Author: Mike

Let me start with some positive things before I write about this Thunder team. I want to be a glass half full type of guy on my blog.

The Fox telecast was much better. I like Chris Fisher doing the play by play and in turn it seems to me Michael Cage has toned down some of his more overt pubescent homer comments with an adult now sitting next to him on the telecast.

I’ve always liked Antonio Daniels on the post game so I was already good there. Same with Matt Pinto on the radio. Same with Leslie McCaslin. So–from that standpoint the Thunder are good by me.

Now what needs to happen in the next ten days is for Billy Donovan and his staff to come to terms with what they have and don’t have as a basketball team which as of right now is the only winless team in the Western Conference with one of the highest payrolls in the NBA.

It’s one thing to lose and look like a team which doesn’t know what it’s doing when you’re in rebuild, it’s another to be picked for the second straight season as one of the league’s eight best teams and look like the very same team which underachieved last season. You know, Carmelo isn’t here anymore. It can’t be his fault. Kevin Durant has been gone since July 4th, 2016. At some point in all of this someone who writes about this team will have to write something, anything with some truth attached to it.

I’m not Nick Gallo. I’m not Royce Young. I’m not Berry Tramel or Erik Horne. I don’t have access. And even if I had access it would only be for one or two games before they wouldn’t let me back in the press room. That would be a short lived deal.

I mean, if you’re an adult and you watched this game what do you think is the problem with this team?

I wrote yesterday that this team has no identity whatsoever other than Russell Westbrook putting them on his back and doing things which aren’t really conducive to championship basketball being played.

Okay….so Russell played tonight and came within two assists of a triple double in his first game back since the knee procedure. He was actually better than I thought he would be…and yet this game really wasn’t all that close. I never had the feel coming down the stretch that the Kings felt threatened at all. And keep this in mind, this is a Sacramento team which was universally picked to finish in 15th place in the West.

I don’t know what to say. I really don’t. It makes me uncomfortable as a Thunder fan to write on my blog that I question the heart of the team which I write about on this blog. And for me to write it means I’m starting with Russell Westbrook. Because this team just gave up 131 points at home to the abysmal Sacramento Kings in a game the Thunder desperately needed.

I know it’s early, but you can’t dick around in the West. You can’t come out of the gates and bumble around for the first three weeks of the season to discover your team identity. This shit should have been covered multiple times in the film room and in walk thrus even if Russell wasn’t cleared to play.

I’m sorry, this is bullshit. Pure bullshit and if I were one of the Republican owners of this team I’d be livid right now. Literally livid.

I hate to be this way. I do. Because I’m generally a glass half full guy. But this is a dumb basketball team right now. They don’t calibrate winning plays on either side of the court. They once again chucked 39 threes tonight making but 9. They once again shot 64% from the line. They committed 18 turnovers.

Billy Donovan in his presser said the difference in this game was that Kings made some really tough two point shots.

Really?

Sigh.

I liked it better when Scott Brooks pleaded, “Run back faster, guys.”

Because if you think back to last year in Game 5 versus the Jazz when the Thunder were getting their ass kicked the only reason the Thunder miraculously came back was that Westbrook put them on his back and for that game Paul George joined him. Otherwise it was hideous team basketball, Absolutely hideous from a team standpoint.

Rule No. 2 of Coaching…You coach thru your unique character and personality. Or anotherwords—you don’t pretend to be someone else.

I’m not going to lose sleep over this. I’m not one of these rich Republican owners who voted for Trump and for the second season in a row might have pissed some money down the drain on a pro basketball team. I’ll sleep like a baby tonight. I have OU football. I have the now 2-4-1 Cleveland Browns albeit they aren’t going to the Super Bowl. I have the LA Dodgers, I’ll have the Rockies next spring in Nolan Arenado’s free agent season. I’ll have the Avalanche and the Boston Bruins in the NHL. My sports cup overrunneth.

Plus, the diva lab Pauli will tell me, “It’s only basketball, Mike. Settle down. Do we need a walk?”

But right now—for NBA basketball, I have a team with no identity as a team and a coach who so far can’t seem to impose one upon them which makes basketball sense.

