Tuesday Bolts – 8.27.13

Tom Ziller of SB Nation: “Back in the early 2000s, the difference between Kobe and T-Mac wasn’t that Kobe made the players around him better. It was that the players around Kobe were better. Kobe had Shaq. T-Mac had Pat Garrity. Because T-Mac wasn’t a traditional prototype, Weisbrod could get away with his critique. He shouldn’t have. The NBA is quite possibly more full of oddball stars than ever — LeBron really destroyed orthodoxy, and Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and soon enough Andrew Wiggins are helping the cause. The challenge is in ensuring our collective acceptance of players for who they are and not who we expect them to be sticks. It’s a shame more people couldn’t fully appreciate T-Mac five, six, seven years ago like they do now that he’s gone.”

Zach Lowe of Grantland with fake trades: “Aldridge to Oklahoma City for Serge Ibaka, Jeremy Lamb, and two future first-round picks. Wouldn’t this be fun? Sure, it creates some tax issues for OKC in 2014-15 and beyond, but good luck dealing with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Aldridge. Still: The Thunder may look at this as a major defensive downgrade, and as a needlessly complicated introduction of someone unwilling to play the third banana.”

My take: That is way, way, way too much for LaMarcus Aldridge. I think people still criminally underrate how good Serge Ibaka is, and can be.

KD offering support for Lamar Odom.

In the rookie survey, Steven Adams received some votes for being the most overlooked, and was second in which rookie is the funniest.

Top 10 bloopers from the season includes KD hitting a nice lady in the face with a basketball.