Author: Mike

We all know about the Harden trade. OKC currently has two players on its roster, Steven Adams and Alex Abrines, who came from that trade. Jeremy Lamb is now in Charlotte and Kevin Martin was a one year rental.

Likewise, we all know about the Reggie Jackson trade at the deadline several years ago. OKC was forced to trade Jackson at the deadline and in return got DJ Augustin and Kyle Singler. Augustin is no longer with the team and to date Kyle Singler has not panned out as a reliable rotation player.

But think back to last summer prior to Durant leaving for the West Coast Nike All-Star team. Sam Presti traded Serge Ibaka to the Orlando Magic for Victor Oladipo, Domas Sabonis, and Ersan Ilyasova. Last night we witnessed what Sam Presti parlayed out of Oladipo and Sabonis, but don’t underestimate what Sam Presti did when he traded Ersan Ilyasova to my Sixers for Jeremy Grant. What he got in Grant is an uber athletic player at 6’9″ with the ability to defend four different positions. For those of you old enough to remember—think Stacey Augmon.

The Harden trade will forever be debated. The Reggie Jackson trade turned out to be a bad trade, but the Serge Ibaka trade was pure gold because what OKC got in return for Ibaka was a Top 10 NBA player in his prime and a versatile role player in Jerami Grant.

Whether George stays more than one year is irrelevant. Russell Westbrook now has the opportunity to morph his game back to what it was with Kevin Durant, perhaps play an even more team oriented style and show Paul George why he should stay in OKC beyond next season. That’s on Russell Westbrook and Billy Donovan, not Sam Presti.

And just think what Al Horford must be thinking right now as Boston to date has not made one move of consequence to become a serious championship contender in what now is a dying Eastern Conference. If Horford had come back to play for his college coach Billy Donovan what we’d be looking at this morning in OKC is a starting lineup of Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Al Horford, Steven Adams, and probably Andre Roberson. Think about that, Al Horford. Show some fucking loyalty to your college coach next time.

For the Daily Thunder millennials who’ve worn themselves out looking at graphs and charts with colored spheres all week. Stacey Augmon–The Plastic Man.

The Western Conference is going to be brutal next season. Minnesota added Jeff Teague to go along with Jimmy Butler, Karl Anthony-Townes, and Andrew Wiggins. Houston added Chris Paul. Utah added Ricky Rubio, but lost George Hill. Blake resigned with the Clippers. The Spurs are the Spurs. And of course, there’s the Nike West Coast All-Stars, but who no longer have Jerry West consulting as he’s now doing that for the Clippers.

I hate to bitch on the same night when Sam Presti just added Paul George, but I have three things on Sam Presti’s Must Do List in the coming days.

1 Get a quality backup point guard. The Warriors have Livingston. The Spurs just resigned Patty Mills. A quality backup point guard is a must.

2 Resign Andre Roberson. I know…the free throw shooting, but to beat these Warriors and these Rockets perimeter defense is a must. I just keep thinking to myself one of these days I’m going to see Andre Roberson be to this team what Shawn Marion was to the Suns and Mavs.

3 Acquire a stretch four. Enes Kanter at $17 million plus is not playable against the Warriors and Rockets. That’s just not going to work. It’s just simple financial common sense. You can’t waste $17 million in payroll on a player who’s not playable against your two primary rivals in the West. I’m not a huge Rudy Gay guy, so I’ll just think to myself what the Thunder can do there. But if Gay is the best stretch four available then maybe that’s what you do and pray he plays out his ass alongside Westbrook and Paul. I’m assuming Taj Gibson doesn’t resign here, so I really don’t have Taj in my equation.

4 The rotational players so far… Russell, PG, Steven, Andre (defense wins championships), Jerami Grant, Alex Abrines, and Doug McDermott. That’s seven. Sam Presti needs three more rotational players.