Nolan Arenado is the best third baseman in the major leagues. He hit 38 homers this season and was 100 plus RBI guy. It won’t be that long till spring training.

I watched the Dodgers advance to the World Series last night and didn’t watch any of the Rockets-Lakers game live. When I did see the ‘fight’ on ESPN it made me laugh. The whole thing starts because Brandon Ingram is upset about being called for fouling Harden. What a joke. It made me think of this play by Derek Fisher back when he was a key part of those Kobe Laker championship teams. I just love this play. This is in large part what the Thunder need—that being someone who will standup and lead the team to do things the right way.

This was a hockey play is what this was by Fisher. He was just basically saying with his elbow to Luis Scola,” Please shut the fuck up you’re playing the world Champion LA Lakers and quit bothering my teammates.” Westbrook needs someone like Fisher on the roster right now. Presti needs someone on the team like Derek Fisher in his prime. Felton is the closest thing, but Felton hasn’t shown me that edge I need to see. Way too many young guys with that Brandon Ingram look about them on this Thunder squad. Presti needs to package a deal and send a couple of these youngsters like Ferguson and perhaps maybe Schroeder in exchange for a real player in the present tense of like ‘NOW’. Leadership manifests itself in many different ways on a ball club. But the Thunder could clearly use a Derek Fisher type right now since Nick is no longer playing.

OKC has no edge other than Westbrook. They play like a bunch of white choirboys without Westbrook. Steven is an author, not a brawler. He’d rather smell Pop’s hair than fight one of his players. It’s not even watchable. You know who I would like in this role…Marcus Smart. When the Thunder don’t re-up Andre on his current deal they should pursue Marcus Smart as our Derek Fisher type. Presti loves Smart. He was all over him when Smart was at O State. Trust me…my sources were clear on this. Boston is going to need to shed payroll. Maybe something to consider or think about. Smart is an intangible guy to the core.

Great interview.

If ever there was an indictment of why Scott Brooks shouldn’t have been replaced by Billy Donovan this was it. I’m not saying a change was bad, but if you’re going to make a change make one which truly changes the culture of your basketball team.

I watched all of this basketball game and it pretty much depressed me because it fully illuminated what I already knew…that being, the OKC Thunder are not a .500 ball club in this year’s NBA Western Conference without Russell Westbrook caring a heavy workload.

Why should that be a surprise to anybody who knows anything about Thunder basketball?

In 2015, with Kevin Durant missing all but 27 games, the Thunder still went 45-37. Westbrook missed games, Ibaka missed games, Roberson missed games, Adams missed games, and of course Reggie Jackson had to be traded at the deadline. People were actually grateful the Thunder acquired Kyle Singler. Still, the Thunder won 45 games and only missed the playoffs when the Spurs lost to the Pelicans on the last day of the regular season.

Though I didn’t agree with firing Brooks, I didn’t lose sleep over it either. It’s a big boy profession and the Third Rule of Coaching is you’re always at some point hired to be fired at some point unless you’re Gregg Popovich or Red Auerbach.

Billy Donovan should take notice, the Third Rule of Coaching will be humming if Russell Westbrook isn’t back on the floor on Sunday evening in Oklahoma City against the feeble Sacramento Kings.

This Thunder team without Westbrook could in no way win 45 games over the haul of an 82 game season. Even if Paul George, Steven Adams, Dennis Schroeder, and Jerami Grant don’t miss a single game between them. This team doesn’t know what it’s even trying to do albeit do it without Westbrook on the floor.

Without Westbrook, this team doesn’t have an identity.

When the Warriors lose either Durant or Curry for long stretches of games they don’t lose a beat. Even without Timmy Duncan and Tony Parker the Spurs have still been respectable. Even with Kyrie and Hayward out the Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

And do you why this occurred? It occurred because the head coach ingrained within the team a sequence of systems which remain the same even if a star goes down.

That’s kind of what head coaching is about along with communicating and motivating.

These Thunder remind me of the Green Bay Packers without Aaron Rodgers, as in they’re not viable without their franchise star.

This Thunder team without Westbrook is now tied for last in the West with lowly Sacramento which will be tanking before long. Look at their roster and you’ll understand they’ll be tanking.

