Author: Mike

Even when you tank you don’t go 0-82 and that’s kind of where I put this game for the Thunder against a rebuilt Warrior team which didn’t have Klay Thompson, Kevon Looney, or even Willie Cauley-Stein.

What Bob Myers and Steve Kerr trotted out there on Sunday afternoon was offensive to the spirit of what the NBA should provide to season ticket holders across the league—namely teams in visiting arenas which look like they belong in the NBA.

The two best players on the floor did not include Steph Curry or Draymond Green. From my perspective the two best players were Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and Danilo Gallanari. If Big Gallo was twenty-one years of age instead of thirty-one years of age he’d be a very nice running mate for SGA heading down the road. He’s a very smooth NBA player and I’m going to enjoy his stay here until Sam Presti pulls the trigger to add another first rounder to his arsenal of draft picks. Unlike Little Nick Gallo…the Big Gallo has won me over as a fan.

The best news for the Thunder in this game was that Terrance Ferguson actually looked playable on the offensive end of the floor. Isn’t it amazing what happens to your offense when the shooting guard can actually make some shots to take the heat off his point guard.

The timeline for Sam Presti’s tank I’m to think would be to play the first fifteen or twenty games straight up and see exactly what he has he can keep and what he needs to move as the season progresses.

Let’s say the Thunder win 22 games this season. What happened on Sunday in winning this game shouldn’t hurt them that much. I’ve come to the thought the Thunder should tank and tank hard when it matters.

This is the draft pick the Thunder have ultimate control of and they need to use a high lottery pick to select a core piece to go along with SGA. It would be nice if this core piece could shoot a basketball night in and night out.

I’m glad I backed out of my Adopt the Warriors for a season idea. That would be going nowhere with Klay Thompson on the shelf. Instead…I think I’ll just watch the Thunder tank and enjoy the moments SGA shows me pieces here and there of what the future might be in Oklahoma City as far as the NBA.

Seattle’s hockey team here would still be nice, but if we keep this NBA team and see through the rebuild we might actually have something interesting to watch in two years if Sam Presti learns from what he did wrong as far as team construction the previous decade. Namely…make sure you have enough players who can shoot a basketball.

The Thunder in Houston tonight to play the Russell and James Harden for the first time as a couple. Such a strange season if you’re a Thunder fan.

But as we saw just yesterday karma escapes nobody. Not even Kevin Durant or the Golden State Warriors.

Just a stunning loss for the Sooners in Manhattan which unless the rails come off for Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, and Clemson pretty much allows the selection committee to ignore the Sooners this time around regardless if they finish as a one loss Big 12 champion.

It’s one thing to be a one loss team if the loss is to Texas or Ohio State—it’s another thing when you were hit in the mouth by a Kansas State team which scored 13 points against an Oklahoma State defense which can’t filter air at times.

This time around OU won’t have a resume win or two against a top ten team to give the committee an excuse to match Jalen Hurts against Alabama in the national semi-finals.

One word would describe the Sooners performance for the middle thirty minutes in Manhattan, Kansas…..weak.

The Sooners were weaklings on Saturday versus a Kansas State program in its first season in a while without iconic Bill Snyder on the sideline.

I give the Wildcats credit they got behind 10-0 early, but came back and physically whipped the Sooners in building a 48-23 lead which withstood a furious rally by OU in the game’s final twelve minutes.

It’s one thing to get behind Alabama or Ohio State like this, but you do this against Kansas State and it’s something the committee can’t rationalize even if they want Jalen Hurts vs. Tua in one of their national semi-finals.

Barry Tramel used a great line this week in describing Oklahoma State’s at times invisible defense against Texas Tech and Baylor earlier this season.

Tramel wrote, “Watching the O State defense is like watching a group of sixth grade infidels abuse a bunch of fourth graders during an unsupervised recess.”

Great line. I laughed my ass off. But the bitter truth is that line would be apropos to describe the Sooners on both sides of the ball for the second and third periods on Saturday in Manhattan.

Lincoln Riley’s Sooners have been here before, but never with Ohio State and LSU being this good during the same season.

Live by the graduate transfer quarterback and eventually you’ll die by one as well. As in Joe Burroughs and Justin Fields. That was my line, not Tramel’s.

The goals for OU are now different. Win the Big 12, go to the best New Year’s Day Bowl available, and get Jalen Hurts to New York even if he doesn’t win the Heisman.

Some might say what if Alabama were to beat LSU by three touchdowns or the inverse happens?

