Author: Mike

At the deadline, Sam Presti opted to stay put with his underachieving roster and play his hand out to the final cut of the cards. Meanwhile, LeBron and his management team in Cleveland went to work and decided to salvage their basketball season. It was a sagacious piece of work by Team LeBron. They got rid of Isiah Thomas, Channing Frye, Jae Crowder, Dwayne Wade, and Derick Rose and replaced them with four honest two way basketball players. Enter George Hill at the point, Jordan Clarkson as a shooting guard, Rodney Hood as a scoring swing player, and a big in the mold of Nick Collison when he was in his prime by the name of Larry Nance. If you didn’t know who Larry Nance was then you do now if you’re a Thunder fan who only watches Thunder games.

Forget the fact All-Star forward Kevin Love didn’t play in this game due to his broken hand. Forget the fact Vegas got suckered by making the Thunder a home three point favorite. Forget the fact Cleveland played this game with only one All-Star player versus OKC’s Big Four. If you took OKC and gave the three you shouldn’t be betting NBA games. This wasn’t a surprise if you’ve been paying attention.

I went to the game and it was certainly entertaining, but I never had any feel whatsoever OKC was going to win this game despite what happened in OKC’s 148-124 win on January 20th. None. Because I watched every minute of the Cav’s win over Boston on the road on Sunday and pretty much felt this was what was going to happen.

If you break down this game it’s very simple. Ignore the fact LeBron scored 37 points and was magnificent. Ignore the fact OKC’s Big Four scored 92 points. Here’s the bottomline. Cleveland now has ten honest two way basketball players and LeBron. OKC has two stars in Westbrook and George, a semi-elite center in Steven Adams, an aging and overpriced Carmelo Anthony, an absent Andre Roberson, and a remaining roster absent of Jerami Grant and Raymond Felton which has serious flaws.

Alex Abrines, Pat Peterson, and Josh Huestis played a combined 45 minutes in this game and contributed a combined SUM of zero points.

Meanwhile, Cleveland’s new bench scored 51 points on the night. Let me be frank to the local OKC college level media in Oklahoma City, if these new Cavs played the Thunder in a series they would win in five games…and the thing is I don’t think Cleveland has enough to beat either Golden State or Houston. But–these Cavs should once again win the East.

Since Andre Roberson’s torn patella, the Thunder are 3-6 and still trying to find themselves. Did OKC miss Andre in this game? Of course they did as the Cavs torched the Thunder for 16 threes on the night while Billy Donovan replaced him in the starting lineup with a defensively suspect player in Abrines who’s alleged nich is offense.

Obviously…Sam Presti and Billy Donovan think Alex Abrines is a basketball player of some sort. My thought would be he’s not what I would have gone forward with moving beyond the trade deadline for the role Billy Donovan has given him post Andre. But it is what it is and since Clay Bennett isn’t paying me for my insights it’s his situation… not mine.

On a more positive note–the after game meal at the German beer hall was excellent. I had the German pretzel, the Italian sausage with the green and red peppers and the duck fries. And some sort of post Octoberfest German beer.

We then proceed to the outdoor for the postgame cigar. We ended up sitting next to a table of Hispanics. I immediately shared with them my thoughts on Donald Trump. We bonded.

I then pulled out these two massively long cigars for myself and my cousin. The Hispanics’ eyes got wide as they stared at the length. I nodded and smiled knowingly then said, “These are Cubans…Little Marco Rubios.”

They loved it and we laughed together at the ridiculous thought of Presidente Trump.

So even though the Thunder lost the post game we had fun. In that we realize this isn’t a Thunder team to take too seriously.

The Thunder at Memphis tonight to play the hapless Grizz.

Hope the Thunder don’t lose.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Cleveland added George Hill at the point, Larry Nance as a big off the bench, Rodney Hood at small forward, and Jordan Clarkson as a shooting guard. It will be very interesting tonight to see how Billy Donovan mix and matches his bench lineups to have someone on the floor who can defend Hood and Clarkson. Cleveland should have an advantage with bench lineups tonight. It will be an interesting game from a coaching standpoint. This is actually a game worth seeing in person. I’m going.

As the years have passed, Kobe Bryant is a guy I enjoy listening to in regards to things going beyond basketball. He has the honesty to say things which at times others won’t do. I don’t per se agree with Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem, but I do agree with the brunt of what he’s saying about racial issues and stereotyping in this country. I found it very unfortunate Trump made the ‘sons of bitches’ comment as he did. Instead, Trump missed a golden opportunity to address race issues in our country and how we should work together versus just pandering to an angry white base which has never one day in their lives experienced what it is to live as a person with brown or black skin. To have lived one day in their lives being judged by the color of their skin instead of what is in their character.

