Tuesday Bolts – 11.5.13
Kyle Wagner of Deadspin on Russell Westbrook: “Steph Curry rearranges the physical laws of basketball; Westbrook simply overpowers them. He blows by help defense that, for most other guards, would have arrived on time. He attacks defenses at angles—and speeds—that others don’t because they aren’t strong or fast or brave enough to get to the spaces, like in that run along the right baseline at the 35-second mark in the video above. It’s the unpredictability of a truckload of talent and confidence, like a rocket-armed quarterback jamming a laser beam pass into quadruple coverage and making it work. Sometimes it will make a turnover, or just an inefficient play. But damn if it isn’t fun to watch.”
Marc Stein of ESPN.com has OKC sixth: “Question: What can bump you up the charts instantly after you just went to Minnesota and got drilled by 19 points in the club’s worst defeat in more than two seasons? Answer: The thunderbolt news that Russell Westbrook is back in the lineup about a month earlier than anyone expected.”
Matt Moore of CBSSports.com ranks the Thunder 15th: “Even with Russell Westbrook back, neither win was convincing and the Wolves loss was a tire fire. Getting nervous about this team.”
Kevin Martin: “This is such a fun team to play on. Nobody is trying to lead the league in scoring here.”
Kelly Dwyer of BDL: “This could all a bit of a bummer, as Martin, Durant and Westbrook all seemed to have a solid relationship in the trio’s first and only season together. Working without the benefit of a training camp following the shocking deal that sent James Harden to Houston, Martin started the season exceedingly well, and the Thunder finished 2012-13 with the league’s top-ranked offense. Martin and the Thunder disappointed in the postseason after Westbrook went down with an injury, but Kevin’s fleeing to Minnesota seemed to have more to do with Oklahoma City’s insistence on missing the luxury tax than it did ill-will. Maybe Kevin Durant is to be criticized for leading the league’s top offense and the NBA in scoring at an efficiency rate that still boggles this basketball mind. Or maybe Kevin Martin just misspoke on his way toward applauding Rick Adelman’s fluid offense in Minnesota, one that he’s loved working in during three different stops in Sacramento, Houston, and Minnesota. That’s probably it. I don’t think there were any shots fired here. Pun intended.”
Here’s me rambling about Twitter for 20 minutes.
Perk clarified his tweet: “Let me clear something up. I wasn’t talking about leaving OKC. I was talking to some of my family members. I love playing here. #frommyheart”
Ian Levy of Hickory High: “Right now the Thunder are still mostly stuck in that place the Heat were in three years ago, where talent defines them more than execution or creativity. Evolution is not an evenly distributed process, it happens in spurts. The playoffs are the perfect primordial soup of raw materials to rapidly accelerate that process, but the Thunder missed the opportunity to re-immerse their most crucial elements and configurations last year. So as wonderful as it was to see Westbrook out there being Westbrook last night, it was also a nagging reminder that while the rest of the league can wrap themselves in the hope (in some cases rapidly dwindling) of new rosters and new systems, the Thunder have been on pause for six months.”
