Thursday Bolts – 7.21.16
Todd Whitehead of Nylon Calculus: “When Durant wasn’t around, Westbrook was
responsible for more of the Thunder’s offensive load and he had a chance to end more of the team’s possessions, as evidenced by the increase in his Usage Rate from 32.7 percent to 41.6 percent. For context, Russ’s 41.6 percent Durant-free Usage Rate over the past three seasons combined is larger than any single-season Usage Rate posted by anybody that played at least 2000 minutes since 1977-78 (the period for which data is available from Basketball-Reference; max=38.7 percent by Kobe Bryant in 2005-06). Not surprisingly, Westbrook’s increased usage translated directly to a big jump in his Points Per Minute rate from 0.66 to 0.89. However, what is most impressive is that, despite the increased scoring burden, Westbrook was actually MORE efficient without Durant, as characterized by his true shooting percentage (54.5 percent vs. 53.4 percent) and his points per shot (1.09 vs 1.07).”
Berry Tramel: “Fernandez averaged 9.1 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and shot 36 percent from 3-point range. His defense was in the mediocre range. All in all, a solid player. Not a difference-maker. Not a potential star. But a solid player. But he came to Portland at the age of 23, after seven years playing elite European League basketball, and was ready for the NBA. The only real knock on Fernandez is that he didn’t stay long in America. Abrines turns 23 next week, after playing five years in the Euro league. Hopefully he’s ready for the NBA. The Thunder would like Abrines to stay longer than four years, especially if he’s as good as Rudy Fernandez.”
Dion Waiters met with the Nets.
Andrew Lynch of Fox Sports on KD’s comments about Brandon Ingram: “This isn’t a matter of age, either. While Ingram is precociously young — he doesn’t turn 19 until September 2 of this year — the same was true of Durant, who turned 19 on September 27 of his rookie NBA year. Relative to the NBA calendar, the two are less than four weeks apart. Finally, there’s the simple question of dominance. Ingram scored 25 or more points in seven games during his time at Duke, but his career-high in college was just 26 points. Durant, on the other hand, had 11 games of 30 or more points, with a high of 37, which he achieved multiple times during the 2006-07 college season.”
This T-Wolves rebrand is so good.
This is what Klay Thompson says: “I look at a guy like Manu Ginobili who came off the bench almost his entire career,” Thompson said. “Never averaged more than 20 points a game, but he’s a four-time champion, you know? He could have easily been on another team and averaged 25 a game, but he sacrificed to win, and that’s what I expect to do next year. I don’t care about averaging 25 or even 20. I just want to finish it out and get back to the Finals and enjoy that ride.”
This is the legacy we thought Kevin Durant would have.
Ben Golliver of SI.com: “The surprise is that Durant chose to seek that type of impact with a new cast of teammates rather than the group that had been built around him in Oklahoma City. Stripping away the emotions and the personal experiences, the decision makes sense. Compared to the Thunder, the Warriors can claim to own a better ownership group, front office, coach and roster—and that’s before the conversation turns to market size and desirability, as it inevitably does. But Durant’s return to Oklahoma City was long viewed as more likely than not. After all, he was the city’s favorite son, he had gone above and beyond to leave his mark on the community, he had just come within five minutes of making his second trip to the Finals, and he could sign a flexible, short-term contract to align his free agency decision with Russell Westbrook’s next summer.”