So… I was glad to hear Kobe address this publicly from his viewpoint and look forward to more coming from him in the future.

I only rank eight teams in my Power Poll. The eight which I feel have any chance to get to a conference final or the NBA Finals. I’ve waited till this point to even mess with a Power Poll because it was almost certain Cleveland would change their team and I wanted to make sure Paul George was in OKC for the whole season. So here’s my first Power Poll of the season.

1 Golden State
2 Houston
3 Cleveland
4 Boston
5 Toronto
6 Minnesota
7 San Antonio
8 Oklahoma City

The game to watch on Sunday was the ABC game between the rebuilt LeBron Cavs and the Boston Celtics on a day when Paul Pierce’s jersey was retired in Boston. With the additions of George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood, and Larry Nance Jr. the Cavs destroyed the Celtics. Just literally killed them and let the world know this Cleveland team will once again more than likely representing the East in the NBA Finals yet again.

I start with this because OKC plays the Cavs on Tuesday night in OKC and this Cleveland team will be nothing like the team OKC saw on January 20th in a 148-124 cakewalk. This Cleveland team just got much better defensively, offensively, athletically, and in fact–much younger.

So I’ll start with that before I get to OKC’s win over a horrible Memphis team. So horrible in fact these Grizzlies could very well end up with the overall worst record in the NBA before all is said and done this season. These Grizzlies stink–that much is clear.

Putting all this aside, OKC without Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony for the second straight game, pasted the Grizzlies 110-92 in a wire to wire win. Paul George led the way with 33 points as the Thunder improved to 32-25 on the season and is still in fifth place heading into Tuesday night’s home game against the new Cavs. The Thunder are now 2-5 in games since Andre Roberson’s season ending knee injury with two games remaining until the All-Star break is upon us.

The Thunder clearly played better in this game than they did against the Lakers without Westbrook, but I wouldn’t read too much into in that since the Thunder were awful offensively in the second half and shot 65% from the free throw line on forty attempts. I’m not trying to be negative, but even though the Thunder hit 16 threes, the thing which sticks out to me most is the fact this Thunder team ranks last in the league at the free throw line and went 25-40 from the line in a game in which there was no pressure–as in the game was never close.

Alex Abrines had 16 points and clearly his best game of the season, but again, it was arguably against the worst team in the league which just lost its sixth straight game and has collected a brutal assortment of ‘NBA’ players alongside Marc Gasol. But to the credit of Alex Abrines–he has been playing better of late and I probably shouldn’t call him Sam Prestis’s Spanish singing folk singing anymore. Looks like he’s been the focal point of the coaching staff in some private sessions would be my guess.

Jerami Grant was again very good and the Thunder very much need to resign him this summer after they hopefully keep Paul George around for at least one more season.

Ray Felton and Patrick Patterson were both solid with 14 points apiece and looked worlds better than they did against the Lakers. Steven Adams was okay, but again, he was the only Thunder player playing against what I would call a top half NBA player depending on how you value Tyreke Evans currently.

Memphis is tanking and it made me sad because this at one time was the greatest rivalry in the OKC Thunder era.

So to give Billy Donovan some credit, his team did actually look like they practiced before this game without Westbrook and had some semblance of game planning in hand before taking the floor. See the glass half full, right? You learn that shit in overcoming dysfunction.

I would hope and assume Russell will be back for the Cavs game or else that could flat out be a long night for the Thunder and the fan base.

Anyway, a nice night for Paul George and Alex Abrines. But clearly–the thought moving forward is Russell Westbrook needs to be on the floor Tuesday night in Oklahoma City with LeBron showing off his new play toys.

At some point in the recovery process you have to come to terms with your situation. You have to admit your frailties and face your demons. You have to be honest with yourself. So as a Thunder fan I’ve come to the inner conclusion this group of players Sam Presti has put together with head enabler Billy Donovan is a seriously flawed team. I’ve gone thru 56 games observing this collection of humans and can come to no other conclusion other than this is a dysfunctional basketball team which at times overcomes its own self inflicted shortcomings and plays really well against good teams as if it some sort of protest to show the world they can actually play brilliantly when the stars and planets align. Namely, when they play against an elite team.

