Author: Mike

You’ll notice I didn’t include Billy Donovan in this question? I didn’t because he’s not relevant in this question of whether the Thunder can win the Northwest Division let alone an NBA championship with Russell Westbrook as their point guard.

This will ultimately be Sam Presti’s call. This is his team. He puts it together each season. He has built it around Russell Westbrook.

At times it looks good on paper after one of those nights when Russell Westbrook somehow pulls it together. On other nights when Westbrook can’t come to terms with the fact he’s not Steph Curry… the team looks pretty much horrific. Like a bunch of throw togethers with one guy hogging the ball and repeatedly taking as assortment of poor risk/reward shots.

The latter is what the Thunder looked like at home on Saturday night as the decent Denver Nuggets toyed with the Thunder for a coast to coast 105-98 win over the Thunder.

Sam Presti is not a stupid person. He knows his craft. But at what point do you continue this in Oklahoma City with the highest payroll in the league with a team which right now to me looks like they could very well not win the Northwest Division.

Think about what I just wrote…with the highest payroll in the league is it fair to ask out loud if maybe Sam Presti needs to make one more move.

You can’t win big in this league being a stupid basketball team. You just can’t do it. And I hate writing this because I’m not Jim Traber and I don’t enjoy writing this, but at what point do you have that come to Jesus moment with Russell Westbrook and say, ” Wild Thing, it’s not me, it’s you. I need a break.”

For some reason which I can’t figure out some 12 hours after Saturday night’s 105-98 loss to the pedestrian Nuggets at home…I’m wondering how Sam Presti can come to terms with the fact Russell Westbrook went 1-12 shooting threes in this basketball game. Russell Westbrook shouldn’t be chucking six threes a game… let alone twelve. You know why…because he’s not good at doing it most of the time.

If you’re a baseball pitcher and your curveball sucks…. then you know what? You don’t throw it very often.

You can finish above .500 with Russell Westbrook. You can maybe even get a top four seed in the West. But do you really think when you get to post season against the better teams and better coaches you can win sixteen games and four different series?

No way. Because NBA post season play is a puzzle of adjustments and re-adjustments every game as a series moves along. You can’t be like Rocky Balboa and lead with your face. Russell Westbrook leads with his face and every coach in the league knows it and calibrates their game plan with that in mind.

I hate writing this because I want Westbrook to succeed in Oklahoma City, but for some reason which I can’t decipher beyond just Westbrook’s ultra stubborn competitiveness…he can’t come to terms with the player he is.

Russell Westbrook is not Steph Curry. He’s not Kyrie Irving.

What he is…is a glorious grinder.

A grinder for the ages. A Hall of Fame grinder.

But one who needs to be told….quit jacking stupid threes. Be yourself as a player because that’s not a bad thing.

I didn’t watch the Thunder hang on against the Hornets because I was riveted to OU’s play-in game versus West Virginia in Morgantown. I picked OU 56-53 while Vegas moved their spread all around this week before settling on OU -3. So who could be surprised at the outcome with the Sooners improving to 11-1 and now headed to face the Longhorns for the first time ever in the Big 12 title game.

In a perfect world this is how the forefathers of the Big 12 saw the conference emerging with OU and Texas as the two iconic brands taking the lead and carrying the conference mantle.

So here we are finally in 2018 with a Red River Rivalry repeat in the Big 12 title game at Jerry’s World. I’m going OU -4.5 on my first early spread of the week leading up to the game.

If OU plays like they can they should win the game. Where they go after that depends on a couple of games today and some games next week-end as well in the conference championship games.

I thought the story in this win was OU’s defense finally creating two huge sacks, two huge fumbles, and two defensive touchdowns in the second half when once again I thought Lincoln Riley went a touch conservative with his play calling. So the defense making some impact plays was actually critical.

When you consider OU was without Rodney Anderson and with a still gimpy Trey Sermon it was a very good win.

As we saw on Monday Night Football with the Chiefs and Rams the game has changed everywhere, not just in the Big 12. It’s all space and time oriented as is the NBA and the NHL. Fans want to see scoring in all sports, not just football. This isn’t just an OU thing. But still, the OU defense is in need of some changes once the season ends.

You’re not dead until you’re dead. And technically speaking…OU is still alive for a Final Four spot. Stranger things have happened. You know, if OU could get some more sacks and some more big turnovers from their beleaguered defense they could do some interesting things with Kyler Murray and Company.

