Thursday Bolts – 11.6.14
Darnell Mayberry on Ish Smith: “Regarded as one of the league’s fastest players with or without the ball in his hands, the 6-foot Smith will serve as additional support for Reggie Jackson and Sebastian Telfair, who are the lone healthy point guards remaining while Russell Westbrook recovers from a broken right hand. The Thunder traditionally carries three point guards for insurance purposes in case problematic situations such as foul trouble, injuries, ejections or suspensions arise. Westbrook’s injury has left Jackson, the team’s sixth man, averaging 42 minutes in his first two games after missing the season’s first three while recovering from a right ankle injury, and Telfair, the projected third string point guard, averaging 34.5 minutes over the past four contests.”
The D-League will test out new rules: “Away from the ball fouls: Some NBA coaches have used the strategy to stall opposing offenses by fouling notoriously poor free throw shooters, such as Shaquille O’Neal. Fans have complained that it makes the game tedious, but Alpert thinks it will be limited by extending the rule used in the final 2 minutes to the entire game. If a player is fouled intentionally away from the ball, any player on his team will shoot a free throw and his team will retain possession.”
Why the Thunder won’t win a title.
Anthony Slater: “That’s more than half the roster. And to make matters worse, from a basketball perspective, it’s generally been the wrong guys. The irreplaceable types. Six of the eight are rotation players, three are starters and two are franchise cornerstones — the reigning MVP and, arguably, the best point guard in the game. So the Thunder’s 1-4 record is understandable. The recent blowout losses are easily explainable and the upcoming defeats are widely expected. But, still, some of the most cynical of Thunder fans and NBA analysts may view these early struggles as validation that roster-wide depth is an issue in OKC. That the talent is too top-heavy and the stars don’t have enough help. And that may ultimately be true. But this opening month won’t prove that. No team in the league could even begin to withstand what OKC is going through.”
Third-year players that could get extensions.
David Thorpe of ESPN Insider on the rookie class: “The Thunder’s Mitch McGary is hurt, but he looked good in summer league and in his one preseason game. He should get chances to earn solid backup minutes in OKC at both power forward and center.”