I’m done fighting it. My face won’t be banged against my keyboard one more time this season. It’s not worth it.

But I’ve adjusted my other Thunder game day rituals as well. I never ever turn on the volume for a Thunder broadcast anymore. Because it’s worse than watching Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee-Sanders spin on behalf of Trump. I will say this though, both Brian Davis and Michael Cage have a future in the Trump White House media corps if they ever choose to alter their career paths. Those two dudes can look straight into a camera, not blink once, and lie their asses off. So there’s that.

I don’t buy tickets to games this season unless it’s a against a top eight overall league opponent. I don’t buy one hundred dollar tickets to see a team loaf. I just won’t do it. So basically…I only go see the Thunder play in person against Boston, Toronto, Cleveland, Golden State, Houston, San Antonio, and Minnesota. Since the Thunder don’t show up against the other twenty-two teams there’s no way I’m parting with cash to see this team play in person. Would you pay to see a Billy Joel concert where he forgets half the lyrics during his show? See my point.

When I’m watching at home with the sound turned off on the Fox telecasts I always have a good book ready for when the team goes into high frequency dysfunction mode against one of the bottom twenty-two teams. Again, you can only abuse yourself so much watching this team play and observing Billy Donovan not once going ape shit berserk on the bench and reading these humans the riot act. Right now I’m reading an excellent book entitled Dark Money by Jane Mayer. It chronicles the Koch Brothers history and how it is they came to own the United States of America much like Putin does in Russia only with more nuance. Excellent book.

Then there’s pulling out the chainsaw and cutting firewood. Since I live on a heavily wooded three acre lot what I’ve done is have the chainsaw ready when the Thunder go into total over the top berserk suck mode like they just did against the Lakers. I would guess I’ve cut enough firewood this season to heat half of Deer Creek, Oklahoma so far this season.

Another thing which helps is having the diva lab Pauli right there with me during the games in the Thunder game day watch studio in my house. She calms me. She brings me back to earth amidst the inner rage this team brings out in me. The other night when Billy Donovan was almost going down on Luke Walton after the game I had a book in my hand which I was about to throw through the flat screen and she put her head on my knee and said, “Mike, please. It’s just an NBA game. We’ll be okay. How does this really affect our lives?”

So here we sit fifty- six games into our Little Miss Sunshine NBA season and I’ve come to terms with it all. Kind of like when you realize one of your relatives are fucking crazy.

I’m good with it. I’ve come to terms with myself. I feel like I’ve grown as a person. I’m better for it.

But be certain I have my book and chainsaw ready for the Memphis Grizzles tomorrow night.

I’m okay, I hope you’re okay.

Be well.

I was a double major in college with a history/business double program. I love sports, I love history, and I love reading about smart business people. Nancy Koehn is the head of the Harvard Business department. She was on Morning Joe earlier today promoting her new book…Forged in Crisis.

The Dow has now shed almost 3,000 points from its 52 week high of 26,600 in less than two weeks. Obviously, there will always be some volatility in the markets, but even more so when you have a spoiled fourth grader running the United States along with new Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuenchin and brand new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell who just assumed the chair this week from Janet Yellen.

Here’s a video of Nancy Koehn explaining leadership from a financial perspective in relation to current time using history as a reference. Maybe all of these millionaires on the Thunder payroll should start reading Nancy Koehn. Just saying.

I’m sitting here at the laptop thinking and wondering what’s the right thing to write after what I just witnessed. I’m not a bad person. I’m really not even a rogue blogger. I’m genuinely a nice dude, but even nice dudes can only witness so much shitass basketball in half of an NBA season.

Before I say a few things about Billy Donovan and his ‘team’, I want to write several positive things about Russell Westbrook first though. Thank you for staying. Because if you hadn’t stayed no one in Oklahoma City would have any reason to watch or attend NBA games. I think at times some have taken you for granted, but this blogger hasn’t. So seriously…as a passionate basketball fan–thank you.

Oh, boy. I can at this point moving forward with this recap be grateful my mother doesn’t read my blog. When I was a kid playing sports there was a time my mother caught me talking shit to an opponent after a baseball game. She grabbed me and told me if I couldn’t say something nice, then keep it to to myself. But I think given the level of this Thunder performance she would grant me an exception on this game.

