Wednesday Bolts: 10.16.19

Maddie Lee (The Oklahoman) on Hamidou Diallo’s opportunity to show his developing defensive game. In a small surprise, Diallo got the start against the Dallas Mavericks, along with the assignment to guard Luka Doncic.

Daily Thunder’s own Olivia Panchal joined Brady Trantham and Madysson Morris (107.7 The Franchise) on the OKC-82 Podcast: Panchal, Trantham and Morris seemed to think that the Thunder didn’t play all that well against the Dallas Mavericks.

Brett Dawson is the latest in a long line of former Thunder beat writers to move on to a different assignment:

So, I’m changing jobs at The Athletic. Starting today, I’m covering the Lakers alongside @billoram in a job that will also see me giving @jovanbuha some assists on the Clippers.

A little more about the move: https://t.co/KMkmp9zgwq
— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonWrites) October 14, 2019

Related: The Athletic will be naming Dawson’s successor soon.

Don't worry Thunder fans, our new Oklahoma City ? beat writer will be announced before the season starts. Stay tuned ? https://t.co/m1FZORtYI1
— The Athletic Oklahoma (@TheAthleticOKC) October 14, 2019

Despite a bevy of young players, Sam Vecenie (The Athletic) ranks Oklahoma City at no. 21 in his Rookie Scale Rankings: Spoiler alert: Vecenie uses the dreaded word “rebuild.”

Dave McMenamin (ESPN) goes deep into Adam Silver and LeBron James’s reaction to the Daryl Morey tweet heard ’round China: “Regardless of the financial fallout of one versus the other, that’s not what should matter. Silver might have disliked the ramifications of Morey’s tweet, but he would defend the right to say it.”

James, to his credit, took issue with any expectation that the players should have to face questions regarding China/Hong Kong relations. “James told the room that it was too much for the players to take on in that moment — to explain a complicated issue with racial, socioeconomic and geopolitical layers while visitors in China.”

Don’t forget to give your predictions for ThunderChick’s annual Western Conference Predictions contest.

A personal musing: The new, blue jerseys are really good. Top 5 all-time Thunder jersey for sure. In person, they pop even more.

And one more thing: I’m going to try to start something today–posing a “question of the day” for the comments. Today’s question: what should grown-ups wear to NBA games?

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