16 reenergized and on track to be fully healthy.”
And here’s Russell Westbrook’s write-up: “A fitting epitaph for Russell Westbrook’s 2014–15 season would be a famous quote from legendary UCLA coach John Wooden: “Never mistake activity for achievement.” No NBA player, none, does activity like Westbrook, a 6’3” over-caffeinated electron who can’t be bothered to stop even when he breaks a bone in his face. Oklahoma City’s All-Star point guard compensated for Kevin Durant’s extended absences by trying to do every damn thing, and he walked away with his first scoring title, his fourth All-Star selection, his first All-Star Game MVP award, his fourth straight All-NBA selection, a fourth-place finish in MVP voting, a league-leading 11 triple doubles, and top-eight rankings in PER, Win Shares, Real Plus-Minus, and WARP.”
Rick Carlisle flies airplanes.
The Bird Writes isn’t happy about Durant over Davis: “Meanwhile, Durant is coming off a lost season in which he had three procedures done on the same foot. Jones’ fractures are not friendly to players who hover around 7 feet tall, just ask Yao Ming, Bill Walton or Brook Lopez.”
A discussion of the No. 2 overall player.
Tom Haberstroh of ESPN Insider on LeBron winning multiple titles: “It might surprise folks that even the best players of all time didn’t win multiple titles late in their career. Jordan, of course, did. So naturally, every player who doesn’t live up to that expectation has failed miserably and should just quit now out of shame . . . The greats averaged 1.5 titles after turning 30, which makes the panel’s expectation of 1.7 for James a tad more bullish than the historical baseline. If James wins just one title in Cleveland the rest of the way, he’ll be as successful as Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki and Shaquille O’Neal as they left their primes. If James wins two, he’d outperform the norm.”