I would say, “But neither one of them got their asses kicked by Kansas State for thirty minutes on a good weather day with their quarterback healthy.”

OU hosts Iowa State in two weeks after an off week.

I would guess the Sooners respond, but this was a season the Sooners needed to be unblemished for the committee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTo6QywYcF4

If you looked at the Thunder schedule in these opening fifteen games you figured this home game versus the lowly Washington Wizards and Scott Brooks to be a win for the Thunder.

Not to be though as the Wizards without John Wall and with Bradley Beal having an awful night went on a 14-0 run to cement a loss for the Thunder… but which is in actuality a win for the tanking Thunder.

For those needing some semblance of a recap the final score was 97-85.

Moving forward this is how the Thunder fanbase, Lollipop Twin Little Nick Gallo, Michael Cage, and the lost generation of millennials over at Daily Thunder herein after referred to as Neverland should view a loss.

Namely a loss is a win. A loss moves the Thunder up the list in the draft pecking order which is good because since the drafting of Reggie Jackson late in a first round way back when even Lollipop Twin Gallo would have to question the wisdom of drafting of Cameron Payne, Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Terrance Ferguson, and Darius Bazley.

And of course there was the drafting and signing of Spanish folk singer Alex Abrines to satiate the shooting guard woes after the one year rental of Kevin Martin who could actually shoot a basketball.

Presti didn’t trade Jeremy Lamb–he only traded James Harden for Lamb, the pick which led to Steven Adams, the rental of Martin, the Euro folk singer Abrines,, and the draft pick which led to cannabis savant Mitch McGary. So we shouldn’t hold any of this against Sam Presti because the trade to send Serge Ibaka to Orlando would have been brilliant if any of those players were still in Oklahoma City.

The Thunder now stand 0-2 after two games and with another home loss on Sunday afternoon to the rebuilding Warriors could stake an early claim to prime lottery territory fifty days before the December 15th marked tanking date for the NBA land rush for future prospects. Hopefully–Sam Presti can at some point perhaps draft a prospect who can shoot a basketball.

Anotherwords, the Thunder should cheat the tanking process and break early before the official gun sounds. Just like the Sooners did back in 1889 in the historic land run.

SGA was once again stellar in this loss to the Warriors, Danilo Gallanari was efficient, and Diallo showed some life, but otherwise the Thunder appear to be a dumpster fire in prime shape for an historic tank which might render the Chesapeake Energy Arena half empty before the Christmas Day games in which the Thunder used to be asked to participate in by the NBA.

There is a karmaesque justice in all of this though as the people in Seattle take great joy in witnessing this from afar in the Pacific Northwest.

Perhaps a trade could be made between the cities. Seattle will have an NHL franchise next season and Oklahoma City has their basketball franchise held hostage in a place where the David Duke candidate garnered almost 70% of the angry evangelical white vote.

This makes no cultural sense whatsoever. Whites dominate the NHL. Blacks dominate the NBA. Think about what I just wrote and take notice of how well the NHL franchises have done in Nashville and Las Vegas.

Seattle please call OKC mayor David Holt and take the high ground here. Be like Michelle Obama and go high despite what these Trump people did to you over a decade ago. David Holt—don’t be stubborn and go talk to the mayor of Nashville about what an NHL franchise has meant to their city since the Preds made the Stanley Cup Finals several years ago.

Has this ever happened before?

I don’t think so. But think about what I’ve proposed.

An inter-sport franchise swap would align two polar opposite cities, cultures, and fanbases to their rightful destinations in major league sports.

Why not?

Whoa. I watched both games of the TNT doubleheader and came to some immediate conclusions about the upcoming NBA season.

1. I can’t adopt the Golden State Warriors if Klay is going to miss the entire season. I’m too old to waste a season adopting a team which is in almost as much chaos as the Oklahoma City Thunder. I agree with Charles Barkley that these Warriors without Klay are in very deep shit and could very well miss the playoffs. The Warriors’ bench is almost as bad as the Thunders’ bench. I can’t believe I just wrote this.
2. I might change my adoptive team to the New Orleans Pelicans depending on what I see from them tonight at home versus Dallas. Even without Zion for awhile they could be vastly improved with Reddick, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, and Hart. I’ve always loved Holiday so this is probably why I’m going to make this change. Plus, this way—no one can say I took the easy path and aligned with what used to be a front runner.
3. I watched the entire Milwaukee at Houston game and I think I have Houston just about right as the No. 5 seed in the West. I just don’t see how this is going to work in Houston with Westbrook and Harden. If anything…it will probably hurt the production of Eric Gordon. Don’t get me wrong—they’ll be incredibly entertaining to watch. Maybe the league’s most entertaining team as far as pace and the jacking of threes. If Kenny Smith wants to pick them to win the championship that’s fine. Good luck with that, buddy.

