Tuesday Bolts – 11.17.14

Darnell Mayberry on Reggie Jackson: “He talked the talk. But he’s now walking the walk. Only now, Jackson is experiencing how difficult it is to both be in a starring role while also leading your team to victories. Despite his encouraging play, Jackson hasn’t been able to power the Thunder above a 3-8 record heading into Tuesday night’s game at Utah. These are his lumps, and he suddenly finds himself learning to absorb the blows before blossoming into the player he’s so confident he will become.”

Zach Lowe of Grantland on narratives: “When Kevin Durant broke his foot, we all salivated at the thought of finally seeing Westbrook take the reins of the Thunder offense and bend it to his will. That excitement came with a caveat: Whatever Westbrook did would somehow become a referendum not only on his ability, but also on the very nature of Westbrook as something other than a True Point Guard. We wouldn’t just examine the specifics of Westbrook’s game — how it helped, and sometimes hurt, the Thunder on both ends of the floor. Some corners of the basketball media would use the time to rewrite Westbrook’s legacy.”

Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com with a big-time piece on the Nuggets: “Kroenke conveys an awareness of all this but dismisses any suggestion that the Nuggets would be better off holding a fire sale. Quite the contrary, the Nuggets have pledged to their fans they’re in it to win. And if they circle the drain this season, the NBA draft is always there as salvation for wreckage. In the meantime, he remains devoted to the notion that in the process of anybody mastering anything, there’s a point at the beginning when that person is merely proficient. He says that learning the ropes is a natural part of professional maturation, whether that job is the president and governor of the team, its neophyte general manager or its embattled head coach. But the cruel truth is that patience is a virtue in the NBA, until the day it isn’t.”

Steve Nash talking to KD, MVP to MVP.

John Schuhmann of NBA.com has OKC 24th: “I think we’ve learned that Reggie Jackson and Serge Ibaka can’t carry an offense by themselves. When Anthony Morrow is shooting 11-for-16 (like he did in Boston on Wednesday), things looked good. But nobody has shot or scored consistently enough for this team to survive. Their last-possession execution in Houston looked kind of familiar, though.”