Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

Almost halfway through an NBA marathon regular season and the feeling on the Thunder in OKC in Durant’s free agency season is basically just kind of ….. blah. This was supposed to be the year Sam Presti and OKC’s ownership group ponied up and showed Kevin Durant and his management team how perhaps the best pure scorer the league has ever seen could fulfil his championship legacy by staying in Oklahoma City.

Instead– what we’ve seen are a series of trades from Sam Presti in the past twelve months which have all gone the wrong way towards that end and basically in no way have strengthened the Thunder to roll with the likes of the Warriors, Spurs, and the Cavs.

Not one move to date has gone the right way  unless you believe giving up Lance Thomas and a protected first round pick for Dion Waiters has made OKC more title viable.

The trading of Reggie Jackson for Kyle Singler and DJ Augustin hasn’t panned out either, but on that one–it had become so toxic near the deadline it’s not as if keeping Jackson was an option. But still- most people including me thought OKC would at least get two reliable bench pieces. Neither are in the rotation currently.

Later that same day, OKC acquired Enes Kanter and eventually resigned him this past summer at a cost of $70 million for four years. Granted–Kanter does give the Thunder some much needed interior scoring, but it’s a net nothing in reality  because OKC’s weakest defensive lineups all generally include Kanter resulting in a net wash. Unlike the OKC bench glory days with Harden, Collison, and Maynor when the Thunder were always getting a positive push from their bench– this bench is a liability presently. Last night a classic point in case as OKC’s bench was -28 against one of the weakest teams in the entire league.

The other thing with the signing Kanter is Presti in essence signed Mitch McGary’s playing time death knell because they’re both defensive liabilities and cannot be on the floor together with the bench units.

Later this past summer, Jeremy Lamb, who was one of the two key pieces coming back to OKC in the Harden trade , was traded to Charlotte for little of consequence. Not that I think Lamb staying here would be a game changer, because I don’t think it matters.

Perry Jones was finally traded to Boston this summer as well as he was given every chance to fill a niche role, but couldn’t on a team like the Thunder with championship aspirations. Perry Jones would have been a good player for the Russian in Brooklyn.  Presti could have told him he was the next Kevin Garnett. Maybe when Trump becomes president…Trumpy, Putin and Mikhail will clean up that mess of a franchise. Damn—that almost read like Maureen Dowd. I wonder how lenient Maureen would be with this Thunder team right now?

Then there’s the Josh Huestis Experiment, which we’ll talk about at a later time.

All in all–not a good sequence of team building moves given what we see right now with the OKC bench.

The good news is Steven Adams has worked himself into a nice basketball player, the bad news is Serge Ibaka is all  over the radar screen consistency wise.

But still–the Thunder mantra continues…’we have Durant, we have Westbrook.’  Yet if you’ve been paying attention it should be obvious that alone the two stars won’t be enough to get OKC back to the NBA Finals this summer unless Sam Presti has something in mind on the trade deadline of a significant nature which would go beyond say Ronnie Brewer, Kevin Martin, or Caron Butler.

So–on a beautiful sun washed January day in Oklahoma City—the Dallas Mavs visit OKC tonight. Both teams are coming  off games last night and could be dragging. Dallas lost to Cleveland in overtime as they allowed a sixteen point lead to go poof to LeBron James and Company. OKC comes in 27-12 and a game and a half ahead of the Clippers for the third seed. Rick Carlisle, my second favorite coach in the league behind Pop,  has his team at 22-17 as the No. 5 seed. Carlisle is another coach who would be really good with Durant and I’m almost certain Mark Cuban will whisper that in KD’s ear at some point.

Needless to say, Dallas moves the ball on the perimeter as well as in any team in the league and have three capable bombers in Dirk, Chandler Parsons, and Wesley Matthews. OKC’s porous perimeter defense is likely a key tonight.

Hopefully–Dallas is tired.

 

 

 

OKC Thunder 101 — Minnesota Timberwolves 96

Took my time tonight deciding what approach to take with this game . It was a dreadful game to watch as the Thunder plodded thru the game with what I thought was little joy or fun in the manner in which they played against a grossly inferior young team which will eventually challenge the Lakers for last place in the West.