Two games in and you know what… You can’t blame Carmelo Anthony for the Thunder for being 0-2.

Sam Presti in his heart could read what I’ve just written and either agree with it or disagree with it.

I could care less.

I’m not on his payroll and don’t need off the record access to him.

But Presti is a smart guy.

Russell Westbrook, get back soon…for Billy Donovan’s sake.

I only watched five or ten live minutes from the Thunder’s opening season loss to the world champion Warriors. The baseball post-season has been scintillating and the Thunder without Westbrook long-term could be unwatchable unless you’re Nick Gallo or a millennial Daily Thunder baby cub junior reporter. The millennials over there shouldn’t bristle. I made them famous in Sam Anderson’s book with the ‘Trekkie’ shout out in the book which is a NY Times bestseller.

To me though—the box score tells it all.

Smart teams find a way to win, dumb teams find a way not to win.

Period.

It’s all part of the Lombardi Doctrine from the previous post.

You only have to look at one stat and one stat only from Tuesday night’s opener to realize who was the smart team and who was the dumb team.

The stat would be team three point shooting.

The Golden State Warriors are perhaps the greatest three point shooting team in modern era. Steph, Klay, and Kevie make the Warriors historically lethal. On Tuesday night both Klay and Kevie had tough nights shooting the trey. Klay was 1-8 while Durant was 0-5. As a team the Warriors went 7-26 shooting the three but instead morphed their game a bit and quit jacking as many threes on an off shooting night. Smart teams find a way.

This Thunder team isn’t quite so bright. This is not a good shooting basketball team. They struggle shooting the three and have become a bad free throw shooting team since Durant’s departure to Oakland….even Westbrook’s free throw shooting has gone down.

On Tuesday, for a reason which I can’t grasp the Thunder chucked 37 threes and only made 10 of the shots.

What in the world are the Thunder doing jacking 37 threes in a relatively low scoring game?

It makes no sense whatsoever. As in none.

Why one of the worse three point shooting teams in the league is jacking threes is beyond me. The only guys on this team who should even be shooting threes are Paul George, Patrick Patterson, Abrines, and Westbrook to a lesser degree. Dennis Schroeder has been a weak three point shooter his entire career. Same with Jerami Grant. Terrance Ferguson only attempted two threes in Oakland so I think he’s under control somewhat. Plus, I’d feel bad dogging him since his lack of confidence is palpable currently. I’m not a bully like Jim Traber. Mike Stoops won’t ever have to talk shit on my blog.

You need three point shooting to space the floor and open the path to the rim, but you don’t need bad shooters taking those shots. In the NFL you don’t repeatedly throw the football to a receiver who can’t catch the ball. In baseball, you don’t put a marginal batter in the lineup who can’t hit a lefthander’s curve when a frigging left hander with a deadly curveball is on the mound.

YOU PLAY THE MATHMATICAL ODDS. I thought this was the basic premise of analytics.

Daily Thunder Trekkies this is when you say… ‘Hell, yeah.”

If I’m coaching this Thunder team…my main goal is to get either Westbrook or Schroder to the rim with Adams rolling with them. My second best option is Westbrook with the elbow pull up jumper. My next option is getting Paul George offensively engaged early in the game nd keeping him engaged.

My three point green light guys are in this order… Abrines, George, Patterson, and then Westbrook within reason and game situation. If Grant or Schroeder take a stupid three they’ll hear about it instantly.

I mean…I follow the Thunder team play and it’s as if what I’ve just written is never talked about in a team film room.

Good lord.

You now how long if would take for Alex Cora of Pop or Kerr to have this conversation with their players?

Like about half a second.

Dumb teams don’t go far.

Pop on Brad Stevens. Smart coaches begat smart teams. In his book, Steven Adams reveals his love of Pop. Writing that he’d just love to hug Pop and smell his hair. Now….the hair deal is a little much for me, but the rest of that I’m on board with. Unless it’s Kate Upton’s hair…hair smelling of celebs on my bucket list.

Basically, what the Boston Red Sox just did was travel to Houston and beat the defending world champions three straight games in their ball park. And the Bosox did it in stunning style as previous post season no show David Price perhaps pitched the best game of his professional career in outdueling Justin Verlander.

