Robin Lopez and Jerami Grant almost had a fight….psshhhh. Really? NBA players for the most part don’t fight. They wouldn’t last a week in the NHL. Nick Gallo would throw himself over Russell Westbrook in a motherly way as a human shield before it ever came to that. They don’t fight. OKC missed a glorious chance last night in that they could have been like Isiah’s Bad Boy Pistons. That actually would help the Thunder since they can’t shoot a basketball very well.
Billy Donovan should have turned them loose. Surely, Adam Silver wouldn’t suspend the entire team. Some fighting would be good for this team. Show Cupcake what’s in store for him down the road. What do you think Steph Curry and Cupcake would do?
As I think of Westbrook…I of course think of where his landing will be legacy wise when his career is over. Where will his spot in the Pantheon be?
Bob Cousy has Westbrook in his top five point guards. Period. Ring or no ring. I need to see a ring or at least a season where Westbrook is the primary point guard on a team which makes the NBA Finals. I watched the Thunder intently in 2012 when they made their run to the Finals. In actuality, I thought Harden was the Thunder’s point guard in those twelve wins which propelled OKC to the Finals.
I don’t have Westbrook in my top twenty players of all-time even though I have him as somewhere in my top five athletes to ever play in the NBA. I have him right there with Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron as pure athletic basketball players. What keeps Westbrook off my list legacy wise is to date his inability win in post season without Kevin Durant. That’s why I think this season very much has a place in determining Westbrook’s legacy. This Thunder team has much more talent than say the Dallas team in 2011 which finally gave Jason Kidd his championship season.
As I go thru this season watching Westbrook attempt to come to terms with this I’ll be very curious to see how it ends in April. Can Westbrook nuance enough change in his game to get the Thunder back to an NBA Finals? My guess is no, but I want to be open minded about this as possible. I never thought this possible of an athlete, but there might be too much ‘dog’ in Westbrook for his own ultimate good.
I don’t think Westbrook is selfish. That’s not it. It’s more that he has too much ‘dog’ in him to pull back off the throttle when pulling back on the throttle is the play.
We’ll see.
But for fun I’m going to think of nine other great point guards who haven’t or never did win an NBA ring.
Other than the almost fight between Robin Lopez and Jerami Grant there wasn’t much to watch inside Chesapeake Energy Arena on Monday night as the Thunder did what they wanted over a horrid Chicago Bulls team which will go down as one of the worst in Bulls history. Off the top of my head I can’t remember how many games the Bulls won during the season which eventually gave them the draft passage to Michael Jordan, but I know this Bulls team is horrific. One could possibly even make the argument that fired coach Fred Hoiberg’s Elite Eight Iowa State team had more pop than this Bulls team.
The final was 121-96 and for the grace of god the Thunder has ‘almost’ completed its run of games versus the worst four teams in the NBA this season in Phoenix, Cleveland, Chicago, and Atlanta.
No pun intended towards Wild Thing, but there’s no more cupcakes left on the OKC schedule minus one remaining games versus the Suns.
I have a very simple axiom in team sports, which states, numbers are relative as per to the level of competition you’re doing it against. That’s why to date I’ve been much more into Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray than Russell Westbrook and Paul George. The latter two are getting ready to get my undivided attention in about two weeks.
These games mean nothing except they do in fact mean something as far as the Western Conference seeding positions. Let’s put it this way the Thunder are 19-10 overall, but 9-8 versus teams in the West with three of those wins coming against the Suns. I would challenge even the trekkiest of the Daily Thunder trekkies or Russell Westbrook’s Stepford Wife Nick Gallo to dispute those numbers. It is what it is. I still feel good about having the Thunder pegged as the No. 4 team in the West for these two simple reasons:
1. I’d take LeBron over the Westbrook-Paul George combo even with LeBron’s current cast.
2. I’d take Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon over Westbrook, George, Adams, and Dennis Schroder.
I’m not even bothering to list Steph and Klay because I would hope that’s obvious enough.
The questions with Oklahoma City are obviously simple, that being, does Russell Westbrook have it within himself to be a championship point guard? Can he avoid the meltdowns? Can he play within the group? Can he do these things against good teams with good players and good coaches consistently through three rounds and twelve wins? Can Sam Presti find a player to take the Alex Abrines spot on the roster and give the Thunder a dependable three point specialist?
Otherwise, I think Sam Presti has done all he can do for Russell Westbrook. This season isn’t on Sam Presti, this season will be a judgement of Russell Westbrook when the smoke has cleared.
Here’s how I see it. Durant left because he didn’t think he’d ever win a ring with Westbrook. He’s now won two with Steph and Klay in two tries…Cupcake or not.
Sam Presti then went to work. He traded Serge Ibaka for in essence what became Paul George and Jerami Grant. Absolutely brilliant. You can bitch all you want about the Harden deal, but there’s not a center in the league I’d trade Steven Adams for and I can’t see how Harden and Westbrook would have ever co-evolved.
