Monday Bolts – 10.17.11
Darnell Mayberry on Russell Westbrook’s NBA Rank: “Westbrook and Rose are not comparable. They are in two totally different situations. Rose doesn’t have the back-to-back scoring champ flanking him on the wing. You just can’t overlook that. Nor can you overlook how predictable Westbrook can be. There were too many times last season when you just knew he’d come down and take a 17-foot pull up without even thinking about looking for something else. All that needs to be considered, and it goes back to the trite “watch the game” argument. I know it seems like I’m bagging on Westbrook. Trust me, I’m not. I think he’s a phenomenal player. I think he’s a top 20 player. And if he’s not just where he belongs at No. 15 then he’s not far from it.”
James Herbert for HP on KD’s rap video: “I know I’m not alone when I say the the Thunder are the team I’m most excited to watch if/when the season gets going. If I was putting an enormous list together, I’d have OKC’s emergence as a true title contender as THE most interesting subplot to follow. I’ll be rooting for Westbrook to silence his critics and for Durant to be up there in the MVP conversation. I’ll be looking for the next step from a starting James Harden and for signs that Kendrick Perkins’s relative ineffectiveness last season had more to do with his health than anything else. This is a team that’s impossible not to like and it’s no surprise that its players genuinely love being part of the organization. Here’s hoping the next video we post of a Durant-Westbrook connection takes place on the court.”
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop trying to figure out when the talks fell apart: “And players who hadn’t even been in the talks, and who seemed not to be on the same page with the crew that had endured more than 40 meetings, had been the ones to reject the best offer the league was likely to have, and to end the best day of negotiations prematurely. What in the hell was going on? How had they so misread the situation? And where was Hunter? Who spoke for the union? Should the league have been negotiating with Garnett all along? Later the league would suggest that the talks had fallen apart because the union happened to have some particularly strident players show up that day. Maybe it’s as simple as that. Or maybe it’s much more complicated.”
KD went to his first Redskins game yesterday and dressed the part.
KD on the negotiations: “They got to meet us at some point,” Durant said after playing in an exhibition game at a DC-area high school on Saturday. “I feel like (the owners) aren’t helping us out — they’re not trying meet us halfway with it.”
Blake Griffin finished 10th in NBA Rank. Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com defends the high ranking: “In some sense, Griffin is a combination of a throwback power forward who lives on the block and the modern space monster who works away from the basket. To that effect, he’s innovating the power forward position. He generates most of his offense at the rim, but can place his launching pad anywhere on the floor between the perimeter and the post. His one-on-one game below the foul line is virtually unstoppable.”