Author: Mike

Don’t look now, but the Oklahoma City Thunder without Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, or Paul George are 22-16 and just on the cusp of being considered as a second tier NBA championship contender this basketball season.

On Russell Westbrook’s first return to Chesapeake Energy Arena it was a perfect night.

The crowd adored Westbrook for his loyalty to the city. Oklahomans will never forget Westbrook stayed in the aftermath of Durant’s exit and the gut wrenching death of Aubrey McClendon.

Westbrook in the three years without Durant never got his team beyond the first round or even close for that matter. Truth be known, the Thunder went a collective 4-12. Those three opponents of OKC…. Houston, Utah, and Portland did not go on to win the West. So it wasn’t like the Thunder ran into a juggernaut in any of those three first round matchups.

But none of that matters in the present because Chris Paul is the point guard present tense for the Thunder in this improbable 22-16 start for Sam Presti’s sustainable Thunder.

This game really wasn’t even close as all five of OKC’s best five players scored in double figures. Those five in my view would be in this order… 1 Chris Paul, 2 Shai, 3 Steven Adams, 4 Big Gallo, and 5 Dennis Schroder. These are the five who night in and night out have been finding a way to make the Thunder the darlings of the NBA just short a few games of the midway point of the regular season.

Thunder fandom now knows what they’re witnessing…they’ve bought in. The arena is full again and there’s a bit of magic in the air as you walk throughout the city.

There is an inherit beauty to basketball when it’s played the right way. When defense is played with smarts and toughness. When transition occurs with a crisp purpose. When the ball moves. When your highest percentage finishers are getting their touches on the right spots in the offensive zone.

I hate to write this paragraph, but I have to. With Chris Paul as the point guard in Oklahoma City the Thunder have gone from one of the dumbest teams in the NBA to perhaps the smartest squad in the league.

The Thunder don’t beat themselves in the final eight minutes of games any longer. They play with grit, smarts, and poise.

This is on Chris Paul.

None of this is being written to diminish Russell Westbrook. He’s a great son, brother, husband, and philanthropist.

But the truth be known as soon as the pregame video and introductions were over the gauntlet in Oklahoma City was officially passed from Westbrook to Chris Paul. People know what they’re seeing with their own eyes.

Sam Presti will have to decide what to do with Danilo Gallinari on February 6th at the deadline. He’s a key part of this current Thunder success.

Should Presti do with Gallinari what Mike Rizzo did with Anthony Rendon and go all in this season and see where the chips fall?

That probably wouldn’t be the percentage hedge play. But sometimes, just sometimes…a GM has to look deep into his own inner soul and ask himself if he believes he has a viable contender at the trade deadline and play his hand.

Next up…the Lakers in town on Saturday.

Beat LA!

20-15.

13-4 since the first of December and winners of five in a row and eight of their last nine.

Nobody was forecasting this.

When you looked at the Thunder pre-season roster it wasn’t terrible or absent of potential, but no one knew how many games this group would be playing together as a team this NBA season.

I have no idea what Sam Presti is thinking, but for me this a red line evaluation week for the Thunder of sorts.

The four games this week consist of a road back to back starting tonight in Philadelphia. Then versus the Nets tomorrow night in Brooklyn. Then an emotional first return to Chesapeake Energy Arena for Russell Westbrook and the Rockets coming to town on Thursday in what could possibly be a preview of a first round matchup. Then a Saturday game against the first place Lakers.

If the Thunder can salvage a 2-2 split through these four games they’d be sitting on 22-17 at pretty much the mid-point of the season.

Was this the Presti Plan all along? To get to this point and evaluate what the Thunder are with this roster? Are they a viable contender in the West? Are they an automatic first round exit?

Could this team do what no Thunder team has done since Kevin Durant sneaked out the back door to get his two rings with Steph, Klay, and Draymond?

That being, win a first round series in the West.

Does this team with this roster have in them what the Portland Trailblazers had last season when they advanced to the Western Conference Finals with Enes Kanter playing a significant role?

My response is fairly simple.

Of course they do.

Depending on where you rank Damian Lillard amongst the current greats of the game–at the least this team is as good as that Portland team last season.

1 thru 13 this Thunder team is solid.