OU will now be seeking their 4th straight Big 12 championship. OU has never accomplished this before their in storied football history.

It should be a great week in anticipation of OU-Texas II.

Just take care of the ball and don’t take stupid penalties should be the mantra at OU practices this week. OU is the better team.

Even though Andre can’t make a free throw to save his life—he’s one of my three favorite players on this year’s Thunder team. Maybe one of my Thunder favorites of all-time because of the way he plays defense and runs the court in transition. He just personifies team to a letter. I love him. He’d be a great young man for someone’s daughter to marry. That play in Detroit when he went down with the ruptured patella has I’m sure been the challenge of Andre’s basketball life. I’m just so impressed with him as a young man.

I’m sure this is going to take awhile for him to get his lateral wheels back. Basketball is like hockey in that defensively you square the body and have to sustain contact moving any direction.

This was my favorite preseason interview of Thunder players this season. No questions about his free throw shooting. Does that tell you how much the local guys rightfully respect Andre Roberson?

My three favorite players this season are Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, and Paul George.

Welcome back, Andre Roberson.

You know, after praying for Hamidou Diallo last night, I prayed for Kevin Durant as well. I honestly did because it’s apparent to me this is a tortured person internally who for whatever reasons can’t come to terms with himself. I’m not being sarcastic. It’s just sad to observe from a human standpoint.

I don’t know, but I know it’s complex. I know Kevin Durant is not a person happy within himself for whatever reasons.

And I find that sad. I feel like a bully even calling him Cupcake at this point. I’ve never booed Kevin Durant and I never will. I shouldn’t call him Cupcake either. I swore I wouldn’t do that.

He has all the money anyone could want. He has fame. He has two make believe NBA championship rings. And he has the knowledge he’ll be in the Hall of Fame. But he doesn’t seem to have found inner peace and happiness despite having Draymond Green as his life coach.

It drives home the point you can have all the material things in life and not find happiness in the end.

And then there’s Wild Thing who’s never going to win an NBA championship because of his inability to play under control. He’s probably going to be regarded as one the greatest players of all time for regular season stats, but not much in post season. But he seems like the happiest dude on the face of the earth. Can you imagine the way these Westbrook children are going to dress? Who really needs to win an NBA championship to be happy? Can you imagine how much fun the four grandparents are going to have with these kids? Circle of life, Cupcake. Circle of life, bruh.

Westbrook seems content and at peace. Durant appears to be chained to the basketball demons and to real life perceptions of himself which I guess he doesn’t like all that much. Or won’t accept as fair.

Westbrook seems to have a complete understanding of the circle of life. He seems at ease within the Universe of Westbrook. I could do lunch with Westbrook once I got past the first sixty seconds of ranting about the way he plays at times. After that, we’d be good.

Westbrook has a beautiful wife. His UCLA soulmate. His parents. His brother. His son. His two new twin daughters. His tight inner circle of friends. Sam Presti and Clay Bennett. His universe. His clothes. Heck, even me over at the rogue blog.

How ironic all of this is and how sad for Kevin Durant.

Maybe, just maybe, Kevin Durant should have allowed Russell Westbrook to be his life coach instead of Draymond Green now that we’ve seen how it’s going to end in Golden State after this season.

Would Russell Westbrook take Kevin Durant back and help him find inner peace as a man since Draymond couldn’t get it done as the new life coach designate?

It’s complicated for sure. It really is. Antonio Daniels can’t break this down on the Thunder Insider like I can on here. He can’t and won’t. Traber shouldn’t even attempt this. Too much nuance.

So in the end what is Durant’s legacy going to be if he leaves Golden State like a spoiled child or forces Draymond Green’s exit after this season?

LeBron went back to Cleveland and won the city a championship. Michael won six NBA rings with the Bulls. Kobe stayed with the Lakers his entire career as did Magic. Bird was a Celtic for life. Dirk never left Dallas even when the team was bad. Timmy was Pop’s adopted son. Steph and Klay will be regarded as the soul of the Warriors’ era.

And then there will be Durant. Hopefully he finds himself at the next stop.

Sam Anderson, make sure you read my book.