Presti then made the horrible mistake of taking Carmelo, but made up for it by bringing in Dennis Schroeder. He literally stole a one year rental of Nerlens Noel and looks very smart with the addition of Hamidou Diallo. Terrence Ferguson is coming around, but again we haven’t seen enough of Ferguson against elite guards to know what he really is bringing to the Andre Roberson role.
Patterson and Abrines have been disappointing. For OKC to be special those two can’t both be inconsistent. That’s not on Presti, that’s on those two as well paid professionals. That’s why general managers make trades during a season. That’s why the Red Sox bolstered their bullpen. That’s why you have a trade deadline.
Sam Presti needs another dependable three point shooter to help Russell Westbrook’s decision making process easier. This will be on Presti.
The rest will basically be on Russell Westbrook. How does Westbrook want to go down in basketball history in the modern era?
Does he want to be an NBA point guard with a ring or go down along with Steve Nash, John Stockton, and Allen Iverson as a group of the four best NBA point guards never to win a championship?
Some great regular season career numbers. He could score the ball in the regular season with the Denver Nuggets. But he was a coach killer in Denver and in New York. A selfish player who unfortunately will be remembered in this manner despite being given two chances in OKC and Houston to redefine himself and his legacy.
It’s really sad when you think about Carmelo’s ending from a human standpoint. In the end he didn’t come to terms with himself as a player or how the game has evolved in the past ten years. I mean, could he even be taken seriously as an analyst at this point. I hope Carmelo finds peace within himself. What a shame.
It was a great sports night for me. It was dueling sporting events as LeBaker led his Browns and the city of Cleveland to a pulsating last play of the game 17-16 win over the Denver Broncos in Mile High Stadium. My son was there with a group of OU people and kept calling during the game in excitement.
So I asked, “What jersey are you wearing…Von Miller’s or LeBaker’s No. 6?”
He never would tell me. Some bullshit about hosting some oil and gas people. But I could detect in his voice this night belonged to Baker Mayfield and America’s team…the Cleveland Browns. With the win, Cleveland improves to 6-7-1 and has a date with the dysfunctional Bengals next week-end in Cleveland. I would think it will be standing room only as these (our) Browns are still in the hunt heading into Week 16 of an NFL season.
This isn’t a fluke no matter how much Jim Traber wishes it was. Cleveland is loaded with good young talent. John Dorsey is a proven GM. The last hurdle in Cleveland is for ownership to get out of the way and stay out of the way. In essence to become invisible ownership. To allow Dorsey to run the franchise. Now you can say you can’t overcome weak ownership. That is a valid argument. But as we’ve seen with the Steelers, the NY Giants, the Green Bay Packers, the 49’ers, and the Denver Broncos of late just having solid ownership doesn’t make you immune from going through down cycles. It’s a tough league. Albeit the Browns didn’t just down cycle before Baker…they basically died and stayed dead until this past summer’s draft.
There were Cleveland jerseys sprinkled throughout Mile High on Saturday night. It was in essence a playin game for the winner to stay alive in the race for a wild card berth. Cleveland won and it was on a night when Baker Mayfield wasn’t at his sharpest.
Big picture wise I had six wins for Cleveland this season to fight their way from out of the abyss. With a win over the dumpster fire Bengals next week they improve to 7-7-1 with a Game 16 remaining versus the Ravens in Baltimore.
I should invite Mark Rodgers to come over and watch the game with me. Winner moves on…loser has his season end.
I can’t wait.
On the Thunder front…Paul George continued his excellent play of late in leading the Thunder to a 110-94 win over the gradually descending Clippers. The Thunder improve to 18-10 and host the Bulls on Monday night. The Clips biggest drama will occur this trade deadline where we see how much cap space they create for this coming summer.
So… I wonder what the hottest jersey is in Oklahoma right now… Kyler Murray, NBA MVP candidate Paul George, or LeBaker Mayfield’s No. 6?
I know which one I was wearing Saturday night.
Jim Traber…get over yourself and put on that Baker Mayfield jersey. Have some fun with yourself for a change.
Baker talks big win in Mile High, Pepper’s huge sack, and Kobe Bryant. Note to Russell Westbrook… this is how as a star you conduct yourself with the local media. You’ll notice their wasn’t one jock sniffer question from a Nick Gallo type during the presser. Get rid of Nick Gallo and show the world you’ve transformed yourself into a real iconic sports figure like Kobe. You know, as in the player you idolized while growing up in LA. The fourth grade level shit has become a bore. Ascend, Russell… this comes from a fan.
As the Thunder start playing more and more teams other than Phoenix and Atlanta the reality of this team with Billy Donovan coaching them appears to be surfacing. With the schedule now littered with decent basketball teams the Thunder can no longer feast exclusively on bad teams. A team’s true character will manifest itself as each week gets tougher and tougher. If you want to see tough go google the Thunder’s last 14 regular season games of the season. Pretty tough. Like you hope the Thunder make the playoffs… tough.
On Friday night in my soon to be secondary homeland of Denver–a Nugget team without Paul Milsap, without Will Barton, without Gary Harris, without Isiah Thomas, and without rookie Michael Porter basically toyed with a healthy Thunder team for a 109-98 win. Nikola Jokic and Jaamal Murray led a Nugget team which pretty much made plays when they needed them as they now hold a 2-0 season series lead over the Thunder.
