Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

I hate preseason games. I’m glad it’s over. The Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night by a 96-86 score. I think OKC is going to have a very interesting season.

From my view, OKC has either the second or third best roster in the NBA. I’d go 1 Golden State, 2 Cleveland, 3 Oklahoma City, 4 San Antonio, and 5 Houston.

Golden State, Golden State, Golden State…does this OKC team have enough to beat this team four times in a seven game series? On paper, one would say no. But that’s why you play the games. Maybe some injuries hit the Warriors. Maybe Trump and Rocket Man start WW III and the season has to be put on hold. But on paper, this Warrior team is a dynasty as we get ready to begin real games next season.

OKC’s bench is a big key for me. Both the Warriors and Cavs have excellent benches. It can’t be like last year for the Thunder with their bench. The bench has to be a plus. Period.

I’m not at all concerned as to how Russell, PG, and Melo meld their games. That will be fine. The rest of the roster night in and night out has to define their roles and bring a consistent level of play every night for this team to say flirt with the notion of going something like 58-24 in the regular season.

Big season for Billy Donovan as an NBA head coach. I like Donovan for the most part. I want to see him take his coaching game up a level or two this season…which I think he will do.

Steven Adams is getting paid $25 million this season. He needs to play like it.

Andre needs to visualize Halle Berry naked when he’s at the line and start making his free throws. Alex Abrines needs to provide instant offense off the bench. Raymond Felton has to be a reliable backup point guard. Patrick Patterson has to supply an overall game from his bench minutes. Jerami Grant needs to take his game to a higher level and be consistent. Who’s the tenth guy on my list…I’ll go with the rookie Terrance Ferguson. I think he’ll be a nice little addition as we move along this season. These seven guys HAVE to get better every night if this team wants to entertain any notion of beating the Warriors.

I could care less about Russell amassing triple doubles. I want to see the ball move. I want to see the other players getting their touches in their respective comfort zone spots on the floor. What I really want to see is Russell taking his game to another level as a point guard. I know he can do it—he’s a smart Bad Little Dude. Russell has done everything but win a ring and from my vantage point he will be pushing himself to the max to get his ring. Same with Melo, same with PG…these are three elite players who should be completely fired up about the chance to compete for a ring.

Unless a war starts, I’m ready to ignore Caligula and start following this Thunder team on my blog.

Is this Thunder roster stronger one thru ten than the team which made it to the 2012 NBA Finals? I think it is. But again, the problem is that group in Golden State. They’re pretty good.

I’m excited. I’m ready. And as a fan/blogger extremely grateful for all the excellent work Sam Presti did this off season. I love Thunder basketball. Once the season begins—my life somewhat centers around it.

Here are the highlights from tonight’s Denver game. From this point forward—the games count.

LET’S GO THUNDER!

With each passing day it appears Bob Corker might turn out to be this president’s Howard Baker. Pretty straight talk from a conservative Republican senator who’s respected by colleagues from both parties. So do you think this whole Mike Pence rabbit hole distraction at the Colts game had anything to do with Corker’s on the record comments?

Every day there’s a rabbit hole. Every day. There’s now about five or six GOP senators who have stood up to Caligula on the public record….Corker, McCain, Collins, Flake, maybe Graham, and Murkowski. No sightings yet of Lyin’ Ted Cruz and Little Marco Rubio. I guess they’re too young and plan on being in the Senate a very long time. It will be interesting to see if the youth minister from Oklahoma ever goes public with his disdain for Caligula.

Anyway, this needs to be on my blog. Kind of like admitting a piece of evidence to the Court, so to speak.

I’ve been watching OU football since around 1964. I would rank today’s 38-31 loss to Iowa State as the worst loss in OU football history from then to today. Sure, OU had the tough 41-6 loss to Arkansas in the Orange Bowl during the Switzer Era. Sure, OU got its ass kicked 55-19 to USC in the 2004 national championship game. And, sure, OU was whipped 41-9 in 2011 Bedlam when some of the OU players went into the O State tunnel to taunt the home team before the game. But those losses all came against teams which ended up in the top five of the AP poll. With all due respect to the Iowa State kids, they aren’t like any of those teams.

I watched Iowa State play Texas a week ago and they had twenty yards rushing… the whole game…at home. They scored seven points against a Longhorn defense which tonight gave up 34 points against a K State team which scored seven points at home against Vanderbilt.

All the credit in the world to Iowa State. They competed hard and made the plays. OU didn’t and quite frankly they apparently haven’t done a fucking thing since the win in Columbus except read Baker Mayfield’s Twitter trash.

If you’re going to run your mouth, then bring your ball game. Period.

Mike Stoops’ defense has looked like the biggest collection of pussies to ever play for OU. Guys…tackling is allowed. I have no idea who those guys were who beat Ohio State 31-16, but these guys aren’t them.