I can’t believe it, it’s only an ankle sprain. Good thing for Hamidou that I’m not his doctor or I might have amputated his leg after seeing that fall. No questions…just a hasty amputation. Despite the great positive news I’m not putting that video of him falling on my blog. I’m so happy for him. What great Thanksgiving news. Whoo!

Hamidou Diallo…the five star prospect.

For sure, this was in no way a big deal win for the Thunder in that Steve Kerr’s Super Team was missing Steph and Draymond. But still there’s so much here to be gleaned from this game when you’re an OKC blogger who unlike Sam Anderson has lived and died Thunder hoops from the day they arrived from Seattle. There really is. This game is a microcosm of the whole Durant-Westbrook saga. I could probably write a hundred pages this morning, but it’s Thanksgiving and I have a busy day with family scheduled. But this is why I’m going to write my book and fill in Sam Anderson on what’s it’s really like to follow this team on an underground blog. I don’t need Royce Young to give me information, I’ve lived it. I’ve feel it. I’ve survived it. Like the bombing. It’s part of me.

Let me start with Cupcake. This was so Cupcake. And you know what, I think secretly Steve Kerr somewhat enjoyed it to an extent because Steve Kerr knows the soul of his team is Steph and Klay. They’re the engine of his team, not Kevin Durant. Durant is just an exotic luxury. Jerry West knew it as well. Durant was just the last obscene part of the equation which not only propelled the Warriors to unbeatable status, but in a sense crippled the Thunder for two years as Sam Presti has had to reload in OKC around Russell Westbrook.

Let me write this about Durant. I don’t think he has the emotional fabric to carry a team which isn’t loaded. I don’t. I’m a student of Durant and Westbrook. I watched Durant play most of his college games at Texas and one thing always stuck out about Durant to me even back before he ever played for the Thunder. That being, he couldn’t get Texas beyond the second round of the NCAA Tournament past Stanford. He couldn’t carry his team even like Melo did at Syracuse. But you know what Steph did at Davidson, he carried Cinderella past Kansas and led his team to an improbable Final Four appearance. Kevin Durant to me is a tortured soul to a certain extent. Shit like this does not escape his fragile self image. And with Durant and Westbrook it’s about inner self and confidence. I think millennials call it something like self visualization.

And then there’s Wild Thing. Did I call it in my rant following the Kings loss? This is just so like Russell Westbrook to play like Maurice Cheeks in this easy win over the Warriors without Steph. This is how he should play every game. This is how you should play as a point guard if you want to win a championship. Westbrook, unlike Durant, is no tortured soul. His inner self exudes self esteem and confidence. If anything, he needs his inner self clipped. He needs to grasp he doesn’t need to be the star every night. He needs to learn how to delegate on the court and defer. And on this night against a Warriors’ team which showed the world what they would be without Steph and with Cupcake–he played like Maurice Cheeks just to fuck with me. I know this is why he did this. Just to fuck with me.

Don’t worry, Wild Thing…I can handle it. I used to coach hockey players at one time. You’re not winning a championship unless you’re sincere in becoming Maurice Cheeks circa 2018. Beating Cupcake without Steph and Draymond is no big deal.

But still—there were some real positives and negatives to be gleaned from this meaningless game in Oakland. The first of which is Sam Presti has a nice core team in Westbrook, Paul George, Steven Adams, Dennis Schroder, Jerami Grant and hopefully Andre Roberson. Roberson is slated to return in December and it’s a good thing because I fear Hamidou Diallo’s rookie season ended in Oakland last night with a horrific lower leg injury. It was awful and turned my stomach. It reminded me of Andre going down in Detroit last winter. It just makes you sick to your stomach. It does. But Andre is slated to return soon and TLC is a nice role player so even without Hamidou the Thunder should be able to absorb this loss. My prayers are with Diallo today. I like him and hope for him to regain his health and to be with the team in the future.

Terrance Ferguson and Alex Abrines? Traber says what I think about these two, but I don’t want to dwell on this right now. It’s Thanksgiving and I’m still hoping Presti can get Kyle Korver out of Cleveland to Oklahoma City somehow this season. I’m not wasting anymore energy on these two. If they play, they play. Billy Donovan can deal with this. Good lord, these two wouldn’t make it past a day on a sheet of ice playing hockey. They wouldn’t. First time they were checked in open ice it would be over…as in done.

