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You have to look for positives in a season like this one in Oklahoma City. Glass half full has to be the mantra. This will be easier for Oklahoma State football fans. They’ve lived this their entire lives. Rationalization fuels their existence. They hang a 1945 poser championship banner in one of their end zones. Sam Presti is counting on these people for sure.

So I guess sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans in the early stages of the season when the Pels didn’t have Zion Williamson is a positive. I know this though after watching Alvin Gentry’s clock management at the end of this game—Billy Donovan at least isn’t there just yet this season.

The Thunder improved to 8-11 with their third and final win over New Orleans on Sunday afternoon with an exciting 107-104 win over the Pels inside the Smoothie whatever Arena.

Such a strange game. Steven Adams with Chris Paul was getting the ball late in the game on the pick and roll. As well he should have considering rookie string bean Jaxson or Jackson Hayes was supposed to be guarding Adams.

Stunningly—Steven went to the free throwline late in the game making 5 of 6 and pretty much was the MVP in this one for the Thunder with a double double of 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Big Gallo was excellent as well stroking that velvet smooth shot of his which is as pleasing to watch as the best golf swing on the PGA tour. Phil’s maybe would be the comparison. Watching Gallo’s stroke is as pleasing as viewing an attractive naked woman on the Fox Trump Christian Network.

Chris Paul for an older man played well. Schroder scored some points again off the bench yet was -11.

None of the youth core of the Thunder’s future did all that much for me as SGA’s game of late does not inspire all that much. He’s smooth and glides somewhat like expensive bourbon, but beyond that I’m not all that sure I’d trade Chris Paul just yet and hand the car keys to an NBA team over to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to drive by himself.

Even though the Thunder have won only one game against a team with a winning record this season it’s hard to already lump Billy Donovan into the Mike Gundy/Alvin Gentry category nineteen games into an NBA season. Unlike Gundy—at least Billy Donovan doesn’t wear a ridiculous looking mid-life crisis mullet. In fact—I’ll say this… Billy D looks GQ smooth except when’s he’s smacking the gum like a roller skating car hop at a Sonic drive-in.

If you haven’t noticed yet this is my best simile driven recap of the season so far. Dan Jenkins would be proud…I hope. Maybe semi proud.

Some on the Thunder post game call in show were talking playoff run after this third win versus the Pels. I don’t think so. Six of their wins have come against the G League Warriors and the team Alvin Gentry is currently employed by. Otherwise–this Thunder team is 2-11 and the only team with a winning record they’ve beaten is Philadelphia.

Yet…you don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade. Each Thunder fan is entitled to handle this season as they see fit from an internal manner of speaking. But again…I’m fairly certain these Thunder aren’t the St. Louis Blues or the Washington Nationals lurking in the shadows of doing all that much once we get beyond December 15th and trade season opens and stays open till mid February.

Next up are the Indiana Pacers as they come to town this week to play the Thunder.

For something called Bedlam it was anything but. OU handled Mike Gundy’s team once again, but this time around with relative ease as the final score of 34-16 in no way reflected how one-sided this game was in the second half as the Sooners controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football.

This game had no drama of Iowa state, Baylor, or TCU. No late game heroics were needed from Alex Grinch’s defense because the Sooner defense was for first time since the Texas game—seemingly engaged for sixty minutes.

Jalen Hurts didn’t have to carry the load. He merely had to manage the game and watched Kennedy Brooks do pretty much whatever he wanted to on a night when Chuba Hubbard was the second best running back on the field…maybe third if you count wishbone quarterback Jalen Hurts as a running back.

Chuba Hubbard is a nice back, but c’mon—he’s no Barry Sanders. Let’s go steady on the throttle with that one. But he should be a nice NFL running back.

Mike Gundy drops to an abysmal 2-13 versus OU as the head coach of his alma mater… 2-17 if you count his four years as the O State quarterback for Pat Jones. The 9th grade mullet must be a thing to project swagger since we know it’s not his record versus the Sooners putting fans inside of Boone’s stadium.

Sigh.

That’s all I’m gong to say about this because I’m not an O State hater. I want them to do well for the sake of the state and the conference. But 2-17, yikes. And one of those two wins only happened because Bob Stoops repunted to Tyreke Hill and did something Mike Gundy never did that football game. Namely, one time giving the NFL’s most explosive player a touch on back to back plays.