Great night for Thunder Nation. Beats the hell out of last July 4th for sure. After Durant’s departure to Oakland… if you asked me who were the four players I’d most covet Presti get to team with Russell I’d have gone 1 Kawhi Leonard, 2 Paul George, 3 Klay Thompson, and 4 Jimmy Butler.

Amazingly, Sam Presti somehow pulled this off only giving up Victor Oladipo and Domas Sabonis.

Is it a gamble? Not really. Because if Presti hadn’t shown Russell Westbrook the Thunder is in the business of contending for NBA championships there’s no reason for Russell to stay here. You lose Westbrook you’re done as in D-O-N-E. Done.

So really there’s no risk involved.

Think about the length and athleticism of a starting lineup of Westbrook, George, Adams, Roberson, and Rudy Gay. I’m sure Sam Presti has.

Whoa. This actually is a better team building block than acquiring Blake Griffin. Presti traded Oladipo and Sabonis for Paul George. What Presti needs to do subsequently is acquire a quality backup point guard–like say a Shawn Livingston type so as Russ can leave the floor without the team going -10 in the next four minutes of play.

Whoa… Paul George. Very strong, very strong move by Sam Presti. Sam Presti had to make a move like this to show Russell Westbrook the Thunder is in the business of contending for NBA championships. Great move because the future is now. In essence, Presti traded Serge Ibaka for Paul George and Jerami Grant. I’ll have trouble sleeping tonight.

YES!!!

NBA free agency starts tonight and I really don’t have the time to be dicking with Donald Trump. But this isn’t your run of the mill Thunder blog. I like to keep in touch with all of the things going on in the world. I DON’T even want to go into all this Caligula bullshit with Mika and Joe. It’s so patently mentally ill I don’t want it on my blog.

I’ve come to this conclusion. Donald Trump is a genuinely sick motherfucker. Somewhere in his life something went horribly wrong and his emotional growth became some sort of a freak organism with a life of its own.

My suggestion would be for Ivanka ( the daughter he longs to have sex with) to take him aside and convince him to resign and go home. I see no other possible remedy at this point. Maybe … if she promises to have sex with him–he’ll agree to this. This whole Trump thing is so inherently sick it depresses me each and every day.

Ivanka…your country needs you. Do the right thing.

Whoa. Not sure what to think of this, but make this clear–I feel certain Russell Westbrook would suck Kevin Durant’s dick before playing on the same team as Patrick Beverly. So-now that Beverly is a Clipper that destination isn’t doable for Russell. Come fly with Russ, Blake. Come fly with him.

I’m openly recruiting Blake at this point. Presti needs to pull one off after his feeble performance in the Hamptons last summer. Come fly with us, Blake. Come home.

Appreciate this season like a fine wine or a beautifully written novel. What Westbrook just did is beyond audacious. That young man has some alpha dog in him for sure. He never flinched even when Kevin Durant pretty much threw him under the bus for what happened in Game 6. Westbrook’s self belief and doggedness carried not only the Thunder, but the city of OKC.

He simply asked of Sam Presti, “What now?”

That’s what he did. He gave all of us something to hang our hats on and believe in as far as the Thunder.

Don’t take this season for granted. Savor it. Appreciate it. Know you just witnessed basketball history. Know you won’t see this happen very often if ever again. The world was aligned for the Season of Russell Westbrook … and it was magnificent.

Thanks for the season, buddy.

We’ll never know if OKC would have won the championship if Kevin Durant hadn’t left to join the Nike West Coast All-Stars. We’ll never know if Westbrook, Durant, Horford, Adams, Oladipo, and Roberson would have come back and toppled the Warriors. As an NBA fan, I’ll forever feel cheated that we didn’t get to see that scenario play itself out on a basketball court and not in a house in the Hamptons.

But life moves along and isn’t it ironic just one week removed from July 4th, 2016 — Russell Westbrook won the league’s MVP and followed it with a speech which left me in tears, albeit very good ones.

