When you think it can’t get worse it does and so unravels the continual chaotic presidency of reality television star Donald Trump. Hey, you Trump supporters, I do give you this…at least you didn’t elect a Kardashian or Larry Flynt from Hustler magazine. I’ll give you that.
Just another ordinary week for America. Hope Hicks resigns. Dipshit son-in-law Jerod has his high level security revoked. Gary Cohn on the verge of resigning. Same with generals McMaster and Kelly. Jeff Sessions has an interesting dinner date with his Justice Department heads. Trump makes no coherent sense with any of his statements concerning gun control, trade tariffs, and Russian interference in our election. The stock market doesn’t know what to do or think.
Just another week in the never ending saga of Donald Trump’s reality television make believe presidency.
Who would have thought America could devolve to this in thirteen months?
OKC signed former Florida Gator small forward Corey Brewer. I’ve liked Brewer from his days at Florida with Billy Donovan and thru his numerous NBA stops. He’s a nice two way swing player who if Donovan actually uses could help the Thunder this season and perhaps next season when you consider no one knows exactly knows when Andre Roberson will return next season.
Gosh, not ever knowing what Billy Donovan will do, I think or hope or pray this means Billy Donovan and Sam Presti are going to reduce the Alex Abrines and Terrance Ferguson minutes as we head down the stretch run.
A couple of years ago, Presti signed Ronnie Brewer and Scott Brooks really never used him. So we’ll see if Corey Brewer gets some real rotational minutes.
Brewer played sparingly for the Lakers this season, so he should be very well rested. Not a huge signing, but one which could actually help the team if Billy Donovan can move beyond the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood rotation philosophy he embraces as we hit the most important part of the season. I very much understand you need to develop young guys like Abrines and Ferguson, but there is that time you put the hammer down and you do put winning ahead of youth development. This would kinda be that time.
Here’s the thing, I expected a close game and it was one. There’s such an enormous difference in the coaching department when these two teams play each other… unless your head has been buried in the sand this is what you should have expected.
Plus, I think Dallas has some nice young pieces moving forward beyond the Dirk era. I like Harrison Barnes, I like Dennis Smith Jr., I’ve always liked Dwight Powell, Yogi Ferrell is decent, and I think as time moves along Nerlen Noels will be a nice role player, plus that hair. I’m a fan of Nerlen’s hair.
You have to be a realist, the Thunder is an undisciplined team which is its own worst enemy for periods of time in almost every game. It is what is. I mean, if I were Clay Bennett, I’m not even sure why I would pay the six million to have a head coach. Maybe just pay Nick Collison another million to call timeouts, talk to players in a coachly (word?) way, and placate the local college media in post game pressers. Save yourself five million and basically be what you are now… which is a team which doesn’t listen to its coach all that much.
Actually, this was a very entertaining game..so you know, I’m good. Dysfunction begats dysfunction.
Westbrook hit the game winner. Paul George had a nice game. Steven Adams was my player of the game. Carmelo was awful..again. Josh Huestis was decent. Ray Felton was good. Jerami was so-so–I expect more of him. Terrance Ferguson played what I thought were ten good minutes. Pat Patterson was okay. And once again Billy Donovan showered Alex Abrines with 20 minutes of love. Of course, Abrines only made one shot, but he wasn’t horrific.
You know what a good coach would have done tonight, he would have pounded the rim with Westbrook and Adams assaulting the Mav’s interior. Adams made all four of his shots, but instead—there’s OKC jacking 36 threes even though they only made ten of them. A good coach would not have allowed his team to play this stupidly. I honestly think Billy Donovan is intimidated by the three stars. Wouldn’t you be if you made six million and all three of these cats are making much, much more. Why else would Carmelo even be on the floor for that last defensive situational possession of the game following two timeouts? See what I mean? Things which Mike Boynton would be going ape shit berserk over. But Mike Boynton doesn’t have multiple star millionaires on his team. His players have to listen.
But always remember… it’ a superstar/agent driven league. Always.
OKC improves to 36-27 on the season and now heads to Phoenix to see if it can beat Devin Booker on the road. This will be an interesting Vegas spread in that OKC is in Portland the next night in what is looming as a fairly important game on Saturday. I can already hear the Michael Cage excuses bouncing off my ear drums. ‘Um.. the last game of a three game road swing is actually like playing the sixth game in six nights.” He actually says shit like this and it drive me crazy. What the fuck ever.
