Month: November 2018

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.

Soulmates I guess come and go in the NBA world. The Warriors are generally pretty smart. I’m not losing any sleep over any of this.

I have to tell you on here it’s taken me great restraint to wait this long to comment on the Kevin Durant-Draymond Green breakup. As a heterosexual man it’s somewhat awkward and uncomfortable to write about even on a small obscure underground blog. I know they play in San Francisco and I know I encouraged Kevin Durant to get out of then red dirt dumb Oklahoma before Kendra Horn got elected, but my how things have changed in two years.

Ostensibly back during those 2016 Western Conference Finals we found out Kevie was cheating on us as the games were still being played. Texting his heart out to his then soulmate Dray. We heard things like growth as a man, exploring one’s inner self, expanding one’s intellectual and spiritual horizons. Really? It was almost Bill Russellesque like in a version of Second Wind II.

At what point did any of us confuse Draymond Green with Gandhi?

When I now view Kevin Durant as a basketball player… I put him probably still where he was before he won these two token rings with Steph, Klay, and Draymond. That being, the second best player in the world still behind LeBron. Still second. He hasn’t proven anything to me beyond for the simple reason he still hasn’t had the grit and balls to lead a legitimate team to a title. He still hasn’t done what D Wade did with the Heat in 2006, or what Dirk did with the Mavs in 2011, or what LeBron did with the Cavs in 2016.

From my view as an astute fan of the NBA game… Kevie has won the same number of NBA championships as Russell Westbrook. As in zero. Nada.

The only difference is Durant and his leach handlers jobbed the system and put Kevie in a pretty much no fail situation as far as his basketball legacy. What’s next…Aaron Rodgers joining Tom Brady in New England next season? Tell me how that would be different?

My view of this has never changed. If Durant wanted to leave red dirt dumb Oklahoma I had absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. The word ‘free’ agent is what it implies. A condition of freedom of choice.

And I’ll say this for Durant if he had only stayed at Golden State for one season to get his token ring I’d be okay with that as well. Raymond Bourque, my second favorite hockey player of all-time behind Bobby Orr did this by leaving the Boston Bruins for the Colorado Avs at the end of his glorious non-ring career in Boston. But that’s not what this dude was doing with his handlers. He thought with multiple rings in a somewhat fixed situation he’d cement his legacy as someone above most of the greats who have ever have played the game. Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Durant is a generational player. Perhaps the most multi-faceted scorer to have ever played the game. Steph is the greatest shooter to have played the game, but Durant can score in more ways and to his credit has become a solid defensive player with Ron Adams at his side once again. And with Draymond, Andre Iguodala, and Klay Thompson cementing a formidable defense around him.

But here’s the thing with me as a purist who like Bill Simmons puts a great deal of emphasis on a player’s place in the Pantheon in accordance with what they accomplished in post season play—I still haven’t seen Kevin Durant win a legitimate ring. He still hasn’t shown me he has the same stuff as D Wade, Dirk, and LeBron. Those three are in my Pantheon at various levels.

I certainly think from a skill standpoint Durant is better than both Wade and Dirk, but from a historical standpoint of taking a team which wasn’t loaded to the point where it created the view the entire NBA was fixed—I need to see this from Kevin Durant in some other city.

Even though we’ve become ‘liberal’ in the 5th District with Kendra Horn’s election in no way should Kevie ever come back to Oklahoma. No way.

Where I think Kevin should go is Toronto. He grew up as a Raptor fan. The place is genuinely a city where he could find a girl and maybe find himself. Go to Toronto and play with Serge, Kawhi, and maybe a different young point guard other than Kyle Lowery and see if he could win a championship without Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.

I mean—do you really think Peyton Manning would be considered one of football’s greatest quarterback’s if he hadn’t stuck it out in Indy and finally beat Tom Brady to advance to a legit Super Bowl ring?

Of course not. He be viewed in the same prism as say Dan Marino and Dan Fouts. Or in hoops as with Charles Barkley, Carmelo Anthony, or Russell Westbrook (if he doesn’t get it together). Great regular season players with gaudy regular season accomplishments.

Steph, Klay, and Draymond have nothing to prove. They won a ring without Durant and then won 73 regular season games the next season. They know what they are as players and young men.

Trouble is…I’m not sure Kevin Durant can say the same.

Dray and Kevie need a breakup song. Been here with Russell and Kevie, done this already.

Kevin Durant, go find yourself. Only this time don’t do it on a team which is fixed to win a ring.

Before I even get to all this drama bullshit with the Warriors and Kevin Durant’s probable exit to join LeBron with the Lakers next season, I need to address Carmelo Anthony being cut by the Houston Rockets.

Big surprise, right?

No. Even the dimmest of wits in Oklahoma City who saw Carmelo play last season and then refuse to accept a bench role in his exit interview knew the Houston Rockets had made a very dumb move in allowing Carmelo to join their basketball team. The Rockets are clearly not as good without Ariza and Luc—but in adding Carmelo they even weakened their team more.

It is not surprising then the Rockets have parted with Carmelo but after only ten games. I’m still going to stay with the Rockets as my No. 2 team in the West for this reason though, that being, I still think the Rockets have the best four players in the West excluding the Warriors. I’d still put Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela, and Eric Gordon higher than Westbrook, Paul George, Steven Adams, and Dennis Schroder. Just a bit, but not a huge gap. Unlike last season, if Russell Westbrook can grow up as a basketball player… it is ‘plausible’ then an argument could be made for OKC being a contender in the West.

But again I will highlight this with….this only becomes a possibility if Russell Westbrook can change himself as a basketball player to some degree. And this isn’t on Billy Donovan—this is on RUSSELL WESTBROOK.