Even though OKC jumped out okay and at one point had an eighteen point lead–I just wished I wasn’t watching this team play right now. They strike me as a team with little joy or motivation about this basketball season. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it because this is a team which basically had their entire season obliterated by injuries last season. I thought this Thunder season would be about redemption or playing with an attitude or just playing with reckless abandon and becoming the best team possible, but this apathy and indifference is not what I expected.

This has little to do with being 27-12 because that’s a good mark. That’s not the point. The point is they’re not getting better and they quite frankly appear to be a joyless team except when Westbrook and Payne do their pregame ritual. It’s still early January and the saying is you don’t want to leave your best basketball behind you in November and December. But this team has three new coaches and Mo Cheeks back for his second Thunder tenure, all should be in sync with the players by now, and vice versa. Halfway thru a season that excuse should just about be over.

But then again, maybe they’re just not that good and this is their ceiling. Maybe we’ve already seen their best.

With 3:15 left in the game, Andrew Wigins hit a two to trim the Thunder’s once eighteen point lead to three. Unlike the other night in Portland, when Durant didn’t score a point in the fourth as the Thunder wilted under Damian Lillard’s shooting assault, Durant took control of the game from this point forward and saved his team.

After going 7-21 in the first three quarters and appearing he wasn’t really all that much into the game, Durant scored 12 straight points for the Thunder in the final three minutes to seal a road victory for OKC’s Thunder. For these three minutes, Durant is my No. 1 Star of the Game. Durant finished the night with 30 points on an 11-25 shooting night.

Only two other Thunder players scored in double figures. Russell Westbrook with a 22 point, 7 rebound, 11 assist night, and Enes Kanter scoring 18 points on 8-10 from the field.

Once again, the OKC bench got blitzed as they were outscored 55-27 by the Minnesota  bench. OKC had zero assists and five turnovers in the fourth period. Not pretty.

Zach Lavine and Andrew Wiggins led the Wolves with 21 and 20 points respectively.

Maybe Scott Brooks knew this team better than Sam Presti.  Run back faster. Play hard. Maybe that’s how they liked to be talked to. But it doesn’t appear Billy Donovan is a tough love coach or all that difficult to play for.

These guys need to start with a fun win tomorrow night in OKC against the Mavs and see if they can redirect their season. Maybe have some fun. That’s all I’ve got right now.

Mike Jackson

 

 

Just kind of a random, passing thought with me right now as I see this Thunder team meandering in mediocrity forty games in and showing no real evidence anything is different in the team culture with Billy Donovan. Don’t get wrong, Sam Presti should be taking most of the heat, but as a basketball fan who wants Durant to win a ring in his prime–the thought of Durant with Greg Popovich intrigues me somewhat.

I mean, as a lifelong NBA fan living in Deer Creek, Oklahoma–it means he wouldn’t be playing a mere twenty-minute drive from my front door anymore. It would mean the Thunder would be in a very bad way, but I’m tired of seeing this ugly basketball. The lack of correction, the mentally lazy mistakes made over and over again.

Durant is a student of the game. A historian of the game. A smart player. This can’t be escaping him. He’s too smart for it to be.

I’ve run all the franchises thru my head as to who would be the best fit for Durant, and to me it would be the Spurs provided Pop stays on after Duncan and Ginobli retire after this season. I would have Phil Jackson, Derek Fisher, and the Knicks as my third choice, with my second choice staying in Oklahoma City with Westbrook, Donovan and Presti. But to win a ring –if that’s what matters most to Durant, which I think it does, the Spurs with Pop would be my first choice.

There is a quiet, elegant grace Durant and Tim Duncan share which I think would make KD and Pop an instant mesh in a superstar/iconic coach relationship.

Just some random self thoughts.

Skip Bayless is calling Deshaun Watson’s performance the greatest performance he’s ever seen from a player on the losing team in the history of sports. I need to think about that for a day, but Deshaun Watson was clearly the best college football player in America this college football post season.

There is a beauty in his game which is joy to watch even if he did flame our Oklahoma Sooners. What he did last night wasn’t against a Big 12 defense. He did this against an Alabama front seven which is regarded as one of the best ever. This wasn’t against Texas Tech or Kansas—this was against a team with forty-three high school All-Americans on its roster and NFL caliber talent at every position.

