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.