Since I’m not in the Daily Thunder Western Bracket Contest and am only doing this for fun—I will at this point exercise a one-time mulligan to the middle five of my bracket sheet because I was lead to believe Klay was going to be back in late January.

One thru five I’m staying pat. Twelve thru fifteen I’m staying pat. But because of Klay not playing this season the middle of my bracket must be redone so as I have some interest in this upcoming NBA season. Older guys who are nice to dogs and hate Donald Trump are allowed to do this.

My new mulliganized bracket now reads:

1. Denver Nuggets
2. LA Clippers
3. LA Lakers
4. Utah Jazz
5. Houston Rockets
6. San Antonio Spurs
7. Portland Trailblazers
8. Golden State Warriors
9. Dallas Mavericks
10. New Orleans Pelicans
11. Sacramento Kings
12. Oklahoma City Thunder
13. Minnesota Timberwolves
14. Phoenix Suns
15. Memphis Grizzlies

As Thunder fans we should take solace the Golden State Warriors are one Steph Curry serious injury away from pretty much being in the same boat as the OKC Thunder. It is truly amazing how fast things can change in the NBA with the movement of players and a key injury here or there.

Let’s get to know Anibal Sanchez a little better for anticipation of Game 3 tonight in Washington D.C.. It’s sad when the Thunder will be third on my remote flat screen rotation…. 1 Game 3-World Series, 2 Dallas vs. Pelicans, 3 Scott Brooks vs Billy Donovan. Sigh. Note to Sam Presti—hire Bill Self if you must have a college coach. He might be available.

I’m not an O State football fan, but I’m not a hater either. I love Pat Jones on the Sports Animal. Eddie Sutton is one of my favorite college hoops coaches of all-time and as I wrote on here before I have an autographed photo of Barry Sanders in a Detroit Lions jersey. And BTW… I think Sanders’ 1988 season is the best season I’ve ever witnessed by a running back in college football history.

O State has had bad back to back losses to Texas Tech and Baylor. A tough Iowa State team awaits the Cowboys in Ames.

Should O State fans be concerned?

Well… they can be concerned, but if they’re smart they’ll shut their mouths with the benching of Spencer Sanders nonsense and realize he’s a freshman quarterback who’s has turned the ball over eight times in the last two games.

You can’t do that at any level. Ask Baker Mayfield—he’s killing the Cleveland Browns this football season and he’s a second year pro who won the Heisman.

The future of the O State program requires Spencer Sanders work thru this or else this will be the program known as death stops for both Bobby Reid and Spencer Sanders. You think other schools might point this out to future QB recruits who live in Texas?

He’s learning and trying to grow as a quarterback. He knows he needs to get better. He knows this is a process.

He’ll get better incrementally this season. Having Drew Brown replace him now would be a disaster for the program moving forward.

Some of these O State fans need to take a reality check. You’re not OU, Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson or Auburn. You’re a football program which has never won a national championship in football minus the fictional one in 1945.

This program would not even be where it is now if not for the $1 billion dollar generosity of Boone Pickens.

Boone has a right to bitch, but he’s in Boone heaven currently and quite frankly I don’t think Boone would bench Spencer Sanders given the possibility this young man works thru this rough spot and becomes a program changer for Boone’s franchise.

Brandon Weeden took the back half of a lost season to make the adjustment to DI college ball.

O State fans,,,please leave Spencer Sanders alone and go watch college wrestling if you can’t be supportive of your quarterback. I’m almost certain Lincoln Riley would love to have this kid on campus in Norman as a graduate transfer at some point. Just a thought or two.

It was an interesting night of sports. The Washington Nationals continued their march with destiny as they routed the favored Houston Astros by a 12-3 count ad thus on consecutive nights beat Cole and Verlander on the road. Think about that sentence…on back to back games on the road—these Nationals beat two of the toughest pitchers in baseball….and in Game 2 it was a rout.

For those not keeping count these Nationals have now won eight straight games in post season and eighteen of their last twenty games overall. This is a team on a roll of epic proportions if they can win two more games against these favored Astros who were the best team in the majors this baseball season.

Game 3 is Friday night in D.C. as the nation’s lawmakers will be able to forget the impending impeachment of the most corrupt POTUS in the history of our Republic for one night and agree on something.

