Thursday Bolts – Gus Johnson Edition

Ah, the best day of the year. So much buildup, so much anticipation and today here we go. What will we see? Will a 16

finally beat a 1? Will there be a memorable buzzer beater? Such a wonderful time. (And it’s also a really good time to get a good, hard look at some of the top college prospects too…)

Eric Musselman ranks the players in the tournament based on pro potential.

Chad Ford looks at pro prospects by region in the tournament: “Blake Griffin: Griffin is the consensus No. 1 pick in the draft, and, short of a horrific injury in the tournament, nothing will be able to knock him off that perch. He’s as close to a sure thing as there is in the draft, and his performance in the tournament shouldn’t have a big impact on his stock one way or the other.” (One thing I’d love to point out is that you shouldn’t completely fall in love with a player just because he has a nice tourney. That’s an incredibly small sample size and while it can show you what a guy can do, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what he will do.)

Ric Rucher talks with Jim Traber about the Thunder’s future and Bill Simmons (audio inside). Listen to this. It’s EXCELLENT stuff.

Empty the Bench named its second round Rookie of the Year and Kyle Weaver was honorable mention: “In and out of the lineup until February (mostly out), the swingman from Washington State has, if anything, proven he’s a nice compliment off the bench behind the Thunder’s nucleus of young, rising stars. He’s recently been replaced in the starting five by trade-deadline acquisition and ETB favorite Thabo Sefolosha; he does a lot of the same things as Thabo, just without as much panache and with a much lower ceiling.”

And Weaver got a little love from David Thorpe in this week’s rookie rankings too: “Weaver filled in admirably for the Thunder when

went down with an ankle injury. Weaver scored 10-plus points in four straight games and looked like he had some potential as a 3-point shooter. Considering that he was drafted for his defense, those are positive signs. He has a chance to be a nice bench option for the Thunder next season.”

Ricky Rubio wants to enter the NBA draft, but it’s not that easy: “Rubio has a complicated, multimillion-dollar contract buyout with his Spanish team, DKV Joventut Barcelona. NBA teams are allowed to contribute a maximum of $500,000 to buy out the contract of a foreign player. That means if Rubio seeks to leave Joventut, he could be forced to use most of the money from his first NBA contract to pay for the buyout. “It’s going to be very tricky,” a Western Conference general manager said. “My understanding [has been] that he is not going to be in [the ’09] draft.”

Bulls by the Horns: “Neal Funk observed that Kevin Durant — who scored a game-high 28 points on 9-for-21 shooting — hadn’t dished out a single assist. Stacey King tried to cover for KD, noting that he’s a scorer and that scorers, well, they score. I forget the exact wording, but Funk basically replied that somebody who gets as many touches as Durant probably should have picked up at least one assist by accident.”

Sam Smith of Bulls.com: “The Thunder has an impressive young nucleus with Durant, Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook. But they don’t defend much and tend to fall in love with their jump shots, something we’ve seen with the Bulls in recent, unsuccessful years. Yes, all the kids do it. So the Bulls, like Tuesday against Boston, took control in the fourth quarter behind Rose and Brad Miller, the latter with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists in another hard working effort.”

KD’s shooting stroke has been a touch off but he’s going to get it all back: “I was in a good rhythm the first half but couldn’t hit a shot the second half,” Durant said. “I have to hit those shots when I get them. I had good position to make shots, wide open shots. I just didn’t hit them. I’ve got to come back and work hard (Thursday).”

Ball Don’t Lie Behind the Box Score: “It could be worse, the Bulls could have drafted in the low lottery as expected, and Rose is a special player. But it was a pretty ho-hum bust out game. Even against Russell Westbrook’s snarling defense. I’m aware of the context, and I am a fan. I’m just a little surprised at how nonplussed I am. Credit Rose for keeping his wits. He has a veteran’s sense of cool and proportion, a down streak like his recent swoon would have destroyed most rookies (or youngsters, even), but he kept his head up. And came through with the turnaround game against his chief rookie backcourt rival. Impressive. Chicago turned it over quite a bit (20 miscues), but they created havoc for the Thunder in the second half. Oklahoma City couldn’t get into its sets, and I credit Tyrus Thomas for a lot of that.”

Darnell Mayberry says Derrick Rose “wrapped up” his ROY vote last night. A little early, don’t you think? There’s 15 games to go and a lot can happen in that stretch: “Russell Westbrook, who was closing the gap in the ROY race in my eyes, no answer for Rose when he got aggressive. Worse, Westbrook’s offense disappeared in the second half after outperforming Rose throughout the first 24 minutes. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant was everything Rose was not tonight. And, unfortunately, that’s been the story of the season more often than not for Durant. He’ll get his points, a game-high 28 tonight, but rarely have we seen him take over when needed like Rose did tonight.”

Fanhouse power rankings:” Winners in six of their last 10, including one over the Spurs earlier this week. There’s hope here, people.”

Russell Westbrook is on top of NBA.com’s rookie rankings this week: “Back on Dec. 14, Oklahoma City played San Antonio and Westbrook scored just two points in the loss, dropping his team’s record to a dismal 2-23. With eight points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals last week, Westbrook helped the Thunder to a win over the Spurs, his team’s sixth win in its last nine games. The 6-3 point guard still has his struggles (he shot just 4-for-17 against the Spurs and had eight turnovers in the game before that against Phoenix) but his and his franchise’s turnaround this year elevates him to No. 1, at least for this week.”