In retrospect—the Heisman voters got it wrong. It should have gone…1 Watson, 2 McCaffery, and 3 Henry, but we get one more season of both Watson and McCaffery at the college level so that makes it somewhat easier to take. As stunning as Watson is—Christian McCaffery is every bit as an exciting player to watch.

I’ll be watching Clemson and Stanford games every chance I get next season. Special players from special families.

Just a great national championship game last night in Glendale between two real college football heavyweights as Alabama and Clemson went toe to toe. I love OU football, but let’s be serious, OU is not currently residing in that zip code. Ohio State maybe, but these were the best two teams and they delievered the goods.

Derrick Henry may have won the Heisman, but he wasn’t the best player on the field last night–Deshaun Watson was that player. Great college football game. Everything you’d want in a game and some poignant post game interviews with Jake Coker, Adam Griffin (Bama kicker), and even the usually prickish Nick Saban.

Saban wins his fifth national championship and easily becomes the greatest college football coach of all-time because he’s doing this in an age of college football where there’s scholarship limitations, conference realignment, and parity otherwise blanketing the college football landscape.

What Saban is showing is that this isn’t an SEC thing, but a Saban thing at Alabama because the rest of the SEC has fallen back in line with the rest of the nation, but not Alabama with Saban.

People on the outside looking in may not like him, but every player last night basically talked of their love and respect for their coach. Does he have better players than the other coaches? Yeah, probably, but that’s a major part of being an elite DI college football coach…recruiting. Does the name Barry Switzer ring a bell?

Lots of comparisons last night between Vince Young in 2005-06 and Deshaun Watson this season. Personally, I think Watson is a much better player than Young because of his head and his arm. But that’s just me.

Anyway, that Texas win over USC was the last time a Big 12 team won a football national championship. OU lost to Florida in 2008, Texas lost to Alabama in 2009. A Big 12 team has never returned to a national championship game since, while two ACC teams in Florida State and Clemson have made the big game.

I’m not sure the Big 12 will ever get a team back if the conference doesn’t get its act together in a hurry from a national perspective standpoint.

But still–I thought a look back at that 2006 game between Texas and USC might be fun. Be sure and watch the ending scene with Mac Brown talking to his players about the rest of their lives. Great stuff.

Lost amidst the Thunder meltdown in Portland last night, the LA Clippers won their ninth straight and have pulled within one game of OKC’s Thunder for the third seed in the West. This shouldn’t come as any shock because neither the Clippers nor the Thunder as presently constructed have the overall rosters to win sixteen games and four playoff series. Both have two top ten players, but both are defensively weak teams with suspect benches a month before the trade deadline.

Both teams have underachieved three seasons running, yet shown the occasional flash of brilliance, but both have never really addressed their defensive shortcomings to be considered top tier NBA championship teams in the same breath as Golden State, San Antonio, or Cleveland.

Defense matters. Rim protection matters. Perimeter defense matters. Quality roster depth matters. Basketball IQ matters. Veteran mental toughness matters.

This isn’t rocket science. You can do this on your own without John Hollinger. BTW…how’s that worked in Memphis? Yawn. I’ll take Jerry West and Pop if you don’t mind.

Let’s examine both the top nine players on both Golden State and the Spurs’ rosters and you’ll see what I mean. A blend or hedge if you will of experience, roles, and skill sets.

Let’s go with Golden State’s nine players first… 1 Steph Curry (best scorer),2 Draymond Green ( does everything well), 3 Klay Thompson ( consistent 2nd option scorer), 4 Andre Iguodala (elite lockdown defender/Finals MVP), 5 Andrew Bogut (rim protection, great high post passer), 6 Harrison Barnes ( do everything player), 7 Shawn Livingston (quality backup point guard with length), 7 Festus Ezeli ( quality bench big), 8 Marrese Spreights (bench scorer), 9 take your pick from Brandon Rush or Leandre Barbosa. See what I mean, and with the versatility of Draymond Green—the Warriors can play small and not lose much defensively.

Now let’s do this with San Antonio… 1 Kawhi Leonard ( great all around player), 2 LaMarcus Aldridge ( consistent second option scorer in this system), 3 Tim Duncan (one of the ten greatest players of all-time and smart), 4 Tony Parker ( smart offensive point guard with two rings and a Finals MVP), 5 Danny Green ( three point specialist who isn’t a defensive liability), 6 Boris Diaw ( versatile forward with multiple skills), 7 Manu Ginobli (multiple rings and a Hall of Fame player), 8 David West ( tough, big, smart vet forward in quest of a ring), 9 Patty Mills (vet offensively skilled point guard with post season smarts).