OU improves to 11-1 and moves on to the Big 12 Championship Game versus 11-1 Baylor. It should be a good game inside AT&T Stadium. The Sooners will need to bring sixty minutes of inspired football if they want to hoist a fifth straight Big 12 championship trophy.

I have no idea if the Sooners will make the Final Four. They would still need LSU to beat Georgia and for Oregon to beat Utah next Saturday. I’m not sure OU has a valid claim to be there, but we’ll see how the games fall for all concerned.

With Hamidou Diallo down for 4-6 weeks with an injured elbow Billy Donovan has given those minutes of late to Abdel Nadar. After a nice a career high night in Portland scoring 23 points—Nadar had 19 impactful points off the bench to help lead the Thunder past the Zion-less and Lonzo-less Pelicans by a score of 109-104 Friday night inside the Peake.

Fellow bench mate Dennis Schroder added 25 points as the Thunder improved to 7-11 with their second win of the season versus the Pelicans.

Again…some nice luck for the Thunder as they’re catching New Orleans while they don’t have Zion Williamson available due to injury.

I wanted to post Nadar’s highlights because he’s a hard working kid who’s going out there and doing his best to carve out a niche for himself at the NBA level. I respect his work ethic and hope he continues to improve night in and night out as this very long season of tanking for a high lottery pick goes thru the winter into spring.

For the most part this season that’s what I’m hope to do on my blog in regards to the Thunder–look for those spots here and there which are positive or should be recognized. It’s not like I’m turning a Little Nick Gallo leaf or anything—it just makes no sense to get upset when the need is obvious. The Thunder need a high lottery pick and one who will develop as a star level player for Sam Presti and Clay Bennett down the road.

Next up…another matchup versus the Pelicans on Sunday afternoon in New Orleans.

After Thanksgiving dinner my mother pulls out this old album and puts it on a turntable. It mesmerized me. I’d never really listened to the lyrics before.

She says, ” Play this for your wife sometime.”

I think I will. What a beautiful song.

What a great day.

Kevin Durant is in Brooklyn. James Harden and Russell Westbrook are in Houston. Paul George is in LA. Jerami Grant is in Denver. Victor Oladipo and Domas Sabonis are in Indianapolis.

Reset or rebuild?

Probably a good time for me to post this Sam Presti presser from this summer where of course the college market writers ask few if any difficult questions.

It’s hard not to laugh out loud. Sam Anderson somewhere is laughing his ass off this morning and wishing this was another epilogue to his book Boom Town.

The Oklahoma City Thunder did two things on Wednesday night in Portland which they could never do the entire season Carmelo played for Billy Donovan. Two things. In 28 minutes of playing time Carmelo was 9-11 from the field and a +27 for Terry Stotts… +27

It’s making me laugh thinking of the part in Anderson’s book where the Oklahoma City leaders volunteered the citizens of OKC to be lab mice for the testing of sonic booms upon humans in an urban setting. Operation Bongo is what I think they called the sonic boom experiment.

Carmelo schooling the Thunder makes me laugh. Operation Bongo II and with a MAPS IV vote on the slate in a week or so.

Here’s the reality. If you take away the three wins versus Golden State’s current G League squad playing up with the big boys—what we have is an OKC Thunder team which is 3-11 otherwise.

3-11.

If you scratch Golden State’s G League team from the West and shrink the Western Conference to fourteen teams–it would appear OKC and Memphis perhaps might be headed towards a battle for the No. 13 seed in the West.

Which is a nice thing because I’m going to the December 26th game in OKC to see Ja Morant in person when the Memphis Grizzlies visit Oklahoma City.

I don’t think OKC gets to play the Warriors again this season. So the question which begs to be asked is how many games can this squad STILL WITH Chris Paul and Big Gallo win out of the remaining 65 games left on the schedule?

Who else can this team beat on the road in the West?

I don’t know. But I think what I need to do is go back to the 23-59 season and see how many road games that team won in Oklahoma City’s first season of having their own NBA team.

It doesn’t matter. But I’m just curious here in Deer Creek on Thanksgiving morning as Pauli and I are getting ready to go into the woods looking for her mountain lion.

A sense of humor and irony will be needed to get thru this first year of the Presti Rebuild as we all search for NBA sustainability in Oklahoma City.

This is the karaoke video I want for my Sam Presti karaoke sessions as we go thru this season of tanking. I’d like to know if this was in the original plan of sustainability?

Three years minimum just to be a contender for the No. 8 seed. The notion of being a championship contender isn’t even on the radar. How long did it take the Lakers to get back?