Okay, Luke Walton was missing Lonzo Ball, Jordan Clarkson, and Larry Nance. From my perspective, Ball and Clarkson are/were two of the Lakers top three players before the trade today. Billy Donovan was missing Westbrook, Carmelo, and Andre. Not to be disrespectful to Carmelo and Andre, but as we all saw on Tuesday night in Oakland…they weren’t missed in that ballgame against the reigning world champs.

Even without Westbrook, there was still Paul George, Steven Adams, Jerami Grant, and you would hope enough from your role players to if not win this game against an equally decimated Laker team, at the least make it watchable and competitive.

But what I just witnessed was an absolute competitive disgrace. No competitive heart. None. Nada. Nothing. Putting my mother aside, I’m calling this a disgrace. When you play sports, you know there are going to be certain times when it’s not your night, but you at least want to summon within you the competitive fire to compete. None of that was present on Thursday night from the Thunder and then I see Billy Donovan smiling and hugging Luke Walton after the game.

I guess I’m just old school. I guess that’s why I can’t come to terms with how a douchebag like Donald Trump became POTUS. I feel like Tommy Lee Jones right now in that final scene from No Country for Old Men. But I’ll write this before I get off my blog tonight…if I were a one of the Thunder players minus Paul George, Jerami Grant, and perhaps Nick Collison—I’d be taking a very hard, deep look in the mirror tomorrow morning. I seriously would. I’d think of something one of my parents told me as a kid about competing.

As far as Billy Donovan. I think he’s probably a wonderful husband, a marvelous father, and was an excellent coach at Florida. He’s just doesn’t do all that much for me though because I’m an emotion and fire guy—and he does nothing to inspire me as a fan of the Thunder.

In closing, I think all Thunder fans should realize how grateful they should be Russell Westbrook is still around to carry the Thunder on his back night in and night out.

As I’ve written numerous times in here, the NBA is a star driven league and the No. 1 Rule of Coaching is player makes the coach.

Given from what I saw from Billy Donovan tonight he took it to another level. I won’t write more. My mother wouldn’t want me to.

Recap over. I made an honest effort not to write the word fuck two hundred times. Give me that.

Thunder host the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday evening.

Hope you play, Russell.

Back on November 22nd the Thunder basically toyed with the world champion Warriors by a 108-91 count. It was brutal. So you figured the Warriors would be waiting for the Thunder with some sort of message to send to the attention deficit disorder Thunder who apparently only get stoked to play the handful of teams in this league who have a chance to win the championship.

But none of that mattered from a Golden State viewpoint as it appeared none of that buoyant one for all attitude with the Warriors showing their adoration of Kevin Durant and his mother joining an already championship level team was there. None of that feel was in the building. None. It seemed phony anyway. As if Durant’s handlers suggested to Steve Kerr it would be a good thing to do.

The only feel in the building was that Russell Westbrook proved when he fucking cares he’s most likely the best basketball player in the world on these nights when he cares enough to play defense. The second feeling I got was that Paul George when he wants to show it is the best two way player in the world given that LeBron has lost himself with all that that shit he created in Cleveland. The third feeling I got was one I already knew, that being, that Carmelo isn’t really the third piece in OKC’s Big Three–that would be Steven Adams. Don’t get me wrong, Carmelo is a nice piece if you were paying him about $12 million less a year, but at this point in Carmelo’s career, he’s more like Ray Allen was in his last years with the Heat.

So, we all know who the OKC Big Three are moving forward as if we already didn’t know for those of us who watch every game. We now know on the open record.

We also now know now that while we love Andre Roberson and his heart, there’s no excuse for this Thunder team to mentally loaf. We saw with our own two eyes what Josh Huestis can do in subbing the Andre role. We saw that Jerami Grant can be a flat out hoss when Billy Donovan feeds him the minutes. We saw that frilly Alex Abrines can actually defend a little and might actually warrant a role on this team beyond specialist. We saw what Pat Patterson can do defensively given a bunch of Carmelo’s minutes after the ankle sprain occurred. We saw all of these things with our own two eyes. What we didn’t see was rookie Terrance Ferguson set foot on the floor until the game’s final two minutes.

So, really, unless Sam Presti can pick up some aged vet like Tony Allen on the cheap, Sam Presti doesn’t need to trade pieces to the Orlando Magic in the hope he could get Jonathan Simmons in return.

