Friday Bolts – 9.9.16
Matt Moore of CBSSports.com has Andre Roberson as OKC’s most underrated: “The Thunder
don’t beat the Spurs without Roberson stepping up and knocking down key shots. His shot is always going to be a concern but his effort, defense, athleticism and ability to blend into a top-notch team are not.”
This is an interesting, and relevant overall point from Kevin Draper of Deadspin: “For far too long, journalism was in practice less the art of informing the public than of keeping information from it; a published story was a limited sample of the material reporters actually knew, filtered through invented codes of ethics and propriety. Sportswriters in particular were incredibly friendly with their subjects, routinely burying negative stories about them in exchange for access. This is why disreputable gossip reporting and muckraking have always existed, and why the public benefits from them. Real events in the real world tend not to be pleasant and tasteful, and the work of documenting and explaining those events sometimes has to be unpleasant and distasteful in turn.”
Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript: “So, maybe Westbrook can carry an offense to the top half of the league, even with a roster in this condition. After all, it’s not like the Thunder outsides were lined with shooters during the end stretch of 2015. Westbrook had Dion Waiters and Morrow around him, but 60 percent of the team’s starting lineup consisted of Andre Roberson, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams. The trend continued into last year, when the Thunder churned out a top-tier 112.7 offensive efficiency, per NBAwowy when Westbrook was on the floor with Durant on the bench — though that came in limited playing time with both healthy for the majority of the season. Plenty of those minutes were against second units, too. The circumstances this season are changed, of course. Opponents will have a set game plan for the Thunder that takes advantage of their inevitable shooting woes. And considering the direct correlation between offensive efficiency and 3-point shooting (attempts as much as makes) in the modern NBA, Westbrook hypothetically boosting the Thunder offense into the top 12 or 10 of the league this season would wind up one of his greatest career achievements.”
Wes Goldberg of HP: “Dude went from the Thunder to the Warriors. That’s leveling up two or three tiers in the Western Conference. It was a smart thing for Durant to do. It made a ton of sense. In fact, anything but would have made a lot less to zero sense. I was all on board the Durant-makes-decisions-that-just-make-sense train until he went from a Tupac tat which made sense to Rick James???? Like what? That’s leveling down multiple levels. Durant’s entire summer made sense until Rick James. He joined the Warriors aka the best team out West and got Tupac ink aka the best rapper out of the West Coast. But Rick James is…not.”
Larry Brown: “I’m not really excited about the fact that the best players are teaming up together,” said Brown. “I don’t think Michael (Jordan) would have done it or Larry Bird or Bill Russell or Magic. I don’t think those guys would have done it. I’m not real comfortable with the league going in that direction.”
Reddit remembers the Harden deal.
Lucas of The Lost Ogle on KD’s tattoo: “This is hella problematic, and it’s not only because I doubt Kevin could produce a Rick James playlist that lasts over ten minutes. KD has been making bad decisions all summer long, obviously beginning with his idea to join the team that he choked against while up 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals. Aside from the fact that Rick James is mostly known through being sampled by MC Hammer and looking like an idiot on the Chapelle Show, he’s also a convicted rapist. Yes, the formerly-beloved OKC icon got a very detailed, very permanant tattoo of a man who served prison time for kidnapping a woman, forcing her into sexual abuse, and burning her with a crack pipe.”