Don’t scoff you Durant haters. Kevin Durant was the franchise in Oklahoma City and it’s debatable now if he’d even come back to get his jersey retired here given the way he’s been treated by the Trump racists.

I love this video. Just love it.

My favorite Dylan song by a mile.

Even when they’re both tanking…Bob Myers gets the best of Sam Presti. I couldn’t even watch this bullshit as it unfolded in front of me. The Thunder played their tanking roll to perfection for most of this game as they trailed the G League eight man version of the Thunder for most of the night.

Then… the Thunder inexplicably rallied at the end to lose their loss and absorb a win in their quest for the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

If you love professional wrestling—this is your season as an OKC Thunder fan.

The Thunder get their first road win and now stand 1-6 on the road. Consider this though—take away the three wins from this Walking Dead version of the Warriors and the Thunder are right there as the NBA’s worst team with a 2-11 mark in the quest for the first pick in this summer’s NBA draft,

Who would have thought this time last season we would see Sam Presti and Bob Myers at this point with their respective franchises this quickly?

Golden State was literally decimated by injuries and had no choice while the Thunder had to cut ties with Russell Westbrook’s contract for obvious reasons.

But the fall to this extent this fast is stunning to witness even when you know the teams are tanking.

But the Warriors have three rings, while the Thunder have the dubious distinction of being the NBA franchise which had Kevin Durant for nine years and didn’t win anything.

The Warriors with Steph, Klay, Draymond, Looney, whoever they get for D’Angelo Russell, and whoever their No. 1 pick is this summer will be back next season.

And as it turns out not a bad year for the Warriors to be in rebuild in San Francisco as the 49’ers appear to be headed for a run at making the Super Bowl if they can get by the Seahawks and the Saints.

With the Thunder though it will be a much longer rebuild if ever depending on how much luck Sam Presti has with his draft picks. But it will be a glorious ESPN 30/30 film. No rings, but an epic 30/30 film.

So on a night when the Thunder should have lost to the Warriors they screwed around and won…which is a loss.

Sam Presti needs some theme music for tanking. This seems about right.

It should be an interesting game in Stillwater on Saturday night as OU visits O State in what is a must game for OU if they hope to slip thru the back door into the college football playoff final four.

The Sooners enter as No. 7 and the Cowboys at No. 21 and on a nice little run with their defense playing much better as of late.

Both teams have a Heisman candidate. OU with Jalen Hurts and O State with Canadian running back Chuba Hubbard. There’s a genuine argument for both being the Big 12 Player of the Year.

Both defenses of late have been making plays which is nice to see for college football fans in this state.

OU’s defense in reality has made season saving plays three weeks in a row when you think about it: 1 The stop on the two point conversion versus Iowa State. 2 The Nick Bonito interception to clinch the win at Baylor. 3 The late pick by Bookie Radley-Hiles to get the clinching stop against TCU. It’s been Alex Grinch’s young guys saving the season week by week with a heavy does of Jalen Hurts usage to keep them off the field as much as possible.

To me…this is very encouraging for the future of the OU defense. Caleb Kelly is back for the remainder of this season and next. Tre Norwood will be back in the defensive backfield after an injury redshirt season. Jon Michael-Terry will be back from injury as well. But most of all OU will return a plethora of young players on the defensive side of the ball who have seen meaningful minutes.

Kenneth Murray will be gone next season, but look for a guy like Ronnie Perkins to step up and become a star. Perkins to me is a key for OU moving forward on this side of the ball. I think as he goes on the pass rush—OU will go the remainder of this season and next.

For O State both wide receiver Tylan Wallace and Spencer Sanders are done with season ending injuries. Dru Brown the graduate transfer from Hawaii has the opportunity of a lifetime to become a rock star for life in Stillwater if he can lead the Cowboys to an upset.

Mike Gundy has calmed down these past few weeks. The press conferences seem less manic with no further talk of double doses of Ambien to get thru the nights. Simple. His team is playing hard for him and doing their best given the hand dealt.

It could be a classic Bedlam or it could much of the same as O State hasn’t won in Stillwater since Weeden’s championship season in 2011.

The games have all been close of late and OU hasn’t blown anyone out since the home win over West Virginia.

Vegas has OU as a 10.5 favorite, but history would tell you to take the points since OU hasn’t covered since the West Virginia game.

OU needs some help even if they win Bedlam. They may need an Auburn win over Alabama, and they definitely need LSU to beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

Mike Gundy needs a Bedlam win…period.

It should be a great week-end of college football.