I’ve now watched Russell play and live in Oklahoma City for nine years. Each year and each season he has taken an incremental step forward as a player, and as a man as well. I used to call him Wild Thing and Bad Little Dude after some of his more exuberant moments along the journey. But as each layer has been peeled back off of Westbrook, I’ve come to admire and respect him. His parents did a great job.

Granted, he has had some moments which furrowed your brow, but when you’re a cross of Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson—you’re going to create some angst during the heated moments of high level competition.

The things Westbrook said about family truly had me crying. Your family and inner circle are everything in life. Things which transcend basketball. Things which transcend contracts and trophies.

So we’ll never know what would have happened had Durant not bailed. But you know what, as I sit here I’m starting to feel what I’ve watched the past year was actually better all things considered. I’m good. No regrets. Cup overrunneth.

Moving forward.

One would think Russell Westbrook will be holding the MVP trophy tomorrow night in New York. For me it’s very simple, without Westbrook this Thunder team would have struggled to win 22 games. With him, they won 47 games, made the playoffs, and were competitive against every team in the league minus the Warriors. And those triple doubles weren’t just for show, OKC needed every single one of them to win as many games as they did. When he tripled doubled — OKC won eighty per cent of their games.

Great season by James Harden, but Russell Westbrook is my runaway MVP winner. As long as I’ve watched basketball I’ve never seen anything like it, and chances are I never will again.

Both Blake Griffin and Chris Paul opted out of their Clipper contracts this week. They both now become unrestricted free agents and while they could still sign with the Clippers speculation is Chris Paul is headed to the Spurs and maybe Blake Griffin could be coming home to Oklahoma.

Griffin was the national POTY at OU in 2008 and the subsequent number one pick in the entire league after his sophomore season.

Would Blake Griffin be a great get for OKC? I would say yes. His career pro numbers are 21 pts, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game. He runs the floor, has excellent court vision, is a surprisingly decent three point shooter at 34% and is a unique talent who along with Westbrook would make the Thunder the most exciting team to watch in the NBA.

Would it put them over the top against the Warriors, probably not, but it would give the Thunder a core three of Westbrook, Griffin, and Adams which would be pretty impressive.

In order for this to happen, you would think Andre Roberson, Taj Gibson, and Enes Kanter would be playing elsewhere. Presti could possibly move Oladipo to the sixth man role and move Abrines to a starting two guard role.

OKC’s bench would have Oladipo playing the Harden role, Sabonis, McDermott, Ferguson and someone else could round out the top ten players.

The Thunder’s top nine players would be Westbrook, Griffin, Adams, Oladipo, Sabonis, Abrines, McDermott, Ferguson and let’s say Jerami Grant.

That’s a nice top nine which should be able to score the ball and become a decent defensive team. It’s roster which would put the Thunder in as good as position as possible to contend for a title as any of the other 28 teams in the league excluding the Nike West Coast All-Stars and LeBron.

Is Blake Griffin coming home? I hope so. It would be great for the team, the city, and the league. Plus, it would be fun.

Sam Presti selected Terrance Ferguson with the 21st pick of the first round on Thursday night in the NBA draft. He fits the mold of a two way wing player, but he has some substantial work in front of him to transition from project to dependable rotation player.

One would assume this probably means Andre Roberson probably won’t be matched when he enters restricted free agency in July. OKC will have a trio of wings in Ferguason, Abrines, and Doug McDermott trying to provide solid production on a nightly basis.

Ferguson was originally slated to play his college ball at Arizona, but instead played pro ball this past season in Australia.

I’m assuming Sam Presti has more players coming in the next few weeks to strengthen this basketball team in what right now is Russell Westbrook’s final contractual year in Oklahoma City.

Ferguson is a nice prospect, but OKC needs a couple of other proven vets to take this team up a tier. With Jimmy Butler now a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Northwest Division just became a much tougher division along with OKC’s schedule becoming more difficult. With Utah now a very solid team, the Thunder with Westbrook and Adams, and the Wolves now with Butler, Townes, and Wiggins—the Northwest Division becomes a tough division.