Now OKC’s top nine and we’ll be thru… 1 Kevin Durant ( generational scorer), 2 Russell Westbrook (tremendous athletic point guard yet still plagued by questionable decision making in late game situations), 3 Serge Ibaka ( has regressed the past two seasons), 4 see what I mean–I’m really having to think about this–let’s go Steve Adams (tough, smart big who is destined for good things), 5 Oh, boy–whew — this is really tough because there isn’t a viable fifth best player on the Thunder right now, but I’ll go Kanter just because Presti foolishly signed him to a four year, $70 million deal which makes him the third highest paid player on the team, 6 Anthony Morrow, (usually reliable three point specialist), 7 Andre Roberson (because he shows flashes here and there but is not an elite lockdown defender), 8 Cam Payne (has a great smile and some natural offensive instincts), 9 Nick Collison (excellent role player in his prime, not sure he should be a regular rotational player at this point in his career), 10 Dion Waiters (shows flashes, but is plagued by extremely inconsistent play and bad decision making).

So there it is–an honest appraisal from someone who isn’t either employed by the OKC Thunder or reliant on the OKC Thunder to make a living.

At best—OKC has a third or fourth place roster in the West depending on how many games Kevin Durant misses due to injury.

It is what it is.

Mike Jackson

 

Portland Trailblazers 115 — OKC Thunder 110

Since this is basically a rogue blog where honesty is permitted which goes beyond what you’ll get from Thunder Jr. Cub reporter Nick Gallo, or Daily Thunder’s Royce Young…I think I’ll go ahead and write what I honestly think because I don’t have Sam Presti’s cell number and will never have a quid pro off the record agreement. Such are the blessings and shortcomings of being a rogue blogger.

You’ll notice I didn’t mention Fox homer deluxe Brian Davis in my opening statement. I can’t…because at the 8:20 mark in the fourth period he said something almost profound which made me say to myself, “Did he really say that?” I was stunned. Even asked my brother to verify the statement like you do in Oklahoma after an earthquake. He answered yes, so I’m going with it.

What Brian Davis said is this, “This team is lacking in focus and consistency.”

This must be what it was like when the apple tumbled downward and Sir Issac Newton  discovered gravity. I was honestly stunned this wasn’t edited or something.

If it weren’t for Damian Lillard going off for 17 points in the final 3:20 of this basketball game…Brian Davis would be my No. 1 Star for his brazenly honest statement on a Fox telecast. Good for him.

But I’m going with Damian Lillard because winning matters and Damian Lillard was the primary reason OKC’s defense was torched the game after being torched by Lou Williams’ career high 44 points on Friday night against the dumpster fire Lakers.

Lillard went 31 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists and was the best point guard on the floor because….HIS TEAM WON.

Even for the defensively challenged Thunder—this was new ground. Portland set two team records regarding three point shooting. Attempts with 44, makes with 19, which equates to 43.2% from behind the line.

OKC actually led by eight points with 3:20 remaining, then scored on their next five possessions. There’s no way you can lose a basketball game doing this, right? Oh, yes…way.

On Portland’s next five possessions, Lillard hit five threes in a row to tie the game with just a over a minute left as OKC then wilted in the final minute to lose by five. Somewhere in this Allen Crabbe hit a three as well.

Unfortunately, Blazer coach Terry Stotts didn’t have Kobe Bryant to insert into the game to make certain Lillard couldn’t keep making threes.

Is it just me and Brian Davis or does anyone else in Thunder Nation feel a little uneasy about Mario Chalmers going off for 37, Lou Williams for 44, and this time Damian Lillard for 17 points in three minutes when ostensibly your five best basketball players are/or should be on the floor. The vision of Golden State playing this Thunder team is terrifying if you’re paying attention at all.

Kevin Durant didn’t score a point in the fourth period which has to be mentioned. As does…OKC’s bench being outscored by Portland’s bench 35-16. I’m honestly not trying too pick on Waiters and Kanter, but in 35 combined minutes of play they scored 11 points combined.

