Tuesday Bolts: 02.04.20
Terrance Ferguson is back with the team, but some mystery remains:
First day back at practice for the Thunder after two days off. Billy Donovan said Terrance Ferguson (personal reasons) was back in practice, no determination if he‘ll go back into starting lineup. “He’ll be available going forward.”
— Erik Horne (@ErikHorneOK) February 3, 2020
Zach Lowe (ESPN) joins Team Compete, wishing the Thunder would become buyers at this trade deadline. Lowe also IDs the Heat as Danilo Gallinari thirsty.
Matt Tyranny (Thunder Digest) has some hilariously bad (intentionally so) trade ideas for OKC.
J.D. Tailor (Welcome to Loud City) gives his Thunder midseason review.
Adam Silver tells K.C. Johnson (NBC Sports) that the All-Star game format tweaks were heavily influenced by Chris Paul: “The genesis of this latest tweak comes directly from Chris Paul, who called me last summer and said, ‘I’m a big fan of The Basketball Tournament. And are you familiar with the so-called Elam endings?’ And I said I was. I’ve watched it a few times. I said, ‘It’s fascinating to me.’ I think in some cases it’s confusing to some fans. But Chris said, ‘I think it’s terrific. I think we should look at changing the format.’ I said, ‘If that’s something you’re serious about, why don’t you talk to other members of your executive committee — he’s the president of the players association — and other players whose views you respect and I’ll talk to my colleagues at the league office and members of our competition committee. And what we heard back from everyone was it sounds really intriguing. Let’s try something new.”
The fan favorite Chris Paul/Mike Conley swap is one of the listener trade submissions debated on the latest Dunc’d On Podcast:
In case you need reminders of just how young Darius Bazley is, you can now follow him on Tik Tok (@tiktokbaze). I’ve asked my grandson to teach me how to embed a Tik Tok so that I can keep including Bazley posts in the bolts.
Nick Crain (Forbes) has thoughts on what the Thunder should do this trade deadline: “Should the Oklahoma City Thunder buy, sell, or stand pat? None of the above. They should just re-tool, position swap, and get younger. Essentially, they could utilize their valuable veteran assets as well as some of their draft capital to acquire younger, rising stars. That wouldn’t necessarily be buying or selling, but Oklahoma City could strategically trade for guys that fit their timeline better at positions of need.”
Among the latest trade rumor crack, we have Tristan Thompson and D’Angelo Russell as our substance. An exhaustive Woj Pod is out there as well.