I have no idea what Billy Donovan is doing. He needs three point scoring in the worst imaginable way and yet the three dudes who beginning the season who were to provide this took but five combined shots in over fifty minutes of playing time on Friday. Patrick Patterson, Alex Abrines, and Terrance Ferguson played plenty of rotational minutes, but for some reason I cannot decipher Abrines and Ferguson took a combined two shots. Two shots. And this after the game where Billy Donovan ran a last second play which had Abrines shooting for the game in New Orleans. Both Abrines and Ferguson didn’t score on Friday night while Patterson hit one three.
Paul George and Steven Adams kept the Thunder in the game with solid offensive games. PG scored 32 points while Steven double doubled with a 20, 12 night. Jerami Grant and Dennis Schroder struggled. Russell Westbrook was once again semi-awful going 5-15 from the field and then looking foolish at the end losing his composure with Jaamal Murray
If you want a sign of how poor Westbrook was on the night…consider he only got to the free throw two times…TWO TIMES. If that doesn’t send up a flare I don’t know what would. Maybe he’s just worn out from the twins. Having three young children all the sudden isn’t the easiest thing. I have no idea. We don’t even see Wild Thing anymore… something must be up. Shit…even seeing Wild Thing at this point would be good versus Russell the Zombie.
The Thunder were brutal from the line once again going 17-29 from the free throwline. 17-29. And without Andre Roberson. Are you kidding? High school team don’t do this.
OKC managed but 14 assists to 13 turnovers and for the second straight game and got beaten on the boards.
I’m not going to go crazy on here, it serves no purpose given the turbulent times our Republic finds itself in at the present. Another one quit in Caligula’s inner circle this morning with Sec. of Interior leaving for proposing a fracking scheme on Mount Rushmore. Just kidding…kind of.
So, I guess in this game between the Thunder and my new secondary homeland of Denver…there was no way I could lose.
Billy Donovan only wishes he could make that claim.
Patrick Beverly and the Clips in OKC tonight to face the 17-10 Thunder.
So I’m to assume Caligula couldn’t quite pull the trigger on Chris Christie in that Christie put Jared’s father in prison while he was a federal prosecutor. I guess that would have made the White House Christmas a little uneasy. Who would believe this shit if it were on House of Cards? Who seriously would believe all these pathetic people actually exist?
Not yet thru with his second year in office and Caligula has his third Chief of Staff. Gone is Priebus the anointed one from the GOP mainstream. Gone is General John Kelly who has basically torched his once impressive reputation.
Mick Mulvaney….you absolute dumbshit. Do you not have a wife, a parent, a child or a friend who told you not to do this? I’ll put the Mulvaney over/under at four months from today in that the tension and stress will be amped up even more as the Dems nudge this towards the impeachment stage.
On the General Mattis over/under departure date I’m going six months. If the bags under his eyes deepen anymore he’s going to start stepping on them.
I’m exhausted. I feel like I’ve literally been on his cabinet wading through all this human debris.
Who would have guessed Omarosa was the Secretariat of the bunch? Come back, Omarosa… come back.
I love to read great stories. I have a certain place in my heart for skilled storytellers. Movies are great, but in book form you find the real essence of a great human story.
I’ve read some great books this year. But in the end this is my winner for book of the year.
It’s The Soul of America by Jon Meacham. Hands down the best book I’ve read this year amongst some truly very good books. One good thing about Trump is that I hope in most of us it’s directed us towards probing deep within ourselves and finding deeper more profound answers than why perhaps Alex Abrines got that last shot in New Orleans the other night.
I have a history degree so I mean this book is in my wheelhouse. But I would hope more Americans start taking the time to understand their own country and why it is significant from a world view.
America will survive the seedy reality show president I feel confident in writing. But what America will not survive is an uneducated electorate. The world is changing every day. Literally.
I don’t see Trump as the real challenge of America, but more to the point the real challenge is challenging more Americans to take the time to learn about their own country and their own constitution.
Here’s the PBS book tour interview on The Soul of America. America only survives if it gets smarter. It’s very simple. Dumb countries don’t lead the world at some point. But here’s the glass half full view, even thru Trump the world still hungers for America to lead.
Of the half dozen or so Trump books I’ve read…Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi was the best by far.
Originally, the book was intended to be a dark comedy just about the Trump campaign given that no one including Donald Trump thought he could possibly win the presidency. Taibbi followed Trump for the entire campaign up until the morning after the election when we were all stunned to be living in a country with Donald Trump somehow left standing as the president elect.
Truly amazing. The darkest of comedies turned to be the most brutal of reality television shows.
Taibbi said the day after the election there would be multiple rabbit holes each and every day. He obviously knew what he was talking about. So as we near the two year anniversary of Caligula’s second year in the White House…I thought I might start checking in on Matt Taibbi and see what he’s been doing.
I assume he’ll be doing this again in 2020 since House of Cards will by then be a distant memory.