Anthony Morrow went scoreless and wunderkind Cam Payne had a tough game where he showed he is indeed a rookie.

Some other things beyond Lillard which need to be mentioned…OKC was out hustled on their defensive boards which led to Portland getting off 100 shots to the Thunder’s 76 shots.

OKC drops to 26-12 and is now only a game ahead of the LA Clippers in what  appears will be a battle for the No. 3 seed in the West.

Not trying to be a downer, but think about this–in OKC’s last four games, they’re one Laker make from losing to the mentally imbalanced Kings, the dumpster fire  Lakers, and Portland’s Trailblazers in an eight day span.

Mike Jackson

edit correction–Portland only attempted 44 three points shots which is not a record. I believe 46 is the record. My bad. So there’s that silver lining to cling to as the Thunder season lurches forward.

 

OKC in Portland tonight for an 8:00pm tip. Good thing the Packers-Redskins game should be over or else I’d be a late viewer joining in to watch the Thunder play another bad team in the West. Great week-end of sports with NFL Wildcard Weekend and OU’s basketball Sooners led by Buddy Hield continuing to be a national story. Even Clay Bennett would have to admit his team with two of the best players in the world on it remain a distant third as far as sport relevant stories in the Oklahoma City market this week-end. Think about what I just wrote and let that sink in for a few seconds.

The NFL Super Bowl Tournament is one of the great American spectacles in sport …no surprise there. But OU basketball for the first time since the Thunder moved to Oklahoma City is sold out for the remainder of their season. The thought of this occurring four years ago was unthinkable if Durant and Westbrook were still in Oklahoma City. But here we are in 2016—and the OU basketball team is quite frankly a more riveting sports story than the OKC Thunder almost forty games into what was supposed to be a redemption season of sorts in OKC.

OKC is 26-11 and the No. 3 seed in the West, but the only regular season drama I perceive is if this OKC squad is good enough to hold off the Clippers for the No. 3 seed. The thought of this team being disciplined enough, mentally tough enough, or basketball smart enough to get beyond the second round in post season is a thought I have on hold currently.

I write this in spite of kind of liking from what I’ve seen from Billy Donovan so far. I don’t feel Donovan is the problem. But the Thunder culture pretty much remains the same from when Scott Brooks was pleading for his team to ‘play harder’ and ‘run back faster’.

Durant and Westbrook are both having fabulous offensive seasons. Steven Adams seems to be making palpable improvement on the offensive end every week. And even though I don’t like his hair—he’s slowly worked himself into a dependable two way player. Rookie wunderkind Cam Payne is becoming a nice player as well, so I’d keep feeding him at least 16 minutes a game and live with the mistakes.

Roberson, Collison, Singler, and Morrow are all specific niche role players…and I’m for the most part okay with what they’ve brought to the table given what I expected from them before the start of the season… even Kyle Singler of late.

Mitch McGary, DJ Augustin, and Steve Novak aren’t seeing much of the floor–so there can’t be any angst there from me or anyone else in Thunder Nation.

This leaves Serge Ibaka, Dion Waiters, and Enes Kanter, who combined are being paid around $34 million this year to be OKC’s third, fourth, and fifth offensive options. Three players who Durant and Westbrook need to be able to depend on, can lean on, and not be afraid to feed the ball to in a critical situations. Three players who have to play smarter, play tougher, and show some professional mental toughness game in and game out if OKC’s Thunder has any serious aspirations of becoming a top tier contender versus just being on a par with the Bulls or Clippers come April.

To me…these three players are holding Oklahoma City back. Their lack of consistency is killing any real progress the Thunder can make if they want to be a serious threat to Golden State, San Antonio, or Cleveland.

Portland is 15-24 and have lost four of their last five games coming into tonight. This is a team which lost four of their five starters to free agency last summer. OKC comes off what I think is clearly their worse week of the season by losing to the neurotic Sacramento Kings and by actually allowing the dumpster fire Lakers to have a chance to win on their last possession. Good thing Kobe defended Lou Williams on that last Laker possession.

OKC won the team’s only previous meeting this season by a 106-90 score in Oklahoma City back on December 16th.

Maybe OKC will come out motivated tonight.

Either way, I’ll be waiting for the Packers game to finish first. Not trying to be snarky, but a little urgency from the Thunder would be appreciated from the fan base tonight.

Go Packers!