One of the kind of important things in playing defense is to tackle the guy with the ball. I would suggest to the OU coaches that be a point of emphasis this week in practice. To play in the Big 12 you have to be able to tackle in space. Some tackling in space drills this week, please.

This is a horrible loss. Even if OU were to somehow run the table–I’m not sure this doesn’t eliminate them from a playoff berth especially if Georgia is a one loss team with the only loss coming to Alabama. Both Alabama and Clemson looked mortal today in relatively close wins, but OU showed no heart whatsoever in losing at home to team which was a 31 point Vegas dog.

The Edwards kid planted the flag and I’m totally okay with it. Maybe this will inject something into OU for next week’s game in Dallas. Maybe a team which looks like they fucking care will walk down the ramp instead of the listless pussies who have done virtually nothing for a month.

Season goes one way or other the next Saturday in Dallas. It might be time for me to bring out the Al Pacino coach speech because if these motherfuckers don’t pull their heads out of their asses their season goals are over. As in done.

Let’s start with this. Not to be cruel, but Andre’s free throw shooting against Houston in last season’s playoffs was in a word…feeble. Seriously feeble. I don’t write this to be cruel because Andre is a wonderful defender, excellent rebounder, and chock full of every intangible a coach could hope for with the exception my sixty year old ass could beat him in a free throw shooting contest. I’m very consistent shooting free throws…pretty much at a 72-75% clip. But I’m not a shooting coach or anything, so let’s do this. Let’s take a look back at last spring versus the Rockets and see if we can detect anything wrong with Andre’s stroke.

That was genuinely brutal. Is it the stroke or is it just mental? I’m saying both. Now let’s take a look at his shooting stroke from the field.

Now let’s watch the free throw coach for the stars give Andre some suggestions on technique.

That’s seems a bit much to think about, I never think about those things. Maybe take some of that, mentally refresh, pause, think of a beautiful naked woman, release, and swish. That’s how to do it. That’s what I do at the YMCA shooting free throws. You should be hovering somewhere in that 70-72% range from the line so as you can stay on the floor to guard Klay Thompson, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler. I know you can do this, Andre.

The NBA is a league dominated by Golden State currently. Dynasty is not too strong of a word if they stay healthy. I like Steve Kerr. He’s a nice fit for this team. But as we’ve seen over the past several years they win with Kerr, Luke Walton, and Mike Brown. They’re very good and structured for the modern era of NBA basketball. Nice interview. This is a dude I could sit down with and talk to about a myriad of things. I can see why his players like him.

Well…if Tillerson didn’t, we do know this—he fucking should have. Oh, I wake every morning exhausted from all this winning Caligula has heaped upon us. Not one singular to date thing has been done except the filling of a judgeship which should have already been filled by Merritt Garland. Not one singular thing.

I’ve come to my own conclusions about America the past twelve months. We in no way should be deporting Hispanics or banning Muslims. What we should be doing is deporting around twenty million or so of the white idiots who voted for this piece of shit douchebag.

Where do we send them? Who would take them? What would it cost? I haven’t figured all this out, but this is what needs to done. These people are not coachable. Not redeemable. Maybe the LSU Alumni Association would take them. Sorry… Jimmy Carvelle.

Make America Great Again…Deport a Deplorable.

Tell me it wouldn’t take balls to put that bumper sticker on my truck in Oklahoma. I might just do it.

This evidently caused a great deal of stress with Tillerson. Funny to see Tom Price there since he was last week fired for financial fraud and corruption. The other idiot standing besides Caligula is former Texas governor Rick Perry who never should have left Dancing With the Stars. Oh, boy. Tillerson should be okay…it’s not like Caligula looked out at the Boy Scouts and told them he moved on her heavily and tried to fuck her like a bitch.

Here’s the thing, as Golden State comes into this season they should be riding the quest of a threepeat in search of a fourpeat. Take away Draymond Green’s ejection two years ago and that’s where the NBA is currently. That being, the Golden State Warriors being the hated champions with twenty-nine other teams wishing they were them.

I haven’t done my Western Conference bracket sheet yet, but here’s the truth, while OKC, Houston, San Antonio, and Minnesota all got better…so did the Warriors. As if they needed more offensive firepower, that’s exactly what they did this off season in adding more offense to their mix with the additions of Nick Young and Omri Casspi. Unless an injury bug hits the Warriors, they will be better as well.

The thing which bothers me the most about the Thunder is what do you do with Andre Roberson. Of the teams I just mentioned including Golden State, all of their guard tandems feature two way backcourts, none of these teams have to close their eyes when their shooting guard touches the ball. Those other shooting guards are Klay Thompson/Warriors, James Harden/Rockets, Danny Green/ Spurs, and Jimmy Butler/TWolves. I love everything Sam Presti did and I love Andre Roberson’s game other than his shooting, but that’s part of being a shooting guard. Namely, scoring the ball enough to keep the other team honest.