I worry about Antonio Davis a little bit. He’s not coming to terms with things like I am. He’s resisting the obvious. But I like him and wish him well. Seems like a nice man.
Dirk became the sixth player in NBA history to score 31,000 points. Good for him. I’ve always loved Dirk. I completely respect the way he stayed in Dallas and won his ring in 2011 on a team which didn’t have nearly as much talent as this Oklahoma City team. The other five players on the list? Michael, Kobe, Kareem, Wilt, and Karl Malone. I actually saw Malone in person in ’83 when his Louisiana Tech team came to OKC to play Wayman Tisdale’s Sooners in what was an epic NCAA Tournament game.
The Thunder in the Valley of Sun on Friday. Devin Booker seldom disappoints. It should be a fun game to watch.
Who would have thought back in August that first year O State head coach Mike Boynton would emerge as the coach in Oklahoma this season with the most impressive season to date. Back then, the Lamont Evans FBI probe story was breaking and you might have thought there was no way this young coach could make it through that turmoil, let alone have his Cowboys on the cusp of making the NCAA Tournament. But with last night’s road win over Iowa State, and a home game looming this Saturday against Kansas to close out Big 12 regular season play–this O State team is a win or two away from making the Big Dance in Boynton’s first year.
When you looked at that initial situation back before the season began–no one in their right mind would have thought this possible for Boynton and his team…including me.
But I’ll say this–way back at the beginning of the season I heard Boynton do an interview on the Sports Animal and the guy just floored me with the way he carried himself in the interview. He’s just one of these no nonsense guys who himself was a good point guard at South Carolina. A player who had to work his ass for everything he’s gotten to date in basketball. His team plays with his attitude. His personality. 2nd Rule of Coaching— you coach thru your personality and character.
So—with both Billy Donovan and Lon Kruger’s teams massively underachieving this basketball season, first year coach Mike Boynton has emerged as a nice story of sorts for those like myself who love seeing basketball played the right way. Namely, with some heart and passion.
I would say if O State beats Kansas at home this Saturday and then wins their first round game in the Big 12 Tournament they’ll make the NCAA Tournament.
Tough to calibrate the bottom two spots this week, but clearly it was easy to drop the OKC Thunder off my poll this week. They basically played poorly in all three games coming out of the All-Star break. OKC is still a team you keep an eye on because of the Big Four, but right now it’s more of just placing OKC in a position of being a team which is 6-7 since Andre Roberson’s knee injury and has dropped to 28th in the league in defensive efficiency. If OKC wins out this week including a win at Portland, I’ll probably put them back in my poll.
1 Golden State
2 Houston
3 Cleveland
4 Toronto
5 Boston
6 Minnesota
7 San Antonio
8 Portland
There is a good thing about this Thunder season if you’re the glass half full type. That being, no matter how bad the Thunder opponent is on any given night, you’re probably going to get a competitive game from a standpoint of the score.
Enter the worthless forty something loss Orlando Magic. Putting the game aside for a bit…you know what I kept thinking about as I watched this game…Billy Donovan. I kept thinking back to 2007 when Donovan made a verbal agreement to coach the Magic on a five year deal which would have paid him $27.5 million.
I kept thinking to myself, “Where would Orlando be if Billy Donovan hadn’t changed his mind?”
And the answer I came up with was pretty much they would be the same team we watched tonight. Because like in OKC, his Orlando deal did not include any GM responsibilities. And as we should know at this point…player makes the coach and the NBA is a star/agent driven league, which is what the top tier of college basketball is per what the recent FBI probe of college basketball is revealing right now.
To Billy Donovan’s credit though, he could have taken the Kentucky job and he said no to that mess—and like I’ve said on here multiple times…I respect Billy Donovan as a man. I respect the heck out of Billy Donovan as a good man. I think he’s a great dude. I do. But maybe not the coach to handle this team.
In Billy Donovan’s defense, when he came here, it appeared the template would be for the Thunder to build a team of rookie scale players and low cost, low ego vets, around Durant and Westbrook. With that template, yeah, I get it—Billy Donovan could be a really effective NBA coach.
But then Durant left and this past summer Presti changed the Thunder template, and for the first time in Billy Donovan’s coaching career he finds himself babysitting to a certain extent.
