Author: Mike

I watched every minute of this game and other than the road win at Toronto… I thought it was perhaps the Thunder’s best wire to wire performance this season.

The game had pace and ebb and flow between what I think are two pretty even teams talent wise. Memphis is in my view is a year ahead of what the Thunder should be next season with Banchero or some other talented player acquired in the draft joining the Thunder next season.

To me…it was evident from the get go they wanted to win this game. Minutes weren’t doled out like it was a rec game at the North Edmond Little Girls’ U-10 Youth Soccer League over on Danforth Blvd.

When you get your ass beat by seventy-three points by a team… I would hope even with Hinkie-Presti and Coach Tank pimping for as many losses as possible that the competitive embers are burning and intact so to speak.

Those two can always lose another game they need to lose somewhere down the stretch in March or April.

Kudos to the eleven Thunder players who played in this game absorbing the 240 minutes of playing time.

I would have preferred to have seen more than five minutes from Aaron Wiggins, but otherwise I saw no pimping for a loss from Coach Pimp on this one. That’s pretty much the way I would have played it as well.

I thought Poku played some very solid minutes amongst the twenty-one minutes and change he played in this game. I hope people are noticing….he’s getting better.

I also liked the manner in which Bazely was utilized off the bench as a stretch forward like I’ve been suggesting he should be used. As in …the Thunder’s own baffy version of Lamar Odom back in the day. I would quit hating on Poku and Bazely and perhaps instead challenge Presti-Hinkie and his tanking coach to utilize their skill sets in a more appropriate manner.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the swarmy Little Nick Gallo actually read that on my blog previously and suggested it to his higher ups within the Thunder organization.

As I’ve written on here multiple times…Sam Hinkie-Presti…I’m here for you, dude. Trust me…you need someone from John Marshall like me in your inner basketball circle. Someone with a basketball soul beyond the feckless white boys within your comfort sphere.

And in closing… this game retiterated to me what I’ve been saying all season long, that being, if Presti-Hinkie wasn’t tanking for a top three player in the draft then I think this Thunder team with perhaps two nuanced roster moves to add more veteran saavy could easily be on the same track as Memphis this season and contending for a playoff spot.

Merry Christmas!

There are so many conflicting thoughts here with the Hinkie-Presti tank. My first thought is I wouldn’t be losing games by design for the emaciated white kid from Gonzaga. Holgrem I think is his name. He’ll be another project just to get enough weight on him to play NBA ball for at least three years I would think. Pretty much like Poku…who btw I would not give up on at this point. Poku’s weight and shot are both coming along…slowly, but coming along somewhat.

I like Banchero at Duke. He’s what the Thunder need. An inside-outside power-finesse big man who will grow into his frame in the next two years.

I love his name…Paolo Banchero. Once he becomes a star you just go with the last name like Nene…except he’d be Banchero. El Prez loves him some Banchero. If only the feckless little white minions who work for Presti had my brand imagination.

I could see myself paying again to actually attend Thunder games with Banchero alongside Shai, Dort, Giddy, Tre Mann, and Aaron Wiggins. Bazely, Jre, Ty, and Poku are who I have tentatively scheduled for my second until right now for next season.

I’d obviously love to have Kenrich and Muscala back, but they may be tanked out and wanting to join a contender at the trade deadline. Either way…I love both of those guys and commend them for their professionalism.

With one of the Clipper picks I’d pick another hybrid guard swingman who can play both ends..

I don’t look at the draft boards this time of the year because the Power 5 schools haven’t really gotten into conference play just yet.

BTW… unbeaten Iowa State who didn’t win a conference game last season in the rugged Big 12 just became the No. 9 team in the nation today AP-wise.

So when I curse on here at the tanking Thunder don’t for a second think I’m not already projecting what the Thunder could possibly become if Presti-Hinkie could bundle some draft picks to somehow add Banchero to the Thunder next season.

We’d have two Canadians, an Aussie, and an Italian in our starting five. Little ole sleepy redneck Oklahoma City would become the internatioal ‘It Team’. Who knows…at that Sam Anderson fron he NY Times Magazine might have to start writing a second book.

Also…prolly wouldn’t have to move the team to Las Vegas if Clay Bennett can pull the levers to get Paolo Banchero in a Thunder uni next season.