The reason he doesn’t need to do this is that even without Andre Roberson–it’s apparent Billy Donovan has enough on his roster already. Consider this, against the teams in this league who have a chance to win the O’Brien Trophy…OKC is now 5-1..with the only loss coming to the Celtics when the Thunder went full attention deficient disorder in the second half thinking they had the game won. I don’t view the Spurs as a legit contender as presently constructed so that’s why I don’t include that loss to the Spurs in this conversation.

What I take out of this game is that Josh Huestis should be starting in place of Andre. Pat Patterson should take about five of Carmelo’s minutes, and maybe I was too hard on Alex Abrines in that he actually defended pretty well against the Warriors. This would mean Terrance as a rookie should go back to being the tenth player in the rotation. The floater with less minutes and a reduced role.

It also showed me when Billy Donovan shortens his bench to nine players the Thunder are much more viable.

The final insult to the Warriors on this dismal night was when Draymond Green got ejected for basically being the punk he is. At this point, I just kind of laughed. It’s not like it evoked all that much emotion in me. I’m guessing Westbrook laughed as well.

It was Russell Westbrook and Paul George’s night on the national TNT telecast. It was their night to show what they can be when they really bring their games to the arena. Paul George scored 38 points and had six steals. Russell Westbrook scored 34 points, grabbed 9 boards, and dished out 9 assists. On this night with all those Oakland All-Stars who made the NBA All-Star Game…Westbrook and Paul George showed the world what they don’t know.

But what they also showed the world is that when they want to the heart is there, just maybe not the focus on nights when they’re playing teams not at their level.

Unfortunately, the Thunder now have to play the Lakers on Thursday night in LA. Who would have thought looking at February from January that the two games against the Warriors would be easier for the Thunder than the games against the youthful Lakers. Who would have known?

Billy Donovan, do something daring in the Laker game, start Huestis again and start Patterson to defend Julius Randle and see what happens.

It’s like I never jumped up and fist pumped during this win over the Warriors. In fact, I was cussing the Thunder for a great portion of this game for not playing at this level more often. It genuinely pisses me off as a blogger I have to dog them so much for their apathy.

But it is what it is. Hope Paul George’s family is sitting front row for the Lakers game. Maybe that’ll get Westbrook and George stoked.

I just read this incredible novel by a French female author entitled The Heart. It’s about a young man in France who goes into a vegetative state after a car accident, and the chain of events which eventually lead to his heart being transplanted into an older person. Great book and beautifully written.

So—I’m sitting here thinking about this Thunder team and the way they play without Andre Roberson…as in heartless except for that rousing win over the Sixers where they showed some heart. It seems astounding to me a defensive role player could singularly hold the key to the Thunder’s heart, but maybe he did and Sam Presti knew it.

Obviously, Russell Westbrook is the league’s reigning MVP, obviously Paul George is one of the best two way players in the league, obviously Carmelo Anthony is headed to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and obviously Steven Adams is one of the better centers in the league…so why is the Thunder having so much trouble adjusting to real NBA life without Andre Roberson.

I read and hear this nonsense about how the Thunder now have no one who can defend the three. Bullshit. I’m calling bullshit.

Paul George can’t defend NBA wing players? Russell Westbrook can’t stay with his man? Steven Adams can’t hang on the boards with an aging Brooks Lopez? Carmelo Anthony can’t hang with Julius Randle? Josh Huestis can’t come into a game for something like 16 minutes a game and give his team a defensive energy spark? Alex Abrines and Terrance Ferguson can’t come into a game for limited minutes and give their team an offensive or energy spark? Pat Patterson can’t come into a game as a seasoned vet and give his team something tangible every night? Ray Felton can’t play like he was before Roberson’s injury? You’re telling me these guys as highly paid professionals can’t step on the floor and do their jobs for forty-eight minutes?

You’ll notice I didn’t mention Jerami Grant. That’s because he’s played well and actually has a look like he cares.

So…here the Thunder sit losers of four straight against four teams they should have beaten given each team was missing a star player. The Thunder didn’t lose a star, they apparently did lose Andre Roberson’s heart though.

And when you’re playing the sharp shooting Warriors in their building without your best defender and your heart it gives a fan/blogger like me some serious concern.

I wonder what Billy Donovan ever says to these guys behind closed doors. He seems so gentle with these NBA multi-millionaires. He seems daunted by the task of suggesting his team doesn’t play hard for 48 minutes. He doesn’t seem equal to the task.

So…I’ll say it for him to his team. Start playing with a chip on your shoulder and some competitive urgency. Show me some heart.

Thunder at the Warriors tonight…some sense of heart would be nice.