In closing, the one thing which really clung to me while watching this game is what a fluid general manager Sam Presti is and how he methodically has put the Thunder back together since Cupcake’s departure to Oakland.

But here’s the thing and Sam Presti knows it in his heart of hearts. He’s not winning anything unless Russell Westbrook can evolve from Wild Thing into Maurice Cheeks. And that isn’t happening without this Westbrook metamorphosis even if the Thunder easily ass whipped Cupcake in Oakland on the night before Thanksgiving.

The Thunder are 11-6 and pretty much what I thought they would be. A nice team, but still in wait for their point guard to grow up as a player.

Alex Abrines and Terrance Ferguson…meet Scott Stevens of the New Jersey Devils back in the day. Take my advice and stay in the NBA.

To me, it’s not even close with due respect to the kid at Alabama. Nice player, but not the best college football player in America. That would be Kyler Murray at Oklahoma. Not really even close. And truth be known, he’s played better than Baker Mayfield did last year when he won the Heisman.

Without Kyler Murray this OU team which has had little if any defense this season would probably be 5-5 or 4-7 heading into Friday’
s play-in game for the Big 12 Championship Game.

What an absolute shame OU pissed away this magnificent season of Kyler Murray and the best offense in college football by arguably having the worst OU defense in the modern era which for me probably started with Chuck Fairbanks in the early 70’s.

Just at an absolute shame.

But Kyler can still win the Heisman if he can beat West Virginia on Friday with maybe a stop here and there by the brutal OU defense which not only can’t tackle in space but can’t tackle in a phone booth. Good God. Sone coaches will be fired in two weeks to three weeks regardless of the outcome of this game.

Kyler is regarded by many as the greatest high school football in Texas history. Think about that sentence and all the great players that includes. He never lost a single game at Allen High School where he won three state championships. For whatever reason it didn’t work at Texas A&M for Kyler. The only game Kyler has lost at OU was the Texas game and that was because he never got the ball back.

This could be Kyler’s next to last football game as his agent Scott Boras and the Oakland A’s await his arrival to professional baseball.

I can’t wait to see this game even if that means I have to watch the OU defense with my eyes covered half the time while I set the record for most F bombs uttered ever in a college football game.

Kyler Murray has been that good. That fun to watch.

It’s hard to stay mad at Russell. It really is. You want to strangle him at times. But he’s our Wild Thing and he makes our hearts sing. He does. He really does. As much as we bitch, or at least me, what would NBA life be without Wild Thing in OKC.

Good thing I have a rogue blog and never ever will have to ask for a press credential from the Oklahoma City Thunder organization. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write any of this and be able to get an interview with anyone attached to the Thunder.

How do I write this in a thoughtful well thought out way?

Let me start with this. Jim Traber on the air yesterday used the perfect analogy to predict Russell Westbrook’s return to the OKC Thunder last night in Sacramento. Traber pontificated that if he used extremely bad judgement on the air and said some things which should never be said on the air and was suspended from work for a week…would he change when he came back?

And Jim Traber who is every bit as stubborn as Russell Westbrook said of course he wouldn’t change and neither will Russell Westbrook.

Bingo.

Russell Westbrook isn’t changing his game even if it’s to his own detriment and to the detriment of his team.

Again…Russell Westbrook isn’t changing and the Thunder with Westbrook will never win a championship as long as this continues.

The Thunder will be the Kansas City Chiefs of the NBA in that they’ll be extremely entertaining at times in the regular season, but in all likelihood a first round exit as they have been the past two seasons without Kevin Durant.

Let me also write this…whether Billy Donovan is the head coach doesn’t matter a bit. It matters just about as much as if Mike Stoops is coaching the OU defense. As in it doesn’t matter. Billy Donovan isn’t changing Russell Westbrook. Kevin Durant couldn’t change Russell Westbrook, why would anyone think Billy Donovan is changing Wild Thing?

Ain’t happening even if I daydream into eternity of seeing Mo Cheeks running the court inside of Russell Westbrook’s body in a Thunder jersey. It’s not happening.

So wouldn’t I love to have lunch with Sam Presti today and chat about things Thunder related.

The Thunder play the drama queen Warriors on Wednesday night in Oakland. The Warriors have the second highest payroll in the NBA currently at $144 million. Guess who has the highest payroll in the NBA at $145 million? That would be Clay Bennett’s Thunder who unlike the Warriors haven’t won three NBA championships and who aren’t favorites to win a fourth once Steph Curry gets back in the lineup.