If I were ranking the Thunder roster as of today this is how I’d rate the roster: 1 Chris Paul, 2 Shai Gilgeous Alexander, 3 Danilo Gallinari, 4 Steven Adams, 5 Dennis Schroder, 6 Nerlens Noel, 7 Terrance Ferguson, 8 Hami Diallo, 9 Darius Bazely, 10 Abdel Nadar, 11 Mike Muscala, 12 Lu Dort, 13 Deonte Burton.

That’s not a bad NBA roster as long as Chris Paul and Big Gallo stay healthy.

As we get closer to February 6th and the trade deadline the question I have is if Sam Presti is already locked in on what he’s going to do at the deadline or if this team will stay together if they climb to either the 6th the 5th or 4th seed in the West by the trade deadline.

Thunder on the road tonight in Philly as a 4.5 or so Vegas road underdog I’d guesstimate.

Just so we’re clear, the Washington Nats were 19-31 coming out of May this past spring without superstar Bryce Harper who now plays in Philadelphia.

Not that I’m obsessed with this, but the Oklahoma City Thunder who were supposed to be in full tank mode by now were 7-11 coming out of November. Of those seven wins only two came against current legitimate NBA teams in Philadelphia and Orlando. The other five wins came against Golden State’s G League squad and the seemingly never ending team of confusion called the New Orleans Pelicans.

Since December 1st the narrative has changed dramatically in Oklahoma City. These Thunder aren’t the Bad News Bears as a team on a mission to lose games. Nope.

The Thunder went 11-4 in December and became road warriors by winning a road back to back in Portland and Utah which are the dates to circle if somehow someway this Thunder team of destiny and dreams keeps chugging along flirting with basketball karma.

Some scoff at my comparisons. Let them scoff. The Thunder have notched two more road wins to begin the month of January and are 13-4 since November.

Washington National skipper Dave Martinez was on the verge of being fired at the end of May as his Nats were sagging at 19-31 without Bryce Harper.

Likewise in Oklahoma City….Billy Donovan was on the hot seat. But like GM Mike Rizzo in Washington D.C.—Sam Presti seemed calm with Billy Donovan still at the Thunder helm.

Amazingly—with Russell Westbrook now in full Bryce Harper mode and in Houston…Billy Donovan with Chris Paul as his point guard has become the John Wooden of the southern plains…and btw the NBA Coach of the Month in December.

Isn’t it a quaint thing which happens to your ball team when your point guard isn’t jacking bad threes and turning the ball over in the final six minutes with regularity?

Simple game.

So the Thunder now stand 20-15 with six games to go to the mid point of the season with the same roster they started the season with on opening night.

A big week stands in front of the Thunder with games against the Sixers, Nets, Rockets, and Lakers.

I wish Sam Presti would call me and ask for my opinion.

But I’m not Tramel or Royce Young so I suspect Presti will never give me his cell number or pull me aside and ask what he should do.

But if he did ask my opinion my answer to Sam Presti would be simple.

Dream big, buddy. Dream big in Oklahoma City.

Next up the Sixers in Philadelphia.

Sports are a mere reflection or microcosm of life itself. Dan Jenkins wrote a novel once called Life Its Own-Self which always has reminded me of this axiom.

The fairy dust Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Spurs in San Antonio last night by a 109-103 count. Even my wife, who pretty much hates sports was sitting next to me. I told her it would be magical and kind of like an out of body experience for her. It was and in reality I was never even remotely anxious when the feel good Thunder were down by 14 points.

I knew they were going to win. You could see it in their body language. This magical sense of trust and respect these players have for each other right now.

It’s why we play, coach, and watch sports.

I can’t sit here and write that Chris Paul is Max Scherzer or that Shai is Steven Strasburg, but I can dream it. I can dream that somehow when Russell Westbrook was traded to Houston it was that Bryce Harper flash of genius moment which somehow righted the Thunder’s axis in the basketball cosmos.

I wouldn’t go to Vegas with what I’m writing here or even say it to Jim Traber on the air, but I sure can sure as hell write it on my little blog and feel good about it on January 3rd.

I didn’t mean to post this, but I did and since I love Al Pacino… I’ll go ahead and leave it up. What could it hurt?

I was going to play this just before midnight, but I fell asleep about fifteen minutes after the Thunder win and the Texas Longhorns rout over the abysmal Utah Utes. I shouldn’t talk though given OU’s performance in the Peach Bowl.

