Tuesday Bolts – 3.2.10

UPDATE: The Thunder has assigned Byron Mullens and Kyle Weaver to the 66ers.

A second straight month a Thunder player with a strong case for Player of the Month didn’t get it. Carlos Boozer was named Western Conference POM, averaging 21.2 ppg and 13.0 rpg as his team went 10-3. However, he did miss two of those games. Russell Westbrook averaged 18.8 ppg, 10.0 apg and 6.5 rpg as OKC went 9-2. Kevin Durant had a case too, averaging 29.9 ppg and 8.5 rpg.

A couple nice news items though. Scott Brooks was named Coach of the Month in the Western Conference as he led OKC to a 9-2 record. Also, from a press release yesterday, there will be no raise in season ticket prices for Thunder fans. Everything will hold steady. Maybe that means that the organization has no plans to spend big this summer though…

In ESPN’s Future Rankings, the Thunder has landed the top spot: “The Thunder have ascended to the top of the rankings thanks to the continued development of their young core and yet another astute trade. This one filched rookie point guard Eric Maynor from Utah, basically for free, and filled a rotation spot where the Thunder had previously been sorely lacking. Up front, meanwhile, the emergence of shot-blocking forward Serge Ibaka adds another piece to their rapidly expanding talent base. That base still has only two true stars — emerging MVP candidate and possible scoring champ Kevin Durant and his steadily improving sidekick Russell Westbrook. Fortunately, everything is in place for the Thunder to surround them with even more talent. General manager Sam Presti has preserved his cap space and hoarded draft picks, allowing him to trade from a position of strength to build the roster going forward, and the team draws so well that its small-market status shouldn’t be an overwhelming concern.”

Power! Oregon Live ranks OKC eighth: “Russell Westbrook, the former turnover machine, averaged 11.2 assists a game in his last five games. Westbrook racked up double-digit assists in four of those games, including tying the franchise record with 15 dimes against Minnesota.”

Marc Stein has the Thunder at nine: “Let’s get Simmons in one last lather about The Streak: Durant’s run of 29 straight games with at least 25 points started before Christmas and spanned a tidy 64 days. OKC’s up to 22-11 when KD scores 30 or more.”

SI has OKC ninth: “One reason the Thunder passed on a big man at the deadline was the development of Serge Ibaka. The 6-10 rookie scored 27 points in OKC’s two wins last week, including a 13-point, 10-rebound effort against Toronto. “He can hit turnaround jump shots, he can score, but his role on this team is to come out and play hard on the defensive end, protect the basket and the paint for us,” Kevin Durant told The Oklahoman.”

Ninth on NBA.com: “The Thunder’s winning streak came to an end when they blew a late lead to the Suns on Tuesday. Kevin Durant’s 25-plus streak came to an end when Manu Ginobili rejected him at the rim a night later. A visit to Denver is this week’s test.”

SLAM writing on how the point guard position is seeing a changing of the guard: “Looking closer at the Thunder’s success this year in the absence of a traditional lineup and one discovers the root to be the man running the point: Russell Westbrook. The point guard position is at the helm of change in the League as the multitude of styles and overlapping eras has culminated in diversity destroying the categorization and purist pass-first image that is usually attributed with the position.”

Tom Haberstroh evaluating teams using the Four Factors.

Kevin Durant reviews The Crazies: “I usually don’t watch scary movies by myself. I usually watch them with a friend or a teammate or someone. I saw this one with James, Jeff and Eric. We just went to the theater at a local mall and since it was a Saturday night it was real crowded. Obviously, we were some of the tallest people there so they were asking if we played ball. We just sat in the middle back row so we could see everything. But as far as scary movies go, sometimes you just want to see something intense, and I get that feeling watching scary movies. That’s how I felt yesterday. It was definitely something I would recommend for people to go see.”