It was stunning. No one saw this coming in this game to this degree with this much on the line at this time of the year.

So what is coaching at the professional level?

Vince Lombardi the iconic coach of the Green Bay Packers once said of coaching, “Guys who can draw up plays are on every street corner. Show me that unique coach who can reach his players as humans and motivate them every day and every week and I’ll show you a guy who wins big every year.”

“That’s coaching, men. That’s life.”

Not complex.

Do you realize since Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook stopped listening to Billy Donovan in Game 5 in 2016 against the Warriors that the Oklahoma City Thunder is 3-11 in post season play?

3-11.

Maybe I just see sports from another prism which doesn’t exist in Sam Presti’s vision of sustainability in Oklahoma City. It could just be me.

It’s just probably me.

What do you think Alex Cora would have said to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook back in 2016 with his team leading the Warriors 3-1?

What would he have said?

Thank you, Ruthie Polinsky. Maybe you could come to Oklahoma City and replace Nick Gallo as Thunder team mom.

Just a great day/evening of major league baseball. The LA Dodgers, who are my second favorite team in the National League, took a 3-2 series lead with a 5-2 win over the gritty Milwaukee Brewers. Clayton Kershaw, who I saw pitch in person last summer in Oklahoma city on a rehab assignment pitched seven strong innings to lead the way. I’ve seen many of these Dodger players pass thru OKC and other than Machado I like the team. I’ve seen Taylor, Bellinger, and Puig just to name several. Our AAA baseball stadium in Bricktown is awesome by the way. Great place to watch a game.

The series now goes back to Milwaukee. This won’t be easy for the Dodgers. These Brewers have been the toughest team in baseball for the past month or so. The Dodgers must get the lead early and take Josh Hader out of play.

The winningest team in baseball this season, the Bosox, with 108 regular season wins, has shown this regular season was no fluke with back to back wins in Houston to take what appears to be a commanding 3-1 season lead. Justin Verlander goes for the Astros tonight and maybe he could go some in a Game 7 if it goes that far, but the Red Sox appear to be on the cusp of a World Series berth under first year manager Alex Cora. Cora was A.J. Hinch’s second in command for Houston last year as they won their first ever World Series.

Nice for Alex Cora. His players love him. He understands the basic premise of player motivation. I wonder if he’d consider head coaching an NBA team in the Northwest Division on which Russell Westbrook plays. Coaching is coaching. The most basic premise of coaching is human motivation. Making other humans want to go thru a wall for you and the team.

Alex Cora in OKC–why not?

Verlander goes for the Astros tonight in what for them is the first of three elimination games if this goes that far.

Sam Presti, don’t be stubborn. Think outside the box for once in picking a head coach. Give Alex Cora a call. Trust me, he’d have no problem coaching in the NBA.

I love Altuve. I love his heart. He’s running on a bad knee, but his heart is there. But this isn’t his season apparently, it’s the season of Mookie Betz, JD Martinez, and Alex Cora.

Russell Westbrook sitting out the season opener against the Golden State Warriors in no way inspired me. I’d much rather the Thunder organization and Russell take rest games during the season when the Thunder are playing teams like the Kings or maybe the Nets or a bottom dweller which Dennis Schroeder can handle without Westbrook. I’m also vexed as to why Russell’s minor cleanup surgery wasn’t done earlier in the off season. It’s not like OKC played deep into March or anything with another first round exit.

Westbrook in no way is a malingerer. He seldom misses games. He’s a tough kid. It just puzzles me the procedure wasn’t done in the summer.

I mean I was looking for some urgency to get this Thunder season underway considering this organization fielded the most disappointing, overpaid team in the NBA last season. This was an organization which finished 17 games behind the Houston Rockets in the loss column last season and was never really in contention to threaten for a top two seed in the West.

Meanwhile in Houston, I noticed Harden, Chris Paul, and Carmelo were at the Astros-Red Sox game. That’s cool because their team wasn’t playing yesterday.

Plus, this was supposed to be a marquee game for the league to kick off the season.

I have no idea what other viewers across the country did, but I know what I did except for about five minutes of the Thunder game, that being, I watched a great baseball playoff game in which the LA Dodgers edged the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 as Cody Bellinger singled home Manny Machado in the 13th inning. Great baseball game.

