Author: Mike

I think the Kings are one of the more positive stories this season in the NBA. I’ve liked Dave Joerger ever since his days with Memphis. I like his story. He worked his tail off to become an NBA head coach. This wasn’t given to him. He was a D League coach, an assistant, then he finally got a chance in Memphis and did something with the chance. He speaks his mind and doesn’t mind if it hurts the feelings of a star player or even makes his GM mad. He’s a bit of a throwback in a league where it appears only Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich are allowed this latitude as an NBA head coach. Dave Joerger has an attitude without the latitude. Jimmy Buffet should write that song.

I like Dave Joerger. Just the game before he and Buddy Hield got into a bit of a shouting match at the end of a tough loss to the Warriors. Some people made a bid deal of it. I didn’t. So you know what Buddy Hield did the next game out? He came back to Oklahoma where he won a National Player of the Year award while leading the Sooners to a Final Four and basically lit up the OKC Thunder’s vaunted defense.

Buddy Hield was the best player on the floor for most of the game and then De’Aaron Fox closed the deal.

This was not an endorsement for Paul George getting my hypothetical MVP vote or for Billy Donovan getting my hypothetical vote to get the extension year which Sam Presti has already given the former Florida coach. This was a game where if your team wants to be regarded as being something almost special you suck it up on the second night of a ‘HOME’ back to back and find a way to win a game against a franchise which hasn’t been to the playoffs in twelve years. The twelve year drought by the way is the longest current span any NBA franchise has gone without making the NBA post season tournament.

This is big boy ball. The Thunder are healthy. They’re coming off a week long rest from the All-Star break. This is why I have trouble thinking the Thunder are a gut cinch to get past the first round. There’s something about these Donovan coached teams which bothers me beyond just the obvious overall underachievement since Game 4 versus the Warriors. It’s like they have a sense of entitlement for being good when they really haven’t been all that good since Game 4 versus the Warriors. Tell me beyond that win in Game 4 win versus the Warriors exactly what this franchise has done from a team achievement standpoint other than underachieve.

I think that’s a fair question. You won’t get that question from the cuddly soft college market media in Oklahoma, but I think it’s fair question. Little Nick Gallo would feint if I asked that question in his presence. What has this franchise done since Game 4 versus the Warriors other than meet the requirements of Sam Presti’s Doctrine of Sustainability in a Small Market. WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?

I don’t do many stats on here even though stats are obviously a huge part of this. I don’t want my blog to read like the usual blog per the times we live in. I’m a human factor guy. I believe we’re all still humans to a certain degree even though Trump is POTUS.

But here’s a casual stat for you in these last two games, since becoming a father, Dennis Schroder is a combined 8-28 shooting the basketball in two home games. Is there a metric which shows something like this? Long story short, the Thunder need the good version of Dennis Schroder if they hope to be special in April.

Just prior to tip I have no idea what the Vegas spread was on this game. For me, I had it at pick ’em because I think Dave Joerger is the perfect coach for this team as they go thru the process of becoming legit, which by the way the are. In case this escaped your attention, the Kings didn’t just win this game–they won the season series over the entitled Thunder by a 3-1 count.

This may be hyperbole, but other than Steph and Klay, right now I see the young backcourt tandem of Hield and Fox as one of the best in the league. Would I trade Hield and Fox for Westbrook and Ferguson if I were the Kings GM?

Of course not. Why would I do that? They just beat that team and won the season series…and btw have won exactly as many post season series as Westbrook and Ferguson–as in zero.

And for me—that’s the way I’m closing my recap.

The Thunder in Denver on Tuesday night against another overachieving team with another Coach of the Year candidate in Mike Malone. So be looking for a Mike Malone video on Tuesday.

It’s a process in Sacramento, but the Kings are getting better. Head Coach Dave Joerger dealing with the growing pains discusses loss to Warriors. Could you see Joerger with Westbrook? OMG!

I love the way both teams competed last night. The game to me had the feel of what Game 7 could have been like last season if the Thunder could have extended the series beyond Game 6 in Salt Lake City. Incredible crowd and emotion in the building like a prize fight.

Paul George led OKC with 45 points and Russell Westbrook added 43 points. Donovan Mitchell led the Jazz with 38 points on 35 shots. Up until Russell lost his poise in the game’s final two minutes it was going to be his signature game of this season. Instead, Russell turned over the ball with an over pass to Steven Adams and then fouled out of the game with a charge. This is what I mean about Russell and the endings of games when he loses his poise and plays too fast. This game very much reminded of the ending in Philly where actually it appeared the Thunder were better off at the end with Russell on the bench. I can’t believe I just wrote that on the night a guy scored 43 points and almost tripled doubled…but that’s just the way I feel about this. If I were Donovan I’d go ahead and start making Paul George the point forward in the final two minutes because he’s in such a confidence zone mode and take the ball out of Russell’s hands to some degree. Much like Scott Brooks did with Harden in 2012.

