Tuesday Bolts – 6.7.16
Lucas of The Lost Ogle: “We all forgot about the frustrating regular-season collapses,
until they lost three straight and blew their shot at a title. It’s incredible that OKC was able to force seven games against what will be looked at as one of the all-time greatest NBA teams. But it should never have gotten that far. They had opportunities to close it out down the stretch, and reverted back to old habits of isolation offense and hero ball. If they continued to play the trusting, moving basketball that had gotten the team that far, maybe we would be seeing the Thunder in Game One of the Finals today.”
Anthony Slater: “As Nick Collison said in his exit interview, there’s no selling Kevin Durant on the Thunder. No recruiting pitch needed. He knows everything about the city, the organization, the team’s infrastructure and the young roster. Perhaps he’ll take visits elsewhere, allowing him to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of staying or going. But Presti’s case has already been laid. All he needs to do is hand Durant a blank piece of paper and tell him to write his contract. There are no assurances Durant will stay. His decision is monumental for this organization, carrying extreme ripple affects in the immediate and long term. But at this point, OKC’s front office can only sit back and wait.”
Matt Moore of CBSSports.com ranks the top 50 free agents: “If you had asked me about Waiters’ ranking a year ago, and informed me that I would be placing him 14th, you’d have gotten somewhere between a guffaw and a heart attack. For years Waiters has played like he believes he is something he is not – a star-level player who needed the ball in his hands at all times. This led to infuriating decisions and, on top of that, he would routinely miss layups and make bad decisions. But somehow, in the last three months, right as he’s set to hit free agency, Waiters has turned a corner. With the Thunder in this year’s playoff run, he knocked down the 3-ball, stayed aggressive in attacking the rim, deferred to star players and just played to his role. If you don’t trust him, there’s a big worry of him regressing to his worst habits if given big money. But at 24 years old with no injury concerns, and given the growth and skillset he’s shown plus the likelihood of him coming under the budget of someone like Harrison Barnes (No.24), Waiters all of a sudden is one of the best value deals on the market. The risk is high with Waiters, but the value and reward are just as great.”
KD is planning to play in the Olympics.
Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: “Durant, for example, said he only gets about six or seven hours a night and believes that’s enough. He’s wrong; that’s not even enough for a basketball writer, much less a basketball player. Whereas physically restorative deep sleep occurs early in the sleep cycle, REM sleep, when you dream, occurs in the latter stages and is necessary for cognitive repair and decision-making.”
Presti credited KD with keeping focus on the season.
James Herbert of CBSSports.com: “You can’t really take issue with anything Presti said. Indeed, Durant handled all the questions about his future as well as you can. It is true that the Thunder are lucky to have had him in the fold for this long, and it is smart to give him some time to figure things out. Oklahoma City’s message to him should be pretty simple, especially after coming so close to knocking off the Golden State Warriors: the Thunder are championship contenders with him, and they have an opportunity to keep improving. If that’s not enough for Durant, there is not much Presti can do.”
