Vegas Summer League Preview

Onward to Vegas. The Thunder Summer League roster will shed a few players and pick up some replacements. (If you want to watch the games, you can get all Summer League games for the low, low price of $14.99 by clicking here or you could click here… shhhhhhhhhhh.) Westbrook is just playing one game Sunday and Tony Durant is a late addition, likely stepping in for Kyle Weaver who is doubtful after injuring his thumb in Orlando.

ROSTER
Russell Westbrook
Shaun Livingston
D.J. White
Serge Ibaka
Moses Ehambe
Robert Vaden
Byron Mullens
DeVon Hardin
James Harden
Kyle Weaver

Marcus Dove (F) – VOO Verviers-Pepinster/Oklahoma State
I’ve always liked Marcus Dove for some reason. Watching him shut down Adam Morrison was almost as fun as seeing a guy go off for 50. Defensively, he’s an extremely gifted player at 6-foot-9, which is why I’m a little surprised he hasn’t gotten much of a look. But as good as he is defensively, he’s as bad offensively. At OSU he took bad shots and was incapable of putting together consistent stretches of offensive play. He played last season in Belgium and averaged 10.8 ppg and 6.0 rpg, shooting 56 percent (but was just 1-13 from three). He’s got ability and I hope one day he catches on with someone. And he’s worth watching if for nothing else because of those incredibly thick, almost mutant eyebrows.

Keith McLeod (PG) – Albuquerque Thunderbirds
McLeod is a 29-year-old point guard that played last season for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and has spend time in the NBA with the Timberwolves, the Jazz, the Warriors and the Pacers. McLeod played his college ball at Bowling Green where was named 2002’s Mid-American Conference player of the year. Probably the most eventful moment of his NBA career was being part of an eight-player deal that sent Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington to Golden State and Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy to Indiana.

Richard Roby (SG) – Bnei Hasharon/Colorado
At Colorado, he averaged 17 points and 5.5 rebounds during his career and finished his career at Colorado as the schools leading scorer. He played overseas last year and averaged 13.6 ppg in just 21 minutes a game. The 6-foot-6 swingman is also the half-brother to current NBA power forward Kenyon Martin.

Doug Thomas (F) – Iowa Energy/Iowa
Thomas is a 6’8 power forward that has 50 career games under his belt in the D-League where he’s averaged 10.4 ppg and 6.3 rpg. He played at Iowa for his college ball and averaged 4.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg in one season for the Hawkeyes.

Tony Durant (SF) – Towson
This may shock you, but Tony Durant is the older brother of current Thunderer, Kevin Durant. He’s a late addition to the Vegas roster and at 6’7″, he’s a natural small forward that averaged 3.3 points and 2.0 rebounds a game his senior year at Towson and 8.7 ppg and 4.6 rpg his junior year. Heather Dinich wrote a great feature about Tony and KD last year. Definitely worth the read.

SCHEDULE
Oklahoma City vs. Memphis: Sunday – 7 p.m. CST
Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City: Tuesday – 7:30 p.m. CST
Oklahoma City vs. San Antonio: Thursday – 7:30 p.m. CST
Oklahoma City vs. Chicago: Friday – 7:30 p.m. CST
Dallas vs. Oklahoma City: Saturday – 3:00 p.m. CST