It’s a New Years ritual for me to watch this movie or at the least watch this scene every New Years’ Eve. I think I have When Harry Met Sally as my No. 5 pick on the Pantheon of chick flicks.

This is starting to be a very interesting basketball season in Oklahoma City.

On New Years’ Eve inside of a jam packed throng of over 18,000 believers the feel good Thunder made all the plays which mattered in overcoming Luka D for a pulsating 106-101 win to close out the year.

It seemed as if Luka would be too much on this night in which the prodigy successor to Dirk scored 35 points and Maxi Kleber was showing why he’s one of the best kept secrets in the NBA.

Yet the miracle came once again sparked by youngster Chris Paul who just basically took over the ball game in the fourth period and did his thing.

These isn’t Westbrook’s Thunder and these aren’t the Bad News Bears from the previous two years. This team doesn’t take pride in being the dumbest in the league and throwing games away in the final six minutes with a predictable array of hoops stupidity.

With Westbrook in Houston and with Chris Paul, Shai GA, and Big Gallo in Oklahoma the narrative has changed, that being, the Thunder have a smart team with some TSN grit to match. There’s no loafing on the defensive end of the floor.

This isn’t Westbrook bashing. I don’t hate Westbrook. He was good for Oklahoma City. He didn’t slither away like Durant into the night with Draymond Green after Game 6. It just got old watching dumb basketball and even dumber press conferences.

All the sudden Billy Donovan is being revered as the second coming of John Wooden and there are whispers of some coach of the year votes going his way. Truth is—it appears Chris Paul is setting the tone. The best teams coach themselves from within.

Nick Collison would love this basketball team. This is the team which Nick should have ended his career with–not the dumpster fire from the two previous seasons. I keep thinking of Nick with this group of players.

But anyway. It was Chris Paul’s night. He took over in the fourth and his teammates followed. You could literally feel them feed off Chris Paul’s confidence of late as the Thunder finished their amazing month of December at 11-4 and firmly in place as the No. 7 seed in he West at 18-15.

Chris Paul had 17 points with most of them coming in the fourth period while Luka and Maxi couldn’t convert at the end.

Big Gallo finally returned from his ankle sprain and chipped in twenty meaningful points and the game’s biggest play when he knocked the ball out of Luka’s hands with nineteen seconds left.

Thunder bigs Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel were both high energy excellent on the night. Dennis Schroder and Shai had decent nights.

Shai and Dennis weren’t spectacular, but they got it done when they needed it to be done.

Again…it’s hard to know how long Gallinari will be with this team, but for the time being he is and the Thunder with him in the mix are better for it as we start to head toward the trade deadline in a month or so.

Sam Presti now has thirty-three games of sample from these guys. He should know what he does and doesn’t have.

What I think he has is a pretty good basketball team which Oklahoma City has fallen in love with during the month of December.

The Thunder hit the road on Thursday night with a game against the 14-18 San Antonio Spurs. It’s a big game because the Spurs will be one of the primary teams chasing the Thunder for the last two seeds in the West,

Have a happy and prosperous New Year.

It’s an odd thing, this Thunder season to date. It wasn’t that long ago I was trying to figure out which NBA team I would adopt this season as the Thunder tanked to find pieces to put around Shai Gilgeous Alexander for next season and beyond.

I’m to assume Billy Donovan and Sam Presti have both figured out they might already have that player on their roster as they’ve now seen thirty-two games of this season’s team.

Chris Paul is that player.

It was right there in front of them and maybe Sam Presti already knew this back in the summer when he was trading Paul George, Russell Westbrook, and Jerami Grant for a new beginning in Oklahoma City.

For those who haven’t noticed of late the ‘new beginning’ is fairly entertaining. Gone are the bad press conferences which followed a lot of head scratching bad losses which made one wonder what exactly was going through Russell Westbrook’s head at times.

I will never call Russell Westbrook a cancer in Oklahoma City. That would never ever be fair. But what I would write at this point is that I’m glad he’s in Houston. Likewise, I’m glad Kevin Durant is in Brooklyn with his two rings… but most of all, I’m glad Chris Paul is in Oklahoma City with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this season because quite simply these two are making me want to get to the next game like a decade ago when I fell in love with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

There…I wrote it. I’ve fallen in love with the Oklahoma City Thunder again.

