Interesting pick by Sam Presti. He traded down to the 23rd pick with Memphis and earned a future 2nd round pick to go along with high school standout Darius Bazley who didn’t play for either Ohio St. or Syracuse this past season, but instead chose to train for the NBA.
So…in reality—he’s a one and done who didn’t participate in March Madness this past spring.
I have no idea how long it will take for his game to adjust to the NBA level as far as physicality, but it’s an interesting pick.
The Thunder need offense. They need shooting. They need a Sixth Man who can come on the floor and not be a total defensive liability as in Dennis Schroder. Too bad Sam Presti couldn’t have retained Domas Sabonis for that role.
But in looking at Bazley on film he is interesting on film.
Hope everyone had a great Father’s Day. Mine was excellent even with more monsoonal rains falling in Deer Creek. Another 2.5 inches fell yesterday putting the Deer Creek weather station total at 30 inches of precip since April 1st with half of June still to go.
I burned some brush piles… which I always find refreshing since we moved out here into this dysfunctional HOA which I now somehow find myself the president of. God must feel I need to be punished for something. The burning of brush has become my outlet living here amongst these American Freedom Caucus crazies. Out of the twenty owners only myself and the two black families I would guess didn’t vote for Trump. Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 would be considered liberals amongst these people. They were too soft with the tax code and Supreme Court nominations I’ve been told…sigh.
I drank a few of the Lone Stars and watched some of the U.S. Open. Then I went to eat at one of my favorite restaurants…Stables in downtown Guthrie with my Mom and two of my nephews. The drive was beautiful as we drove on Highway 33 East taking in the lush Oklahoma countryside. I ordered the Mexi Combo which is stellar and I would highly recommend.
I came home and watched the end of the LA Dodgers 3-2 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Then an ESPN E60 segment came on which featured the story of Ja Morant who is projected to be the second player taken in the NBA draft on Thursday. If you haven’t seen it be sure and watch it when you have the time.
Just a great story and one which features a wonderful narrative of Morant’s relationship with his father and how a bag of potato chips changed their lives.
My son, the oil and gas executive in Denver, called me last night after he sent me a case of Lone Star beer for Father’s Day. He knows his father. Only thing which could have made it better would have been the two of us watching the final round of the U.S. Open on the clubhouse veranda at Pebble Beach with Dan Jenkins today.
We had a nice father-son talk and I told him how much I love him and how blessed I am to have a son like him. Which is the absolute truth.
When you get older and know you’re on the verge on becoming a grandfather you view the world thru a different prism.
Anyway…all you fathers and sons have a special day today and don’t ever take any of it for granted.
I’ve waited several days to write on Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Not because I’m in despair over my Bruins losing 4-1, but more to the point to reflect on what the St. Louis Blues just did in this age of collective bargaining agreements, super agents, and super stars.
What the St. Louis Blues just did is one for the ages in my lifetime in one of the four major sports. The Blues were in dead last place of all NHL teams on January 3rd. They fired their head coach and made Craig Berube their interim head coach. The first thing he did was put a rookie goalie named Jordan Binnington as his starter in net. We saw how that worked out.
His general manager also made a shrewd trade in which he brought Ryan O’Reilly to the team. As we saw Ryan O’Reilly was the best player on the ice in this series and edged out Binnington for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
But most importantly what Craig Berube brought to the last place Blues was coaching honesty and accountability from every player on the roster top to bottom. You skate hard, you play smart, you play every inch of the ice in both zones, and you win the one on one battles.
As I’ve written on here the Boston Bruins are easily my favorite hockey team. This will not change. But as I’ve reflected on Wednesday night’s final result it was good these Blues won this championship in these times in which we live. It was refreshing to see a head coach in this age look his players in the eyes and speak honestly to his players.
Here’s the pregame presser before Game 7….do you think there was any doubt in that St. Louis locker room? By the way…these Blues were 10-3 on the road in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.
They say some teams take on the persona of their coach. These St. Louis Blues are a direct reflection of Craig Berube. They’re old school in an age of millennial softness. This was a Cup won not by an Ovechkin or a Sid or Boston’s star line, but won by a group who pulled themselves out of dead last place and became the best team in the world at their sport.
This was Craig Berube’s hockey team…make no mistake of that. I have no idea what the future holds for Berube. I would assume he’ll be the Blues head coach for awhile if that’s what he wants to do.