The Nationals are setup beautifully with Anibal Sanchez to pitch Game 3 at home. Dave Martinez will then have in this order I assume Patrick Corbin, Max Scherzer, and Steven Strasburg to start the next three games.

The Astros are tough. They won’t roll over, but what they face in the next three games is a daunting task to get back to Houston for a Game 6.

Now…as far as the Thunder they played hard last night in Utah and only lost by a score of 100-95 against a Jazz team which is going to need a great deal more from Mike Conley if they aspire to be anything beyond a first or second round exit in post season.

Donovan Mitchell was an absolute hoss when it mattered and should be a player to watch with great interest in this his third season in the league.

The Thunder were a Vegas 9.5 road underdog last night and from my perspective it was a closer game than most thought it might be.

The Thunder are in hell right now as they appear to have only three players on their current roster who can score the basketball with any reliability.

The thing which makes this unfortunate is that two of these players…Chris Paul and Gallanari are on the trading block as part of Sam Presti’s rebuild-reclamation project in Oklahoma City.

The only player beyond those two who apparently will able to score the ball consistently will be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who scored 26 points in this opener and did indeed show he is a player you can build with as long as he has nice players around him.

Steven Adams and Terrance Ferguson were offensively horrific in this game. Adams always struggles with Rudy Gobert so I won’t go overboard here, but the Thunder got nothing from him offensively.

I’ve now watched the Thunder play two games this season and in those two games combined Terrance Ferguson has yet to score a point. Not a point from the starting shooting guard position in two games. It’s good to see Sam Presti has finally figured out the role of the shooing guard in today’s NBA. That was sarcasm.

Dennis Schroder was 1-8 from the field and remember this is the same Dennis Schroder of the Atlanta Hawks when they tanked hard to accumulate to top end draft picks.

I’m going to be very cautious about how I blog about this Thunder season. If Chris Paul and Gallanari are around all season I could see this team possibly winning anywhere from 37-41 games. Without them…this team could be a freak show to witness. It could be like watching the Kurds in Syria if these guys aren’t around to stabilize this roster of players who can’t shoot the basketball.

Next up the home opener with the Washington Wizards coming to Oklahoma City. Like most Wizard fans I won’t be watching. Instead I’ll be watching Game 3 of the World Series to see if Anibal Sanchez can put a death grip on this series for the Nationals and a place of honor in baseball history.

Send me your Western Conference Bracket Sheet and I’ll put it up on here with mine so we can keep track of how our scores are doing. Surely….you need more competitive stimulus than you’re getting over there from Little Nick Gallo’s Daily Thunder blog.

What could it hurt?

You don’t want to do MLB, NHL, or college football with me right now…as in I’m on fire. You might surprise yourself and hang with me.

Even with Max Scherzer struggling to get through five innings it didn’t matter. Or even without Anthony Rendon or Howie not having big nights it didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter when centerfielder Victor Robles lost his glove at a key juncture on a pop fly to shallow center.

If this had been a post season game with Clayton Kershaw on the mound the Dodgers would have found a way a to lose this game twice.

Reason doesn’t matter currently as these Washington Nationals are on fire and have DESTINY in their hip pockets so far this post season.

Manager Dave Martinez used his bullpen brilliantly on a night when Scherzer was lucky to survive five innings.

Martinez went with Patrick Corbin, Tanner Rainey, Daniel Hudson and then closed it with Doolittle. It went to script and the Nationals won 5-4.

I’m sure coming in the Nationals would have been gleeful just getting a split in these first two games. But now they enter Game 2 tonight with Strasburg on the mound to take on Verlander and Altuve’s Astros.

Martinez needs Strasburg to be special tonight. He needs him to go seven innings or so as he doesn’t have to go with someone like Fernando Rodney early in the game.

But Martinez probably feels pretty good right now given the fact his team is playing the best postseason ball of any team in recent memory.

We should have known this after the improbable comeback against the Brewers in the wild card game.

All of us should have known these aren’t Bryce Harpers’s Washington Nationals. That train left the station.

In Dead Solid Perfect on his way to winning the U.S. Open…Kenny Lee said, “Piss on destiny. Fairways and greens.”

So far these Nationals are hitting greens and fairways…and making all the putts that matter.

The NBA season gets started this evening along with the World Series. It should be interesting on both counts.