Markieff Morris was the first guy off the bench and did absolutely nothing in 17 minutes of play except rotate very slowly to the ball on defensive rotations. No points, no rebounds, nothing. I was stunned he got 17 minutes his first game in Oklahoma City. Obviously, he was told by the Thunder he would assume this role. He did nothing except look rusty and slow.

Nerlens Noel only played ten minutes. Patrick Patterson didn’t see the floor. Diallo didn’t see the floor. So much for making a guy ease into things and somewhat earn his minutes. Morris actually entered the game before Sixth Man of the Year candidate Dennis Schroder which is absurd even though Schroder had a tough night. When I see something like this it gives me the feel this was ordained from Sam Presti. I’ve never viewed Markieff as a game changer in his NBA career. He has had some moments, but I’m surprised he was the first guy off the bench in his first game.

Other than with Fisher, this hasn’t worked in the past. Caron Butler fizzled. Corey Brewer fizzled and we’ll just have to see how this plays out. But let me say this…on a night when OKC was hammered on the boards by a 60-43 margin…Morris had zero rebounds in 17 minutes of play. I thought his movement to the man and the ball were equally slow. He looked like the slowest Thunder player on the floor kind of like Carmelo in that regard. I say this because pace is a big deal with this Thunder team because they’re the fastest team in the league.

Utah turnovers were a big deal in this game and saved the Thunder’s ass because of how badly they were mauled on the boards. OKC turned the Jazz over 25 times by my sheet and made up for some of the rebounds they didn’t get.

Steven Adams usually struggles against Gobert and Utah and he did once again on Friday night. But both Terrance Ferguson and Jerami Grant showed flashes of brilliance.

One thing Billy Donovan did which I liked was use Abdel Nader in the second half. Nader showed some grit and hit a huge three in one of the game’s biggest moments. He didn’t shy away from the moment. He embraced it.

I thought it was a great NBA regular season game. I ran into a couple of Thunder fans after the game in a 7-11 and they were just like me…they thought it was epic and agreed with me on using Paul George as a point forward in the end to help Russell out with his decision making at the end of games.

One last thing. I watched the game on Fox and full marks for how nice both Antonio Daniels and Michael Cage dressed for the game. Antonio looked superb with the burgundy jacket and burgundy tie. Michael Cage looked equally dapper with his attire as well. Chris Fisher needs some help. Just saying. He looks like Dana Carvey on a bad hair day and this isn’t Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood…this is the NBA. I’d get rid of the sweater. Otherwise…he’s doing fine.

Great game. Sacramento tonight at the Peake which should be an excellent game. The Kings are one of the most improved teams in the league this season.

Tell me Chris Fisher doesn’t look like Dana Carvey.

Wow. I am totally spent and have no voice left. I’ve never made a list of the top ten regular season games in Thunder history, but this one tonight inside of Chesapeake Energy Arena would probably be in my top five after I go thru all the games played here in the Thunder era.

Just a fabulous game from wire to wire. It had everything a fan of the game could want and then some.

I’m whipped. That’s my recap.

Paul George with 43 points and the game winner with 0.8 seconds left in the second overtime.

Sacramento Kings in town tomorrow night on the second night of what should be a challenging game on the second night of a back to back.

I’m outta here. I need some rest.

Epic game.

I’ve seen a lot of these guys over the years. I think for sure Marcus has been the better player in the NBA once they were separated from each other, but I wouldn’t discount Markieff. He could very well end up as Billy Donovan’s No. 8 guy in the rotation and do some positive things for the Thunder. I forgot they were Philly kids though, so that gives Markieff more sway with me. The Thunder need more from this spot than they’ve been getting from Patrick Patterson so I can’t view this as anything but a smart hedge move which could have some nice upside for the Thunder. For me, it’s another reason I have Sam Presti atop my list for NBA Executive of the Year.

With 25 games left in the regular season I don’t feel like I’d want to bet for or against this team once the playoffs begin. I had the Thunder as a No. 4 or a No. 3 seed in the West before the season, yet there are times when I watch them I feel like they could be the second best team in the entire league. A prime example being the last game played before the break when I had them No.2 heading into New Orleans where they promptly stunk losing to a Pelicans team which is in complete disorder.

I could see the Thunder losing in the first round for the third straight season or getting on a nice little run and making the conference finals.

Who would know?