Anyway, that’s my way of saying I really don’t think Billy Donovan is stupid. I just think he’s not the right coach for this team. But we’ll see. Lots of games left in this season. Twenty meaningful games are an eternity.
In this game, both Westbrook and Carmelo struggled. But fortunately, Paul George scored 26 points and finally lit a fire under the Thunder with a sequence of plays late in the third period which propelled OKC to a hard fought 112-105 Orlando Magic.
In all, six Thunder players scored in double figures, but with only Steven Adams joining George as a Thunder starter in double figures. BTW, Steven Adams, has written a book. I’m sure it will be good and I can’t wait. Only so many authors can write what a douchebag Donald Trump truly is.
That Thunder bench was good on this night, but again it was at home and against a really bad team. So…where was that shit on Saturday night in Oakland against a good team when it mattered?
Ray Felton, Jerami Grant, Pat Patterson, and cuddly Alex Abrines all had double digit nights. Heck, you might even say Abrines created the spark in that third period run when he found another white European in the league in Mario Hezonja who has less game than him and stuffed Super Mario at the rim. It’s my play of the game. Go fucking figure. Note to Sam Presti…don’t acquire Mario Hezonja.
Anyway, it was a win. At this point, you just hope this team has enough in them to not miss the playoffs completely. That’s the focus right now. Just don’t miss the playoffs. One day at a time. Pray for loving kindness from the basketball gods above.
Another forty something loss team on the horizon Wednesday night in Dallas against Mark Cuban’s beleaguered Dallas Mav organization. Only thing is—OKC has already lost to these chumps twice this season. So.. I’m thinking probably take the Mavs, homecourt, and the points if it’s a six point spread or more.
Vegas must hate this Thunder team. What a nightmare for the pros.
Well, I’ll say this on here after posting the ‘play’ on my blog this morning, maybe he did. With all the shit which goes on in an NBA game in the paint every night in every game though — I’m not sure this is what I would have been talking about in the post game after the pathetic blow out loss to the Warriors.
If I were a juror and this clip were shown to me I’d probably say to myself Pachulia did kind of semi-fall on Westbrook. The question though as a juror I would seek to answer to myself is if it were done to just fuck with Westbrook’s head or if there was specific intent to injure connected to the play? And what if any impact this had on the outcome of the game given the fact OKC’s three stars all played like shit and Billy Donovan isn’t smart enough to calibrate Alex Abrines’ role on this basketball team.
To me, my last sentence of the previous paragraph is what we should be talking about this morning and not the Pachulia faux semi-fall.
Good lord, I had no idea this Thunder team was this soft until Saturday night. I suspected they were mentally lazy and obvious underachievers this season, but I had no idea they were this frilly soft.
I thought Carmelo over-reacted twice to Draymond Green. I thought Paul George did the same with Draymond Green. And though I’ve never questioned Russell Westbrook’s toughness–this isn’t what I would be talking about with 21 games left in the regular season and the Thunder now even to the 9th place Clippers in the loss column.
Since no one else in this college market who covers this Thunder team will write this–I will. Is this Thunder team tough enough or gritty enough to be a contender or is it all just talk?
Right now standing as the obvious winner of the Most Underachieving NBA Team this season–I have to write this team doesn’t appear to walk the walk.
You know, we were all clinging to this notion this Thunder team was holding its inner greatness back just for special teams. Enough of that in that this Thunder team has now lost back to back games against top four teams Cleveland and Golden State by a combined margin of 40 points.
If I’m that juror I’m just kind of shrugging my shoulders and saying to myself, ” But why the fuck did Billy Donovan play Alex Abrines 20 minutes?” Or why didn’t one single Thunder player go after Pachulia like Serge did with Artest way back when.
What would this Thunder team do if they ever had to play a bunch like the Detroit Pistons Bad Boys? Would they just call their mommies and be a scratch on those nights?
If I’m Clay Bennett and I’ve had to watch this bullshit for sixty-one games so far, I can tell you this, I’m not real happy right now because I gave Sam Presti $130 million to spend and all I have is a soft basketball team.
If it was such a dirty play, then ask yourself why one single OKC player or coach didn’t go berserk? Not one single act of retaliation of any kind that I can recall. It’s a four letter word…soft. This Thunder team is jelly roll soft.
I feel kind of silly writing this recap on my blog. Because evidently I missed the game’s biggest storyline somewhere in that disastrous third period in Oakland.