Russell Westbrook is now in his 11th NBA season. Usually Year 10 is when you start to see NBA players start their physical decline. To date, Russell Westbrook has missed seven of OKC’s first fourteen games this basketball season. His knee is well documented. Westbrook for some of his faults has played a ton of minutes for Sam Presti. He’s played hurt. He’s been loyal to Oklahoma City.

Now this is just me thinking out loud mind you. If I’m Russell Westbrook and I just witnessed Carmelo Anthony in essence being cut by the Houston Rockets ten games into his 16th season–I’m thinking to myself… ‘Is this the way I want to exit the game as well?’

I hope for Russell Westbrook’s sake… not.

Because right now Carmelo Anthony has the appearance of a pathetic player who couldn’t take that honest look in the mirror and ever change as a player.

I hope Russell Westbrook takes an honest look in the mirror and decides it’s time to change as a basketball player and do smart things instead of things first year players in the league do. It’s time to nuance his game. To play defense. To not worry about individual stats. To do the little things which give your team a chance of advancing instead of being dumped in the first round by Rickey Rubio and a rookie named Donovan Mitchell.

It’s time. It really is.

Now…if I were a scribe for the Daily Oklahoman like say Tramel and wrote this…you know what would happen? What would happen is that Russell would be openly rude to me and then kiss Nikki Gallo’s balls into eternity for never saying one honest thing to him. Truth hurts. It does.

So to me…the storylines in Oklahoma City fourteen games into this season aren’t if Billy Donovan can coach or if Sam Presti can general manage?

The story line in Oklahoma City is painfully obvious even in the smallest market in all of pro sports which has a media minus Tramel which refuses to write tough sentences or paragraphs of substance.

The storyline is simple.

Can Russell Westbrook nuance his game and become a point guard who can lead his team beyond the first round in post season play?

Pretty simple. It really is.

This has nothing to do with Billy Donovan at this point.

This is all about Russell Westbrook.

As a fan of Russell Westbrook I don’t write any of this with malice. I write this with the hope Russell Westbrook doesn’t at some point exit the game like Carmelo Anthony.

Another nice win over a bad team for the Thunder as Paul George led the way with a 35 point, 7 rebound, 5 assist night to help OKC improve to 9-5 for the season. It was very easy as the Thunder have now won nine of their last ten games following the 0-4 start.

Russell Westbrook missed his fifth straight game and seventh of the season. It didn’t matter. In fact, it might be better for this team when they play against bad teams if Westbrook isn’t on the floor.

Dennis Schroder against middle to bad teams has had no problem for the most part getting the team into its offense and in these last several games Paul George seems much more comfortable embracing the Batman role. Steven Adams actually gets the ball more and in no way so far has Westbrook’s absence effected Adam’s offensive production.

On this night the Thunder had 32 assists with Schroder accumulating a season high 12 helpers. The ball moved for four quarters—what can I say. Yes, the Knicks suck and Steven Adams threw former mate Enes Kanter around like a rag doll, but the ball moved and went down the hole.

OKC went 16-33 shooting threes on a night when the Thunder weren’t one of the worst three point shooting teams in the league. I can no longer threaten to break Jerami Grant’s arm for shooting threes as he went 3-5 behind the line on this night.

Terrance Ferguson ran around quite a bit — I’m not sure what he did exactly, but if you watch him closely he does run around quite a bit at least giving the impression he’s doing something. Look for Nick Gallo to compare Terrance to John Havlicek in the coming days. Royce Young will agree.

Wild Thing Jr.(Diallo) is the better player, but we’ll just have to see this thru as we do all Thunder things involving Sam Presti. Turn this kid loose….turn him loose. Hamidou Diallo Nature Boy….whoo!

The bench was good with 37 points on a night when Alex Abrines had an upset stomach and wasn’t able to contribute a point. I’m sure Nick Gallo was spoon feeding Alex chicken noodle soup in the second half so I’m sure it’s all good heading into Phoenix.

Please keep Russell on the bench in street clothes. I loved his shirt on Wednesday night. Very nice. Let’s see what happens without him. I wonder how Draymond would fit in with this Thunder bunch if Draymond and Kevie can’t cum to terms with things. Wouldn’t you love to see Durant’s expression the moment he found out the Warriors traded Draymond, Bell, Quinn Cook and a draft pick for Russell?

I tell you what though, you put Draymond Green on this Thunder team and what you might have is the best defensive team in the league and of course Presti would still need to add a Kyle Korver type at some point.

Draymond to OKC….why not?

Thunder at the Phoenix Suns next game up.

You take away the loss at Oakland in which they were hosed by the replay official and the Browns are 4-5-1 or even 5-4-1 and if their kicker makes a kick against the Steelers in Week 1.

The Browns got back on track last Sunday beating the Atlanta Falcons. Keep this in mind, I’m very familiar with Browns GM John Dorsey because at one time he was the GM of my Green Bay Packers. Dorsey is the GM who drafted Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews, and Greg Jennings just to name several players off the top of my head. Dorsey will do fine if the ownership will just stay out of the way and give some stability to the franchise.

Baker Mayfield is the perfect fit in Cleveland if they’re ever going to change the losers culture. He is the guy because of his dogged self confidence and inner belief in himself. Period. The young talent around him is good on both sides of the ball. They need a home run threat wide receiver and a couple of offensive linemen.

I love this interview. I really do. It is the essence of Baker Mayfield whether you love him or hate him. I didn’t originally like Baker, but I’ve come to be a big Baker Mayfield fan.