But I do know this…Craig Berube along with Tiger Woods is my leading candidate for Sportsman of the Year so far in 2019.
Here’s a brief clip of Berube as the tough no nonsense defenseman he was as a player. See what I mean. Do we understand how these Blues became Craig Berube circa 2019?
I often refer to the Three Rules of Coaching on my blog:
1 Players makes the coach
2 Coach thru your own unique personality
3 You’re always hired to be fired at some point.
But Craig Berube just defied the Three Rules of Coaching in these Stanley Cup Finals. In this instance, Craig Berube in his own way made the players.
What a great Stanley Cup Finals we just witnessed.
Why not only make the Clippers the team to beat next season in the West, but permanently split the Splash Brothers and do to the Warriors what he did to the Thunder on July 4th, 2016?
What Jerry West did back then was effectively eliminate the Thunder as a viable contender in the West. Since that coup in the Hamptons the Thunder are 4-12 in post season play and a Northwest Division afterthought.
Jerry West would then have two of the premier wing defenders on the same team with their offensive talents as well to build the Clippers around.
No one more than Jerry West knows what Steph Curry becomes without Klay Thompson. He becomes a player who was not in any way a factor in the last fourteen minutes of Game 6 with multiple players draped over him.
The NBA is a mercenary business. Dog eat dog. Do unto others as they would do unto you.
Picture a smiling Jerry West between Kawhi and Klay with his new additions….The K Brothers.
Why not? This is when Bob Myers tears will be for real.
My four favorite Thunder players of all-time are in this order….1 Nick Collison, 2 Serge Ibaka, 3 Steven Adams and 4 Perk. It must be something with bigs having a broader picture of the big picture of life.
Nick never got his ring. Serge just got his first ring after a decade in the league. Steven hasn’t won one yet. And of course—Perk got his ring with the Boston Celtics before he was traded to the Thunder.
Kevin Durant won his two rings with the Splash Brothers. Russell Westbrook and James Harden have both won regular season MVP trophies, but probably will never win a ring unless they change their games and bring down their ungodly usage rates.
Even back in 2012 with the Thunder…Serge fancied himself as a master chef of sorts.
Toronto is the perfect place for Serge. He is a fit in the city. I’ve told you on here many times if Trump ever drives me to become a Canadian….Toronto is where I would go. Denver is the safe play given the impending grandson play in four months and the kids just buying a place in Washington Park. A part of me wishes they would name the young man Klay, but it’s not my call in the end.
I’m so happy for Serge. He had a great Finals and was a key piece for Nick Nurse when it mattered.
Here’s master chef Serge Ibaka with some of his young Raptor teammates in 2018. If you listen to the conversation you’ll hear all of them talking about sharing the ball and all of them talking about being able to make a shot in a big situation. Maybe…I should send this to Sam Presti.
Serge Ibaka….you are a NBA World Champion. Congrats.
Up until Klay Thompson went down late in the third period this Game 6 had the feel of a Warrior win. But with an awkward landing coming from contact with Danny Green this Warrior season came to an end as the Raptors won their first ever NBA championship with a 114-110 win inside of Oracle Arena.
Stunning is the only word which can be used to describe these last two games as the Warriors lost both Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and the Finals—but in all probability their dynasty as well.
Simply stunning. Whether Durant opts in with the Warriors or not he won’t be playing basketball next season and when he does come back he won’t be the same player. Klay Thompson has a torn ACL and it will be a tough rehab for him as well.
Who knows what the Warriors will be next season? I know this though…GM Bob Myer has some gut wrenching decisions in front of him as the season ends and free agency decisions loom.
Jeff van Gundy’s prescient Game 3 comment about what the Warriors are without both Durant and Klay Thompson just became a reality not only for the Warriors, but for every team in the NBA.
The Western Conference for the first time in over half a decade is wide open and we don’t know at this time if NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard will himself be in the West.
We have no idea at this juncture if a new Super Team in the West is about to be formed. But we know this—the Warriors next season will be something different on the court for at the minimum at least one season. This is where we find out what Bob Myers is genuinely made of as a GM and Steve Kerr as a head coach.
For the second time this decade Kawhi Leonard won a Finals MVP and closed down a Super Team run. The first MVP came in 2014 when his Spurs took care of the LeBron/Dwanye Wade run in Miami.
