Wednesday Bolts: 9.18.19
CP3 hasn’t played a game in Thunder blue yet, but SLAM wants you to check out Chris Paul 2.0, Sharife Cooper, who could be occupying Thunder mock draft slots a couple years from now:
Shapiro’s fellow SI writer, Rohan Nadkarni, puts Westbrook and Kevin Durant on his beefiest feuds from the decade: “Were KD and Russ ever really great friends? It’s hard to say, but their rivalry became official on July 4, 2016, when Durant announced he was signing with the Warriors. Russ responded with a stealth diss on Instagram, essentially calling KD a cupcake.”
Ranked out yet? An ESPN panel put two gut-wrenching Thunder games in their best of the decade: “The way Curry took his time coming up the court was disconcerting to some, but in reality, he was just timing his steps to launch one of the most iconic shots in NBA history. Never expecting a 40-footer with time on the clock, Andre Roberson briefly turned his back, giving Curry the cue. Thunder assistant coach Darko Rajakovic was the only man in the building who could see what was coming, screaming for Roberson to get a hand up the moment Curry crossed the half-court line. But with an arena roaring at full throat, Rajakovic’s pleading went unheard.”
And according to Kirk Goldsberry (ESPN) the Thunder again have a top-10 shooter for the first time since Durant left: “In (Paul’s) first six seasons in the league with the Hornets, just 18% of his shots were 3-pointers. In his next six seasons with the Clippers, that number was 28%. But in his past two seasons, 3-pointers have represented more than 48% of his looks. It has been a remarkable late-career transformation and further evidence that the world’s best shooters can thrive and adapt in ways normal shooters can’t. One of the most intriguing questions about Paul’s next chapter in OKC: Will he go back to his beautiful midrange game?”