If I’m an opposing coach my take on OKC is still the same even with the additions of George, Melo, Patterson, and Felton….I’m either going to foul Roberson early in the possession or not guard him at all once the possession becomes half court.

As the opposing coach I’m going to write on the board…’Make Andre Roberson Beat Us.’ I’d do exactly what Steve Kerr does by using the extra defender to congest the lane and take away the rim from Adams and Westbrook. Would you rather have those two at the rim or Roberson with the ball in his hands? Duh.

Billy Donovan is going to have to work through this somehow. He’s going to have to become a situational savant on the bench. Those four other coaches don’t have to work through any of that. And remember what happened last season in the first round against Houston, Mike D’Antoni simply said to his team, ‘Make Andre Roberson Beat Us.’ Pretty simple.

So that’s the one thing which gives me a feeling of unrest about the Thunder and why I can’t decide whether to pick them second or fourth on my Western Conference bracket sheet.

My heart says second, but my reason says fourth. And fourth means you’re on the Warriors side of the bracket.

I can’t decide.

Before we got a team in Oklahoma, the Philly Sixers were easily my favorite NBA team. I was never a Celtics or Lakers fan per se. I watched all their games, but the Sixers had my heart. It started with Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham, then made a turn through the Dr. J era, Charles Barkley, and then Allen Iverson. Some truly great players made their careers in Philly.

So as a Philly fan who’s now a passionate Thunder fan/blogger, I was thinking how fortunate I’ve been to watch some truly great point guards–and don’t forget those two years New Orleans played here in OKC, I got to see Chris Paul win Rookie of the Year and evolve as one of the best point guards in the league.

My favorite NBA team of all-time is the 1983 Sixers team who swept the Lakers in four games to win the NBA Championship. My second favorite team is the 2012 OKC Thunder who lost in five games to LeBron in Miami. My third favorite team is the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers who actually beat my Sixers in six games. That Portland team was perhaps the best passing team I’ve ever seen and coached by Jack Ramsey, who was at one time the Philly head coach. Small world.

So now everyone is saying Westbrook is just a heavier version of Allen Iverson. I don’t think so. There are parts of Iverson in Westbrook’s game, but there are parts of Mo Cheeks and probably Russell’s father inside of Westbrook’s game as well.

Westbrook is completely adaptable to the talent around him. Lest Cupcake and his brother Tony forget–Le Cupcake won four scoring titles in OKC, had that rare gem 40-50-90 season, won an MVP, made it to four conference finals and one NBA finals. What I’m saying is Westbrook held his game back to facilitate Durant. If Durant, his handlers, and brother Tony want to rewrite history that’s their call. As someone who watched all of this–I’d put more of OKC’s inability to get over the top on OKC’s starting shooting guards during the Durant Era, and btw even though I think Andre Roberson is a great kid this still concerns me. Golden State has Klay Thompson, the Thunder have a shooting guard who can’t make free throws. Do the math in a best of seven series, do the math.

If I’m Billy Donovan here’s what I say to Russ, play like Mo Cheeks did in ’83 and see where that takes you. The way Mo Cheeks played the point guard position in ’83 was something to behold. The ball moved exactly where it needed to be and was there when it needed to be there. Dr. J and Moses Malone got their comfort touches, the perimeter guys got their touches, and when needed Cheeks got his points. It was beautiful to watch. I’m hopeful this is the template the Thunder follows this season.

Except for last season, I’ve never thought Westbrook was a ball hog. His usage was high, but for the most part, except for last season when he was surrounded by primarily rookie scale players—the ball has gotten where it needs to be gotten. Did you really want the ball in someone’s else’s hands in Game 6 versus Warriors? No…we just wanted Durant and Westbrook to make the touches count. I mean would we even be having this never ending Westbrook-Cupcake yarn if OKC holds on to the lead those fateful six minutes or so in Game 6?

In closing to all the talking heads who say Westbrook is just a heavier Iverson…I’d say Westbrook is one small part Mo, Cheeks, one small part Allen Iverson, one small part Ray Westbrook, and one big part Russell Westbrook.

That’s what I’d say.

My favorite Iverson video. I love the Rocky dribbling spiel in Philly. Classic.

Tom Petty passed at the age of sixty-six. I love many of his songs. Hard to have one favorite, but here’s a couple at the top of my list. R.I.P., buddy. You’ll be missed.

I’ve come to be a fan of Cowherd. He’ll probably be the millennials Dan Patrick. Oklahoma is a good match for Russell. The state has a tremendous amount of untapped potential if only the state had a more visionary governor and an overall attitude of being a bit more progressive. Great people with a genuine goodness about them. They need leadership, just not from the American Freedom Caucus, especially on the education front. It’s all about education.