Monday Bolts – 1.24.11

Ken Berger reported that Nene isn’t happy with the Denver situation right now and is eying three teams. Supposedly, one of those teams is the Heat. Another is the Mavericks. Who is that third team?

Shoals and Eric Freeman looking at the league’s worst players: “7. B.J. Mullens, Oklahoma City Thunder/Kosta Koufos, Minnesota Timberwolves (BS) BS: Let’s save time and make them one person. EF: Does he want became to call him Byron now because it makes him sound tougher? Because it’s worse than BJ. BS: BJ stops being an acceptable nickname around the time you learn what it means in sex slang. EF: BJ Raji somehow makes it work. BS: BJ Raji had the day of his life. Both of those guys should just be sent to the D-League for an entire season. This call up and go back crap gives them all false hope. If BJ Mullens got a triple double, we would respect the BJ.”

NBA.com power rankings: “The Thunder defense has regressed overall more than any team outside of Cleveland, but including Saturday’s thriller over the Knicks, they’ve now won five games in which they’ve shot less than 40 percent from the field. That’s two more than any other team in the league and four more than they won last season.”

NBA.com’s MVP watch: “Mail continues to pour in (OK, digitially appear) from Thunder fans who can’t seem to agree on the relative value of Durant vs. Russell Westbrook. The point guard had a better week but the NBA’s leading scorer (who lost 0.3 points off his average) still gets the nod here.”

Susan Bible of HoopsWorld: “We asked Ibaka what he thought about Durant’s game-winning shot. “That’s Kevin,” he answered.  “He can do that.  You know, it’s no surprise for Kevin.” When we shared Durant’s declaration about that last play being one of the best feelings ever, Ibaka quietly said “Yeah, me too.” “I wanted to win the game in that last shot,” Durant said plaintively.  “I asked coach for it.  He drew it up for me, and the rest is history.” We suspect many more game-winning shots will be included in his resume’ before it’s said and done.”

Did Felton shoot too early? NBA Playbook says yes: “Me personally, I am leaning towards yes.  Felton takes the shot with 5 seconds left on the shot clock (9.6 seconds left in the game), and the reason I think he could have waited even longer is that it’s a simple pull up jumper.  This is the kind of shot that Felton could have gotten whenever, so waiting another few seconds doesn’t really affect the quality of the shot/possession.”

A pretty neato picture of Jeff Green.

Darnell Mayberry on Russell Westbrook: “Should Westbrook finish the season averaging 22 points and eight assists, he’ll join only four other players since the 2000-01 season to accomplish that statistical feat. The chart to the right of the note in the stat pack lists Gary Payton (twice), Stephon Marbury, Chris Paul and LeBron James as the only other players to do so. Chicago’s Derrick Rose is also on pace to join the exclusive club, while Utah’s Deron Williams currently sits just 0.3 points shy.”

Former Thunderer Mustafa Shakur was called up to the Wizards and played well in his debut.