Wednesday Bolts – 11.30.16

Russ on Andre Roberson: “Yeah, like I said before, guys that they put on the defensive

team they give to them before the damn season starts. Guys (who) don’t play defense, honestly. He actually locks up and defends and people can’t score. It’s actually one-on-one defense. I don’t care about all the defensive numbers, all this other s***, I don’t know – percentages, winning the game – that doesn’t matter. When you’re on the court and you see the things he does defensively and people that actually watch the games and know what it means to actually guard somebody, then they can see what All-Defensive team is.”

Scott Cacciola of the NY Times: “It should be noted that triple-doubles are generally rare and difficult to achieve. The Knicks’ Derrick Rose has one triple-double in his career, which he delivered during the 2010-11 season, when he was the N.B.A.’s most valuable player, and Carmelo Anthony has two. He nearly had his third last season but came up one assist short when Jose Calderon misfired on a late jumper for the Knicks. Anthony had been aware of the stakes.”

I wrote about Scott Brooks’ time in OKC.

Berry Tramel: “The Thunder is making 34.5 percent of its 3-pointers, and if that doesn’t sound good, rest assured. It’s very good from where the Thunder was. Oklahoma City made just 25 of its first 90 3-pointers this season, a percentage of .278 that is beyond dreadful. Since then, the Thunder has been decent, if not effective, from 3-point range. In the NBA, the Thunder ranks 17th in 3-point percentage, which historically is OK for OKC. Last season, the Thunder made 34.9 percent of its 3-pointers, again 17th in the league. And that’s with Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and Dion Waiters, three good (at least) offensive players with solid 3-point percentages. So .345 is a good percentage for a team in scramble mode after Durant’s departure to Golden State.”

Interesting stuff from Brian Windhorst on LeBron: “James has to be careful with what he says publicly, because it often can be used against him. Those who know him will tell you he believes this style is the way to win a most valuable player award. Whether James will ever win another one is hard to project; he often has to compete with his past résumés. But right now he’s averaging the fewest points since his rookie season, and his mastery of the game has never been more on display.”

Brett Dawson: “And he has an affinity for the city where on Wednesday he’ll coach the opponent for the first time. Brooks remains on a first-name basis with ushers at Chesapeake Energy Arena; listed some of them on Tuesday. He still keeps track of the Sooners and Cowboys, though he said he never followed college football before he moved here. He was conflicted about where he’d have dinner Tuesday night because “there are so many good places to go eat.” The city left its mark on Brooks. In turn, he left his on the organization.”