But I know the Thunder without Durant are 3-8 in post season and have not sniffed a first round series win. The Thunder have not been relevant in post season without Durant. You would think with a solid first seven rotation of George, Westbrook, Adams, Grant, Schroder, Ferguson and Noel this team should be built better for post season. For me, Markieff Morris is a complete wildcard. He could help or he could show up at the arena stark naked with a Roger Stone tattoo on his chest. I have no idea. His career to me seems to have had some real emotional swings. So we’ll see.

We know the Thunder are good in transition. We know with Adams they hit the offensive glass hard. They’ve gotten better as far as assists to turnovers per ratio. We know since Alex Abrines went awol the Thunder of all things came together as a three point shooting team. I think their free shooting will be fine because for the most part you’d expect the ball to be in the hands of George, Schroder or Westbrook in the last six minutes of games. Steven Adams is the only top seven player who makes me nervous from the line.

This is a team which on paper and per payroll should be right there in the Western Conference Semi-Finals with a fighting chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals. This is a team to me which should have enough maturity to finish 17-8 or so in these final 25 games to finish somewhere around the 54-55 win range. If they don’t win 54 games I wouldn’t have Paul George as my MVP. It that’s simple. Do something of consequence as a team. Show me something.

If this doesn’t happen and the Thunder again exit in the first round I’d consider their season a massive underachievement. Of the Thunder’s remaining 25 games it breaks with the Thunder playing fourteen games at home. In twenty of these games the Thunder will be playing teams with a chance to make the playoffs. If I were going to circle one team in this entire league from this point forward which should be playing with a massive competitive chip on their collective shoulder it would be the Thunder.

But for me the elephant in the room always comes back to Russell Westbrook and his decision making in the last six minutes of games against good teams when it matters. The play in the road loss to Boston being a prime example when he pushed the ball frenetically on a 1-3 situation. That’s not having numbers. You push the ball when you have the odd man advantage. It is the most basic premise in offensive transition in both basketball and hockey. It’s basically just calibrating the odds in your favor. And that’s what still to a certain degree scares me about Russell Westbrook even though it’s obvious he’s at least trying to change. But can he change when all the chips are on the table…that’s the question for me?

So for while the Thunder’s three point shooting and overall team defense are certainly big keys, the biggest key is Russell Westbrook.

I actually watched part of this college game. Other than watching some of OU’s games this is the sixth college basketball game I’ve watched this season. It’s stunning for me to admit this because during the Billy Tubbs era in Norman… it was rare for me to miss a Sooner home game.

I loved those years. Billy’s arrogance. The Jack Nicholson schtick. The rivalries with Norm Stewart and Jerry Tarkanian. Ed Hightower. The Big Eight tournaments in Kansas City at Kemper. Chanting in unison to the Kansas fans in 90′ at Kemper, “Don’t come back,” on the Saturday evening game when OU had the Jayhawks down by twenty-six points after the scene of the crime game in the ’88 national championship final.

Those were the days.

These aren’t those days for college basketball. Nobody except for maybe half or so of the iconic programs in the country seem to care all that much about college basketball anymore. The ratings are down while the NBA ratings have climbed and are now second only to the NFL as the most watched of the four major professional sports.

College basketball is a dirty game. A game with no real identity anymore. Ask Billy Donovan off the record why he lost his luster for coaching the Gators in Gainesville. It’s not a good sign when the FBI is spending as much time trailing men’s college basketball programs as they are following Trump and his Russians.

But then again…Billy Donovan was a Rick Pitino disciple and in all candor Pitino’s exit from Louisville is about as dirty as it gets without having Russians peeing all over themselves in a Moscow hotel room.

I hope Bill Self is okay…I really do. We’ll see.

Interest in the college game is down. In reality it’s only a relevant sport when March Madness swings into gear before the Masters in Augusta.

Some might say the one and dones have ruined the game. Personally…like so many things in life I think it was monetary greed by all concerned which has ruined the sport. It’s a dirty money game. This would be the perfect subject for the next Michael Lewis bestseller. The title would be easy…’Dirty Money’.

So last night with no NBA hoops I decide I’m going to watch Duke vs. North Carolina with President Obama sitting courtside and not one minute into the game it was over for me as the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, Zion Williamson, hurt his knee by blowing out his tennis shoe.

It was eerily symbolic of college basketball’s fall in the pecking order of sports.

Zion Williamson shouldn’t even be playing college basketball. He should have gone straight from high school to the NBA. Who does the NCAA think they’re kidding here?

Fans have smartened up. Even in rogue right dumb Oklahoma. Every Thunder game sells out while both OU and O state play in half empty arenas. Nobody cares.

College basketball has some serious soul searching to do if it has any designs of being relevant other than just in the month of March.