So I’m thinking Banchero moving forward everytime the Thunder lose the remainder of this season.

Viva, Banchero!

The Green Bay at Baltimore game was by my view the best game of the day on Sunday. Both teams needed a win, but the Ravens were without Lamar Jackson in this game due to an injured ankle. The Packers prevailed 31-30 in a game which went down to a failed two point conversion at the end.

Great game by Aaron Rodgers and I’ll need to rearrange my QB rankings this week. Tom Brady and the Bucs were shut out by the Saints—so for this week at least I’m shuffling my list up as we head ino the last three weeks of the season.

Kyler Murray will exit my list after the disgraceful loss the Arizona Cardinals absorbed at the hands of the Detroit Lions.

Ryan Tannehill was weak as well…he’ll stay off my list. Mac Jones and the Pats were handled by the Colts, who btw might be my darkhorse in the AFC after what I saw yesterday in the AFC.

I’m not sure I can rank eight quarterbacks this week. I’m only going to go six deep this week on my Top 6 NFL Quarterback Rankings. I’ve for the time being sent Kyler Murray and Mac Jones back to the middle tier of quarterbacks in the league. A bad week for Kyler Murray.

1 Aaron Rodgers

2 Patrick Mahomes

3 Tom Brady

4 Matthew Stafford

5 Josh Allen

6 Lamar Jackson

7 need to see something from someone

8 need to see something from someone

OU easily handled Texas Arlington in hoops as they should have to improve to 9-2. I guess we have a Thunder exhibition game tonight versus the same Memphis Grizziles who without mercy bludgeoned the tanking Thunder by 73 points the last time the two teams met. Surely…the Thunder and their little tanking coach can keep it more interesting this time versus the Grizzlies.

I’ll watch this game and recap if it appears the Thunder put forth an effort which would warrant more than a single paragraph.

If the Thunder look to be headed to their 20th loss of the season…then I’ll probably be more focused on the Raiders-Browns game. That’s a big game for the 7-6 Cleveland Browns. Baker needs this one if he wants Progressive to keep airing his ads much longer would be my take on this game.

Fun game to watch. No Kawhi, no Paul George and I would say with that dynamic in place it should have been a pick ’em and it was.

The Clippers deserved to lose. Justise Winslow choked on the two free throws which would have sealed the game. Then for some mysterious reason I think it was Nick Batum who just basically turned his back to Shai on the game winner and gave him a wide open look. Are you kidding?

I’m happy for these Thunder kids though. The top eight guys on this team aren’t horrible. If they had a general manager who could deal with reality and would add two mainstream NBA vets …I don’t think it would be outrageous to assert the Thunder could be pretty much like the surging 19-11 Memphis Grizzlies are right now. And btw the Grizz are winning with Ja Morant down to injury.

These kids need to win games like this now and again so they don’t lose sight of the fact they’re still elite players who had no control of their basketball season in Oke City.

This is so stupid. I guess we have to do this so Sam Pretst-Hinkie can make it look like it had to be done this way … when in fact it didn’t have to be done with a draconian tank of any sort. Just a baby tank…like our grandson Little Robert singing Baby Shark.

Just get a center who can shoot and another wing who can shoot. This doesn’t require FDR and the basketball version of the New Deal because it looks like Mann and Wiggins are both going to be players along with Giddy.

I actually think Presti creates the drama narrative so as he can be perceived as the smartest guy in the room even when he isn’t.

A nice moment for the Thunder kids….regardless.

Only 54 games left guys…then maybe next season you guys get to play basketball again with five players on the floor for each team.

Next up…the Memphis Grizzlies.

So think about this …on December 27th I plan strolling thru the Bob Dole Museum in Russell, Kansas while my wife is fuming in the car in the parking lot. Then…on December 29th inside of the Howling at the Wind Piano Bar in Sam Antonio.. I hope to be in front of a sea of crimson singing Rocket Man. This is why I wake up evety morning not really knowing what’s going to happen on that particular day.

It’s complicated….yet simplisticly beautiful.

This is that piano bar in San Antonio overlooking the Riverwalk. This is where I hope to be on December 29th as the Sooners get the ball rolling for the next generation of OU football.