On Sunday evening in Toronto, Oklahoma City was without both Danilo Gallinari and Dennis Schroder. To be fair though, Toronto was without Paschal Siakam and Norman Powell as well. So it was a wash in a sense and the closeness of the game reflected this to the very end. Shai-Gilgeous ran off the final seconds eluding Toronto players who were trying to foul and send him to the line. It felt like a line was crossed with Presti’s reset as the buzzer sounded.

The fact Shai is Canadian and scored 32 points in Toronto is nice but not a big deal to me. This is what he’s been doing of late with consistency against teams in America as well. I mean, it wasn’t like Gretzky going back to Edmonton and scoring a hat trick in the last year of his career. These thirty-something point nights with Shai are becoming a thing we in the States are coming to terms with as this season moves along.

With Dennis Schroder out–it was simple in this game. The three-headed monster had to become a two-headed monster in Toronto. Voila. Chris Paul promptly had his best game to date this basketball season with a near triple double and no malice attached towards any in the post-game presser.

Chris Paul was magnificent. It was a Westrookian line with basketball smarts attached. It was hard not to think of those days we in Oklahoma thought Durant and Westbrook could play together like this and figure things out.

CP3’s line was 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists with a +12 for good measure. As good as I thought Shai was on this night–it’s possible Chris Paul was better.

Some other Thunder players had nice nights to fill the void of Dennis Schroder being a scratch.

Nerlens Noel had a 12 point night with some great energy on both ends of the floor.

Rookie Darius Bazely was given 29 minutes of playing time and responded with what I thought was his best game of the season in knocking down four three point shots and actually looking like he belonged out there.

Spark plug Lu Dort was given rotation minutes and responded with some nice energy minutes which is his contagious defense first role.

It was a good night in Toronto for a team from Oklahoma. The Thunder now stand at 17-15 three and a half games in front of teams fighting for the 8th seed in the West.

Gallinari hasn’t played in a while. It’s beginning to feel like he’s already gone and the Thunder have somewhat adjusted.

Next up: Luka and the Dallas Mavs at the Peake on New Years Eve.

I can’t help myself. This is part of who I am. There’s some dreamer in me even though I can’t vote for Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. I voted for Barack Obama twice and then wrote in John McCain in 2016. Who else in Oklahoma did that?

My mother had me reading Richard Bach when I was a youngster. I bet no one else in Oklahoma can even name three books written by Richard Bach. That part of me can’t be removed…. and quite frankly I don’t want to remove it.

Why can’t in the mercenary world of professional sports we dream from time to time?

To me, it’s why we teach, coach, and play sports. It is the interwoven fabric of our humanity which makes us want to play the games in the first place. But not only play the games, but play the games the Right Way. With our hearts.

In the end, does it make any difference whatsoever LeBron James won those two rings in Miami? No, it doesn’t. But it means everything to me as a fan he went back to Cleveland and won a ring for his home city.

Does it make difference to me Kevin Durant took the easiest path to two rings in Golden State? Not really. But I would admit I’ll never view Kevin the same either.

I could never view Kevin Durant the same way.

So why do play sports?

We play sports to dream of finding the best in ourselves. We play to compete within ourselves and against others. We play to elevate the human bonds between all of us. We play to make ourselves better and stronger as humans.

So I’m sitting here today in Oklahoma wondering why the Oklahoma City Thunder can’t just go ahead and dream big this season?

Why not dream big?

If they fall short–so what.

Why shackle ourselves with preconditioned thoughts of failure and falling short of the limits we all place on ourselves from time to time?

I wish Sam Presti would call me from time to time and allow me to share my thoughts with him and his ball club.

I really do. That would be cool.

It’s looks like I have a basketball team to blog about this NBA season in Oklahoma City. The team tank practitioners need to follow Golden State or the NY Knicks or the Atlanta Hawks if that’s what they want to follow this season.

You can’t tank in Oklahoma City this far into a season standing with a 16-15 record thirty-one games into a season. This isn’t New York or Los Angeles. This is a different deal. You don’t tank in Mystery, Alaska. Period.

You can trade Danilo Gallinari for a player still on an existing rookie scale contract. You can start making sure fireball spark plug Lou Dort starts getting 15 minutes a game. You could even send millennial Daily Thunder fave rookie Darius Bazely to the G league to become an NBA ready player. But Sam Presti can’t tank at this point. He just can’t.