Kawhi Leonard becomes only the third player in NBA history to win an NBA Finals MVP with two different teams. Kareem did it with the Milwaukee Bucks and LA Lakers while LeBron did it with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers.
But in this era of stars aligning their own teams who in Canada really knows what the Raptors will be next season and if Kawhi Leonard will still be in town to defend the Raptors title?
This is the NBA in the present.
But we know this one thing the Splash Brothers and the Warriors will both be very different next October when the NBA season gets underway.
I’m listening to all of these talking heads trying to assign blame for Kevin Durant’s Achilles injury and it’s driving me insane.
This is easy and I’ve written this on my blog many times:
The NBA is an agent/superstar driven league.
Period.
It is not a coach driven league. It is not a team’s medical staff driven league. It is not a role players league. It is not a fan driven league.
It is an agent/superstar driven league… and that’s who should hold the blame if there really is any for what happened with Kevin Durant on Monday night in Toronto.
If there is any blame it’s on Rich Kleiman, Kevin Durant and perhaps his pitbull Little League mother. Trust me, I know that look. I witnessed some of the greatest all-time hockey pitbull Little League mothers in a previous life. They’re streetfighters.
My guess is they all got tired of Kevin being referred to as a pussy on blogs and on social media and collectively said, “Let’s go for it. Nike doesn’t pay to sponsor pussies.”
Should I as a blogger feel responsible that the very day before this occurred I strongly suggested Kevin should never visit Donald Trump’s White House in fear of a NBA star pussy grab?
Of course not. I have no sway with Durant and Kleiman.
Money, image and Nike have the sway with Durant and Kleiman. Sometimes shit just happens in life and there really isn’t any blame.
But on this one…I don’t think Bob Myer should be crying. He didn’t hold the sway on this decision.
Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman held the sway. And therein—if there is any blame it’s on those two guys.
And for you Daily Thunder readers on here…tell me with a straight face your two little boys Little Nick Gallo or Low Energy Royce Young would ever write anything like this.
I was going to wait till the season was over to originally post this segment, but since Kevin Durant may not play another basketball game for quite a period of time this may be relevant in the present tense as he faces the greatest challenge of his basketball life to date this off season and beyond.
I’m at peace with Durant for leaving Oklahoma City. He made the right choice. He never would have won a championship with Russell Westbrook. I’m not sure if LeBron could have won a championship with Russell. I just hope as Kevin Durant moves along we see more maturity and inner stability from him as to how he deals with others in relation to his basketball life.
I could care less where he plays. I enjoyed watching him at Texas—so it’s not like I have a problem where he plays. A national commentator said something interesting today in relation to how the Toronto fans reacted to his injury. He said in every NBA city minus Oakland the fans would have reacted like the Raptor fans did towards Durant. Fans not just in Oklahoma City think the move to Golden State was in two words… very weak. I think this is what eats at Durant in his own perception of himself even with two rings and two Finals MVP trophies.
I’m not sure if or how many NBA players have recovered from a serious Achilles injury to win a NBA championship. It’s sad…in a way I hope this doesn’t turn out for Durant like the foot problems did for Bill Walton after his championship in Portland.
I thought this was a very odd press conference given the circumstances. I like emotion, but in this instance I’m wondering is the primary emotion driving Myer’s to tears is guilt.
Did Bob Myer’s and his medical staff blow it by clearing Durant to play?
I have no idea, but if they missed the original injury as Achilles related then I would guess Durant’s agent Richie Kleiman and the KD entourage will not be a pleasant faction to deal with moving forward.
I’m actually amazed Kleiman gave the okay to Durant playing at all. He’s not a stupid agent. All of this is very odd. Very strange.
I’m emotionally indifferent towards Durant. This does not affect me one way or the other, but I do hope as a fan of the game in general this doesn’t affect his pursuit of Kareem as the greatest scorer the league has ever seen.
The fallout this summer as to where Durant ends up will be fascinating to observe.
Can Steph and Klay win two more games? Odds would say no. Looney for sure will need to play. DeMarcus Cousins has to smarten up and realize he isn’t playing for the Sacramento Kings right now. He’s two frigging wins away from a ring as a contributor. Quinn Cook has to score the ball. Same with Draymond Green to an extent. Looney needs to do all the Nick Collison things he does. I love Looney. I wish the Thunder could add him some way to their roster.
But at least I’m finally interested in these NBA Finals.