It’s incredible in there. It really is. It’s everything you’d hope for in a bawdy raccous bowl piano bar setting.

Because half of the place will be crimson and the other half will be Oregon puke green. Hopefully…this will be Caleb’s opening statement as per the Heisman race next season.

I can’t wait.

You can’t do things like this when your team is tanking shamlessly. You just can’t because winning is fun.

Bennie and the Jets might be tough for me rangewise…but Rocket Man is a doable wheelhouse for me. Leaning towards Rocket Man at this point.

It’s been a tough week for basketball in Oklahoma. The O State Cowboys are on NCAA probation and like the Thunder their games really don’t mean anything as far as team goals acheivement-wise. I’m to assume they can’t go to the NIT as well for not monitoring the rogue coach Lamont Evans. I like Mike Boynton, but here’s the thing…he and Lamont Evans were at O State with Brad Underwood together so I’m not sure I would have made that defiant speech after the penalties were announced.

The pathetic Oklahoma City Thunder are possibly on track to lose sixty or more games and one would think brown sacks to the heads of whatever fans are still left standing by April is a potential possibility.

So really, other than Porter Moser’s exciting OU basketball team….it’s a market devoid of real basketball games.

The Sooners haven’t played since last Saturday’s 88-66 beatdown of then No. 12 Arkansas.

The team hasn’t played a game in a week so I’m guessing they might come out a little sluggish tomorrow versus University of Texas-Arlington inside the Lloyd Noble Arena.

This game will mark the first of the last three games of the non-conference slate before the Sooners get started with Big 12 Conference games with a conference home opener versus the Kansas State Wildcats. Need to win that game because No. 1 Baylor at Waco is the game after the conference opener….and there will be no tanking in the best basketball conference in America.

In between those two games the Sooners will host Alcorn State.

I’ll get more into things tomorrow on my Sooner Hoops Gameday.

On another positive football note…wide receiver Theo Wease announced he’s coming back through his orginal portal decision and going to be one of Caleb Williams’ clutch possession receivers. Plus, Kennedy Brooks opting in for the Alamo Bowl game.

It was a great week for OU hoops and football.

BOOMER!

For me this preseason I was very modest in making predictions for the upcoming NBA regular season as I was last season because for me there was still great uncertainty in regards to Covid and how league rosters would be affected by the still ongoing pandemic.

I didn’t make a big deal about Kyrie Irving because in reality how could I be critical of someone for simply making a decision based on their own beliefs and research. So here we are in December and it appears Kyrie will be back with the New Jersey Nets.

Putting Kyrie aside… I picked the Miami Heat to be the No. 1 seed in the East at the conclusion of the regular season. I loved what the Heat did by acquiring both Kyle Lowery and PJ Tucker, plus I figured Tyler Herro’s game had nowhere to go but up after his disappointing sophmore campaign.

I still feel pretty good about the Heat at 19-12. I don’t panic about places with fifty games still left in the regular season.

In the West… I picked the Golden State Warriors because of course Steph Curry and the magnificent job GM Bob Myer did this off season in transforming the Warriors into the once again pre-eminent franchise in the NBA.

The Lakers with Russell Westbrook never crossed by mind. In fact, with Anthony Davis once again now injured I’m not sure I could in good faith pick the Lakers to be anything beyond a team which might slip into the playoffs if LeBron at some point this season doesn’t murder Russell Westbrook.

The Warriors are so deep in reality it doesn’t matter when Klay Thompson returns this season unless of course Steph were to go down with an injury. Then some additional shooting and offense would be a help.

Let me in essence quote Warriors’ GM Bob Myer with the hope Sam Hinkie-Presti might at some point learn how to construct an NBA championship roster: ” You can never have too much shooting and scoring on your roster given how much the game has changed with the advent of the three point shot.”

Sam Hinkie-Presti didn’t learn this in 2016 in Kevin Durant’s free agency season and to date he still doesn’t understand you can’t sell yourself short on scoring and shooting given the way the game has changed per the NBA style of play.

Jim Traber actually understands this and since I was snarky on my earlier post in regards to Mac Jones and NFL quarterbacks…I want to make sure and give Traber credit for having this right. I’m always a fair guy at the end of the day…even with the pathetic dead blog walking Daily Thunder. I’m always fair…because I’m a Libra.