The Western Conference is loaded even more than last season as Kawhi Leonard is now an LA Clipper and apparently LeBron James is healthy alongside Anthony Davis.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are in a different situation. Sam Presti traded the Thunder’s best three players this summer in Paul George, Russell Westbrook, and Jerami Grant. Paul George is now a Clipper. Westbrook is now a Rocket. Jerami Grant is now a Nugget. All three were placed on contenders by Sam Presti. It’s good to know Sam Presti made someone a contender this summer.

In exchange for dismantling his team Sam Presti now has Chris Paul’s contract, Danilo Gallinari on an expiring contract, 15 first round draft picks in the next six years, and two first round draft swaps.

It is what it is…. the Thunder are in a rebuild mode and none really know when and where Chris Paul will eventually land or how many games he will play in Oklahoma City this NBA season. Thus, it’s hard to know if you should place Oklahoma City as a No. 11 seed or a No. 13 seed. I hedged and put the Thunder as a No. 12 seed. But if Presti unloads both Paul and Gallinari in December then that would be too high a landing for the Thunder.

I have the Denver Nuggets as my No. 1 seed in the West because of Nikola Jokic, the team’s very deep roster 1 thru 12, and the addition of the versatile Jerami Grant who should prove helpful for Coach Mike Malone.

This doesn’t mean I’m picking the Nuggets to advance to the NBA Finals, it just means I think they’re structured to be the best team in the West for the course of the regular season if Jokic stays healthy and plays at the level he did last season.

The West should be a great season of fun for NBA junkies. Every game should be tough… and even OKC has a decent roster right now before the movement of Chris Paul and Gallinari.

Here’s my seeding sheet for the West regular season only.

1 Denver Nuggets

2 LA Clippers

3 LA Lakers

4 Utah Jazz

5 Houston Rockets

6 San Antonio Spurs

7 Golden State Warriors

8 Portland Trailblazers

9 Sacramento Kings

10 Dallas Mavericks

11 New Orleans Pelicans

12 Oklahoma City Thunder

13 Minnesota Timberwolves

14 Phoenix Suns

15 Memphis Grizzlies

It should be a great season of NBA hoops in the West. Let the games begin. Have fun.

Oh, my. I knew I was going to put some Jose Altuve love on my blog, but I had no idea it would be with a walk-off homer in the ninth to end the NY Yankees season.

I’ve spent the last three days in Denver getting to know my grandson, eating great food, and watching sports around the clock. He’ll be getting his first set of skates at three months on Christmas.

My son took me to the University of Denver vs. Boston College hockey game on Friday night at a sold out Magness Arena. Denver is the No. 1 ranked team in DI and Boston College is No. 6. Denver University hockey is iconic as they’ve won eight DI national titles in hockey. That would be eight more national titles than Mike Gundy’s feeble O State Cowboys will ever win on a football field. At some point in this coming week—I’ll have to comment on O State football without Boone.

The Colorado Avalanche are on fire in the NHL. It will be a great hockey season for me… which coupled with the Boston Bruins and OU’s football run should make up for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season which starts on Wednesday on the road against a Utah team which will be better than last season.

Plus, as I wrote on here earlier—I’m adopting the Golden State Warriors as my team on here as a hedge move for the blog. I loved the Warriors’ competitive heart last post season as they fought though the injuries and made the NBA Finals. I still believe they would have beaten Toronto if Klay hadn’t gone down with the ACL injury..

I’ve given a lot of thought to this Thunder season and will start blogging on it tomorrow with my Western Conference Regular Season Standings Predictions which have beaten Vegas nine out of the last ten years. Last year was the outlier for me as LeBron James and Anthony Davis literally destroyed my bracket sheet..

But these picks won’t go into the Daily Thunder contest which forever has sullied itself with me for the nonsensical Little Nick Gallo bullshit which makes Oklahoma City look like the dumbest hick market in the NBA—which of course it is. But you don’t have to be so overtly obvious about advertising you’re the dumbest market of thirty cities.

The Western Conference is brutal as in tough. I picked my top twelve teams of the entire NBA and my split had nine teams from the West and but Milwaukee, Philly, and Toronto from the East.

I suspect some of the Little Nick Gallo millennials will peek at my Western Conference picks and contemplate cheating… but that’s out of my hands and I can’t be concerned.

It’s time for NBA basketball.

At the hockey game at Magness Arena which is on campus—the sold out crowd of seven thousand stood in unison and sang Take Me Home Country Roads with John Denver on the sound system.

They substitute Colorado for West Virginia, Rocky Mountains for Blue Ridge Mountains, and Colorado River for Shenandoah River. Give it a try.