My primary question would be how can ownership justify spending this type of money for a team which will be a perennial first round exit?

Sam Anderson, are you watching? I hope so. Because this might be the basis for All Boom Towns Die Hard the sequel.

The Thunder are in Oakland to play the love starved struggling Warriors on Wednesday. This is exactly the type of meaningless regular season game in which the Thunder will probably play pretty well would be my guess.

Fuck it. Bring the heater, Russell. You don’t have a change up or a slider. Bring the heater, Rickey.

Don’t look now, but the once 0-4 Thunder are now 10-5 and in third place in the West.

Russell Westbrook once again sat nursing his sprained ankle and it mattered little if any as the Thunder cruised to a 110-100 road win over the youthful Phoenix Suns. On this night both shooting guards Terrance Ferguson and Alex Abrines both missed the game as well with the sniffles. Thunder team mother Nick Gallo I presume came to the rescue with more chicken noodle soup and Vicks inhalers for both Ferguson and Abrines.

Hamidou Diallo Nature Boy filled in for Ferguson with the starters playing the Andre Roberson role while Timothy Luwawu-Caborret (TLC) filled in for Diallo as the energy guy coming off the bench.

It was TLC’s first real sustained game minutes with the Thunder and he filled in beautifully scoring 12 points in 25 minutes of play. This is the deepest and most balanced team in the Thunder era and TLC is a perfect illustration as he came off the bench rusty and didn’t miss a beat.

Paul George once again was excellent with a 32 point, 11 rebound night. PG has quietly assumed the leadership role of the team in Westbrook’s absence and quite frankly the team appears to be more functional with Paul George and Dennis Schroder in essence both running the offense thru them with calm and reduced dysfunction.

Steven Adams in my view appears to be the guy who we saw in those great minutes in the 2016 post season series versus the Spurs when it became apparent he would bloom as one of the NBA’s better centers. Adams has been excellent this season. By far his best season to date production wise and when the Thunder remember he’s there he in a word has been an unstoppable offensive option which should be getting 15 shots a game minimum. Anotherword, in financial parlance if you have a $25 million asset then be smart enough to monetize your asset to the fullest.

Dennis Schroder continued his rock solid play with a 15 point, 7 assist, 4 steal night. I didn’t give Schroder enough credit earlier in the season in that he’s more than just a 6th man. What I now hope to see in Schroder is what we saw from Harden in 2012 as he helped Russell work thru his Wild Thing moments on the point.

Give Billy Donovan credit…he obviously has these guys listening and playing hard. The stupid turnovers have been minimized. The effort on defense is obvious. The free throw shooting is stabilizing. All good things.

The Thunder now play in Sacramento on Monday night as the Kings have predictably started their descent to the bottom third of the West where Vegas and I both knew they belonged when were filling out our Daily Thunder Western Conference bracket sheet. The Kings clearly have some nice young players, but in no way do I see the Kings above the .400 mark when 82 games have been played and are in the books.

The Daily Thunder millennial Trekkies should start to come back to the empirical mean as like Secretariat I have begun my normal ascent. I have no idea if Justin from Miami is in the field, but as we both know we know how this will end come mid-April despite some of the murky tiebreakers used at Daily Thunder. It was good to see the nascent Perk Punt near the top in that he was one of my TSN proteges at one time much like Budenholzer was to Pop.

Could the Thunder be the second best team in the West?

It’s possible and would have been even more probable if the Rockets hadn’t cut Carmelo. I still expect Utah to gain traction and start moving upward along with the Lakers. I do. My top five in the West is still what I had in the beginning of the season…1 Golden State, 2 Houston, 3 Utah, 4 Oklahoma City, and 5 LA LeBron.

The Thunder in Sacramento tomorrow night with Chris Fisher doing the call. I like Chris… he’s an incredible upgrade over dipshit.

LET”S GO THUNDER!

Here’s Thunder team mom Nick Gallo breastfeeding TLC during a preseason interview. Look at Nick Gallo. He literally glows like a mother when he’s near these Thunder players. Almost radiant. I honestly believe he’s fallen in love with Russell Westbrook much like Draymond did with Kevie. You gotta keep a close eye on these NBA dudes. They’re nothing like hockey and football players.