I missed it and I feel bad about it as a blogger.
I missed the part where a black van drove up to the Thunder bench somewhere along the point when Carmelo Anthony barked at Draymond Green for brushing against his headband. Because that’s what I was watching in what up to that point was a tough back and forth grinder of a basketball game.
I missed the part when several hooded men dressed in that black van then leaped out of that van then beat Billy Donovan senseless with multiple blows to the head with a lead pipe. I missed the fact he was then coaching the Thunder in the throes of acute head force trauma. My bad.
I didn’t miss the part though where the Warriors took the Thunder’s lunch money and bullied them like Trump did with Little Marco Rubio in multiple GOP debates. I didn’t miss the part when these men rendered the Thunder heartless and unable to fight any longer or any tougher.
Another part I missed is why Alex Abrines was allowed to set foot on the floor for 20:19 of play against the two time NBA champion Golden State Warriors while scoring only three points and going -30. I also wish I had a better understanding of why the Thunder are the league’s biggest underacheivers this season.
By the same token, I had no idea Nick Young had suddenly transformed himself into the second coming of Ray Allen and could be this pivotal in scoring 16 points in 18 minutes of play and going a +23. I had no idea even though I’d seen him do some goofy things while playing for the Lakers. But I have to admit I didn’t see any of these two things on the horizon as the things to watch in this game because I assumed any NBA level coach could never be stupid enough to allow Alex Abrines this much time on the floor against the offensively explosive Warriors.
I saw some things with Scott Brooks which had me shaking my head a few times, but this one may have ‘trumped’ any of those just for the sake of mind numbing coaching things.
Now, I will admit I didn’t see Zaza Pacuhlia fall on Russell Westbrook with intent to injure. I didn’t see it even though we all know Zaza plays on the edge like he’s a bodyguard for the Russian mafia assigned to protect their boy Donald Trump.
But having admitted I didn’t witness some of the above…I know this. Sam Presti will need a smarter coach and a more mentally tough team if he ever wants to beat these Warriors in post season play. I know that.
Granted, you’re not going to beat these Warriors scoring 80 points and it would be tough, next to almost impossible, to beat the Warriors with Westbrook and Paul George going a combined 5-29 from the field, but I would have at least tried something different than allowing Alex Abrines to play anything beyond three or four minutes in this game. I would have challenged my stars.
I would have played Westbrook and Felton together more. I would have loaded up on more Josh Huestis minutes. I would have even gone more with Jerami Grant even though he had a tough night… but I never would have rolled with Abrines like this in the midst of that third period run by the Warriors…Zaza’s intimidation non-withstanding
But enough of that. Maybe that’s why Kevin Durant is in Oakland and maybe that’s part of why the Warriors are still the odds on favorite to win their third NBA ring in the last four years. Maybe.
Roll the storylines however you like, but what I took out of this game was the Thunder don’t have enough toughness or smarts to win an NBA championship unless they suck it up from a grit, smarts, and coaching standpoint.
That’s it. That’s my recap.
The Thunder drop to 34-27 and host the Orlando Magic on Monday.
Hopefully, none of the Magic players brush up against them or fall on them when the game gets tough.
Beautiful play, beautiful execution. I would think the Thunder will be amped to play the Warriors later today on the ABC Saturday Game of the Week. I’m jacked. I hate the fucking Warriors. I truly do. This is the game I’ve been waiting for since OKC beat their ass on February 6th.
To me, Adams is the key when the Thunder play these guys. Adams not getting that second foul too quickly is something I’m watching closely today. I would think Huestis will start as he did on Feb. 6th and I pray to god Billy Donovan will have a short leash with both Abrines and Ferguson. This is a game you go eight men deep if possible. Anything Donovan gets beyond Felton, Grant, and Patterson coming off the bench are gravy minutes today. I would expect Billy Donovan to coach this like a playoff game and the simple truth is OKC will be for the most part an eight man team in post season.
Let’s go. If you’re not up to play these guys on national television then you’re never going to be up for a game.
Go beat their ass again.
The Thunder banner is already draped prominently in my game day Thunder war cave. Pauli has her Thunder sweater on. My wife already knows she’ll need to be away from me for three hours. I’m assuming it’s either Jeff van Gundy or Hubie doing the color. I’m amped. I hate these fucking guys. Let’s go, boys.