Wednesday Bolts – 1.28.09
- UPDATE: Russell Westbrook has moved to the NUMBER ONE spot in David Thorpe’s Rookie Rankings: “What separates Westbrook from the other guards in this class is his combination of athleticism and length, which translates into the makings of a premier defensive player. He’s not there now, but it’s easy to project him getting there soon. Using his quickness and length, he can lock and trail on a shooter using a screen, which means Westbrook runs over the screener and behind the shooter. His extended arm can bother the shooter, and his teammate defending the screener has to offer just a hint of curl protection before Westbrook recovers. Since this is the Thunder, that does not happen often enough, so you may see Westbrook’s man making shots while Westbrook is trailing the play. Unless he’s wrongly going over the top of the screen (meaning he’s supposed to go under it on that play), it’s not his fault if the shooter makes the shot. That shot is on the big who forgot to offer curl protection.”
- Bill Simmons says Kevin Durant is underrated, in a good way. And it’s nice to read something from The Master that isn’t entirely slanderous towards OKC: “You know in Jaws when Richard Dreyfuss calls the shark an “eating machine”? Durant is a scoring machine. He was put on this earth to collect points. We have never seen anyone quite like him before: a 6’9″ forward with Plastic Man arms, 30-foot range and the ability to thrive in big moments. He has more career buzzer-beaters than LeBron. Trust me, it’s true. Know also that NBA players peak between ages 25 and 29. So what’s Durant’s realistic peak? Will he average 33 a game on percentages of 55-90-50? Will he average 36 ppg? Thirty-eight? Seriously, where does this go? Nobody’s discussing that. Nobody’s even acknowledging it. And that makes Kevin Durant totally, completely, unequivocally underrated. I can’t think of five current players who are more fun to watch. I’m jealous of the Highjacker’s fans. I am.”
- A very lenghty, yet interesting piece by David Aldridge: “Brooks has tweaked things on the court, moving Durant from shooting guard, where he played for Carlesimo, to both forward positions. Either way, Durant is closer to the basket and is better able to help out with rebounding (he’s almost two boards per game better this year than his rookie season) and defense. A new assistant coach, former Bulls assistant Ron Adams, also has helped with new defensive concepts. And Brooks has impressed with his energy and positive reinforcement of the players. I saw the Thunder last month in Atlanta, where they did what they’ve been doing all along for Brooks, playing hard against a superior opponent. The game was close, but Oklahoma City faded in the last five minutes. Afterward, Brooks was clear-eyed and focused, not beaten down by the losing like a lot of other good coaches you see.”
- Kyle Weaver says he’s living a dream: “Weaver, who lives by himself in a rented house, said Oklahoma City is ‘a real nice city with a nice downtown area with a lot of restaurants.’ The transplanted Seattle SuperSonics regularly fill the 19,136-seat Ford Center in the team’s first season in Oklahoma City. ‘It’s been great,’ Weaver said. ‘The fans in Oklahoma City are unbelievable. We have sellout crowds just about every night. With that kind of support, it’s hard not to go out and play hard.’”
- Is Blake Griffin the NEXT Kevin Durant?:“Durant can already score 24.5 ppg in the NBA, his body still filling out. Even as a potential No. 1 pick, based on his limited range of scoring options, most might find it hard to imagine Griffin would ever score as much in the NBA as Durant already is. The NBA requires its scorers have range. There’s no question Griffin is gifted, but he’s not yet an NBA-star guarantee. Of course, if he plays next to Durant, he won’t have to be.”
- HoopsWorld Rookie Rankings: “Between Westbrook and Brook Lopez, we’ve seen two guys that have been very surprising, but Westbrook has shown just a touch more evidence as a future league star. With him and Kevin Durant tearing things up in OKC, it’s easy to see the Thunder as a team with real potential in the Western Conference three or four years down the road. His scoring ability is arguably better than Rose’s, and he’s already shown potential as a top rebounder at his position.”
- Dime’s reserve All-Stars: “Kevin Durant is nasty, but still a year or two away from the All-Star team.”
- Hardwood Paroxysm is pretty excited about the Thunder: “Last, and probably most important, is something that Shoals hinted at but didn’t totally explore; the Thunder have absolutely zero expectations. Win 10 games this year? Cool, you were supposed to be terrible. Win 30 games this year? Amazing season. No one cares. No one expects them to be good. They’re a totally pure team, just playing to play basketball the best they know how. And they’re hairsprayed coach Scott(y) Brooks amazingly has even less expectations. This is a team that exists solely for the joy of basketball. Except Damien Wilkins. He’s garbage. But even he’s playing a third less minutes this year.”
- Kevin Durant’s road KD1’s: “The Nike KD1 is obviously Kevin Durant’s signature shoe, but the surprising aspect of all this is that Kevin Durant himself rarely rocks his sneaker on the courts. Whatever the case may be, we are now getting a first look at an “Away” colorway of the KD1 composed of a creatively designed split upper. The inner side of the sneaker features a black patent leather upper accented by blue stitching and a blue Nike swoosh. The outside of the same pair yields a black suede base with a team orange swoosh, a KD logo, and multicolored stitching. This “Away” KD1 also includes a black midsole with zoom air and a photo blue outsole. These are now available at Shoe-Planet and should be hitting Nike retailers next month.”
- BDL’s Power Rankings: “Kevin Durant’s January per-game averages: 27.1 points (on 48% field goal shooting, 42% from deep), 8.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals. All. Star.”
- Basketball Prospectus has a new stats page and is now keeping track of season-long +/-. Because I know you’re wondering, Kevin Durant is whopping -305 on the year: “The APBRmetrics community has come a long way in a short time, and sometimes it is easy to forget the magnitude of that progress. I remember just five years ago, during the 2003-04 season, posting by hand leaderboards in various advanced statistics because they could not be found anywhere on the Internet. That memory makes me take a little extra pride in officially introducing Basketball Prospectus’ NBA statistics pages.”
- Readers offer Steve Aschburner some NBA suggestions: “That’s why one suggestion from Logan Ferguson of Joplin, Mo., was so radical: He wants more referees involved. A lot more. “I would be happy with four, but five would be best,” Ferguson wrote. “What’s wrong with adding two permanent baseline officials? … Watch many calls in the NBA and it’s painfully obvious that officials make ‘assumption’ calls. … Other times officials are making calls when at least 2-4 players stand in their line of sight.”
- And on the OU basketball front, the LNC needs a makeover: “The LNC is ancient. It’s one of the oldest arenas in the Big 12 (built in 1975) and it’s not one of those old, yet charming places. It’s dark, dreary and unfriendly. If you look around long enough you feel like you can find water leaking from pipes and concrete cracking before your eyes. Some older arenas have classic cache – Cameron Indoor, Allen Fieldhouse, Assembly Hall – but the LNC is the college basketball equivalent to Three Rivers Stadium. It was built for multi-use and therefore is horribly dated and doesn’t work for the sport that uses it 95 percent of the time.”