As far as the Thunder, they lost 108-100 as they predictably struggled shooting the basketball from the field, the line, and behind the arc.

From those minutes I saw of the Thunder they looked like a really long, fast, and athletic team which still can’t shoot the basketball. If this were the 400 relay I’d be picking the Thunder in the West. But since this is basketball and shooting kind of matters I think those of us who have the Thunder at 4th or 5th in the West did the right thing.

The Thunder visit the Clips on Friday. Maybe some of these OKC Thunder beat writers will be told if Russell Westbrook is going to play in that one before Friday morning.

Here’s the thing about the very tough West in the NBA…if you dick around and come out of the gates too slow like last year– chances are you’ll never catch up in the standings against the Warriors and Rockets.

When Dave Letterman was still on the air I ran the Top Ten Home Office here in Deer Creek, Oklahoma. I miss Dave. I genuinely do. I’ve been very quiet on the political front on here with the NBA season just about upon us.

I’ve got a little pre-opening night jitters so I thought I might do a Top Ten List to settle in.

So…. FROM THE DAVE LETTERMAN HOME OFFICE IN DEER CREEK, OKLAHOMA

Top Ten Kanye West Casual Presidential Meeting Observations

#10 Probably not smart to go on a drinking binge in a D.C bar with Bret Kavanaugh just before highly intellectual exchange of ideas with Donald Trump.

# 9 You can say or do anything in public if you’ve had sex with a Kardashian.

# 8 Clearly a seamless replacement for Wilbur Ross over at Dept of Commerce.

# 7 Billy Bush would be smart to not get on a bus with this particular rapper.

# 6 Fairly certain this is who Mike Pence gets his top tier escort cell numbers from.

# 5 Could have become governor of Oklahoma eight years ago and actually elevated the office.

# 4 On hindsight would have been prudent not to mix meth, animal tranquilizers, and Bud Lights in that D.C. bar with Justice Kavanaugh.

# 3 Sarah Palin found perfect fit to replace Todd as soul mate.

# 2 Not to be stereotypical, but pretty certain this is what it’s like over at HUD behind closed doors after some gin and tonics with Ben Carson.

# 1 And the No. 1 casual Kanye West presidential meeting observation is…..drum roll, please.

Obvious judicial choice for third Trump Supreme Court nomination in second term.

My first and foremost hope is for this team to simply get better as the season progresses and play basketball the right way.

To peak at the goal achieving portion of the season and play up to their utmost potential.

This doesn’t mean I equate these things with a certain number of wins. It means I’m tired of watching sloppy basketball being played.

Making the NBA Finals is not what I’m talking about. Even making the Western Conference Finals isn’t what I’m talking about. Even beating out the Utah Jazz for the Northwest Division isn’t what I’m talking about.

What I’m talking about is the hope I see a team learn how to move the basketball and continue to move the basketball for 48 minutes regardless of the opponent. It’s the hope all five guys on the floor are dialed in defensively especially on the perimeter. It’s the hope this team becomes a much better free throw shooting team. It’s the hope either Alex Abrines or Terrance Ferguson step up as three point shooters. It’s the hope we see the Russell Westbrook all season long which we saw against the Spurs in the 2016 semis and for the first four games in the conference finals versus the Warriors in 2016. It’s the hope we see the Steven Adams which emerged in those two series. It’s the hope I see Billy Donovan take his team and win a playoff series without Kevin Durant on the roster.

What I really want to see is Russell Westbrook expand his game not just to notch more triple doubles, but to nuance his game as a point guard to make every other Thunder player around him a better basketball player.

I’ve seen enough triple doubles. I want to see nuanced play from Russell Westbrook.

I don’t write any of this with snarkiness attached. There are parts of Russell Westbrook both as a player and a person which I’ve come to love these past ten basketball seasons.

His commitment to his family. His passion for getting better. His toughness. His competitiveness. His life story. His loyalty to Oklahoma City. The fact he calls his mom every day.

But Russell Westbrook is thirty years old now. This is his team along with Paul George. This isn’t Billy Donovan’s team. NBA teams aren’t driven by coaches per se for the most part, they are driven by the stars.