After getting outworked at home the night before the Thunder went to work in Charlotte on the second night of a back to back and quite frankly won a game which bordered on ugly at times. But in the end — the Thunder did all the little things absent on Thursday night in the bad loss to Memphis.

In case you haven’t noticed this Thunder team has a nice little three-headed monster line which combines Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Dennis Schroder. In hockey parlance this is Billy Donovan’s power play. When Donovan puts these three together for meaningful minutes good things are happening for the Thunder with some consistency of late.

In hockey parlance again—with these three together the ice is being tilted in favor of the Thunder when Donovan keeps the three guards on the floor and keeps Darius Bazely sitting close to him and Maurice Cheeks on the bench.

It’s pretty to watch. The ball moves. Stupid low percentage shots are not aplenty as they were in the two previous seasons of Thunder play. Dumbass possessions aren’t happening. It appears as if the team’s point guard (Chris Paul) is listening to the coach. I won’t go any further.

Chris Paul was my MVP’er in this game. But in reality it could have been Shai just as well.

It doesn’t matter because when you’re winning as a team basketball becomes a magical almost spiritual thing to observe. It really does. That wasn’t some bullshit hyperbole on my part.

Because in the end winning is fun, but it’s even more fun when the team you’re rooting for is doing it the right way.

On to Toronto for a late Sunday afternoon game against the defending world champion Raptors. This should be a very entertaining game.

LET’S GO THUNDER!

For the second straight home game… Danilo Gallinari was a DNP-ankle and this time it cost the Thunder dearly on both ends of the floor as the Memphis Grizzlies handled the Thunder with surprising ease on Friday night with a 110-97 road win.

A very disappointing loss for the feel good Thunder. Even without Gallinari’s silk smooth shot manning the stretch four position this a game you need to win if you’re the Thunder. Memphis was on the second night of a road back to back—and quite frankly if the Thunder want to be a playoff contender they have to be better than this as a rested home team.

The Thunder got pounded on the boards and lost most of the live ball one on one battles when it mattered. I mean…that’s a stat which tells you who came to the arena wanting it more. You don’t need a metric to read this. Memphis wanted the game more.

Memphis has a nice young roster with some talented guys like Ja Morant, Jerin Jackson, Brandon Clarke, etc… but this is a game the Thunder have to win if they want to remain relevant after Gallinari is traded in the coming days.

I don’t mean to be cruel, but I thought four guys were really, really bad for the Thunder on a night when the Thunder core wasn’t horrible. At home…you’re supposed to be able to get something from your role players. I’ll be blunt, Billy Donovan got little if nothing from Terrance Ferguson, Darius Bazley, Nerlens Noel, and Mike Muscala on a night when quite frankly the team needed somewhat tangible from them on the floor.

I thought Chris Paul was fine and Shai was okay. Steven got handled a little bit late and Dennis struggled early, but still……Donovan needs more than just four guys playing against an entire opposing roster.

If Donovan can’t get more than this from Ferguson and Bazley then maybe stick Dort out here a few minutes to at the least show these guys what it means TO BATTLE FOR A LOOSE BALLL OR DO THE LITTLE THINGS. What it means to be given viable minutes in an NBA game a sa young player. This was a game where I was surprised Donovan didn’t insert Dort to in essence give his lethargic team a kick in the ass spurt of sorts.

You can’t be the St. Louis Blues or the Washington Nationals with this type of half-assed effort and perhaps it will be a learning moment for several of these guys.

The Thunder play at Charlotte tonight against a sub .500 Bobcat team. I’m not expecting Gallinari to play so we’ll see if the Thunder take something from last night’s loss.

The fairytale Thunder stand at 15-15 with a game and half lead for the No. 7 seed. But here’s the thing—one would expect Portland and San Antonio at some point to somewhat get their acts together as we head into the winter months of the NBA season.

I shouldn’t have played the Jake Owens song. It was too much for these guys. I hope I didn’t ruin it for them.

We had great seats for the game last night. I could have literally touched the Thunder Girls with my spirit balloons if I were some sort of creepy perv. Add to it Kristen Chenoweth was sitting pretty close to us as well. So—even with the loss it was a decent night.

The basketball gods work that way at times. I try to cover all the bases on my Thunder blog since we no longer have a newspaper in Oklahoma City.