Of course it is and has been ever since July 4th, 2016. It may be Paul George’s career MVP year, but make no bones about it… this is the team Sam Presti built for Russell Westbrook to drive. This is the racecar the NBA Executive of the Year has rebuilt with precise care and diligence to fit Westbrook.

This Thunder team from one thru thirteen can run the court. It may be the fastest team in the league baseline to baseline. They’re all athletic. They’re all long and look like they might be related to Stacy Augmon. At times I find myself calling Jerami Grant ‘The General’ and then realize father Harvey is home watching. Dave Sieger would smile watching this team when they bring their Big Boy defensive game to the arena. When they want to defend they look close to special.

Take Westbrook out of the mix and you have five players in George, Adams, Grant, Ferguson, and Schroder who are all having career years. Putting numbers aside–this is the smartest basketball I’ve ever seen out of Nerlens Noel at the NBA level. He appears functional and beyond.

We were supposed to believe without the fragile Alex Abrines this team couldn’t shoot threes, but in reality ever since Abrines went back across the Atlantic Ocean to follow his heart the Thunder have been one the league’s better three point shooting teams. Go figure.

Paul George is in the running for MVP. Dennis Schroder is in the running for Sixth Man of the Year. Terrance Ferguson is in the running for Most Improved Player and Paul George is a double nominee for Defensive Player of the Year. And of course–I have Sam Presti currently in the lead for NBA Executive of the Year.

So I ask myself this question…would any of this be possible without Russell Westbrook driving the Thunder bus?

And my answer is no.

Other than shooting the three–Westbrook is having the best year of his career in pretty much every category…. rebounding, defending, assists, steals, and most of all leadership. His free throw shooing will be back by April.. I almost feel certain.

I’ve been tough on Russell Westbrook at times on my blog this season pleading with him to morph into Maurice Cheeks 1983. But you know what, for the most part he’s almost there. He’s given up parts of his game. Maurice Cheeks made Moses Malone and Dr. J better players. Russell Westbrook is doing the exact same thing with Paul George and Steven Adams every night. Every single night. Paul George is in the running for MVP not in spite of Westbrook, but because of Westbrook.

As we get ready to start the back third of the regular season I write this with total confidence this is still Russell Westbrook’s airplane only with Paul George in the co-pilot seat instead of Durant. As Westbrook goes, so will go the Thunder.

This was nice.

I find myself having to play this at least once a month to get thru the presidency of Anne Coulter’s pet idiot. For some reason–Dave Chappelle telling poor whites the truth gives me some sort of validation on here. BTW…if you didn’t see A Star is Born—Dave has a nice small part in the movie.

Anyway…this was my February fix. Peace….Anne Coulter finally got one right. ANNE COULTER +1 Yes….our POTUS is an idiot. But at least he’s our own private Russian asset idiot. That’s called setting the bar low. Is it too much to ask your president to act like he made it from the fourth grade to the fifth grade?

With Nick Collison’s jersey retirement ceremony coming up I thought maybe taking a look at some of the more prominent players for Seattle from the ’79 NBA championship team might kind of be fun. I was twenty-two years of age at the time and very much remember that NBA Finals which pitted the Sonics vs. the Washington Bullets led by Wes Unseld and Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe.

The Sonics won the series and to date it is the only world championship won by the Sonics/Thunder franchise. Brown’s Sonics appeared in another NBA Finals and lost to Washington in ’78 while the Thunder made the 2012 NBA Finals before losing to LeBron’s Miami Heat in five games. In addition, George Karl’s ’96 Sonics team made the NBA Finals and lost in six games to Michael Jordan’s Bulls.

Brown was drafted out of the University of Iowa by both the ABA’s Kentucky franchise and the Sonics in 1971. Brown was the 6th player taken in the first round. His career got off to a slow start only playing in 33 games and averaging 4.2 points a game. It would be the only season in Brown’s thirteen season career in which he didn’t average in double figures scoring the ball.

Brown was a two time NBA finalist and an NBA-All Star in 1976. He started at times earlier in his career, but as the captain of the ’79 championship Sonics team he was the Sixth Man as Gus Williams and Dennis Johnson of later Celtic fame were the starting backcourt.

Downtown Freddie Brown holds several individual franchise records of note. He shares with Russell Westbrook the record for most points scored in a regular season game at 58 points. He shares with Ray Allen the record for most points scored in a playoff game at 45 points. And he shares with Gus Williams most steals in a game at 10.

Downtown scored 14,018 points in his career and averaged just over 14 points a game. He played from 1971-1984 and like Nick Collison only played for one franchise in his entire professional career.

His No. 32 jersey was retired and he’s one of the greatest players in the history of the Sonics’ franchise which now resides in Oklahoma City.