This is Russell Westbrook’s bus with Paul George sitting in the co-pilot seat.

There are thirty teams in the NBA. Off the top of my head I can only name three NBA coaches who drive their team…Pop, Rick Carlisle, and Brad Stevens.

Billy Donovan isn’t driving this Thunder bus. Russell Westbrook primarily is the bus driver.

I want Russell Westbrook to not worry about triple doubles this basketball season. If they come, they come. But more of what I want to see are Paul George, Steven Adams, Patrick Patterson, Dennis Schroeder, Jerami Grant, Alex Abrines, Terrance Ferguson, Nerlen Noels, and Hamidou Diallo flourish as basketball players around Russell Westbrook.

I want to see Russell Westbrook take the best parts of Maurice Cheeks’ game and take his game as a point guard to the next level.

Dr. J and Moses Malone won an NBA championship with Maurice Cheeks in 1983.

The game of basketball has changed a great deal since Mo Cheeks won his ring in ’83.

But one thing hasn’t changed and that is the need for the point guard of a championship team to drive the bus, yet be a seamless extension of his coach.

This is what I hope I see this Thunder basketball season.

Russell Westbrook, I know you can do this.

Maurice Cheeks knows you can do it.

I’ll go ahead and do this on Monday so as I don’t fail to do it and forget the season starts tomorrow evening with my Philly Sixers opening in the East versus the Boston Celtics in the otherwise tame Eastern Conference. My viewing of Eastern Conference games is limited to basically the Sixers, the Celts, the Raptors, and the Bucks.

I’m doing these predictions with the assumption Kawhi Leonard finishes the season in Toronto.

The West is a complete and utter beast with LeBron now being with the Lakers and the Spurs now getting to know what life without Timmy and Tony will be like. LeBron should have joined Popovich is what I think. They both hate Trump and share similar views on hoops and politics, but LeBron opted for his Hollywood brand. So we wait to see who will hook up with him in LA.

I’m going ten deep on my preseason list in the West this season with Dallas, Minnesota, Memphis, Phoenix, and Sacramento not making my final top ten list.

So…here’s how I’m going in the West.

1 Golden State

2 Houston Rockets

3 Utah Jazz

4 OKC Thunder

5 LA Lakers

6 New Orleans Pelicans

7 San Antonio Spurs

8 Portland Trail Blazers

9 Denver Nuggets

10 LA Clippers

Golden State is an obvious No. 1 for me. Surely, Steve Kerr can handle DeMarcus Cousins and help him out. Houston did lose Ariza, but their overall offensive game and guard play should be excellent, plus I love Clint Capela. I don’t think D”Antoni will allow Carmelo to be a negative. I think Gobert is a player who gives OKC absolute fits at the rim, so consequently I have them above the Thunder. I’m very interested to see if Donovan Mitchell emerges into a full blown star and if rookie Grayson Allen gives the Jazz additional pop at the guard position.

I like every thing Sam Presti did this summer, but you know what, I’m not sure if he addressed OKC’s three point shooting woes. Basketball is a game of mathematical analytics. It has been ever since the advent of the three point shot. This is simple math. It’s very difficult to win big in today’s game if you can’t make threes at the least near something like a 36%-38% clip. Additionally, you then can’t have Steven Adams and Andre Roberson plodding along making only 50% of their free throws after missing two point shot attempts. It’s just math. So…unless the Thunder show me they’ve addressed this I can’t really view them as serious contenders. Steven needs to pick it back up at the free throwline.

If you look at the Lakers current roster, I’m not sure who are LeBron’s second and third best players as the season starts. But when you have LeBron and the roster I see right now I still think they’ll be very competitive in the West except probably versus the Warriors and the maybe the Rockets.

I don’t see the Spurs and Pelicans as serious conference finals contenders, but New Orleans did make a run last post season which interested me and they’ve added Julius Randle on the interior. New Orleans does have my attention if they stay healthy.

Portland, Denver, and the Clippers should all be competitive and challenge for the 8th seed.

I love Pop. I genuinely do. But as the landscape of the West has changed, one thing never changes and that is at the end of the day the stars make the coach. Maybe DeMar DeRozan will take his game to another level.