And if in the hope someone at the Daily Thunder actually crafts a singular paragraph of clever content… I won’t hesitate highlighting it on my modest blog. You can credit Juanita Elijah from John Marshall High School for instilling this quest in me for that one singular ‘graph’ of clever content from the Daily Thunder ‘writers’.

I also picked one sleeper darkhorse who I thought might make a move this season and to be fair I was prescient on this one as well as I picked the youthful yet trending Memphis Grizzlies to be that team. I love Ja Morant and I love what Memphis has done with their rebuild the past two to three seasons.

Perhaps…at some point Sam Hinkie-Presti will come to the realistic conclusion Oklahoma City is closer to being Memphis than they’re ever going to be to the Golden State Warriors.

If it were me…I’d structure the reboot in Oklahoma City more in the mold of what Memphis has done versus what Sam Hinkie tried to do with the Philadelphia 76’ers.

Those were my three NBA picks and I’m sticking with them a week before Christmas.

These are my quarterback rankings for the NFL Playoffs which are just around the corner.

I’ll finish up with several bowls and the College Football Playoff, but this is when I begin my serious pivot to NFL football on my blog. You won’t get this from the Oklahoman or the Tulsa World…trust me on that. In places they won’t admit exist, they want someone like me covering NFL football in their pedestrian sports section. If you want some sissy metric bullshit this won’t be for you. This is about beating Vegas like a red-headed stepchild thru January and into February.

These are my Top NFL quarterbacks rankings heading into Week whatever it is this week. I know they play seventeen games, but I honestly don’t know how many weeks have been played so far.

1 Tom Brady Still the hoss and will continue to be the hoss until someone eliminates Tampa this season.

2 Patrick Mahomes After a sluggish start Patrick seems to be back at the top of his game and ready to pursue a second Super Bowl ring.

3 Aaron Rodgers Aaron is having a great season, but you always have to calibrate his stats with the fact he gets to play the pathetic Chicago Bears and the equally pathetic Detroit Lions four times every regular season. That would be like an OU quarterback getting play Kansas four times in a Big 12 season. Big 12 > NFC Central. Tell me I’m wrong.

4 Matthew Stafford We will finally get to see what kind of quarterback Matthew is now that’s he’s escaped from the Detroit Lions. His performance on Monday Night was scintillating and I don’t use the adjective scintillating all that often.

5 Josh Allen The problem here is that Buffalo has screwed around and may not even make the field as a wild card. Buffalo pulling its act together for the memory of Timmy Russert is something we should all be embracing.

6 Lamar Jackson We’re still waiting to see if LJ’s game translates beyond the regular season. My feeling is he takes too much of a physical beating to be fresh enough to be a difference maker in post season play. Kind of like Westbrook. Great in the regular season, but a dud once he starts playing good teams every week with the season riding on one loss.

7 Kyler Murray Kyler was abysmal on Monday Night throwing two horrific picks which in essence cost his team any chance whatsoever of beating the Rams. It was like watching a dwarf version of Spencer Sanders in the Big 12 Championship Game. That can’t contiuue if the Cards want to play more than one playoff game this January.

8 Mac Jones My hands down Rookie of the Year. I called this back in the summer the day of the NFL Draft. Jim Traber as per the norm had little if any clue. Mac Jones is what Sam Bradford would have looked like if he’d been fortunate enough to be drafted by Bilichick.

9 My on the bubble quarterback is Ryan Tannehill. He’s thrown too many picks so far this season, but otherwise I’m still keeping an eye on him.

Sadly…Russell Wilson didn’t make my list. Nor did the choking Dak Prescott.

My wife is playing Bread’s Greatest Hits as I write this so I obviously need to inject some NFL football music on this piece.

It’s supposed to get down to 19 degrees tonight in Deer Creek. Finally…some real football weather in Oklahoma.

Hope your NFL team plays well this week-end.

How this scene below didn’t win Rodney Dangerfield best supporting actor is still beyond me.

So here we are in glamorous Oklahoma City which alongside with fabulous downtown Detroit are the two worst teams in the NBA this season just a week before Christmas.

Sam Hinkie-Presti running his tight little anal ship in Oklahoma, while his former protege Troy Weaver who along with Cade Cunnigham have lost thirteen straight games in Detroit.

I loved the part in Boom Town where Hinkie-Presti was like Captain Quig in the manner in which the balls have to be lined up in the ball rack. That in a nutshell is Thunder basketball.

Sam Anderson where are you, dude? Are you having some fun right now contemplating Boom Town II and the nuances of urban renewal beyond Oke City and Detroit?

Yikes…what a couple of trainwrecks. You’ll notice both Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin both forced their ways out of Oklahoma City and Detroit and now play together of all things in Brooklyn after playing for teams close to the Pacific Ocean.

So what does that tell us?

Here’s what it tells me…current NBA stars don’t really want to play in either Oklahoma City or Detroit. I figured that out myself without watching Moneyball again or re-reading Boom Town.

By the way how many World Series have the A’s won with Billy Beane? Or… how many rings have the San Diego Padres won playing near the Pacific Ocean in America’s City?

So maybe having the Pacific Ocean plus Jerry West or having a bright guy like Bob Myers running the show is part of the championship plan as well.

At some point regardless of how hard you tank a franchise/city has to be able to attract some pieces of its roster through free agency or a couple or shrewd trades just before the window closes.

Toronto is the most incredible city in the league, but they never would have won a championship if they hadn’t gambled on one with the Kawhi Leonard small window trade. And then…even with North America’s most incredible city they couldn’t keep Kawhi. The Pacific Ocean again.

You’ll observe the four greatest current NBA players…LeBron, Steph, Kevin, and Kawhi all have had a thing in regards to the Pacific Ocean. LeBron is the outlier though in that he won two of his rings on Miami Beach….and one of his four on the Pacific coastline. LeBron if for no other reason is the GOAT for having won an NBA championship in Cleveland.

Let me help you Oklahomans out a little bit on here. The Pacific or Atlantic Oceans are kind of a thing with rich elite NBA players who aren’t all that fazed by the California state income tax rates. I’m not trying to be snarky on here, but since I was born in San Diego allow me to make a few honest observations on my blog. The Pacific Ocean or even the Atlantic trumps the North Canadian River every time except for with Russell Westbrook and we’ve seen how many rings he’s won. Russell has turned LeBron into a .500 player so that’s a whole other piece on Sam Hinkie-Presti’s shrewdness. See my points.

So as I watch all this tanking by Sam Hinkie-Presti and Troy Weaver it somewhat vexes me.

With all the tanking Oklahoma’s first tanker Sam Hinkie did in Philly…here’s the truth…the Sixers are a .500 team which is going to try to trade one of its tanking treasures headcase Ben Simmons to any team which will give them something of NBA value in return.

Would it stun me at this point to see the sucker who makes that deal be the same guy who acquired Poku the Greek B League phenom?

So after all of that tanking in Philly…what do they have besides a .500 team hanging onto the 8th seed in the East?

I want any and all of you here in Oklahoma to contemplate what I just wrote.

Kevin Durant didn’t pick Oklahoma as his dream NBA destination…he was forced to play here because Portland took Greg Oden.

So instead of wasting the next five years on losing big, why not recalibrate the Doctrine of Sustainability or either move the team to Las Vegas.

And keep this in mind…this comes from a guy who bleeds crimson who finally came to terms with the fact the SEC is in a sense the Pacific Ocean of college football. You go where the good players want to go. And I would say unless Nick Saban moves to UCLA or retires nothing much is going to change in college football.

So Sam Hinkie-Presti either take a job near the Pacific Ocean or talk your ownership group into moving your team to Las Vegas.

But enough of the tanking. Because at the end of the day…you are what you are.

OU punter Michael Turk announced he’s coming back next season which is a very good thing for Brent Venables. Michael is one of the best punters in the country and a serious weapon. He can flip the field and a game with one of his epic punts.

This is great news for Brent Venables.

He’s Michael benching 225 lbs. twenty-five times at the NFL combine.

My senior year in high school I could bench 225 lbs. ten times and I got my max up to 350 lbs., but I never benched twenty-five times with 225 lbs. That’s pretty impressive for a punter.